Detroit is a fine burger city , and though everyone seems to spot it for its Coney dogs and sure fashion of increasingly popular pan pizza pie , it makes sense that the city would possess a productive burger history , considering burgers and machine go together like , um , two thing that go together relatively well .
And because Detroit is such a motorcar - friendly city , the burger love is spread all around , which meant I fundamentally spent my entire 48 hr in Detroit driving all over the billet , from Dearborn to Royal Oak to St. Clair Shores , to Corktown , Southwest Detroit , and Hamtramck . I feel like I really earned each burger I ate . Also , it helped that I had former Tasting Table column directorKaren Palmerthere with me as a conscientious objector - pilot program , and endearing hired man theoretical account for burger photos .
In case you ’re unexampled to my rankings , here are some guidelines : if the restaurant had multiple beefburger , I tried to order its signature Warren E. Burger , or if that was too outre and stunt - y , the cheeseparing to a classic cheeseburger . If it arrive with options , I always picked American cheese and grilled onions . If you think I omit something , please cry at me in person , or fax me some swear word , but until then , here is my ranking of the 10 best burgers in the Detroit area :
Rosh Sillars/Thrillist
10. Cheeseburger sliders
Green Dot Stables
Green Dot is basically just a slider smirch , OK ? It has 22 sliders on the menu ( including a mystery - meat option , which deplorably , or thrillingly , was n’t cafeteria closed book meat ) but we had many other burgers to eat , so we just get the cheeseburger sliders ( and maybe the fried chicken ones too because of salvia maple syrup).All in all , there is not a lot to write home about here , aboveboard . The sliders were fine – the meat was overcooked and a bit dry , but the bun was soft and the actual flavour of the meat and tall mallow immix together with the onion plant and acid from the pickle was also … fine . There just was n’t a ton of activity .
9. The Classic with American and grilled onions
Mercury Burger & Bar
Positioned decent across the street from where I delay in Corktown , Mercury is a cool spot that has a lot of solid food for thought ( get the deep-fried bologna sandwich ) and an exceedingly pleasant outside beer garden . It also has an extended menu of beefburger , and I think it suffers from what a variety of places with lots of crazy Warren E. Burger options suffer from : consistency in just nail the canonic mannikin . There were some good factor – the special sauce was tart and the meat was of a effective quality and donkeywork , but it just was n’t griddle or seasoned enough . The grilled onion plant were also a little Light Within on the grilling side , and though the bottom bun was griddle , it still ended up getting soggy . This is by no substance a speculative Warren Burger , but a few of the unlike element need to be shored up before it ’s on equivalence with some of the other contenders .
8. Cheeseburgers
Telway Hamburgers
Telway actually seems more like a Cash 4 Gold type situation when you take the air into the place , specially thanks to the stark - osseous tissue metal takeout heel counter and what may or may not be bulletproof glass . The cheeseburgers here are McDonald’s - level tatty , at about $ 1.10 each , with a patty that is as thin as you may possibly make meat . Envision something along the lines of a meat Fruit Roll - Up . But I have to say , the flavors were all there : the leaf mustard , ketchup , fix , and fry onion on the cheeseburger made it seem like a much better version of a White Castle slider . For the money , it ’s a great deal , even if you now have to argue with visualizing meat Fruit Roll - Ups for the remainder of the time you ’re reading this . deplorable about that .
7. GCG Burger
Gold Cash Gold
While Telwayfeltlike a Cash 4 Gold , Gold Cash Gold is actually in a former version of that venerable city institution , though you could n’t tell that now thanks to its sleek design . The burger here is good in a raft of fashion – expectant flavouring on the double patties , well wangle , good cleaning woman , homemade pickles , and a nice direct contrast between the salty pimento cheese and the mess ’s superman . Pimento cheeseflower as a Warren Earl Burger topping always create an issue ; the frigid mess does n’t meld without some broiler action mechanism , so it skid off of anything hot , which meant bite into this burger had the immediate effect of found cheese out the other end ( though that was actually kind of scrumptious when it fell on the chips).My main issue , though , was the pretzel bun . It was too piquant and dense , and not toasted , so that the exterior was crunchy but the interior got really soggy thanks to all the high mallow and Thousand Island and everything else . As passably as the pretzel roll is to look at , I believe Gold Cash Gold should trade that for a more traditional roll , and then I ’d say it ’d have achiever on its hands .
6. Cheeseburger
Motor City Sports Bar
There are no windows on the front of Motor City Sports Bar . But the awningdoeshave a picture of a Warren E. Burger on it , so that was a good start . On a relatively gritty block , Motor City is a broad , traditional sport measure , with pool table and lots of TVs throughout . When we came in on a showery Wednesday , everyone in the mostly empty barroom was ascertain Champions League soccer and bullshitting , so I immediately felt happy . After range , one of the guys watching soccer get up and made the burger behind the bar on a little griddle ( a move I ’d stop up take care quite often in Detroit , and which was reminiscent of Matt ’s Bar in Minneapolis ) . The hamburger itself was great – a really well misrepresent average , shining light-green lettuce , cerise tomato , and a sesame seminal fluid bun that was toasted enough to mostly hold up to the juices pouring out of the salty pith . All in all , it tasted like a delicious backyard burger : nothing out of the average , but each component done well enough on its own to make you total back for another .
5. Cheeseburger
Nemo’s Bar
God , I loved Nemo ’s . Everything about this classic Detroit bar energise you : the intricate conception on the ceiling , the well - worn Ellen Price Wood cake , the atomic number 10 Stroh ’s augury , the papers hanging up keep Detroit sportsman success of the past ( my personal favorite read “ Go Home , Yankees ” ) , the free shuttle to Tigers biz . The barman who take our order also cook the burgers on the grill behind the stripe , much like at Motor City . And in many style , those burgers remind me of each other – sesame source toasted backside , gamey well - cooked meat , perfectly unfreeze Malva sylvestris ( he set up a little metal bowl over the burger to mellow out it quickly ) . The difference shaper for me was that Nemo ’s has these pickles that nearly savor like fresh cucumbers ; they ’re salty and brackish , but have a nifty snap , and the style that the muddle equilibrize out the heart was a house run for me . And yes , that was an designed sport reference .
4. Cheeseburger
Miller’s Bar
There is no menu at Miller ’s Bar . And the waitress got a little surly when I take her a interrogative . But the mixing of business men , old , retired regular , and chubby guys tire out Eric Ebron Detroit Lions Jersey during the tiffin rush did n’t need menu . Everyone was eating burgers . And for practiced reason too ; the Miller ’s Warren E. Burger is extremely flavoursome , cooked absolutely and just , with a thick wad of Velveeta tall mallow poke out of the bottom , and some raw blank onion plant as well . The capital punishment of all of those elements is well-nigh flawless , especially if you add a couple of the ground beef dill fix into the mixture . But what kept it from motivate higher on this list was the bun , which was not toasted at all and got mushy very quickly from the juicy , perfectly misrepresent intermediate cheeseburger . If I was n’t scared to say something , I might restfully urge on the near people of Miller ’s to study lightly toasting those bun just to give their incredible Warren E. Burger a hazard to radiate even more . Just please do n’t shout at me .
3. Double cheeseburger with extra fried onions
Motz’s Burgers
In what aboveboard find like the eye of nowhere in Southwest Detroit sits Motz ’s , a fabled , midget shack of a property . When I showed up on a cheery Tuesday , the clientele was diverse ; the only two hoi polloi in there were a mankind wear off a suit , and two dudes who came in a landrover with those giant , comically hilarious tyre , and what we used to call Sprewell spinner rims . The burger itself is almost like afried Allium cepa burger from El Reno , Oklahoma ; the onions set into the substance , and the prat steam from the heat off the meat and onions and Malva sylvestris . The cheese seemed to be put on coldness at the end , and though the middle melted , the ends of the cheese remained comparatively uncooked . I did n’t really have a job with that , especially when I bit into the dethaw midriff and got a few bite where everything came together : the melty cheese blending in with those lusciously coal onions and salty , flavorful meat . I just wish every raciness was as serious as those three or four where all the elements did their “ with our power combined ” Captain Planet illusion .
2. Cheeseburger
Travis Coffee Shop
1. Classic Burger with Sharp American
Redcoat Tavern
This is not my flair of Warren E. Burger at all . I am a Travis Coffee Shop man , a diner - burger lover , and so I often take on more traditional , bigger pub burgers with a aweary surrender . And that was the grammatical case at Redcoat , a place in Royal Oak I was told I could n’t overlook by nearly everyone I ask . We walked in for lunch on that rainy Wednesday and , despite being there before high noon , the place was almost full . Our hostess , speak with what might ’ve been a faux - English accent , took us to a red booth bathed in red light . Redcoat claim its color dodging seriously . Anyway , when I took a bite out of the Warren Earl Burger , I was a modify man . The sum in the Redcoat Tavern Warren Burger is seasoned and cooked dead . There was a garlic tinge , great salt & pepper flavors , and a double-dyed , crispy char on the outside , obligate together a juicy , loosely ground , perfectly cooked Warren E. Burger . The “ particular sauce , " which is just really good mayo with mince onion plant in it , combined with the shredded lettuce to volunteer the perfect full complement for the fat person meat and melted sharp cheddar . The roll is toasted well and ride out out of the way without getting soggy . It was so good that I keep taking bite after snack even though Karen severalise me , “ You ’re decease to regret that . ” But , even after eating five other Burger that twenty-four hours , I never did . It ’s really that good .
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Rosh Sillars/Thrillist
Kevin Alexander/Thrillist
Rosh Sillars/Thrillist
Kevin Alexander/Thrillist
Kevin Alexander/Thrillist
Kevin Alexander/Thrillist
Rosh Sillars/Thrillist
Rosh Sillars/Thrillist
Kevin Alexander/Thrillist
Kevin Alexander/Thrillist
Kevin Alexander/Thrillist
