Lord's

Lord's is the English bistro on LaGuardia Place in Greenwich Village from Ed Szymanski and Patricia Howard, the team behind Dame, and its Welsh Rarebit Cheeseburger has a history with us: it was the third burger Brotherly Burgers ever officially ranked. We went back in September 2026, both of us for the second time, with Eli of fitnessproductfinder, and the return trip settled the one question the first visit left open.

The seven-ounce patty is thick, incredibly juicy, and finished with brown butter, and this time it was well seasoned too. There is enough rendered fat here to make George Motz's grease-is-an-ingredient philosophy feel less like advice and more like a legal defense.

The rarebit is the star. There is no separate sauce; what goes on top is house-made Welsh rarebit, and it is easily the strongest part of the burger: salty, rich, deeply savory, and powerful enough to define the burger without erasing the beef underneath it. Eli put it simply: the cheese makes it, sharp like cheddar but funky.

The soft pretzel bun is top tier too. Its sweetness complements the saltiness of the cheese, and it absorbs the grease without turning into a wet pile of bread. By the end it is carrying a frankly irresponsible amount of beef juice, butter, and cheese, but it holds.

The onion is the story of our two visits. We are both massive onion fans, so the first time was not an anti-onion reaction, but the portion was so sharp that the sting in the nose was rough, and nearly everyone at the table started peeling some off. We could see the potential behind it. This time the batch was perfectly balanced. The onion was just the right amount, and it did exactly what it is there to do, cutting and spearing through the richness so every other flavor landed. Eli liked the onion too, from its crunch to the way it sopped up the juices, and would have cut it a touch thinner still for a perfect ratio.

Eli called it a memorable burger, and we absolutely agree. It is insanely memorable, an experience burger. Plenty of burgers try to be an experience and end up a gimmick; this is an incredibly well-done version of the idea. It is the one you have and then tell people about.

Getting one at dinner is its own problem. Lord's keeps the burger off the printed dinner menu and usually sells through the nightly run quickly, so you have to arrive early and know to ask. The good news is that it is listed at weekend brunch.

Do not skip the Proper English Chips. They were the best steak-cut fries we had ever eaten when we first went. The curried lamb Scotch egg and the sausage roll were both very good too. Lord's is heavy across the board. Plan accordingly.

Lord's separates itself through the rarebit, a juicy, well-seasoned patty, and a pretzel bun whose sweetness plays against the salty cheese. On our return the onion was perfectly balanced, cutting through the richness rather than overpowering it, and the burger reached the level the first visit only hinted at.

It is a distinctive, experience-driven burger executed with real precision, which is rarer than it sounds.