83Smash
Score
Score
Smash Score✓ Certified Smash
Miami's most acclaimed smashburger, built entirely from scratch inside The Citadel food hall. Housemade buns, house-ground beef, and a cheese sauce that sinks into every charred crack. Time Out's #1 burger in the city.
Photography courtesy of United States Burger Service / Facebook.
United States Burger Service began as a Saturday night pop-up inside Boxelder Craft Beer Market in Wynwood, where married chefs Michael 'Mikey' Mayta and Keily Vasquez first won Miami's burger community over with house-ground beef and Keily's scratch-baked potato rolls. After demand outgrew the one-night-a-week format, the couple opened a permanent stall at the Citadel food hall in 2018. What started as a passion project - with a postal-service theme, playful burger names, and an obsessive commitment to making everything from scratch - became the most talked-about smashburger in the city.
USBS runs on two non-negotiable scratch elements: Mikey grinds a proprietary beef blend daily, and Keily bakes the potato buns fresh each morning - poppy-seed-dotted rolls so soft they leave fingerprints when pressed. The 2-Day Double layers twin smashed patties (seared hard for a full caramelized crust) with Government Cheese sauce (fontina and cheddar) and Priority Sauce. The result is a burger where the runny cheese sinks into every charred crack of the meat, creating what reviewers describe as eating 'almost like a cream-filled donut.' It earned the #1 best burger ranking from Time Out Miami.
United States Burger Service operates from The Citadel food hall. The score reflects the 2-Day Double Cheeseburger specifically, with some crowd-score drag from platform ratings and reviewer notes about occasional smash consistency.
The 2-point competition bonus reflects the 2020 Miami New Times Readers' Choice Best Burger win.
You can't go wrong with the classic burger - the juicy patties sit between house-made potato buns - but the rotating specials with different kinds of cheeses and fresh sauces are really something else.
This is the real deal... just plain unbelievable, which might even be an understatement. Only by smashing ground beef into a flattop can you create this beautiful meat candy crust that I thought only existed in burger dreams.
The patties had that magical crust you get from a perfect sear. There was a runny cheese sauce that sunk into all the burger's little cracks and charred bits. The buns were freshly baked potato rolls dotted with poppy seeds, and they were so soft that your fingers left little imprints like a memory foam mattress.
It's a classic smashburger with just enough unique elements to make it taste like a one-of-a-kind creation. The smashed and seared patties are covered in a runny cheese sauce that sinks into all the burger's little cracks and charred bits.
when you take a bite, it almost eats like a cream-filled donut
You're doing yourself a disservice if you haven't tried it.
The only reason they're not higher in a ranking is due to inconsistent smashing, with versions having patties that are paper-thin, and versions that don't look like a smashburger much at all.
The burger and fries combo was undeniably delicious, offering a burst of flavors, however, the portion size was a bit smaller than expected, and the prices were on the higher side.