Canada’s best burger is at a whole-animal butchery in Ontario, according to this new international ranking

"We've always approached our burgers the same way we approach every dish at Fat Rabbit: focus on quality ingredients, creativity, and consistency," says executive chef and co-owner Zach Smith. Photo by Pat Ozols

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Fat Rabbit in St. Catharines, Ont., is home to Canada’s best burger, according to the inaugural list of the World’s 101 Best Burger Places. The whole-animal butcher shop and restaurant ranked No. 38 overall and was the only Canadian restaurant to make the list.

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“It’s a huge honour. We opened Fat Rabbit with the goal of creating the kind of restaurant we wanted to eat at ourselves — one that takes hospitality seriously but doesn’t take itself too seriously,” executive chef and co-owner Zach Smith said in an email to National Post.

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“To be recognized on a global list, and to be the only Canadian restaurant included, is incredibly meaningful for our team. We’re a small independent restaurant in St. Catharines, and this recognition reflects the hard work of our staff and the support we’ve received from our community since day one.”

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London, U.K., dominated the top 10 with three spots, including the world’s best burger place, Bleecker Burger. Sydney and New York took two spots each, and Hong Kong, Copenhagen and Los Angeles each had one. See the full top 10 list below.

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The ranking was released by Upper Cut Media House, the London-based publishing company behind the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants. For the World’s 101 Best Burger Places, they applied “the same level of seriousness to a category that deserves far more respect than it often receives,” according to publisher and co-CEO Ekkehard Knobelspies.

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“A truly great burger is not fast food. It is the result of product knowledge, sourcing, technique, balance, consistency and hospitality. The best burgers in the world are created by people who understand meat, bread, fire, seasoning, texture and service. This ranking is our way of recognizing those places that go beyond the ordinary and set a new global standard.”

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Fat Rabbit has been racking up accolades since it opened in November 2023. Led by Smith, who has more than 20 years of experience in professional kitchens and is also the executive chef and co-owner of Fat Rabbit’s younger “French-ish” sibling, Les Incompetents, and Bar Raval in Toronto, the Michelin-recommended restaurant placed No. 48 on this year’s Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list and No. 91 on the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants list.

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In May, Fat Rabbit expanded into a larger, redesigned dining room and launched a new family-style menu series, including ”whole roasted cuts, aged beef and the house charcuterie program, each menu pulling from whatever is butchered and at its best that week,” the restaurant said in a statement in April.

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Fat Rabbit is known for its zero-waste butchery and charcuterie program, run by head butcher Justin Upper. They source whole animals from regenerative farms in the region, butcher them in-house and use every part.

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“We’ve always approached our burgers the same way we approach every dish at Fat Rabbit: focus on quality ingredients, creativity and consistency,” Smith told National Post.