Sometimes you just have to put on your burger-eating shirt (you know, the one that’s ruined from eating too many burgers) and make the rounds.
The last time I did so was in the spring of 2024, when the smash burger craze had well and truly hit Ottawa. I tried four purveyors and proclaimed a winner — the Smash Daddy food truck on Preston Street, which has since gone forth and multiplied to have four other locations in Ottawa, from Bells Corners to Barrhaven to downtown.
In early March 2026, when Smash Daddy on Preston Street celebrated its second year in business, close to 100 people lined up to get two-dollar burgers.
Since then, smash burgers, which call for one or more patties to be flattened and deeply seared to deliver lots of crispy goodness, have only grown more popular. Even A & W is getting into the act. It recently became the first Canadian fast-food chain to serve smash burgers.
Over the last weeks, I found the courage — the intestinal fortitude, literally — to order and eat smash burgers on a regular basis. I tried as many smash-burger spots that were new to me as I could. Ideally, I would have paid multiple visits to each joint, since consistency is key when you’re turning out burgers day after day. But in deference to my health, I went just once to each of the six places below, which range from an east-end Ottawa burger eatery to food trucks in Ashton and Almonte.
My criteria for a great smash burger include patty texture, patty juiciness, patty taste, toppings and bun, basically in that order. None of the burgers mentioned below were rejects. But for me, a perfect burger offers two seemingly paradoxical pleasures — lots of seared, even audibly crisp edges and the kind of beefy juiciness that makes you fear for the safety of your clothes. I have a new winner, plus some other recommendable places that you can try, as long as you haven’t run out of stain remover at home.
Heron Smash Burgers
1160 Heron Rd., 613-240-2488, instagram.com/heronsmashburgers
Open: Monday, Tuesday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday, Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Prices: Smash burgers $10 to $16
Access: No steps to front door
The first time I ate at Heron Smash Burgers, I almost laughed out loud at the sight of my Oklahoma smash burger ($15). Extricated from its blue-and-white chequered wrapper, this smash burger’s two glistening patties were the largest and most flattened that I’ve ever encountered, extending far beyond the confines of its bun more than any smash burger I’ve previously had.
“We want them to be obnoxious,” says Michael Chesterman, one of Heron Smash Burgers’ owner-operators.
This imposing burger was more than a culinary stunt. The perimeters of the patties were feats of crispness, but the burger was still surprisingly juicy. Exaggeratedly smashed patties aside, the burger was properly constructed as per the guidelines of an Oklahoma smash burger, which a century ago were originally dubbed Oklahoma fried onion burgers. My burger’s onions, cheese and signature sauce were perfectly supportive of their beefy star.
