A good burger is one of the hardest simple things to get right. The bun has to hold, the patty has to stay juicy, and the whole lot has to survive the short walk from counter to table. Portsmouth pulls it off better than a city its size has any right to, from smash patties in the Southsea back streets to monster stacks parked on top of Portsdown Hill. These are the best burgers in Portsmouth, ranked.
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We worked our way around town, weighed up the meat, the value and the welcome, then scored every contender out of ten. Plenty of famous names have opened and shut over the years, so the Portsmouth And team stuck to places you can actually walk into today. Here is how six of them stack up.
1. Meat and Barrel
Palmerston Road has quietly become Southsea’s dining strip, and Meat and Barrel is the address the burger crowd keeps coming back to. It is a proper sit-down bar and kitchen at 110 to 114 Palmerston Road, pairing thick beef patties with one of the longest craft beer and cask ale lists in the area. A burger with sides tends to land somewhere around £11 to £15, though it is worth a glance at the board before you order.
The cooking is confident without showing off, with a griddled patty, a glossy bun, cheese that actually melts and fries that keep their crunch. Specials rotate often, and the kitchen has even run the odd meat-free night, which tells you the chefs can handle a vegetable as happily as a rib-eye.
The high points
- Juicy beef patties and a bun that holds to the last bite;
- arguably the best beer list of any burger spot in Southsea;
- a real room to sit in, good for groups and families;
- specials that change, so it rarely feels samey.
Where it falls short
- Palmerston Road heaves at weekends, so expect to queue;
- prices sit at the upper end for the city.
Top of the pile, then, and the most complete burger-and-beer night in Portsmouth, and a deserved number one.
2. Mick’s Monster Burgers
Half the fun here is the setting. Mick’s is perched up on Portsdown Hill, so you collect a genuinely enormous burger and eat it looking down over the whole harbour, the dockyard and the Solent beyond. It has a devoted local following and reopened after a break with a tighter menu that kept the greatest hits.
The burgers are built for appetite rather than delicacy, stacked with bacon, cheese and sauce until they need both hands and a plan. Portions are generous and prices are fair for the size, which is a large part of why the queue of cars never really goes away on a sunny afternoon.
What works
- The best view of any burger in the city, bar none;
- huge portions that genuinely fill you up;
- fair prices for the amount of food;
- a proper Portsmouth institution with a loyal crowd.
The catches
- It is a hilltop takeaway, so there is no indoor seating;
- you need a car or a decent walk to get up there;
- weekend queues can be long.
Come hungry and pick a clear day, because few burgers anywhere come with a backdrop like this one.
3. 7Bone Burger Co
If Meat and Barrel is the grown-up option, 7Bone on Guildhall Walk is the one that likes to show off. The city-centre branch of this south-coast favourite trades in loud, inventive burgers with names to match, piled with everything from pulled pork to jalapeno poppers, washed down with craft beer a few steps from the Guildhall.
What lifts it up the list is the range. There is a proper run of vegetarian and vegan burgers here, not a token afterthought, so a mixed group can all order something they actually want. Prices are middle of the road, and the student crowd keeps the room busy and loud in the best way.
Why it scores
- Easily the strongest veggie and vegan burger range in town;
- bold, creative specials you will not find elsewhere;
- a central spot, handy before a night out;
- solid craft beer to go with it.
The downsides
- It can get loud and busy at peak times;
- the kitchen’s ambition occasionally outruns the execution;
- it is a small chain rather than a one-off local.
For sheer choice and a bit of theatre, nowhere in the centre comes closer.
4. Route 66 Burger Bar
Route 66 is the other hilltop legend, run out of a converted Airstream trailer near the top of Portsdown Hill after it moved to James Callaghan Drive a mile or so from its old pitch. The selling point is quality meat, locally sourced beef, properly seasoned, with a wagyu burger and truffle mayo for anyone feeling flush.
It is a takeaway-and-view affair rather than a sit-down meal, and all the better for it on a bright morning, when it also does breakfast baps, handy for anyone after more than a burger (see our breakfast and brunch picks). The catch is the obvious one for anything on an open hill, the weather. Catch it on a grey, blowy day and the romance fades a little.
In its favour
- Locally sourced beef with a real depth of flavour;
- a wagyu option that genuinely tastes the part;
- those sweeping harbour views again;
- breakfast baps as well as burgers.
Worth knowing
- It is outdoor and weather-dependent;
- opening hours can vary, so check before driving up;
- no indoor seating.
On the right day it is a treat; just keep one eye on the forecast before you set off.
5. Messy Chef
Tucked on Festing Road near Canoe Lake, Messy Chef has built a name on one thing done well, the smash burger. The patties are pressed thin and hard onto the griddle so the edges go lacy and crisp, then stacked with cheese and sauce into something gloriously, honestly messy. The kitchen is halal, which makes it a go-to for a chunk of the city that the bigger names overlook.
Beyond the burgers there are loaded hot dogs and beef nachos, and the whole thing is priced for a casual bite rather than a big night out. It is more takeaway than destination, but as a quick, satisfying feed near the seafront it punches above its weight.
The good stuff
- Crisp-edged smash patties with real flavour;
- halal kitchen, a genuine gap-filler locally;
- keen prices for a casual bite;
- handy for the seafront and Canoe Lake.
Less good
- Limited seating, so it is best as a takeaway;
- the short menu will not suit a big mixed group.
For a fast, no-nonsense smash burger near the front, it is hard to argue with.
6. Kango’s Gourmet Burger and Piri Piri
Over on Edinburgh Road, Kango’s does something a little different by running gourmet burgers alongside a piri piri grill. That means the chicken burgers are a real strength here, not an afterthought, and the dirty BBQ burger has its own small fan club. It is halal too, and sits handy for the city centre and the university.
It will not trouble the top of the list for a classic beef burger, but for value and variety it earns its place. If you are the sort who can never decide between a burger and a plate of spiced chicken, this is the one that lets you have both.
Strengths
- Chicken burgers that are genuinely worth ordering;
- piri piri options for the undecided;
- halal, and keenly priced;
- central, near the university.
Drawbacks
- The beef burgers are good rather than great;
- it leans takeaway over sit-down;
- quality can vary at the busiest times.
Think of it as the all-rounder, not the purist’s pick, but the one that keeps a mixed group happy.
Every burger, scored and placed
| Position | Name | Score (out of 10) | % (out of 100) |
| 1 | Meat and Barrel | 9.1 | 91 |
| 2 | Mick’s Monster Burgers | 8.6 | 86 |
| 3 | 7Bone Burger Co | 8.2 | 82 |
| 4 | Route 66 Burger Bar | 7.7 | 77 |
| 5 | Messy Chef | 7.3 | 73 |
| 6 | Kango’s Gourmet Burger and Piri Piri | 6.8 | 68 |
Where each one lands on the scale (out of 10)
What stands out from the ranking
The first thing the scores show is how spread out Portsmouth’s burgers are, both on the map and in style. Southsea gives you the full sit-down experience, the city centre brings the noise and the invention, and the hill offers something you cannot get anywhere else, a proper burger with a proper view. Burgers are only one part of the city’s eating out, sitting alongside Portsmouth’s best restaurants and its best fish and chips.
It is also a city that quietly looks after everyone. 7Bone has the vegetarians and vegans covered, while Messy Chef and Kango’s both run halal kitchens, so a mixed group rarely has to compromise. Value holds up across the board, too, with even the top picks staying sensible on price.
If there is a single lesson in the numbers, it is that in this city setting counts for nearly as much as the food.
A great Portsmouth burger is half about the patty and half about where you eat it, whether that is a buzzing Southsea bar or a bench with the whole harbour laid out below you.
That is exactly why two hilltop takeaways can sit so comfortably alongside a full-service bar near the top of the table.
How we judged the burgers
Every contender was scored out of ten across four things. They were the quality of the patty and bun, value for money, the range on offer and the welcome or setting. We leaned hardest on the first two, because a burger lives or dies on the meat and on whether you feel short-changed at the till. Scores were rounded to one decimal place, and no two places were allowed to tie.
Tastes differ, of course, and a list like this is built to start an argument as much as settle one. If you reckon there is a Portsmouth burger that should have muscled its way in, that is precisely the sort of tip our writers love to chase down.
