When it comes to food and drink, there are two highly personal decisions we each must make: how you take your coffee, and what you like on your burger. While getting someone’s coffee right is an exact science, burger fans are sometimes a little more willing to branch out from their signature pick and try something different.
How different? If this guide to some of the most over-the-top burgers you can find (and some you can’t anymore) is any indication, they can get pretty out-there. Some feature standard toppings with one that seems not to belong, others have toppings that few would ever consider putting on an eight-ounce piece of ground beef, and some pose logistical challenges when it comes to the simple task of fitting it into your mouth.
So many people want to get into the over-the-top burger game that they’ll even create urban legends around them. Look no further than this burger we can’t name here because it simply won’t pass muster with the editors — a $666 offering featuring a Kobe beef patty wrapped in gold leaf, stuffed with foie gras, and draped with Gruyere cheese that was melted with champagne steam. It turned out to be a hoax, even though some news outlets initially reported it as fact.
We guarantee the rest of these over-the-top are totally real and totally available for you to dig into. But only the most intrepid gourmands should even consider trying some of these.
Image Credit: sollysbutterburgers.com.
1. Dee Snider Burger
People of a certain age will remember hearing the dulcet tones of Twisted Sister emanating from their cassette players, informing one and all that they were not, in fact, going to take it. That era may be gone but the Dee Snider Burger, named after Twisted Sister’s iconic front man, can be eaten at Grill ‘Em All, a heavy metal-themed restaurant in Alhambra, California that will let you party like it’s 1985.
The Dee Snider Burger consists of an eight-ounce beef patty covered in peanut butter, strawberry jam, bacon, and sriracha. When asked on Twitter how it tastes, Snider himself described it as “[effing] delicious.” Apparently those PMRC hearings didn’t make him stop using salty language.
Image Credit: Grill ‘em All.
2. Le Burger Extravagant
Serendipity 3 is an upscale New York City institution that was patronized by the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol, and which has served such ridiculously expensive desserts as the $1,000 Golden Opulence Sundae. In April, musician Selena Gomez was announced as the brand’s new owner.
In addition to serving $1,000 sundaes, Serendipity 3 also serves Le Burger Extravagant, which has a sticker price of $295. It’s made with Wagyu beef infused with 10-herb white truffle butter, cheddar cheese that’s cave-aged for a year and a half, black truffles, a fried quail egg, and Kaluga caviar, all held in place by a solid-gold, diamond-encrusted toothpick.
Image Credit: serendipitybrands.com.
3. Butter Burger
Solly’s Grille in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been family owned and operated since its 1936 opening. Per its website, it’s the home of “the original Butter Burger,” and its description depicts a foodstuff that doctors might have some issues with, but at the same time is nowhere near the egregious monstrosity that some burgers out there are.
“We use high quality 100% sirloin beef (no fillers) delivered FRESH daily from a local butcher,” the website says. “We use only REAL Wisconsin creamery butter.” Some people may furrow their brow at the idea of slathering a beef patty with butter, but the place has been in business for 85 years, so what do we know?
Image Credit: sollysbutterburgers.com.
4. Chef Katsu’s Original California Roll Hamburger
26 Beach is a restaurant in Marina Del Rey, California, that was founded by chef Katsu Mori, his wife Yuki, and their sons Bryan and Francis. If you’ve ever wondered what a burger would taste like if you topped a beef patty with crab, avocado, sushi ginger, and wasabi mayo, here’s the one place in the world where you can find out. In 2013, this burger made Los Angeles magazine’s list of “L.A.’s Three Most Ridiculous Sushi-Inspired Dishes.”
Image Credit: 26Beach.com.
5. DB Original Truffle Burger
Daniel Boulud is a French chef and restaurateur with restaurants all over the world, including New York City. DB Bistro Moderne, located in the Big Apple, is home of the “DB Burger,” which his official website says “launched the gourmet burger craze.”
While that’s a claim that some might dispute, no one disputes that the DB burger contains a sirloin patty filled with braised short ribs and black truffle. It also contains foie gras, which will be banned in New York state in 2022. DB Bistro Moderne is currently still closed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but hopefully they’ll open up in time for customers to try this burger before the foie gras ban goes into effect.
Image Credit: db Bistro Moderne Facebook.
6. Boss Burger
While many of the craziest burgers are the creations of independent eating establishments, the casual dining chain Chili’s has gotten into the act too. Calling it “the burger all other burgers report to,” the Boss Burger contains brisket, rib meat, jalapeno-cheddar smoked sausage, bacon, and cheddar cheese.
It also has lettuce and tomato, presumably for the nutrition-conscious, and is covered in barbecue sauce and ranch dressing. It has 1,530 calories according to Chili’s nutrition guide, which advises customers that “2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice, but calorie needs vary.” So if your doctor takes you to task for eating this thing, just say you have unique calorie needs.
Image Credit: chilis.com.
7. Fatty Melt
Some over-the-top burgers are so over-the-top that they remain unique to the establishments that invented them. Then you have specimens like the Fatty Melt, which jumped species and is now available in eateries all over the country. In fact, the recipe and ingredients are so simple, you could make it yourself.
All you need to make your own Fatty Melt is eight ounces of ground beef and two grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon. The grilled cheese with bacon sandwiches serve as the “bun.” If that all sounds great but the idea of the physical effort involved in making it puts you off, Crave Burgers in Colorado will be happy to set you up.
Image Credit: craverealburgers.com.
8. Fleurburger 5000
If you had a good night in Vegas and won $5,000, why not get rid of it almost as quickly as you won it? By dropping that princely sum on the Fleurburger 5000, you can ensure that what happens in Vegas really and truly stays in Vegas.
The burger is the creation of chef Hubert Keller and is sold exclusively at his restaurant, Fleur, at the Mandalay Bay. It’s made from Wagyu beef, foie gras, and black truffles, but what really drives the price up is the bottle of 1995 Petrus wine, which can easily set you back $4,500. Why pay less?
Image Credit: Fleur / Mandalay Bay / MGM Resorts International.
9. Ghost Burger
Some burgers can best be described as “sinfully delicious,” but how many of them allow you to take the sacrament of communion while you eat it? Only the Ghost Burger from Kuma’s Corner in Chicago, which features a 10-ounce beef patty, braised goat shoulder, ghost pepper aioli, aged white cheddar, red wine reduction, and to top it all off, a communion wafer.
Sadly, the Ghost Burger is not a regular item at Kuma’s and like the McRib, it only emerges from hiding every few years, most recently being spotted in the wild in 2019. So next time you make your confession, ask the priest to put in a good word for you with the guy upstairs, and maybe the Ghost Burger will be resurrected.
Image Credit: kumascorner.com.
10. Hula Burger
The year was 1962. The United States announced its embargo against Cuba, Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans exhibit premiered in Los Angeles, and the Beatles’ first single, “Love Me Do,” was released. It was also the year that McDonald’s founder Ray Croc invented the Hula Burger, a burger that used a pineapple slice instead of a beef patty in the hopes of attracting Catholic diners who abstained from eating meat on Fridays.
Tragically, the Hula Burger had to compete against the Filet-O-Fish sandwich in a contest of burgers that were meat-free. As anyone who’s visited McDonald’s in the last 60 years can tell you, the Hula Burger lost. If that saddens you, you can talk about your feelings over at McDonald’s Wiki.
Image Credit: McDonald’s.
11. Luther Burger
Much like the Fatty Melt, the Luther Burger is another spin on the hamburger that was adopted by restaurants all over the country. Named for R&B singer Luther Vandross (at least according to the fact-checking site Snopes.com), the Luther Burger is a bacon cheeseburger that uses Krispy Kreme donuts as the bun.
Today, you can get the Luther Burger, also simply known as the Donut Burger, everywhere from restaurants to state fairs, and some estimates put it at 1,500 calories. Sadly, Vandross himself passed away in 2005, but the burger lives on, and through it, Luther Vandross lives on as well.
Image Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons.
12. SPAM & Oreo Burger
If you think McDonald’s is the same everywhere, you’re wrong. As a worldwide chain, its offerings differ from location to location, and perhaps no menu item demonstrates that better than the limited-edition SPAM & Oreo Burger, which was available from McDonald’s in China in December 2020.
According to a CNN report, Abbie Xie, communications manager for McDonald’s in China, “Luncheon meat is a trending food among youngsters nowadays… the flavorful and crispy Oreo, on the other hand, is a snack youngsters are familiar with. By creatively combining the two foods, it doesn’t only showcase the collision of tastes and textures, it is also quite topical socially.”
Related: Fast food favorites we wish they’d bring back
Image Credit: McDonald’s China.
13. Quadruple Coronary Bypass Burger
Located in Atlanta, the Vortex Bar & Grill makes it very clear on their menu that it’s an establishment for adults 21 and over. As such, all of its patrons are old enough to know whether or not they really want to eat something named after an emergency surgical procedure intended for people at death’s door.
“We use four griddled patty melts as the top, bottom and (two) middle buns of our Super-Stack,” the menu says. “Total ingredients include eight slices of Texas toast, four four-ounce griddled sirloin patties, two eight-ounce flame-grilled sirloin patties, 28 slices of American cheese, four fried eggs, 27 strips of bacon, grilled onions, diner relish and mayonnaise.” Be sure you finish your complementary French Fries before they load you into the ambulance.
Image Credit: thevortexatl.com.
14. Sleep
This is another creation from Kuma’s Corner in Chicago. Known in other restaurants that serve something similar as “Thanksgiving Burger,” the heavy metal-themed Kuma’s has named it after the band Sleep, and most likely was also inspired by the high levels of tryptophan found in most Thanksgiving dinners.
The principle behind this burger is to take all the elements of Thanksgiving dinner that render us comatose and make a burger out of it. So within its pretzel bun, customers will find cranberry sauce, a turkey patty, a tempura fried stuffing patty, turkey gravy, and fried sage.
Image Credit: kumascorner.com.
15. 10 Pound Monster Burger
Mallie’s Sports Grill & Bar in Southgate, Michigan, is home to the 10 Pound Monster Burger. If you can eat it all in under two hours, you get it for free. You’ll also win $100 and get your picture on the wall at the restaurant. There’s no price listed on the menu, but owner Steve Mallie told us it will set you back $40 if you don’t finish it.
In the unlikely event that’s not enough burger for you, Mallie’s has got you covered. For a nominal fee of $10,000, they’ll be happy to whip up their Guinness World Record-winning 1,800 pound burger, just for you.
Image Credit: Mallie’s Sports Grill & Bar / Facebook.
16. 100×100 Burger
In-N-Out Burger has been a beloved institution since its 1948 founding, but anyone who’s eaten there will tell you that there are great treasures to behold beyond what’s on the menu. They have several popular off-menu items for those in the know, some of which have become so well established that they’re on the menu, under the heading “Not So Secret Menu.”
Despite the legitimization of the 4×4 variety and the Animal Style option, there are a few off-menu items that will probably never graduate to full menu item status. One such item that we feel fairly confident will never be thusly immortalized is the 100×100 burger which, as anyone can see, is 100 cheeseburgers, stacked in an orderly fashion. You can watch competitive eater Molly Shuyler terminate it with extreme prejudice in this YouTube video from FoodBeast.
Image Credit: Food Beast / YouTube.
17. Octuple Bypass Burger
As much as we like to keep things in strict alphabetical order, some things simply stand alone. One of those things is the Octuple Bypass Burger from the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas. As befits its description, it has eight beef patties equaling four pounds of meat, 40 pieces of bacon, chili, and cheese. According to Newsweek, it will set you back $21.28, a more than reasonable price for 19,900 calories. One of the ingredients is lard!
It’s important to know that if you choose to eat this thing, you’re not just putting your own health on the line – you may also sacrifice your dignity. In 2012, a customer who was eating the much more sensible Triple Bypass Burger at the Heart Attack Grill had an actual, fatal heart attack, and owner Joe Basso said that customers thought it was a prank.
“I actually felt horrible for the gentleman because the tourists were taking photos of him as if it were some type of stunt,” he said. “Even with our own morbid sense of humor, we would never pull a stunt like that.”
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This article was produced and syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
Image Credit: heartattackgrill.com.
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