11 of the Baltimore area’s best smashburgers

Somewhere between chasing new restaurants, standing in line at food trucks and pretending I was only going to the farmers market for vegetables, I realized I had inadvertently built a great list of smashburgers around town.

The dish is having a moment because it makes simplicity feel like a selling point: thin patties pressed hard on the griddle until the edges crisp, topped with melted cheese, pickles, onions, sauce and a bun doing its best to keep everything together.

Some local restaurants keep the formula simple. Others bring in wagyu, chimichurri, Manchego, a runny egg or fries that deserve their own mention. Either way, Baltimore has plenty worth ordering right now.

The Royal Blue

• 1733 Maryland Ave., Baltimore

The Royal Blue knows what a good bar burger needs: two seasoned Angus beef patties, sticky onions, applewood smoked bacon, American cheese, iceberg lettuce and their house-made RB sauce on a toasted sesame seed Martin’s bun. It’s exactly the right order for when dinner might turn into one more drink and a dance party in the back room. At brunch, they take the same burger and add a runny egg, which is the correct amount of extra. The building has history, too. Before The Royal Blue, it was Gallery One Bar, a longtime neighborhood fixture and safe space for Baltimore’s queer community. The current owners preserved the original bar structure and mural behind it, so the room still carries part of its past while giving the city somewhere to eat, drink and dance.

John Brown General & Butchery

• 13501 Falls Road, Cockeysville

John Brown General & Butchery has a built-in advantage: It’s a butcher shop before it’s a burger stop. The Worthington Valley spot specializes in whole-animal butchery, grass-fed beef, pasture-raised meats and dry-aged beef made in-house, which means the cheeseburger starts with impeccable sourcing. This one keeps it simple with shredded lettuce, their own version of Big Mac sauce, mustard, American cheese and Epic pickles, with the option to go single or double patty, or add bacon. The fries are double-blanched, fried, seasoned and served in a pile so large it makes the term “side” seem inaccurate. It’s best enjoyed for lunch at one of the tables inside the shop or outside in the backyard before you inevitably leave with something extra from the butcher case.

Fuzzies

• 1704 Thames St., Baltimore

Fuzzies sounds cute until the burger shows up with dry-aged beef, their homemade Static Sauce and a full lineup of pickles, pimento cheese, pepper jelly and crispy fries. Tucked in the courtyard between The Undefeated and The Waterfront Hotel, the family-owned operation serves smash-style burgers from Elektra, its 24-foot concession trailer. The burgers are made with a handcrafted blend of USDA Prime dry-aged Black Angus from local farms, then stacked with American cheese, pickles and sauce. The O.G. Fuzz option adds razor-thin iceberg and tomato; The Fuzzy keeps it tighter with double patties, cheese, pickles and Static Sauce; and Hot Fuzz pairs bacon, spicy pimento cheese, pepper jelly and spicy bread and butter pickles. Add pickleback fries (seasoned with vinegar, garlic and dill) or have them shore-style (topped with malt vinegar powder and Old Bay), and suddenly the courtyard is not just where you stop between bars. It is the plan.

Sally O’s

• 3531 Gough St., Baltimore

The Highlandtown Smashburger at Sally O’s starts with double patties made from a short rib, brisket and chuck blend, giving it more depth than a standard bar burger before the toppings even get involved. It comes with shredded iceberg, American cheese, fried onion, pickles and burger sauce on a sesame seed bun, with the option to add bacon, avocado or a fried egg. You can also make it a triple smash, which is probably not necessary, but since when did necessity have anything to do with ordering a burger? The restaurant has a kitschy charm that makes Sally O’s easy to like: the neon sign lighting up the Gough Street corner, a long bar up front, pink lights strung through the room and vibrant artwork on the walls.

Royal Sauce

• Food truck and Baltimore Farmers’ Market (East Saratoga and Holliday streets)

Royal Sauce is my reminder that the Baltimore Farmers’ Market is not just for vegetables and responsible Sunday decisions. Their smashburger comes with two freshly ground Angus chuck and brisket patties, two slices of cheese and your choice of toppings on a toasted bun, all made under a small tent where you can watch the flat top do its work. There is usually a line, for good reason. They also serve a turkey smashburger with turkey and mushroom patties, soy-sesame glaze and cheese on toasted brioche. The fries are worth adding, especially the rosemary duck fat ones with parmesan, the Cajun fries with parmesan peppercorn ranch or the truffle black garlic parm fries. Is it early for a burger? Maybe. Is that stopping me at the market on Sunday mornings? Absolutely not.

Bar Dalí

• 909 N. Charles St., Baltimore

Bar Dalí is a tapas bar first, which makes the Dalí Burger a nice little surprise between the bravas, croquetas and tomato bread. Instead of one full-size burger, it arrives as three sliders made with ground short rib, Manchego cheese, Dalí sauce and shallot on milk buns. The format makes sense for the room: the burgers are small enough to share, rich enough to hold their own next to the rest of the menu and very easy to justify as “just one more plate.” The subterranean Mount Vernon space from Spike Gjerde and Ash has bar seats, booths and the busy Spanish-tapas energy of a place built for grazing, but the burger sliders deserve their own order.

7th Street Burger

• 2400 Boston St., Baltimore

7th Street Burger started in New York’s East Village in 2021 before expanding to New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and now Baltimore. The Canton shop brings the same stripped-down approach: The menu has smashburgers, fries, a few drinks and not much else. The classic build comes with fresh beef, American cheese, grilled onions, pickles and house sauce on a Martin’s potato bun, while the spicy jalapeño option swaps in jalapeños and ghost pepper sauce. (There are also Impossible versions of each for the same crispy-edged treatment without the beef.) Eater New York once described the burgers as “gloriously greasy,” which is exactly the right lane for a place built around hot griddles, melted cheese and sauce. And don’t forget an order of the aptly named loaded fries, brimming with chopped beef, American cheese, grilled onions and house sauce, which is either an excessive choice or exactly correct depending on your relationship with self-control.

MillOh!

• Food truck

MillOh! started at the Reisterstown Farmers Market with a tent, a grill and Argentine flavors that now follow the truck around town. The Argentinian double burger comes with chimichurri, melted cheese and pickled onions; the Oklahoma burger smashes beef with caramelized onions, melted cheese and pickles; and the MillOh Smash keeps things more straightforward with American cheese and crispy edges. Save room for something sweet, too: MillOh! serves alfajores, soft cornstarch cookies filled with dulce de leche imported from Argentina. You’ll find other street-food staples, like a choripán sandwich featuring smoky sausage, on the menu as well. The drinks go beyond the usual food-truck lineup, with a Greenwave iced matcha latte — horchata made with rice milk, morro seed, cocoa, peanuts and cinnamon — and the Matchada, which blends that horchata with ceremonial matcha. Follow their schedule before you go; this is a burger you track down, not one you casually stumble upon.

Wanna Smash

• 3500 O’Donnell St., Baltimore

Wanna Smash makes an impression before you even walk in thanks to the giant burger mural outside the Canton spot. There are only four signature burgers, all served with double patties of wagyu on Martin’s potato buns, which keeps the decision-making manageable. The Quickie is the closest to classic, with American cheese, grilled onions, pickles and smash sauce, while the Hot and Heavy turns up the heat with grilled onions, jalapeños, bacon and spicy yum yum sauce. If you want to cover all the bases, the Foursome serves sliders of all four signature burgers over fries. Any burger can also be chopped up and served over fries, because apparently the bun is negotiable. The milkshakes keep the same over-the-top energy, with Oreo, Fruity Pebbles, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and strawberry options.

Knotty Pine

• 801 S. Conkling St., Baltimore

Knotty Pine has been part of Canton since 1936, with a history that includes old-school bar roots, a major 2008 fire and a rebuild that kept pieces of the past while updating the food menu. Today, that menu covers plenty of ground, but the smashburgers are the reason we’re here. You can build your own, though the signature options are more interesting: the Knotty Pine burger stacks a double patty with Gouda, avocado, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers and chipotle aioli, while the Black, Blue & Bacon goes richer with blackened seasoning, blue cheese, bacon, caramelized onions and black garlic aioli. Each smashburger comes with fresh Old Bay chips and a pickle, keeping the plate firmly in Baltimore bar-food territory.

Chuck’s Trading Post

• 1506 W. 36th St., Baltimore

Chuck’s Trading Post keeps its smashburger focused: two Black Angus patties with American cheese, pickles, caramelized onions, shredduce and smoked garlic-onion aioli on brioche. It’s available during the day, but Wednesday Burger Night offers a better deal: From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., $15 gets you the burger, fries and a beer. The smoked garlic-onion aioli gives the burger more depth than the standard special sauce setup, while the caramelized onions and pickles keep the bite balanced. The Hampden space is small, as the name suggests, which makes this an easy in-and-out burger stop unless you decide to stay for the beer part of the deal.