Junk Smash Burgers Paris: Founders, Menu, Prices and All 12 Addresses
How Graine's Tunisian-born founders built Junk into a 12-restaurant Paris smash burger chain, plus the S-to-XXL menu, prices and every address.
Junk Smash Burgers is a Paris smash burger chain founded by Majed Mansour and Wissem Ben Ammar, who ran Graine, a couscous bar, before switching to burgers. It started in 2021 as a delivery-only brand, opened its first counter at 114 Rue Montmartre (2nd arrondissement) in 2022, and lists 12 restaurants in Paris as of 8 October 2026. The menu is short on purpose: one smashed-patty cheeseburger in five sizes, from S (one patty) to XXL (five), plus a Truffle burger and a Veggie.
I cover restaurants for Burger Breton. On 8 October 2026 I went through Junk’s official locations and menu pages line by line and checked them against the French and UK press. Plenty of articles about Junk still quote 2022 prices or a 2024 restaurant count. Not this one: every figure below carries its source and its date.
Junk Smash Burgers Paris: key facts
Junk is a French smash burger brand born in Paris, with 12 Paris restaurants, 20 in France and 4 abroad according to its official locations page on 8 October 2026.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founders | Majed Mansour and Wissem Ben Ammar |
| Origin | Paris, delivery-only launch in 2021 |
| First restaurant | 114 Rue Montmartre, 75002 Paris (2022) |
| Paris restaurants | 12 (official site, checked 8 Oct 2026) |
| Restaurants in France | 20: Paris plus Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Nice, Strasbourg, Toulouse |
| Abroad | 3 in the UK, 1 in the UAE |
| Concept | Smash burger in five sizes, S (1 patty) to XXL (5 patties) |
| Beef | French Charolais and Limousin cattle (official site) |
| Sister brand | Puffy, New York-style cookies |
Who founded Junk? Majed Mansour and Wissem Ben Ammar
Junk was founded by Majed Mansour and Wissem Ben Ammar, according to The Caterer (May 2026) and Restaurant Online (October 2024). Both were born in Tunisia and moved to Paris in 2004 for higher education, as L’Économiste Maghrébin and Kapitalis reported in 2020.
The French press has written very little about the pair behind the brand. Most of what is on record comes from the UK trade press, which picked up the story when Junk crossed the Channel in 2024.
Is Majed Mansour a chef?
No. Majed Mansour is a co-founder of Junk and the face of the business, not its chef. The Dubai food site nogarlicnoonions (1 October 2025) calls Mansour ‘the entrepreneur’ and Wissem Ben Ammar ‘a self-taught chef’.
That is the only source I found for this split of roles, and Junk has never published one. Until it does, I treat them both as co-founders and leave the kitchen credit open.
Mansour summed up the idea in 2025: “Junk was created to strip burgers back to what really matters: quality ingredients, simple execution, and bold flavour.” (nogarlicnoonions, 2025-10-01)
From Graine couscous bar to Junk: the founders’ timeline
Before Junk, Mansour and Ben Ammar ran Graine, presented as the first couscous bar in France and founded in 2013. They changed business model during Covid and launched Junk as a delivery brand in 2021 (Restaurant Online, L’Économiste Maghrébin).
In February 2020 the duo pitched Graine on M6’s investor show ‘Qui veut être mon associé ?’. They asked for €400,000 for 25% of the company. At the time, Graine had 3 Paris sites, 24 employees and €1,125,000 in 2019 revenue. Kapitalis confirms the TV appearance, but the figures come from L’Économiste Maghrébin alone.
| Date | Milestone | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Mansour and Ben Ammar arrive in Paris from Tunisia to study | L’Économiste Maghrébin, Kapitalis |
| 2013 | Graine couscous bar founded | Restaurant Online, L’Économiste Maghrébin |
| Feb 2020 | Graine pitched on M6, asking €400,000 for 25% | L’Économiste Maghrébin |
| 2021 | Junk launches in Paris as a delivery-only brand | Restaurant Online, The Caterer |
| 2022 | First counter opens at 114 Rue Montmartre, 2e | Junk official site, Sortir à Paris |
| 2024 | First site outside France: Brewer Street, Soho, London | Restaurant Online |
| Sep 2025 | Three Puffy cookie shops open in Paris | Le Bonbon, The Caterer |
| Fall 2025 | Paris openings on rue de Sèvres, at Bercy Village and on rue Legendre | Le Bonbon |
| 3 Oct 2025 | Dubai opening announced at 25 Jump Street | nogarlicnoonions |
| 28 May 2026 | Junk Spitalfields opens in London | The Caterer |
| Later in 2026 | Standalone Junk and Puffy sites planned in Covent Garden | The Caterer |
If you search for the founders, you will hit one error. Restaurant Online’s June 2024 article says Junk ‘launched in 2013’. That date belongs to Graine. Junk itself dates from 2021. I could not confirm whether Graine is still open or whether the founders still own it.
The Junk menu: S to XXL explained
At Junk, the letter is the number of patties: S has 1 smashed patty, M has 2, L has 3, XL has 4 and XXL has 5. Every size uses the same build: a toasted French brioche bun, premium American cheese and the house Junk sauce (official menu, checked 8 October 2026).
The founders call their philosophy ‘less is more’: bun, cheese, sauce and good meat, and no salad (Restaurant Online, 2024). You choose how much beef you want, and that is pretty much the whole decision.
My take: the ladder is the smartest idea on the menu. One question, how many patties, replaces the usual wall of combos, and a light eater and a five-patty show-off can order at the same counter. What the menu page can’t tell me is whether five thin patties still keep their crust or end up as a steamed stack. That needs a visit.
| Burger | Smashed patties | Build |
|---|---|---|
| S | 1 | Brioche bun, American cheese, Junk sauce |
| M | 2 | Brioche bun, American cheese, Junk sauce |
| L | 3 | Brioche bun, American cheese, Junk sauce |
| XL | 4 | Brioche bun, American cheese, Junk sauce |
| XXL | 5 | Brioche bun, American cheese, Junk sauce |
| Truffle | 2 | Cheese, house-fried onions, truffle sauce |
| Veggie | Plant-based patty | Plant-based alternative to the beef burgers |
Junk burger sizes S, M, L, XL and XXL with 1 to 5 smashed patties: bar chart of patties per size (S=1, M=2, L=3, XL=4, XXL=5), from the official Junk menu checked 8 October 2026 (Chart: Burger Breton, data from Junk Smash Burgers official menu)
The Junk Truffle burger
The Truffle burger is a two-patty smash burger with cheese, house-fried onions and truffle sauce. According to Junk’s own site, it launched as a limited edition and became a permanent menu item.
Is there a vegetarian burger at Junk?
Yes. Junk’s Veggie burger swaps the beef for a plant-based patty (official menu).
Add-ons, sides and Puffy cookies
Add-ons are pickles, crispy onions and jalapeños. The sides are panko fried chicken and double-fried fries. For dessert, Junk sells cookies from Puffy, its sister brand. Puffy opened three stand-alone Paris shops in September 2025, on rue Danielle-Casanova, rue de Bretagne and rue Legendre (Le Bonbon, The Caterer).
How much does a Junk burger cost in Paris?
The last Paris prices I could verify date from November 2022: €5.90 for an S and €16.90 for an XXL (Sortir à Paris, 2022-11-02). Do the maths. The S cost €5.90 per patty and the XXL about €3.38, so each extra patty added €2.75 on average. The bigger sizes were the better deal on beef.
Junk burger prices in Paris, November 2022: bar chart of the two published prices, €5.90 for an S (1 patty) and €16.90 for an XXL (5 patties); current Paris prices are not on the official menu (Chart: Burger Breton, data from Sortir à Paris (2022-11-02))
Junk’s official menu page shows no prices, and I could not confirm what Paris counters charge today. Almost four years of food inflation sit between those figures and your bill. Treat them as a floor and check the click-and-collect page of your restaurant before you go. London menus are no guide either: they are priced in pounds for a different market.
What beef does Junk use?
Junk says it uses French beef from Charolais and Limousin cattle, served on toasted French brioche buns (official site, checked 8 October 2026). Le Bonbon also reports French beef.
Charolais and Limousin are two of France’s best-known beef breeds. Naming them is a more specific promise than the vague ‘French beef’ line I usually find on chain menus, and it is one a customer can hold the brand to.
Charolais cattle in Burgundy, one of the two French beef breeds Junk says it uses for its smash burgers (Photo: Hans Andersen, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 / GFDL)
Limousin cattle grazing in Grassac, Charente: the second French breed behind Junk’s beef, according to the brand (Photo: JLPC, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Is Junk burger halal?
Junk’s official site does not say anything about halal status, and I found no named certifying body. In 2022 Sortir à Paris described the meat blend as halal. In 2025 the London guide HalalXplorer listed Junk as halal.
Those are third-party reports, not a certification. If halal status matters to you, ask the restaurant directly before ordering.
All 12 Junk restaurants in Paris (addresses)
Junk lists 12 Paris restaurants on its official locations page as of 8 October 2026. The first and best known is Junk Montmartre at 114 Rue Montmartre, 75002, near Bourse and Sentier metro stations (line 3). Despite the name, it is in the 2nd arrondissement, not the Montmartre neighborhood.
Rue Montmartre in Paris’s 2nd arrondissement, home of the first Junk smash burger counter at No. 114 (opened 2022), near Bourse and Sentier metro stations (photo from June 2021, before it opened) (Photo: Chabe01, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
| Restaurant | Address | Arrondissement |
|---|---|---|
| Montmartre (the original) | 114 Rue Montmartre, 75002 | 2e |
| Opéra | 9 Rue Danielle-Casanova, 75001 | 1er |
| Marais | 38 Rue de Saintonge, 75003 | 3e |
| Saint-Germain | 4 Rue de l’Ancienne-Comédie, 75006 | 6e |
| Sèvres | 121 Rue de Sèvres, 75006 | 6e |
| Berri | 40 Rue de Berri, 75008 | 8e |
| Saint-Georges | 24 Rue Saint-Lazare, 75009 | 9e |
| Saint-Maur | 120 Rue Saint-Maur, 75011 | 11e |
| Bercy Village | 23 Cour Saint-Émilion, 75012 | 12e |
| Beaugrenelle | 8 Rue Linois, 75015 | 15e |
| Pasteur | 72 Rue Falguière, 75015 | 15e |
| Legendre | 30 Rue Legendre, 75017 | 17e |
Map of the 12 Junk smash burger restaurants in Paris, from the 1st to the 17th arrondissement, with the original 114 Rue Montmartre (2nd) marked (addresses from junkburgers.com/locations, 8 October 2026) (Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL)
Sèvres, Bercy Village and Legendre are the newest. Le Bonbon announced all three for fall 2025 in July of that year, and all three are on the official page today. The same article says Junk sold more than one million burgers in France in 2024, without naming its source. Restaurant counts have moved fast: 14 in France in 2024, 15 in 2025, 20 on the official page today. I haven’t checked opening hours, so I don’t list them here. Each restaurant has its hours on junkburgers.com/locations.
Junk restaurants in France over time: line chart of press and official counts, 14 in 2024, 15 in 2025 and 20 on 8 October 2026 (12 of them in Paris), plus 3 in the UK and 1 in Dubai (Chart: Burger Breton, data from Junk official locations page (2026-10-08), Restaurant Online (2024) and Le Bonbon (2025))
Junk vs Dumbo, Spécimen and the best smash burgers in Paris
With 12 Paris restaurants and five patty counts, Junk is the easiest smash burger in this comparison to find and to tailor. Dumbo is the one Paris critics treat as the benchmark. My call: if you want a smash burger near you tonight, Junk is the practical answer. If you are planning one burger pilgrimage, the critics point to Dumbo.
| Spot | Where | Why it stands out | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junk | 12 Paris restaurants | S to XXL size ladder, Truffle burger, Veggie, French beef | Junk official site |
| Dumbo | 9e | Treated as a reference for the best smash burger in Paris | Le Fooding |
| Spécimen Burger | Saint-Germain | Ranked 6th best burger in the world by Time Out | Time Out Paris |
| Orgasmeat | 15e and 17e | One of the 2026 newcomers to the Paris smash scene | Sortir à Paris |
Reviews of Junk are mixed. Paris Eater is positive and says Junk offers more customization and a bigger menu than Dumbo. HalalXplorer, reviewing the London branch on 11 February 2025, found the burger and fries too salty. Both are opinions, and the second one is about London, not Paris.
Junk is one name among many in the city: our Paris burger hub gathers every Paris address we cover. To try the technique at home, our Shackburger copycat recipe walks through the smash in a cast-iron skillet: a 115 g ball of beef pressed flat at about 230°C (450°F).
Junk in London and Dubai: the same brand as in Paris
Junk in London and Dubai is the same brand that started in Paris. London was its first site outside France, on Brewer Street in Soho in 2024, and the official page now lists 3 UK restaurants. Junk Spitalfields opened on 28 May 2026, and standalone Junk and Puffy sites are planned for Covent Garden later in 2026 (The Caterer).
Brewer Street in Soho, London, where Junk opened its first restaurant outside France in 2024 (photo taken May 2026) (Photo: APK, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)
In Dubai, Junk announced its opening for 3 October 2025 at 25 Jump Street, The Offices 5, One Central, Dubai World Trade Centre (nogarlicnoonions). For the rest of the London burger scene, see our best burgers in London guide. For the bigger picture, read our history of the hamburger.
Junk Smash Burgers FAQ
Who founded Junk burger in Paris?
Junk was founded by Majed Mansour and Wissem Ben Ammar, two Tunisian-born entrepreneurs who came to Paris in 2004 and ran the Graine couscous bar before starting Junk in 2021.
Is Majed Mansour a chef? Who cooks at Junk?
No. Majed Mansour is a co-founder and the business lead. One source, nogarlicnoonions (2025), describes his partner Wissem Ben Ammar as a self-taught chef. The brand has not published an official split of roles.
Where is the first Junk restaurant in Paris, and how many are there today?
The first Junk counter opened in 2022 at 114 Rue Montmartre, 75002 Paris (metro Bourse or Sentier). As of 8 October 2026, the official site lists 12 Junk restaurants in Paris and 20 in France.
What do S, M, L, XL and XXL mean at Junk?
The size is the number of smashed patties: S has 1, M has 2, L has 3, XL has 4 and XXL has 5. All five come on a brioche bun with American cheese and Junk sauce.
How much does a Junk burger cost in Paris?
In November 2022, prices ran from €5.90 for an S to €16.90 for an XXL (Sortir à Paris). Current Paris prices are not on the official menu page, so check click-and-collect before you go.
Is Junk burger halal?
It is not confirmed. Sortir à Paris (2022) and HalalXplorer (London, 2025) describe it as halal, but the official site says nothing and no certifying body is named. Ask the restaurant.
What beef does Junk use?
French beef from Charolais and Limousin cattle, according to Junk’s official site.
What is the Junk Truffle burger?
A two-patty smash burger with cheese, house-fried onions and truffle sauce. It began as a limited edition and became permanent.
Does Junk have a vegetarian burger?
Yes. The Veggie burger uses a plant-based patty.
What was Graine, the founders’ couscous bar?
Graine, founded in 2013, was presented as the first couscous bar in France. In 2019 it had 3 Paris sites, 24 employees and €1,125,000 in revenue, according to L’Économiste Maghrébin. Its current status is unverified.
Is Junk in London and Dubai the same brand as in Paris?
Yes. It is the same Paris-born brand, with 3 UK restaurants (starting with Soho in 2024) and 1 in Dubai, at 25 Jump Street, where the opening was announced for 3 October 2025.
Sources and methodology
I build profiles from the brand’s official pages, dated press coverage and published reviews. Counts and addresses were checked on 8 October 2026. Where a fact rests on a single source, the text says so. Prices are dated and never carried over from one country to another. More guides are in our Restaurants section.
- Junk official site, menu and locations: junkburgers.com, menu, locations (checked 2026-10-08)
- Restaurant Online, founder interview (2024-10-04) and UK debut (2024-06-21)
- The Caterer, Junk group expansion across London (2026-05-27)
- Le Bonbon, new Junk addresses in Paris (2025-07-31)
- Sortir à Paris, Junk Burger rue Montmartre (2022-11-02) and Graine, the capital’s couscous bar
- L’Économiste Maghrébin, Graine on M6 (2020-02-17); Kapitalis
- nogarlicnoonions, Junk debuts in Dubai (2025-10-01)
- Paris Eater, best burgers in Paris; Le Fooding, Dumbo; Time Out Paris, Spécimen; Sortir à Paris, Orgasmeat
