Best Burgers in Lille: Vieux-Lille to Wazemmes

The best burgers in Lille are found in Vieux-Lille, the old town of brick and carved stone north of the Grand-Place, around Rue Solférino and Rue Masséna where students go out, in Wazemmes around its market, and near the Lille-Flandres and Lille-Europe stations. Look for burgers topped with Maroilles, the pungent washed-rind cheese of the region.

Lille sits on the Belgian border, and its food is as Flemish as it is French: carbonade flamande, potjevleesch, beer from local breweries and the welsh, a hot dish of cheddar melted with beer over bread and ham. Fries are a point of local pride. The friterie, a fry stand or shop, is an institution in the Nord, so a burger here is judged on its fries as much as on its patty. Maroilles, protected by a designation of origin, gives local burgers a powerful, very northern flavour.

Burgers in Lille: key facts

• Neighbourhoods to explore: Vieux-Lille, Grand-Place, Solférino and Masséna, Wazemmes, Gambetta and Euralille.
• Local cheese: Maroilles, a protected cheese from the Thiérache area of the Nord and Aisne.
• Local dish: the welsh, cheddar melted with beer over bread and ham.
• Market: Wazemmes, busiest on Sunday mornings.
• Getting around: the VAL metro, the world’s first fully automatic metro in regular commercial service when it opened in 1983.
• Currency: euros (EUR); Brussels and Paris are both a short high-speed train ride away.

Every guide we publish on Lille is dated and lists only venues, addresses, prices and ratings we could verify. Cross the border with our burger restaurant guides for other cities.