Phil Kastel, executive chef, The Milky Way, Los Angeles
Price: $20
Lots of places offer Impossible burgers, but for the love of all that’s holy about burgers, do your customers a favor and make it a totally dynamite burger with care for each element. At The Milky Way, a kosher dairy restaurant, substitutions are the bedrock, with kosher takes on classic American favorites. Keeping kosher means a traditional beef burger with cheese melted on top is not permitted. The milk from the cow is seen as an insult to the meat, in [very simplified] Kabbalistic view. But this burger makes it possible, and Chef Phil Kastel puts together a platonic ideal of a cheese “burger” with crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes, onions, pickles, thousand island dressing on a sesame seed bun. There’s also a patty melt with the same patties and swiss cheese on rye.