Our Readers Said Shady’s Had the Best Burgers of 2022. Were They Right?

Mediocre burgers aren’t hard to find. Bad burgers? They’re everywhere. Don a blindfold and throw a rock from your front doorstep, and you'll probably hit a place that hawks third-rate burgers.

Finding a truly worthwhile burger, though — that’s a challenge. We’re talking burgers that make you perk up in your seat and think, “Damn, now that’s a good burger.”

Our readers claim Shady’s Burgers & Brewhaha has such burgers in its arsenal. In fact, Shady’s was voted Dallas Observer Readers’ Choice Best Burger in 2022.

High praise.

Shady’s has locations in Lake Highlands (9661 Audelia Road) and Richardson (2701 Custer Parkway). We stopped by the Lake Highlands locale on Easter weekend to experience this reader-approved burger joint ourselves.

We started with drinks while awaiting a couple of dining partners to arrive. Our choices: a Ruby Mule (ginger beer, lime, Deep Eddy grapefruit vodka), strawberry blonde (strawberry puree, lemon, Deep Eddy lemon vodka) and an Oak Highlands light lager called Slim Shady’s (someone should Drizly a case to Eminem) that was specially crafted for Shady's 10-year anniversary, celebrated at the end of March.

Everyone enjoyed their beverages, but our dining partner who ordered the strawberry blonde raved about hers.

The vibe is relaxed and casual, and there's ample seating. There’s a bar and a nice patio; most of the patio is well-covered and is a virtual extension of the indoor dining area. But there is a small outdoor space where, when we visited, a solo guitarist played a breezy, laid-back setlist. We caught the tail end of it.

After the stragglers in our party arrived, we were itching to order. Observing these aesthetically impressive burgers being ushered past us to their respective tables ratcheted hunger to near-fervid levels.
Shady's uses never-frozen, all Angus beef and hand-formed patties. The first burger to appear was the Holy Guacamole ($11.25), a juicy, robust beef patty topped with Swiss and Applewood smoked bacon on a bed of guacamole, tomato and lettuce, and accented with a spread of garlic aioli.

The El Shady ($10.50) followed. This divine creation of white cheddar, chorizo, grilled jalapenos and a fried egg was something we’d daydream about days after. You can book our future return trip on this one alone. And sooner rather than later. The El Shady would make a fab hangover burger, too.
Dipping into the seafood fare portion of the menu, the Fish N Chips ($12.75) scored high marks. Three perfectly golden beer-battered cod strips came with jalapeno tartar sauce, spicy slaw and terrific hand-cut fries. The flaky tender cod sandwich comes battered or grilled (we opted for grilled), nestled in challah buns and enriched with pineapple pico and remoulade.

Most of the menu at Shady’s is made in-house, down to the buns, which glisten as though they were modeling for a foodie photoshoot. The beef patties were high quality, nicely sized and cooked just right. The service was also stellar (shoutout to our server whose nickname was “Shakemaster”; we see you). Shady’s even accommodated a special request, an off-menu item that took the ingredients from the pulled pork taco and put it into a sandwich — which looked awesome, by the way.

So, were our readers right last year when they voted Shady’s had the best burgers? Any best burger claim is an exceedingly lofty, almost impossible, expectation to live up to. And it’s a bold claim in a city as vast as Dallas. But we’ll say this: the bar is high at Shady’s. Would we highly recommend Shady’s? Would we go back? Emphatically yes on both counts.

Shady’s, 9661 Audelia Road (Lake Highlands). Sunday – Wednesday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Thursday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.