No. 10 on the list was KoJa Kitchen in Berkeley, a local Korean-Japanese fusion chain that also has locations in San Francisco, Alameda, Cupertino and more. The restaurant’s burgers feature fried garlic rice buns instead of traditional buns, with proteins including Korean barbecue short rib and miso-coconut braised pork.
Also on the list, at No. 14, was Bear Bitez in Newark. This East Bay restaurant also features a unique take on burgers: Each beef patty is wrapped in French puff pastry instead of a bun.
“The first bite is a crisp flakiness and buttery flavor, [followed by] the [taste] and juices of the meat,” chef-owner Bliss Attaie told Yelp. “When that hits your palate, it’s like a beautiful tango of flavor.”
Two nonlocal chains with Bay Area locations also made the list. The Counter, a customizable burger chain headquartered in Arizona, came in at No. 16 for its Santana Row restaurant in San Jose. Five Guys, which is based in Virginia, came in at No. 38 for its San Jose restaurant.
The No. 1 burger spot on the list was Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q, a Texas-inspired barbecue spot in Atlanta, Georgia.
Yelp compiled the top 100 burger list by first identifying restaurants with a large concentration of reviews mentioning “burgers” and then ranking them by ratings and volume of reviews. For chain restaurants that appeared more than once on the list, only the highest-ranked location was included.