For me, the best burger is is a basic burger. If the quality is good, all I need is meat,a bun, lettuce-tomato-pickles, some deli mustard and maybe a touch of mayo. (I save the ketchup for the fries)
I like a thick, lumpy grind typical of Angus beef. Cheese, lettuce, steak sauce and a smallish bun (Thomas’s English Muffins are good).
My current favorite is a third pound pan grilled angus burger seasoned with salt, cracked black pepper and garlic and two slices of pepper jack cheese. This goes on toasted multi grain flat bread with a leaf of romaine, a schmear of srichaise and a teaspoon or so of sweet pickle relish. It’s amazing some of the stuff you come up with after a night of drinking. 
When I go out for a burger, it’s a half pound Mo burger (Fat Mo’s, a local chain) with lettuce, pickle, mayo , tomato and cheese.
Hudson’s in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho is my favorite. Perfectly dpne. No frills: pickles, onions and cheese. But always delicious.
http://www.roadfood.com/Restaurant/Reviews/173/hudsons-hamburgers
:smack: Rats! I forgot a nice slice of onion!
At home, it’s 20% fat ground beef. Form it into a loosely packed ball about the size of a baseball. Put it between two sheets of wax paper and smack it smartly with a heavy skillet; maybe twice to get it to about 1/4-3/8 inch thick. Salt it. Flash fry it in a hot skillet in a bit of vegetable oil, maybe two minutes on a side. Shovel it onto a lightly toasted roll or bun, grind some pepper on top, add whatever condiments strike my fancy: usually mayo, ketchup and mustard. I like pickles and onion on mine also. Grilled burgers are overrated, IMO. Frying gets you all that caramelized surface area, which what you want in a burger.
No additives to the meat. If I want meatloaf, I make meatloaf.
Cooked at home.
A good grade of ground beef with a little fat in it. I figure a quarter pound is a good size.
Fry it up until it’s cooked through. I don’t like rare meat. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on it. Light on the salt, a little heavier on the pepper.
Put a slice of muenster on top and put a lid over the pan so the cheese melts.
I’m pretty open-minded on rolls. Plain, wheat, onion, kaiser - I’ll use whatever looks good.
Put the burger on the roll. Put a thin slice of raw onion and some dill pickle chips on top. Put some ketchup and brown mustard on top of that.
A good basic cheeseburger.
Mustard!? NO! Kechup and mayonaise mixed together. Burger well done. Bun toasted.
Or nothing but burger on toasted bun with slice of very good tomato, slice of raw red onion.
At home:
The only things added to the ground beef are salt, pepper and minced garlic. The burger’s big and thick, like maybe 1/2 pound. Grilled to be medium rare, somewhat pink on the inside. Lightly toasted bun. Grilled onions (sometimes raw), mushrooms, sharp cheddar, ketchup. Kosher dill pickles on the side.
Doesn’t need anything added but Ketchup and Kraft Singles “processed cheese product.”
Patty seasoned with Worcestershire and season salt. Cooked over a charcoal grill.
Served on a toasted bun with a slice of cheddar, applewood bacon, avocado slices slices (salted), and hickory bbq sauce.
At home, I like to cook Bison burgers.
There’s a little joint near me called bopNgrill. Their Umami Burger: truffled mushroom duxelle, sun-dried tomato confit, togarashi mayo, bacon, smoked gouda, pretzel bun.
I crave that thing a couple times a year. As much as I try not to eat meat from anywhere but direct from small local farms, I will bend on this one for the rare occasion. With a side of kimchi fries.
A little bit of a.chovy paste gives the burger a nice flavor too, if not that, then a dash of Worstechire
Mine’s similar to Chefguy’s, but baked.
Homemade, 80/20, round and think 1/4 pound, warm and pink and soft on the inside, salt, pepper, and oil, barely brown on the outside, wrapped in a white hamburger bun. Ketchup or blue cheese dressing, cheese optional. The meat is the star.
Fastfoodwise, I’m a five guys fan; it’s the only fast food burger I’ll enjoy eating. The normal thin style of fast food burger just doesn’t do it for me.
Pub style, there’s a pub near me called Jack of the Wood, and dang do they do burgers right. Medium-rare, with excellent strong mustard from the place across the street (the Lusty Monk), on a kaiser roll with mayo, tomato, onion, and greens (I don’t care for iceberg, I’d rather have real greens even on a burger). Their fries are also excellent, especially dipped in the ketchup/Tabasco combo that I love.
I grill burgers at home a few times every summer, and they’re pretty good, similar to Jack of the Wood’s burger, but not as tasty.
I prefer mine to be juicy, so not “done” too much. With that, mayo, mustard, cheese, pickles. Onions are OK, but I prefer them chopped as opposed to ringlets. An occasional tomato slice. ETA: Next time I try them at home, I think I’ll try peanut butter.
I’ve never had a restaurant or fast-food burger that I like as much as the ones I grill.
I use 93/7 burger myself, which I add a healthy dose of Heinz’ Worcestershire sauce (and yes, the brand makes a big difference) to before forming it into patties.
I grill 'em nice and slow over the gas grill. (I keep hearing that 93/7 will result in a dry burger; I’ve never had that problem. My wife likes her burger well-done, and it comes off the grill dripping with juice. Ditto my medium-rare burgers.)
After I grill them on one side and flip them, I drop a square of cheddar on each one I’m going to eat, so it can melt to the burger as it finishes cooking.
About halfway between the flip and being done, I toss the buns on the top rack so they get warm and a little crispy on the outside.
Take 'em off, add condiments and other goodies (I do ketchup, mayo, lettuce, tomato, and sometimes onion, but to each his own), eat with chips or fries, and a cold beverage of your choice. Dig me a Stella out of the cooler, willya? Thanks. 
I’ve only been to a Five Guys once, but I had the dryest burger there that I’ve had outside of a MickeyD’s in decades. I’d heard so much about how great Five Guys’ burgers were, too, and it was one hell of a disappointment.
A Burger from The Bucket, in Eagle Rock, CA, a neighborhood of LA, circa 1974… (especially on a Friday afternoon, in early spring the day after mid-terms.)
Back then, burgers weren’t routinely over-cooked due to modern-day concerns over whatever. The volume was so high on Fridays, that the ingredients (including think slab of fresh tomato and white onion) were as fresh as could be, and the rolls were fresh as well.
Founded, in 1935, the original owner, Nick, was still around confusing your order with the next table’s on the outside patio. Sadly, I heard the Bucket, a little hole-in-the-wall, closed last fall.
I’d be curious to see where a thread on burger joints and how they have changed over time might go. In my own experience, the good old days of a human being making the patties and doing the cooking and putting the goodies on the bun and all that was something you could usually see and, if it went on behind some divider thing, you could at least hear that it was being done from scratch. Nowadays you pay premium for that sort of thing and if you’re not too particular you just have to guess where the last human had a hand in what you’re going to be given.
What were you earliest burger specialty places? McDonald’s, Big Boy, Krystal, White Castle, regional variants?
In Nashville there are still some hole-in-the-wall burger places where you can get the old fashioned “from scratch” treatment for $5 and up. But when the need is there for the real thing, it’s at least available.
And should we have a thread that identifies by region or town where those primo burger joints are? Or which chains do the best business?
In case this post is the end of all that, then if you’re in Nashville and want a trip back in time to the good old days, try Brown’s Diner or Rotier’s.