Best Burgers in Johannesburg: Area Guide

The best burgers in Johannesburg are found on a handful of walkable strips: 7th Street in Melville, 4th Avenue in Parkhurst, the Maboneng precinct east of the centre and Braamfontein near Wits University, plus the malls of Rosebank and Sandton. Flame-grilled is the style locals know best.

The first Steers opened in Highlands North, Johannesburg, in 1960, and made flame-grilled burgers with hand-cut chips a national habit. Joburg’s street food tells a second story. The kota is a quarter loaf hollowed out and filled with chips, polony, cheese and atchar, a spicy pickle, and it is the lunch of the townships. At a shisa nyama, you buy raw meat at a butcher’s counter and have it grilled on the spot.

Burgers in Johannesburg: key facts

• Neighbourhoods to explore: Melville (7th Street), Parkhurst (4th Avenue), Maboneng, Braamfontein, Rosebank and Sandton.
• Local style: flame-grilled patties, the format Steers popularised from Johannesburg in 1960.
• Township classic: the kota, a quarter loaf filled with chips, polony, cheese and atchar.
• Weekend ritual: shisa nyama, buy-and-braai butcheries where meat is grilled while you wait.
• Currency: the rand (ZAR), named after the Witwatersrand, the gold reef Johannesburg was built on.
• Getting around: the Gautrain links OR Tambo airport, Sandton, Rosebank, Park Station and Pretoria; most burger strips need a short car ride from there.

Every guide we publish on Johannesburg is dated and lists only venues, addresses, prices and ratings we could verify. See other cities in our burger restaurant guides.