Popular chain wins UK's Burger of the Year accolade

A popular burger chain has taken home one of the biggest prizes in British fast-casual dining after judges named its latest creation the UK's Burger of the Year.

The 2026 National Burger Awards brought together 16 finalists from restaurant, pub, and street food businesses across the country, with each chef cooking their signature burger live at the final.The competition, now in its 12th year, saw established names go up against independents and regional favourites, with entrants including Burger & Beyond, Bleecker, Meat Stack, El Perro Negro, Fat Hippo, Dodo Pub Co, and Cawsburger.

The winning burger was praised by organisers after coming out on top in the signature round, marking a major result for a brand making its debut in the competition.

That chain is Honest Burgers, which won the National Burger of the Year title with The Honest.

The burger was cooked at the final by Honest Burgers co-founder Tom Barton and is a smashed evolution of the original Honest burger, which has been on the menu across the company’s restaurants.

The Honest is made with dry-aged Honest Butchery beef, thick-cut Wiltshire bacon, homemade beef and onion relish, XL cheese, Honest pickles, and diced onion.

It had previously only been available at Honest Burger’s Smash + Grab site in London’s Liverpool Street.

Following the win, however, the chain has added The Honest to menus nationwide for a limited time, meaning customers across the UK can now try the burger that beat some of the country’s best-known operators.

As noted by Metro, it is priced at £15 with rosemary fries or a side salad and is available until 15 June.

Reported by Dine Out Magazine at the time, Adam Layton, head of food at Honest Burgers, said: “It’s an amazing accolade… We’ve never competed at the National Burger Awards before, so coming in first time and taking the trophy means a lot to us. All credit to Tom. The original recipe was all him."

“It’s a good time for us. We’re recalibrating the menu, cutting off some things that are slow movers and doubling down on things that put us on the map. The burger we won with is an evolution of the original Honest, so we just upped every ingredient and the results are obvious.”

The live final also saw Burger & Beyond, another debutant at the National Burger Awards, take second place in the signature round.

Newcastle’s Meat Stack finished third, while other finalists included Danny’s Burgers in Bristol, El Perro Negro in Glasgow, Fat Hippo, 7Bone, Oowee Diner, Sobe Burger, Roddy Burger, Mollie’s, The Boring Burger, and The Flavour Trailer.

Elsewhere at the competition, Tom Curtis from Dodo Pub Co won Burger Chef of the Year after finalists were asked to create a burger using sponsor ingredients.

Charlie Wood-Jones from Cawsburger won Plant-Based Burger of the Year, while Greg Olejarka from Crane Feasts won The Great Shake Challenge.