Olive & Rose earned the judges’ top prize while defending champion Lemongrass Khmer Grill remained the crowd favorite, taking home the people’s choice award at the second annual Burger Bash in Long Beach.
Chef Johnathan Benvenuti of Bar Becky came in second in both the judges’ and people’s eyes. Third place for the judges was Lemongrass Khmer Grill while third place for the people’s choice was Selva.
And if last year’s competition proved Long Beach could throw a proper burger party, this year’s edition proved something larger: The city’s burger scene has become one of the most varied, thoughtful and outright delicious in SoCal.
Wait—what is Burger Bash?
Hosted by Chef Carlos Jurado at Selva with help from Longbeachize, the 2026 Burger Bash brought together nine local restaurants and pop-ups, each tasked with interpreting the humble culinary connector that is the burger. What emerged was not a procession of barely distinguishable cheeseburgers, but an impressive display of how much personality can be packed between two buns.
Olive & Rose wins over the judges unanimously at Burger Bash 2026.
For the judges, Olive & Rose rose above the field in an unanimous decision between myself, Kari Barba, Phil Manansala of Of Mice & Men, and Clay Wood of Clay on 1st.
The restaurant—the more casual sibling to Michelin-starred Heritage—has long served one of Long Beach’s best burgers, even if its appearances on the menu have been sporadic.
This version found red kosho—bright, citrusy—pickled red fresnos, aioli, double-stacks of New American cheddar, and a bun from Hey Brother Baker to be the perfect marriage of ingredients.
Its victory affirmed what those who have already caught one know: Chef Philip Pretty, along with Olive & Rose’s head man, Chef David Villatoro, can take something familiar and seemingly straightforward and give it the same precision and ingredient-driven care found throughout the Full Belly Group.
Meanwhile, Lemongrass Khmer Grill continues to stay on top with the people at Burger Bash 2026…
The people, meanwhile, remained loyal to Lemongrass Khmer Grill.
Rasmey Kom and Crystal Millar’s Khmer burger operation entered this year as the reigning champion, having swept both the judges’ and people’s prizes at the previous Burger Bash. While Olive & Rose ultimately ended that clean sweep, Lemongrass again won the most important endorsement a food business can receive: the love of the people eating its food.
That repeat people’s choice victory is no small feat. Lemongrass Khmer Grill has transformed the burger into a vehicle for Khmer flavors while building a following that extends well beyond novelty or competition-day hype. It is a burger with an unmistakable identity—and Long Beach continues to embrace it as its own.
The win also reinforces why its signature burger has earned attention beyond the city, including recognition among the region’s finest. As noted ahead of this year’s Burger Bash, the restaurant grew from Rasmey and Crystal’s MealsDotKom and first turned heads during Long Beach Food Scene Week before becoming a force of its own.
What everyone offered at Burger Bash 2026…
Still, perhaps the clearest takeaway from this year’s Burger Bash was just how much everyone had upped their game. Here’s what everyone else offered:
Bar Becky
Bar Becky came extraordinarily close to taking both crowns, finishing second with the judges and the public. Its burger was simple, chargrilled and entirely to the point—a reminder that creativity does not always require piling on ingredients. Sometimes it means understanding beef, fire, seasoning and proportion well enough to know when to stop. For a restaurant brand currently without a permanent home, the showing also made one thing very clear: Chef Johnathan Benvenuti and Bar Becky remain very much alive.
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil offered one of the event’s best creations, approaching the burger through the Chinese-centric lens that helped the Downtown concept grow in its early years. Its five-spice-forward entry was bold without losing sight of what makes a burger satisfying in the first place. To Sherwood Souzankari, well done, my friend.
The Good Bar
The Good Bar delivered a stellar house-made vegan burger—beets, garlic, and herbs provided a meaty quality—that was drenched in a vegan cheese sauce and 1,000 Island dressing. In a field overwhelmingly built around meat and cheese, Good Bar’s entry stood confidently on its own—and showcased how owner Blake Whytock is returning to his roots of simply making good vegan and vegetarian food.
The Bamboo Club
Bamboo Club, under Chef Joseph Herrera, honored its tiki identity with a pineapple-slaw-topped burger carrying strong teriyaki vibes: sweet, savory and knowingly tropical. Selva, meanwhile, stepped away from its already-stellar house bar burger and created something new, stacking its entry with potato sticks and finishing it with a subtle current of spice.
Sideburns
Sideburns went Midwestern with a Wisconsin butter burger, leaning into richness with the kind of unapologetic excess that has long defined Chef Thomas Beyrooty’s menu. But that richness came to a simplicity with this burger, where the real stars—beef, onion, cheese—made for a quality bite, especially if you were able to score a hefty bit of charred cheese and onion.
Proudly Serving
The smash burger staple offered their classic PS Burger, the spot’s OG hamburger, is a pseudo-ode to In-n-Out Double Double, where the Thousand Island is deconstructed—there is an outright addictive special sauce and, unlike the sweetness of bread’n’butter pickles chopped into Thousand Island dressing, owner Matt McIvor opts for the mightier dill pickle—and the patties and cheese come in twos.
Burger Bash proves Long Beach is a burger city.
Together, the field captured why Long Beach’s burger culture has become so damn exciting.
There was a time when the city’s burger identity could largely be distilled into its beloved old-school stands: places serving sturdy, griddled burgers alongside fries, breakfast burritos, and pastrami. Those restaurants remain essential. But they have now been joined by serious smashburger specialists, chef-driven restaurant burgers, culturally specific interpretations, and plant-based versions worthy of competing on equal footing.
Long Beach’s burger scene no longer has a single center or style. It stretches from Cambodia Town to Downtown, from neighborhood bars to Michelin-recognized restaurant groups, from pop-ups and kitchens without permanent dining rooms to established institutions. Its best practitioners understand that a burger can be cheap and messy, refined and carefully sourced, culturally expressive or almost defiantly plain.
Burger Bash managed to fit that entire evolution into just Selva’s parking lot.
