5 must-try burgers at Zagreb Burger Festival

by croatiaweek
September 13, 2022
in Food & Wine

7th edition of the fantastic Zagreb Burger Festival – the place for more than 40 irresistible meat delicacies - in Dr. Franjo Tuđman Square

Zagreb Burger Festival is open until 18 September (Photo credit: Sandro Sklepić)

The popular Zagreb Burger Festival, now in its 7th edition, opened last week and we headed out to Dr Franjo Tuđman Square to check it out.

This year there are 13 little houses offering over 40 different types of burgers, as well 6 other houses offering various types of fries, interesting desserts and drinks.

(Photo credit: Sandro Sklepić)

We tasted a burger from each of the houses and here are the top five you definitely should try.

Guloso

All the way from Dubrovnik, Guloso were the winners of the best burger at last year’s festival. This year they did not disappoint again with their hit Negromant burger.

Guloso – Negromant burger (Photo credit: Sandro Sklepić)

Whilst the meat is of great quality, and quantity by not being overwhelming, complemented by a subtle slice of brie cheese, the star of the burger is definitely the interesting sauce – a combination of mayonnaise, reduced Crvik Merlot Negromant wine and butter aromatised with orange peel.

Zagreb Burger Festival begins in the Croatian capital

Negromant burger

El Toro

Another burger which impresses with its originality is El Toro’s Peruvian style burger. This tall, juicy burger has black Angus meat, guacamole, and tasty sauce with aji amarillo, mayonnaise and paprika.

El Toro – Mario Mihelj (Photo credit: Sandro Sklepić)

The plantain bananas and grilled corn add a fantastic crunch, whilst coriander, lime and iceberg salad give the burger a great freshness to balance the sauces.

El Toro’s Peruvian

Picnic

Less experimental than the previous two, the crew from Zadar have nailed the more classic-style burger with their Blackie burger.

Picnic (Photo credit: Sandro Sklepić)

The Blackie uses 100% beef for its patty, topped with cheddar cheese, a homemade mustard-honey sauce, caramelized onions and pancetta chips. The brioche bun is made from potato dough and hugs the burger perfectly. This is a burger which is juicy and packed full of taste.

Blackie burger

Toster

Originally from Split, Toni now resides in Novi Sad and he brought his famous burger concept to Zagreb for the festival.

Toster (Photo credit: Sandro Sklepić)

We tried his Smokey burger, and as the name suggests, it is packed full of that ‘smokey’ taste courtesy of generous topping of bacon over the meat, which is also of great quality and was perfectly cooked.

The burger also has the classic toppings, such as pickles, tomatoes and mayonnaise, but the quality of the meat, bacon and bun is what makes this stand out.

Toster’s Smokey burger

The Meat

The Meat is already well known in Zagreb via its excellent butcher shop in Vlaška street.

The Meat – Nenad Komes (Photo credit: Sandro Sklepić)

This is burger is worth trying for the meat patty alone as chef Nenad Komes uses beef which has been dry-aged for 60 days. He tops it with pickles, bacon, sauce and a tasty coleslaw. The also offer sliders – three different varieties which can be shared.

The Meat

Apart from these five, there are a number of other interesting burgers at the festival this year, including Beg’s Plant Based Double Decker, a completely plant-based burger, BBQ Hot Yard’s KIMchi KARDasian which has kimchi in it, Plavica’s lamb burger from the island of Cres with skuta cheese, smash burgers from 4Burgers and Flying Pig’s Barbie Q burger.