A Hamburger Today- aht.seriouseats.com

I was pretty surprised at their ranking of Shake Shack. I believe they said something along the lines of, "If you want atmosphere, go to Central Park. If you want a good burger, don't go to Shake Shack." Harsh...

With all the talk about burgers in this city too bad they're mostly not very good.

From the audio slideshow, I'm not certain they clearly articulated their rationale for liking or disliking any of the burgers. Just saying "It's great!" is not helpful. Whatever happened to "show, don't tell"?

I have to agree with AHT that the bacon thing is just wrong. That doesn't mean that people who like bacon on burgers are wrong--everyone has different tastes. And, I understand their rationale for having all burgers the same all the time to control variables, but they have clearly introduced two non-controllable variables into the mix. The bacon is going to be different at every venue, as is the cheese. If you want to do a survey like they are doing, I would suggest that you keep the variables to a minimum. Plain burger, the buns are the variable. Medium rare, the cook is the variable. One or two condiments, and they are variables, so you could do a double tasting (no one would complain, I am sure!) where you had a plain burger on the bun offered, and then one "your way" so you would be forced to give two results--one on the burger-bun-cooking accuracy of the basic item and then one on the specific way YOU like it dressed. Readers would tend to follow reviewers on the second burger as to how their own tastes went. For example, on this site I pay more attention to reviews where the burger has my personal favorite items on them--yellow mustard, raw onion, and lettuce. I use ketchup on fries if I need to, but not on burgers. That doesn't mean I don't evaluate every review, it only means that I prefer to read reviews that mimic my personal tastes.

The guys from the BOTM should, in my opinion, go with the double tasting for reviews that have fewer variables, especially since we all know, as does AHT, that bacon is a HUGE variable in the equation. Anyway, just my 2 patties worth. I do agree that it is a club that needs to grow and prosper, however. And people on here who live in NYC--which I guess is most of you--can copy them, too!

And when you find yourselves in South Florida, come on by and we shall go Le Tub -ing or to Jack's or even this Chinese place I know that has really great burgers...no lie!

I think @Kenji hit the nail on the head: it seems like these guys aren't after a burger experience, just a high-quality steak-like piece of meat that happens to be on a bun. To me, to say that they could go without the bun almost implies some weird embarrassment of picking up the burger and eating it--like it's déclassé to eat a sandwich, and food really should be eaten with a knife and fork. I dunno--maybe I'm just reading into it too much.

With Shake Shack at 30th, Luger's at #1, Corner Bistro at 21st, and Primehouse - which serves a great burger, don't get me wrong - at #4, you start to understand that these guys don't know what they're talking about. Great idea, poor execution from guys who don't really think outside the "pub or steakhouse" mentality.

The stupidity of the "vegetables are for liberals" comment pretty much confirms my point. It's effing hysterical coming from Cartman, but not some fat, corporate moron from the financial district.

Slightly more appalled by Spotted Pig ranking at 41. Maybe they don't like the roqueforte, or maybe its an anti Pat La Frieda bias...

Well, the great thing about the burger world (that I sometimes forget but try hard to remember) is that there's room for all opinions, and, not to get all woo here, it's the place where these opinions meet and mingle that makes the burgerweb—AHT, burgerrankings.com, Burger Conquest, etc.—a great place to visit during the day. I've been in touch with the folks behind burgerrankings, and they seem like good guys. We're going to break bread (and patties) together at some point, so no big thing. Should make for some lively and spirited debate.

It's not "CLEAR" because they don't call it a bacon cheeseburger of the month club, they call it a hamburger of the month club.

They aren't reviewing burgers, they are reviewing bacon cheeseburgers, and an occasional chopped steak.

there's only one BurgerClub in my mind ;) www.burgerclub.org

Dude, WTF, Guttergourmet! I just got carpal tunnel in my scroll-wheel finger looking at that page. Thanks a lot, man.

What bugs me here is that there are all types of burgers lumped into one list. Personally I like to break them up into fast food, pub/restaurant, and specialty. I love shake shack but I wouldn't put it into the same list as Royale (my #1 pup/restaurant burger). It's just such a different experience (Shake Shack is my #1 fast food burger, white castle #2). The rule is simple, if you can't order it medium rare, it's fast food. And on the same note, if it's got ingredients that are atypical to a burger like guac, peanut butter or redwine sauce, it's gotta go on a different list too. (Piano's Red Wine burger #1 on my specialty burger list)
And as far as judging burgers with bacon and cheese, as long as these guys are always getting it exactly how they'd like it, then why not. I personally would never order a plain burger and judge like that because i need the cheese. In the same way, I'd never be able to judge a burger covered in ketchup because I don't like ketchup on my burger. So as long as you order it just the way you like it, the same way every time, then I'd consider it valid judging.