Best Burgers in Salt Lake City: Pastrami Burger

The best burgers in Salt Lake City come in a style you rarely see elsewhere: the pastrami burger, a cheeseburger piled with shaved hot pastrami and usually dressed with a Thousand Island-style sauce, lettuce, tomato and onion. Look for it at the city’s old-school burger stands, then try the newer burger kitchens downtown, in Sugar House, around 9th and 9th and in Central Ninth.

Crown Burgers, a Salt Lake City chain founded in 1978, is widely credited with popularizing the pastrami burger, and its downtown and Sugar House-area restaurants still serve it. The other Utah habit is fry sauce, a pink blend of ketchup and mayonnaise served with fries and often spread on the burger itself. Here it is as standard as ketchup.

Burgers in Salt Lake City: key facts

• Local style: the pastrami burger, a cheeseburger topped with hot pastrami.
• House condiment: fry sauce, ketchup and mayonnaise mixed into a pink dip.
• Neighborhoods to explore: downtown, Sugar House, 9th and 9th, Central Ninth, the Granary District and the Marmalade District.
• Getting around: TRAX light rail serves downtown and runs south through the valley; the S-Line streetcar reaches Sugar House.
• Currency: US dollar (USD), tax added on top of menu prices.
• What our guides check: the pastrami (sliced in-house or bought in), the beef and a dated price for each burger listed.

Every guide we publish on Salt Lake City is dated and lists only venues, addresses, prices and ratings we could verify. For other cities, browse all our burger restaurant guides.