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Cheeseburger, £9.25

Take no heed of the name: Bad Egg’s an exceptionally good little City diner, tucked down a side street in the Barbican’s brutalist shadow. The menu – a mix of Southern States diner fare and more modish little plates – is a grab bag of hits, but the cheeseburger is a must. The filthy mother melds a rare-breed beef patty with such delights as a potato bun, turmeric pickles, burger sauce, caramelised onions and – wait for it – a veritable flood of Red Leicester fondue. FONDUE, FFS. Not bad, right?

‘Piggie’ burger, £19

The famous mini burgers at this Knightbridge spot have gone full-size. Our favourite of the contemporary bistro's offering is the Piggie – the patty is pimped up with barbecue pork, jalapéno mayo and red cabbage, and it's all in a cheddar bun.

The BBB, £10

The Burger & Beyond boys pride themselves on using the best meat (well, they do run their own farm). All beef is hung, aged and butchered by the B&B team. Try it in The BBB for maximum phwoar – it's topped with American cheese, bacon, burnt-butter mayo and pickled onions. Trust us, there’s not much room for anything ‘beyond’ this bad boy.

Double cheeseburger, £9.50

There are just a few tables at Bleecker St's Spitalfields Market home, so don’t expect much in the way of comfort or ambience. But what you will discover is a stripped-back but hugely satisfying formula for the all-American burger. Show-stopping dry-aged beef cooked pink is complemented by Bleecker’s ‘secret sauce’ that tastes every bit as peppery as McDonald's’ Big Mac mayo (but more upmarket, obvs). Maximise on that meat with a double cheeseburger. Seeded buns are toasted to perfection, mopping up those excess patty juices without ever compromising your vice-like burger grip.

The Tribute, £10.95

‘El Chappo’, £9.50

The nomadic Lucky Chip is currently doing its thang at the hip Camden Assembly pub/venue, Islington’s always vibey Old Queen’s Head and the buzzy Hackney gig spot/boozer the Sebright Arms – which is appropriate, since each bite of one of these burgers is like a party in your mouth. There are specials on the menu named after famous faces, but of the regulars, the fiery ‘El Chappo’ gets our vote. Here, an already excellent patty is topped with smoked bacon, jalapeños, aioli and blue cheese. Scorchio.

‘Veni-Moo’ burger, £11.50

It’s a double patty party at Highland-loving restaurant Mac & Wild, but not like you’d find anywhere else in town. A beef patty and a venison patty cuddle up together between brioche for one hell of a meaty mouthful. Melted cheese and pickles add to the flavour invasion, while those who want even more meat for their money can add candied bacon for £2. Let the game begin.

Beef burger with Korean pulled pork, £16.50

Right, this one’s for the true meat-lovers. Islington’s Smokehouse is one of the capital’s high temples to flesh (barbecue don Neil Rankin presided over it for a long time, which says a lot), and where better to start practising the faith than with a dish as pure as the humble burger? Here, they come smothered in a heavily spiced Korean sauce and generously topped with pulled pork of the highest standard. Amen to that.

'Belly Connection' burger, £7

These Nomadic meat masters have been plying their trade around Kerb and Brockley Market for years now, building a cultish rep for gutsy, left-field bites (the clue is in the name). A case in point is their awesome ‘Heartbreaker’ burgers. The ‘Belly Connection’ version is a truly inspired dish, with a patty made from 50 percent ox heart and 50 percent dry-aged, native breed beef (sourced from Bermondsey’s finest, The Butchery), topped with 24-hour cooked pork belly, gorgonzola, pimiento mayo, pickled red onions and lettuce. 

Classic cheeseburger, £7.50

School chums James McGurn and Henry Sutton have turned their meat obsession into a street-food stand serving British beef dressed in Argentinian gaucho garb. All their dry-aged carcasses come from grass-fed native breeds reared in Yorkshire, and even their charcoal is sourced from Kent. Their burger is a simple classic done really well – a juicy patty, pink in the middle, plus American cheese, onion, gherkin and burger sauce, all in a soft white bun with sesame seeds. That’s it… burger perfection.