At Hopdoddy, you will find 12 burgers that showcase extreme topping creations.  On my visit I honed in on three burgers that struck me as compelling on their own and fine to compare and contrast. Like shopping for a car, budget will drive your journey. So here are three great Hopdoddy burgers, in ascending order of Bang for your Burger Buck, that are indeed worthy of your hard earned buck. And I freaking enjoyed eating every one of ’em too.

The Vitals:
the burger:“Primetime” Texas Akaushi beef, Brie cheese, arugula, caramelized onions, truffle aioli, steak sauce, beefsteak tomato on a house made bun
the bucks: $12.00

The most expensive burger ever to grace Bang for your Burger Buck is not surprisingly, laced with Wagyu beef. For the uninitiated, Wagyu beef(commonly referred to as Kobe), is a breed of cattle from Japan whose high cost reflects marbling of the highest order, making USDA Prime beef look like a triple-A baseball team.

In this case, Akaushi refers to a particular breed of Japanese Wagyu that was brought to the US through a trade loophole in 1992 which means only one ranch has the stuff, which means it’s gonna cost ya. I’ll just get to the point here: the star of the show, Akaushi beef, wasn’t the main draw. Rather it was the over the top decadent toppings like truffle aioli, caramelized onion and brie cheese.

The Vitals:
the burger:“Llano Poblano” Hormone/antibiotic free Angus beef, apple smoked bacon, pepper jack cheese, seared poblano peppers, chipotle mayonnaise, red leaf lettuce, white onion, beefsteak tomato on a house made bun
the bucks: $8.50

I have a penchant for heat. If you do as well, you might be inclined to try the El Diablo, a burger that features two kinds of peppers(serrano and habanero), Pepper Jack cheese, salsa and chipotle mayo. Further, I added some avocado on the advice of a Hopdoddy staffer. I was gunning for a tingling palate but the Llano Poblano just didn’t get me there. Like a sleepless Travis Bickle driving all night, I was determined to find a burger with some kick at Hopdoddy.

What I eventually landed on was a blueprint of how a successful bacon cheeseburger works.

Consider then the Llano Poblano: a bacon cheeseburger with a roasted pepper(poblano), pepper laced cheese(Pepper Jack) and some chipotle mayo thrown in for good measure. More or less Hopdoddy’s answer to the hatch burger. What blow me away here was the heat and smoke from the chipotle mayo, and the perfect, and I mean perfectly crisped apple smoked bacon. Those two immensely strong flavors layered on top of this excellent burger and bun make a near perfect bacon cheeseburger experience.

The Llano Poblano is also the most popular burger at Hopdoddy and both on paper and in hand it is easy to see why: bold flavors and decadence for $8.50. Certainly a fine burger deal. Almost the most Bang for your Burger Buck. But the tastiest? No. That honor goes to this one.

The Vitals:
the burger:“The Classic Burger” Hormone/antibiotic free Angus beef, red leaf lettuce, white onion, beefsteak tomato, sassy house on a house made bun
the bucks: $7

Look, sometimes I wonder if I sound like a broken record, always giving props to the cheapest burger at an awesome burger place. But damn it all, this is the burger that had me dancing like I was back in my jam band days of the 90s. The Classic Burger is the blueprint of beef to bun to topping perfection that launched Hopdoddy to burger stardom.

Hopdoddy Burger Bar
Locations in Arizona, California, Colorado and Texas