A Food Expert’s Favorite Places to Get Bar Burgers and Martinis in LA

Like a lot of middle-aged parents, I don’t go out much anymore because I mostly cook at home. We’re usually eating early with the kids and putting them to bed before trying to stay awake until 10:30 or 11 p.m. to watch a movie. But when I do go out — if I manage to sink back into the Hollywood nightlife — I want a vestige of the past, of the city promised to me in old LA film noir. I want to sidle up to a dark Hollywood bar, drink bracingly cold gin in a fancy glass, and then order a cheeseburger along with a second martini, chatting with the bartender just enough to seem friendly.

Los Angeles is a city teeming with burger joints. This very website will tell you where to find the best burgers in LA and even the hottest new burgers in LA, if you need to make the distinction. LA has smash burgers, diner burgers, takeout counter burgers, Thai burgers, ketchup-banned burgers, chili burgers, and hickory burgers. But in every major American city, there should always be a place to drop $100 on a burger and two cocktails for no good reason. Sometimes, you go out to eat a burger and happen upon a good drink in the process. Other times, you go out to have a drink and maybe eat something good, too. This story is about either of these situations, but primarily the latter.

Why You Should Trust Me

I’m a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and food writer, a former chef, and a mild degenerate. I have written angrily about martinis for Eater’s sister website Punch. Reasonable people can disagree, but it will tell me all I need to know about them.

This is Eater, however, so the burger itself is the most important factor in how I made my judgments on the best burger-martini duos in town. But since a bar burger needs to be eaten at a bar, the martini at least counts for something — and burgers and martinis are both things vastly improved by the setting of the place. Or, to put it simply, vibes matter.

For those asking, “Did you try the Benjamin?” Yes, I did.

The Best Overall Bar Burger and Martini: Horses

Horses has been in the news before — but those involved in the drama seem to be long gone and customers are still pouring into the Sunset Boulevard restaurant in Hollywood. Housed in a historic old building (it was the Pikey before it became Horses, and Coach & Horses for 73 years before that), it pulls off the nimble trick of feeling both old and new. If it is especially crowded, there is a back bar where one can steal a seat.

The Horses burger comes from real technique but keeps it mostly hidden — the dish is advertised on the menu simply as “Cheeseburger and Fries.” The eight-ounce patty of 80/20 beef is made from short rib, chuck, and brisket, placed on a soft salt-and-pepper brioche bun with melted Tillamook cheddar, both raw and griddled onion, and Worcestershire butter. Like the restaurant, it is both classic and new, unfussy and cared for. The fries get the job done, offering a rustic, handmade feel. I order my burger rare, getting a good crust and a crumbly, juicy interior. It’s precisely what you want after the first martini and during the second one. Unlike most of the old bars across Los Angeles, they know to stir the martini rather than shake it, keeping it appropriately cold and strong.

The decor is accented with red booths and a high ceiling. There are multiple rooms. Horses is a place that exudes that feeling of “lucky to be there, but not impossible to get in.” In many ways, it is exactly what you want from a neighborhood bar and restaurant. It may not be classic old Hollywood, but it feels like the right kind of new Hollywood, tucked away from more tourist-laden stretches.

Burger and Fries: $30

Beef Martini: $20

Where I Most Want to Be for a Burger and Martini: Tower Bar

Tower Bar at the Sunset Tower Hotel is my favorite martini vibe in all of Los Angeles. It’s real Hollywood, meaning if you see a guy wearing a T-shirt and ripped jeans eating with a guy in an expensive suit, the expensive suit guy works for the guy in the ripped jeans. They usually shake the martini here rather than stir it (which bruises and dilutes it), and sometimes it’s quite literally impossible to secure a seat at the bar. But none of that matters once you do find a warm bit of barstool. Also if you’re drinking, they give you free potato chips and peanuts. The place feels exclusive, and I guess in a way it is when a burger and fries costs $45.

But the Tower Bar also makes a good burger if you’re sober, and a very good one if gin-spiked blood has already made it to your head, even in its spare simplicity: A soft, toasted hamburger bun supports a nicely charred, wide burger patty that rests on some arugula and is topped with a choice of cheddar, American, or Gruyere cheese. Would I prefer a slice of onion on there? I would, and I bet it’s the kind of place that would do it for me if I ever remember to ask. These are the best fries of the bunch — thin, crispy, and fluffy, served in a vertical cone next to ramekins of Dijon mustard, ketchup, and mayo. It can get loud from live music and it’s always very dark, making it an ideal place to be alone or with one other person.

Burger and Fries: $45

Beef Martini: $26

The Bar Burger and Martini Best Bargain: Taylor’s Steakhouse

Opened in 1953 as Taylor’s Tavern but relocated into a larger space in 1973, Taylor’s Steakhouse in Koreatown is more “old Hollywood” than the vast majority of Hollywood itself. Koreatown, with its bevy of old Art Deco buildings, has long had a symbiotic relationship with Hollywood (for example, the now-closed Ambassador Hotel, just four blocks away from Taylor’s, hosted the Academy Awards four times in the 1930s).

Taylor’s is an old lion of the LA restaurant scene and a time capsule of a place that serves ice-cold martinis. The gin tumbles from open bottles without a speed pourer in sight. The two-story restaurant with dark red booths, brick walls, and a dark mahogany-lined bar is beloved in this town as the great “affordable” steakhouse, functioning almost as a public service at this point. I have had more than my fair share of late nights with old friends, throwing back martinis chased with crusty bread and hard butter before settling into a Kansas City sirloin. Is the meat quality, or cooking technique top-notch? No. But the price — and the vibes — are perfect.

So if you are craving a pair of martinis and a hamburger with little more in your pocket than three wadded-up Andrew Jacksons, Taylor’s Steakhouse is your oasis in the desert. Here you can cram into a tightly packed bar peppered with regulars — where everyone actually does know their name. Then you make space for the massive burger, made from steak trimmings, which comes with a choice of bacon or mushroom topping, as well as aged cheddar cheese and the tallest stack of pickles, onions, iceberg, and tomato you’ll find on any burger anywhere in town. It arrives with a comically large gravy boat filled to the brim with Taylor’s “special sauce,” likely a ketchup, mayo, mustard, and relish. The burger tastes of early Americana, and is about as inoffensive as one could expect. It certainly gets the job done if you dress it to your taste. The fries are probably the worst side on the menu, and it’s worth talking your bartender into letting you have something else with it instead, like a baked potato or some creamed spinach.

Taylor’s may not have the best steaks, the best martinis, or the best burger in Los Angeles, but on certain nights in your life, it is still very much the best place to be.

Burger and Fries: $17.95

Beef Martini: $14