With three restaurants — Willesden Green, Dalston, and King’s Cross — and a new suite of delivery kitchens, Beer and Burger Store is well set. Smashburgers here, minimum two patties per burger, with cheesecake at dessert and no overly fussy toppings.

There are Shake Shacks open all over the city and it’s likely Londoners will visit all of them before this one. But this entry, given the chain’s many available openings, is more of a symbol. A symbol of both how far Shake Shack — a U.S. burger monolith but still a relative U.K. upstart — has spread itself across the city, and of the fact that fine, good burgers, and, more crucially, breakfast rolls are now waiting in a place where eating can reach its lowest ebb. Prepare for take-off ... Eventually.

The Baba G’s bhangra burger is an enduring success, with a deftly spiced lamb patty topped with an onion bhaji, raita, tamarind, mango, and a coriander and onion relish.

It seems redundant saying it, for it is the express purpose of this map, but Lucky Chip (est. 2012) still serves some of London’s best burgers. The El Chappo — beef patty, bacon, jalapeños and blue cheese and aioli — has been a benchmark since it debuted out of a van in Netil Market all those years ago, and the Royale Wit Cheese is the perfect riff on the “burger with the lot”, spilling with fresh lettuce, tomato and onion to cut the oozing weight of dripping beef patty and melted cheese. Also at Netil Market in London Fields, Wednesday — Sunday.

Joe Grossmann’s burgers are messy: forearm-dripping, nose-saucing and guaranteed to leave a faint burger scent on diners already deafened by the banging hip-hop pounding. Luckily, the elements of each sloppy, greasepaper-wrapped bun are also impeccably, hyper-locally sourced, with bread from Bread Ahead, meat from HG Walter and cheese from Neal’s Yard. Multiple locations and a new smashburger to get excited about.

Burger and Beyond’s beef comes from its own farm: Herons Farm, in Colchester, which also supplies the Rare Breed Meat Company. Veterans of the street food scene but now at home in Shoreditch, the cheeseburger and bacon butter burger are standouts, with the ‘dirty tots’ — tater tots but with bacon and cheese and hot sauce — an essential side order.

Created by lawyer-turned-burger maestro Zan Kaufman, Bleecker's cheeseburger is, by most connoisseurs’ reckoning, the best burger in London. Why? Because it tastes almost exactly like a McDonald's 99p cheeseburger. Except better, thanks to impeccable free-range meat or a new vegetarian offering from Neil Rankin’s Symplicity Foods.

The Duke of Richmond — the gastropub by chefs Tom Oldroyd and Rory Shannon — has created another great London cheeseburger. Within a brioche bun is a 6oz rib cap patty, dill pickles, chopped white onion, and thousand island sauce (imitation special sauce on top of an imitation Big Mac.) It’s the sort of size that works as a snack or a big-move starter, and then there’s “The duke” — 6oz rib cap patty with roquefort, confit shallots, and béarnaise, for those who like their burgers a little more cheffy.

London fell hard for thick, mid-rare, burgers covered in cheeses and other accessories whose quality often clashes with the expression of the meat. At this small, popular neighbourhood cafe by Rectory Road overground, the smashburger is king, and currently only available at weekends. One patty, violently compressed on the flat top to a caramelised, charry smokiness, gets on handsomely with “Heinz”, “French’s”, mayo, American cheese, iceberg, and pickles. One of the few truly committed fast food-emulating burgers in the city, and one of the best to boot. There’s an awning for outdoor eating, rain or no rain, and some other very fine things in buns, including a makhani fried chicken burger and a Bajan-inspired fish bun.

A new cheeseburger contender from the east London butcher shop forged in lockdown. Two aged beef patties, American cheese, special sauce — these people aren’t messing about, with the burger a staple on the lunch menu. Check Instagram for availability.