Brislington-based burger firm wins best burger in the UK - and now plans to open restaurant

Brislington-based burger business, Danny’s Burgers, has come out on top in a national competition to find the best burgers in the UK.

Fighting off stiff competition from 15 of the UK’s most elite signature burgers, the Bristol establishment created a Beef Chucky 2.0 for the event which won over every single one of the esteemed panel of industry judges.

With Wapping Wharf’s Squeezed having won the title in 2019, it seems that Bristol is the place to be if you want to get your hands on the perfect burger.

And it doesn’t stop there when it comes to full strike for burgery goodness, as the founder of Danny’s Burgers, Danny Hawke, also won National Burger Chef of the Year at the 2021 event.

So, what makes Danny’s Burgers quite so good? The Beef Chucky 2.0 burger features a 50-day dry-aged beef blend, dry-aged ex-dairy chuck roll, Kerrymaid American cheese, a beer cheese sauce, Kühne sliced dill pickles, mustard, candied jalapeños, and fresh white onions, encased in a seeded brioche bun.

Not just any old burger, then, and the process that goes into making it is also one that’s a little different. Mr Hawke’s juicy chuck roll patty is rubbed with house seasoning and cooked over charcoal and hickory wood in a drum smoker for six hours. It is then transferred to a foil tray with bone marrow canoes and braised with coffee stout.

And it doesn’t stop there. For the beer cheese sauce, the chef combines an indulgent mix of cream cheese, jalapeños, cheddar cheese, Red Leicester, American mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and beer from a local Bristol brewery.

Having entered the competition last year and coming second, did Mr Hawke see it coming this year? “I didn’t see it coming at all,” says Hawke.

“It’s unbelievable. I’m a little bit scared about how busy this is going to make us now. After coming second last year, I wasn’t aware of how much of an impact the National Burger Awards could have, but off the back of that it was crazy, so no doubt this will be the same.”

What’s exciting, particularly for those who love to follow Danny’s Burgers pop-ups around Bristol, is that this could spell the start of Mr Hawke thinking about opening a permanent site. “I think this will even give me a push to open a restaurant,” he says.

And with many other acclaimed chefs across the country being involved and winning awards, Mr Hawke is pretty shellshocked and humbled by the win.

“It was ridiculous cooking against those other chefs,” he says. “There are a few in there – Bleecker, Zephyr – who got me into cooking burgers, so to beat them is pretty incredible.”

What started as a passion project off the back of winning Grillstock in 2017 before moving on to making their signature Cali-style high-grade smash burgers during the first lock-down, Danny’s Burgers has come a long way.

So, as well as finding them at their usual pop-up spots such as Fierce and Noble Brewery (where it all started for them), we’d say it’s time to watch this space when it comes to Danny’s Burgers!