Food & Wine
The best burgers in Queenstown
Published 30 October 2026
Ask any of our guests what they want to eat in Queenstown and burgers come up within the first few minutes. Sometimes within the first few seconds.
That's fair. This town does them properly. There's one famous name, one serious rival, and two other places that suit a different kind of day. Here's how we'd work through them.
Fergburger
Some places you can't leave out, and this is one of them. Fergburger is famous well beyond Queenstown, and there's a good chance it was on your list before you'd booked your flights.
The queue is part of the legend — fair warning, it can be a long one. Our tip: ring ahead and place your order. It saves you standing on the footpath watching other people eat. One catch: when they're slammed, nobody gets to the phone, so if it rings out, that's the burger shop telling you how its day is going. Try again in a bit, or read on.
The Arrowtown shortcut
Here's the one we tell our friends. Ferg Butchers in Arrowtown serves those same burgers, and the queue is a fraction of the one in town.
Which turns lunch into an outing. Pick up a burger, then spend the afternoon wandering around Arrowtown. You get the famous burger without the wait, and a good walk to go with it. That's a decent Saturday.
Devil Burger
If anything is going to challenge Fergburger, it's Devil Burger. Whether it's the best in the world is up for debate, and people do debate it, usually with a burger in hand. Fergburger or Devil Burger is the question Queenstown has never settled, and we're not about to settle it here.
Their chicken burgers get a lot of love, so start there if you're stuck. The other thing in its favour is space. There's a big indoor area, so if you want something quick but would rather sit down than eat on a kerb, this is the place. Handy when the weather turns, which it will.
Slow Cuts
For a proper sit-down meal, Slow Cuts in Arrowtown is hard to beat. The buns are beautiful and the ingredients inside them have clearly been thought about.
The sides are worth ordering a few of, and there's a good range of beer and wine to go with them. This one is for a long, unhurried lunch. If you're heading out to Arrowtown anyway, decide early whether it's a quick burger-and-a-stroll kind of day or a Slow Cuts kind of day.
World Bar
World Bar sits in the heart of town and has a fun, lively atmosphere. The menu is big, which is the whole point.
If someone in your group isn't a burger person, or you've got a mix of tastes to keep happy, this is where you go. Everyone finds something they want and nobody has to compromise. For more of our go-to spots around town, see where we actually eat in Queenstown.
Key Takeaways
- Fergburger: famous for good reason. Ring ahead to order, and have a plan B ready if nobody picks up.
- Ferg Butchers, Arrowtown: the same burger with a fraction of the queue, and a wander around a great town to follow.
- Devil Burger: Fergburger's nearest rival. Try the chicken, and enjoy the fact there's plenty of room to sit inside.
- Slow Cuts, Arrowtown: the sit-down option, with great buns, excellent sides, and a solid beer and wine list.
- Staying with us? Flick us a message and we'll help you plan your burger run, whichever way the queue is looking.
Queenstown takes burgers seriously, and so do we. From the legendary Fergburger queue to a quieter Arrowtown alternative and a proper sit-down lunch at Slow Cuts, here's how we'd work through the best options in town.
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Our Little Black Book
This is not a curated list of every restaurant that's ever won an award in Queenstown. It's the list we actually use — the places we go ourselves, the spots we steer our guests towards, and the local tricks we've picked up from years of living and working here. Think of it as the advice you'd get if you knocked on our door and asked us where to go tonight — honest, specific, and genuinely tried and tested.
Little Black Book