When you’re at an event as massive as the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, food may not always be at the top of mind.
Over the last several years, the festival has invested in its food offerings, which now include Michelin-starred dishes, local favorites, and other elevated classics, including the burger. The sandwich, popularized by its juicy and flavorful patty, fresh buns, and crispy veggie toppings, has a special place on the Coachella menu.
Not only is it convenient to eat, but when time, dedication, and just the right amount of love are dedicated to a burger, it can break any preconceived confines that it is only a fast food dish to be picked up at the drive-thru.
This year, the festival featured some of Los Angeles’s best burgers for all ticket holders, including Oh My Burger, Burger She Wrote, Irv’s Burgers, and the return of the Coachella pop-up favorite Monty’s Good Burger. Other burger joints, such as Le Burger by Camphor, Love Hour, and Papa Heads, were kept exclusively in the VIP area.
For those who didn’t have the VIP experience, there were still some delicious burgers on the menu. Here are the five burgers available for general admission ticket holders, starting with the most delicious.
Oh My Burger
When I walked up to this stall, I didn’t know what to expect, and part of that reason was because there was no menu (the Coachella winds swept it away). When I asked if I could see one, a woman on the grill began yelling what they offered, which added a little more fun to the experience by not reading off a list of ingredients. I ordered the single: a beef patty served between two round, slightly toasted buns and topped with grilled onions, crunchy pickles, and a sauce that, on first glance, looked like a Thousand Island sauce, but at first bite, carried a spicy kick that made the burger a stand-out among the rest. Each bite tasted better than the last; it was truly one of the best burgers I have ever tasted. Oh My Burger only has one location in Gardena, Calif., and if you are ever in the area, you should make the stop, if only for the burger.
Burger She Wrote
Burger She Wrote serves up a smash burger that melts in your mouth. I tried the Oklahoma burger, which is basically its original smash burger served with a 100% Wagyu beef patty, American cheese, ketchup, pickles, mustard, and mayo but adds grilled onions. The ingredients inside of this burger don’t seem like anything out of the ordinary, but when paired with a fluffy King’s Hawaiian bun, it allows the burger to truly come together for a melty experience. Burger She Wrote has two locations in Hollywood and Venice, and it was founded by Don “The Nuge” Nguyen and Steven Arroyo. When you take a bite, you can easily see why the burgers have developed a cult following in Los Angeles.
Irv’s Burgers
Like with Burger She Wrote, Irv’s Burgers’ strength was its sesame seed bun. The Route 66 classic single veggie-less cheeseburger is served with a beef patty, American cheese and Irv’s sauce. It’s a simple dish that doesn’t overthink the ingredients and process but still manages to get you to come back for more. That’s probably a reason why the restaurant has been around since 1946, serving Los Angeles and expanding to San Diego and Las Vegas.
Monty’s Good Burger
Monty’s Good Burger makes eating a plant-based burger taste like you’re not foregoing flavor. Others have succeeded in delivering a tasty meatless patty, but the Monty’s single cheeseburger is among the best to do it. The burger is complete with an Impossible patty, cheddar cheese, house spread, lettuce, tomato, house pickles, and grilled onions inside a soft brioche bun. Not only is the burger delicious, but the festival also offers a $25 combo served with a mix of tater tots and fries and a sparkling lemonade. It’s a great deal, considering most burger stalls at Coachella offer a single burger for nearly the same price. Monty’s started as a pop-up stall at the festival in 2018 and has since expanded to stand-alone restaurants in Los Angeles and Riverside. Bill Fold and Nic Adler founded it and were initially inspired by In-N-Out, another California classic burger, but the founders’ vision was to create a vegan version of the burger.
Two Guys Fries (Burgers and Watermelon)
While most burgers were listed and advertised on Coachella’s website, this stall was absent. The banner for the stall read, “Burgers and Watermelon,” but when we inquired, the cashier mentioned they also went by Two Guys Fries. This cheeseburger, made with a beef patty topped with cheese, fresh onions, lettuce, and tomato, had a nostalgic flavor and felt like it was something you’d enjoy at a backyard barbeque. It was simple and could pair excellently with an IPA at the festival’s beer garden or one of the specialty cocktails at The Cabin.