How Honest built the UK’s best burger

From humble beginnings to growing a chain of more than 50 restaurants, Tom Barton this year saw his thriving business further boosted by winning the title of the UK’s best burger at the National Burger Awards.

Tom, alongside co-founder Phil Eeles and Dorian Waite, opened the first Honest Burgers restaurant back in 2011, in Brixton.

Now they have spread across London and beyond, with the brand priding itself on being a British burger restaurant, with the focus around in-house preparation and stripped-back menus.

Winning at The National Burger Awards

The National Burger Awards brings together restaurants, pubs and street food operators from across the country, with finalists cooking their signature burgers live for a panel of judges.

The 2026 final took place on March 24, at Big Penny Social in London, with 16 finalists competing for the title, with The Honest coming out on top.

“I was very pleasantly surprised,” Tom admitted.

“We’re a big chain restaurant now, there’s no getting away from that, so I had absolutely no expectation of winning when we entered it.”

He added: “I think this burger won because it’s still a really simple bacon cheeseburger at the end of it, but with a great burger, it’s all about balance.

“You want to taste every single ingredient. If you can’t taste it, there’s no point of it being there.

“This burger is, for me, perfectly balanced. You’ve got a really nice funkiness coming from the dry-aged beef and a really nice funkiness coming from the beef and onion relish, with some sweetness in there as well.

“We’ve got the two massive slabs of bacon, which gives you a real nice hit of saltiness, and then the sour pickles and the gooey American cheese.

“It’s just one of those burgers that, once you take your first bite, you’re just going to demolish it without talking to anyone, which is the sign of a great burger.

“We’re so proud of it. We’re so happy that we won the award and that it is now in every single Honest Burger, for a limited time only.”

How Honest Burgers started

Now boasting the UK’s best burger, how did Tom first get involved in flipping patties?

“Honest actually started in Brighton, technically,” he explained.

“Me and Phil both worked in this restaurant called Riddle & Finns in Brighton. We were both studying. I was failing a business degree and working in restaurants to pay for beer money through uni, and I loved the restaurant we worked in.

“They did quite a lot of outside catering events that we were sent on and we always thought we could do them better.

“Phil and I would always dream about opening our own outside catering business. We never thought we’d go into restaurants.

“We thought we could do burgers at festivals and we could have a little marquee.

“I didn’t have much going on in my life at the time. I was young, the arrogance of youth is the best because you just get on with something. You don’t have to panic about a mortgage or any crap like that.

“So we got on with it. We set everything up.

“We made our first Honest burger, which the award-winning burger is heavily inspired by. The OG burger hasn’t changed since I developed it in my student kitchen, about 17 years ago.

“Our goal, our measure of success, was if we can get to Glastonbury, we’ll have made it.

“Then we soon realised that people just didn’t care about eating great food at festivals back then. There wasn’t that kind of atmosphere. It was much more about speed and value.

“We learnt that the hard way and we struggled big time.

“The very few events we did that went well, we loved, and they gave us just about enough money to get through to the next event.

“We were working like 100 hours a week at this stage. It was hectic, but amazing.”

Opening a restaurant

From there eventually came a punt on a first bricks-and-mortar site, in Brixton.

“A guy I went to uni with put me in touch with Dorian,” Tom explained.

“He had a lot of restaurant experience and all he knew about us was we were two guys from Brighton called Honest doing burgers.

“We met him, we got on really well and he was like, ‘should we do this as a restaurant?’

“We were like, ‘yeah, that sounds awesome, what’s the next step?’

“So I moved to London, moved to my now wife’s just off Brixton Hill and fell in love with Brixton immediately.

“My wife’s best mate was like, ‘you need to get down to Brixton Village and have a look at it because it’s awesome.’

“So I literally did the next day and I remember it so clearly.

“We walked around this market and I had never seen anywhere like it in my life. It was so colourful and vibrant, and there was so much passion and pride down here.”

{contribute-overlay}

Tom was sold on the idea, and soon got Dorian and Phil on board too.

“They thought I was nuts,” Tom said.

“Then as soon as they came down, they saw it and they were like, ‘let’s do it.’

“Then it just rolled on from there.

“We took a unit and had £7,500 in the bank to get the doors open.

“We begged and borrowed and got a lot of favours.”

With help from friends and family, signage and furniture was sorted and the restaurant was open.

Tom said: “We just couldn’t have asked for a better start to any business.

“Any food critic you can imagine came down here and we were always like, ‘why are they here?’

“This whole market was just electric at that time.

“I remember prepping chips in here one morning on my own, half asleep, and I looked up and Will Smith just walked past. It was just crazy.

“You always had film crews down here.

“We were really lucky to be right at the forefront of that.

“We strongly believe we’re a British burger brand, and we’re one of the only ones that really focuses on that.”

What makes The Honest extra special

While the OG Honest burger, designed 17 years ago, is a thick, medium-rare burger, the 2026 award winner follows the same flavour profiles, just with two smashed patties.

And, as Tom explained, it also has a special added element which has elevated its flavour even more.

“This is a beef and onion relish, which I’m insanely proud of,” he said.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever Googled a recipe and not been able to find anyone else doing it. So I was like, yes, this is truly authentic.

“We take a load of dry-aged beef fat. You get this really insanely beefy flavour. We render it down on a low heat, chuck in a load of onions and basically make a kind of relish or jam out of it.

“A little bit of red wine vinegar, a little bit of sugar, a couple of secret ingredients, and you get this sticky, sweet, beefy jam that just complements the rest of the build really nicely.”

He added: “That’s definitely my proudest condiment moment because it’s just sweet and salty and beefy. I’d never tasted anything like it, so I’m really, really happy with it.

“As soon as we got that, it all came together really quickly. In a couple of weeks, we thought we’d nailed it.

“We launched The Honest in our Smash + Grab site in Liverpool Street, and they specialise in smash burgers there.

“We thought it would be a good chance to get it in.

“It’s absolutely killing it there. It’s 25% of our sales, which, for people who don’t work in restaurants, is a lot for one product.

“People are really, really liking it.

“With these things, people tell you what they think with their wallets, and they keep coming back and keep buying more, which is super important for us.

“I knew it was a great burger and I was really happy with it, but the National Burger Award just gave us a nice pat on the back for it.

“At times like this in hospitality, you kind of take those moments and enjoy them.”

The Honest, along with homemade chips, is now available for £15 at Honest restaurants.