Photo via Robyn Lee/Serious Eats



Veggie burgers have never been an especially glamorous food. People tend to see them as sort of bland and utilitarian, and truthfully, so do most restaurants. For whatever reason, a lot of otherwise excellent restaurants really seem to fall down on the job when it comes to the non-meat burgers, making it surprisingly hard to gage whether your order will show up as a decent meal that seems like some vegetables actually went into it, or a sad, overcooked patty they grabbed from the back of the freezer just to humor you.

And, with the announcement this week that Root Hill Burger—dubbed by our own Kara Zuaro as a “veggie burger paradise“—would be closing its doors for good, we got to thinking about the places that are still taking the time to make vegetarian burgers that are not just an acceptable alternative, but something truly special that you’d go out of your way to eat. Besides, it’s too hot out right now to even think about eating real meat.