I found a great Hamburger in Switzerland!

Every top steak in the US has spices on it. Salt and pepper at least if nothing else.

Every - does that include, one I prepare myself, I still have not found a 'top steak' which beats mine prepared simply, salt is okay - and I have eaten at alot of steak restaurants in the US. it is all about finding the right piece of meat. I would also allow garlic and pepper to be used. but once you get to bread crumbs or that onion crap they use in Switzerland in hamburgers, the battle is lost, imo.

it includes the top steak houses. maybe you should open a restaurant.

check this out: http://www.lgsprimesteakhouse.com/locations.html

one of the best i've had.

I will check it out if/when I get out that way. In principle, I believe Steak and Hamburgers is one of the things which can be superior to restuarants if made at home, especially on a outdoor grill. I frequent restaurants for things which are hard to make at home (of course, I am open to giving a restaurant an opporunity to change my mind).

I make my burgers myself. Only problem is, they are difficult to eat, as they tend to become 20-25 cm. high, but YUMMY.

Best Burgers are made at home, no doubt. The key is not too cook them too dry. They should be juicy.

Whether the meat should be seasoned and spiced or not, is simply up to your taste. I would certainly not be happy with just a grilled piece of mince without any flavouring, but I would also not be happy if the patty in my burger tasted like a spiced Seekh Kebab. (Which I adore, but not when I want a traditional burger).

Make the patties with salt and pepper, a touch of garlic and chopped fresh herbs. The patty needs to be at least 1/2 inch thick, I prefer 3/4 inch.

Serve with a variety of sauces including a hot sauce. Encona or even Tabasco goes well with this. On the web you can find versions of recipes from all the burger joints. Whether you like a Mayo based sauce, or a Ketchup or Mustard based sauce is up to you. I actually prefer a mix of all 3 with sliced tomatoes, raw onions, gherkin and slice of lettuce. I do not like my bun toasted. Big, juicy, full of flavour, sauce dribbling down your hands ... nice

The question is who eats a Burger with cutlery ???

Oooh, now I must beg to differ, at least on the burger point, as I think the best place in Lausanne has to be the "Holy Cow!" on the Rue Marterey, behind the Bleu Lézard. Their burgers are made from ethically produced, locally-sourced ingredients, but most of all they taste great: http://holycow.ch/

(they don't do fries, but you do get some thick-cut potato crisps in the box with your burger)

The burgers, chicken nuggets etc at the Great Escape are very good, but I think the Holy Cow just beats them on the burger.

There's a great burger place in Lausanne called "Holy Cow." The ingredients are all local and organic. It's a tiny place but it's worth a stop.

The burgers at the white horse down by Ouchy aren't bad as well

The best burgers to be found were in Geneva at the Roadrunner's

The restaurant started in the early seventies (though it changed management about 20 years ago) and is an icon of expats of that long gone era. It was around way before anybody here had ever heard of MacDo.

I can remember pestering my mom to go there, it was just soooo nice.

Don't know how it is now, and whether they continued the tradition, but it's worth a go.

Mariott in Zurich has decent burgers.

The place not to have a burger in Basel is Sam's Diner in Clarastrasse. I had a double cheeseburger there yesterday and it was absolutely awful. The buns tasted like that long life crap they sell in Migros and the burgers were soft and mushy for CHF 22, I would have expected a lot more.

What is the name of the place? I'm camping out in Glattbrug until my new flat is ready next week to move in and would not mind to check out this place since it is close to me

Shannon's probably talking about this place:

http://www.badi-info.ch/Unterer_letten.html

It's got a self service restaurant and the Burgers are great.

I also like the Burgers at the Lion pub on Uraniastrasse just off Bahnhofstrasse.

Reading over the comments .... I think many of you have been here too long.

You have forgotten what a real, quality US hamburger meat tastes like.

The meat originating in Europe is just not the same.

Perhaps the US meat is filled with hormones, preservatives, all kinds of heart attack producing ingredients but there is something about US meat that Europe just can't match.

I have eaten at many of the places described above, such as ZICZAC, Stars and Stripes, etc and their food is good .... but their hamburger meat is the European mushy stuff that is just missing the special quality.

There are a few places the specifically say on their menu that their meat or steaks are flown in from the US, such as Kings Cave on Central Tram Stop Zurich. These steaks are usually have the same "something special", if they know how to cook it.

- Marie

you are right Marie...it is the meat here and the fact that in a lot of cases they add pork to beef as well. To get a great burger one will have to book a trans-Atlantic flight.

I must say that I had the best burger I have ever ever had in New York last week.

I have convinced myself to lay off the burgers now as I will never be able to replicate that experience.

You may want to sit down for this one.

I just found the best burger in Switzerland..... in Olten! Yes, Olten. I had always thought that town was just a hole in the ground covered in a permanent traffic jam until I found the Rathkeller in the old center. Man, what a great place. It's stinking with character: long communal tables, weird extensive collection of antique firearms on the wall, packed with locals... The waitress has been there forever and is the closest Swiss equivalent I can imagine to the stereotypical American gum-chewin' "what'll it be, hon?" waitress.

The burgers are made from real meat and are served with real veggie fixin's and toasted buns. As it's a local place it's not American-themed, so they are not aiming to please the Amis (fine by me!). As well as knowing what you want without a menu (hamburger, cheeseburger, fries), you kind of have to scream your order out over the noise of the conversation happening at the other end of the table. Great! Finally a restaurant with some atmosphere!

The pleasure of your meal will set you back SEVEN (7) francs for a hamburger (fries are ordered separately).

Oh, I can't forget to mention the beer on tap. It's Leffe. Leffe on tap! with a hamburger!

The burgers at the White Horse Pub are disgusting, frozen patties.

The best burgers in Lausanne are at Charlie's Place. But the best thing about Charlie's Place is not even their awesome burgers. It is the fact that they have fabulous dinner-sized salads and don't blink an eye when that is all that you order for dinner. Love that restaurant.

Though off topic, I have to ask you where in NYC? I am still searching for the best burger in NYC, but being from cow country, USA not CH, my search has been long and difficult.

It took me awhile to figure out that pork is in the hamburger meat and thus why one can only get a well done burger in Switzerland. I love my hamburgers pinkish which is just not possible in any place I had one in CH.