Why Melbourne’s growing Burgerverse revolves around this backstreet beacon

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Macgregor’s Original

Burgers cuisine$$$$

I assumed people order smash burgers mostly just to let it rip. To step in the ring with a big, angry, triple-patty beefcake and find out who you really are. Turns out that’s just some people. (I see you.) Others want ratio above all: enough beef and cheese to justify the bun without destroying it, judicious saucing, pickles. Fin. Then there’s this whole class of divas who just want a slinky little single-tier smash. News to me!

So, if we all have different needs – if we can’t form consensus on what splits the greats from the gristle – why are the people declaring this little suburban corner store the unified champion of the Burgerverse?

Macgregor’s Original is a three-way partnership between chef Laura Boulton of Heide Kitchen, Macgregor McNair and Aaron Savrone. McNair is a former strength-and-conditioning coach; Boulton was his client. McNair grew up flipping burgers at HJ’s, she had the cheffy know-how. Along with high-school mate Savrone, they pounced on an Abbotsford rental: an old milk bar that’d recently been dressed up with chequerboard floors and wood finishes to look like a New York deli.

Catch it lit up at night, light diffused through the smoke of a hardworking grill, tradies, couples and all comers hoeing in as one. It scans like a kind of backstreet Nighthawks scene: a burger beacon among the Abbotsford weatherboards.

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The bulk of the queue is deciding between two core beef burgers: the Signature Cheeseburger and the Oklahoma Onion Burger. The Signature comprises grass-fed Victorian beef, Swiss and American cheese, pickles, house special sauce and a Martin’s potato roll.

The Oklahoma introduces juicy, brined onions into the mix, and there’s a spicy spin-off of that one called the Hot Boi Burger that adds jalapenos for vegetal heat.

You order them with single, double or triple patties.

The double is the sweet spot: enough beef to make you pay attention, enough bread to keep the thing together, enough cheese to distort your dreams.

Surface area is key to a good smash burger, but too much and you’ll lose the juice, says McNair. The coarse grind that Macgregor’s uses saves the patties from having their third dimensions smashed clean off. Pile-driven face-first into the hotplate, each is a work of crisp edges and luscious interiors.

The Oklahoma, Signature and Hot Boi: they’re all worthy in their own way. But no matter which you choose, for mine the double is the sweet spot. Enough beef to make you pay attention, enough bread to keep the thing together, enough cheese to distort your dreams, plus bonus sweetness and textural suspense in the onions, if you so choose.

You’re not leaving here without the fries. Cooked in Halal-certified tallow for an almost candied exterior, they’re among Melbourne’s best; they polled fourth in an exhaustive Good Food taste test earlier this year.

They’re tossed in sea salt by default, but ask for the pickle crack: the vinegary dregs of the pickle jar are dehydrated and ground to a powder, then tumbled through your fries for a puckering twist, like salt ‘n’ vinegar gone green. Throw back a root beer, and you have a trifecta of decadent abandon.

The sandwich bubble might have burst, but the Burgerverse grows stronger by the day and, right now, it revolves around Macgregor’s.

The low-down

Atmosphere: Spirited backstreet burger shop

Go-to dishes: Double Oklahoma Onion Burger combo ($29); double Hot Boi Burger combo ($29); double Signature Cheeseburger combo ($29)

Drinks: Root beer, Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola and friends

Cost: About $60 for two, excluding drinks

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

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Frank Sweet is editor of The Age Good Food Guide 2026 and a former food and drink editor at Time Out Beijing.AdvertisementAdvertisement