Sometimes the best places are the hardest to find.

“We are located at 36 Homers Wharf.  We’re on an active loading dock for a bunch of scallops and lobster boats.  So we’re kind of hidden.  We’re right off of Route 18 but you have to get through all of these boats to come and find us.”

And you’ll know you’ve arrived at this delicious destination when you smell the mouth watering aromas coming out of the Back Door.

Back Door Burgers in New Bedford is a small, out of the way spot that was born out of their sister restaurant Merrill’s on the Waterfront.

“So Back Door Burgers is our concept to try to be proactive during the pandemic. Takeout was obviously a major thing for everybody.  We found that with our other restaurants, burgers and tenders were our biggest sellers. So we decided to put a face to the burgers here at Backdoor Burgers. So it is our new burger location serving chicken sandwiches tenders all the good fried bar food that you miss not being at bars.”

That’s general manager Krystol Gilbert, a burger connoisseur who worked painstakingly to create the perfect patty.

“Our burgers are smash burgers. So they’re cooked on a flat top. So that gives you a layer of crisp on both side of the burgers as well as keeping it juicy on the inside.  We’ve got a lot of great feedback from saying that ours are better from what they’ve seen from the competition.  So that’s our goal is to strive to be the best burger place in New Bedford.”

These smashburgers are all downright delicious, and bare the names of New Bedford landmarks like this burger called “The Union Street”

“Union Street is right off of Route 18, and again, a big staple in New Bedford.  So the Union Street burger is going to be blue cheese, caramelized onions and arugula.  You get the freshness from the blue cheese, the caramelized onions just kind of wake everything up and then the spicy tang of the arugula which is really, really good.”

There’s also the Brooklawn burger, smothered with Swiss, caramelized onions and a satisfying bacon jam and something called the “Buttonwood.” 

“The Buttonwood is of course named after Buttonwood Park.  So the Buttonwood is going to be our all beef blended Patty, onion rings, barbecue sauce and bacon and it’s top notch.  The onion rings on it really combined everything all together.”

But the fan favorite here has to go to the Amaral Burger

“So the Amaral is named after one of the local linguica and chorizo places Amaral.

Linguica is a big New Bedford staple. So the Amaral is the all beef blended Patty with a full linguine Patty, a fried egg and cheddar cheese on top. It’s a little bit spicy. You got the runny yolk from the egg and then the cheese is melty everywhere. It’s definitely one of the best ones we have.”

And all of the burgers are served with Back Door’s addictive spicy waffle fries, which Krystol advises you use to scoop up any burger crumbs left behind.

“So every burger our specialty burgers are served with our spicy waffle fries. The fry is to pick up the pieces of the burger that are left behind.  Rather than a flimsy typical regular fry. The waffle fry gives you a lot of surface to either pick up burger crumbs or to dip in that boom boom sauce.”

While the name of the restaurant is Back Door BURGERS, they do offer other crave worthy dishes like zippy Buffalo Wings, hand cut chicken tenders tossed in a Honey Garlic Sauce and the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich which is both big in flavor and size.

“Our chicken is larger than the bun. So sometimes you get full just by just eating the chicken around the bun. And then you have a little bit of a snack for later which is awesome.”

Since you’re right on the water, it makes sense to try some seafood, whether you attack the Cape Cod Reuben piled up with fried cod, Swiss, cole slaw and 1000 Island dressing, or a good ol’ plate of fish and chips.

“We always let our guests know that our seafood is as fresh as it can possibly get. Our guests can see the boats come in and out at any given time. So probably from ocean to our kitchen, maybe an hour so as fresh as we can possibly get.”

And after your Back Door meal, it’s only fitting to throw back some fried Oreos.

“The fried Oreos are served with a butterscotch sauce and they are top notch. It’s almost like a fried pastry dough. So you got the nice crisp and then the ooze of the Oreo cream in the middle with the butterscotch. It’s amazing.”

So if you want to devour a burger. Share some snacks and soak in some scenery. You’re going to want to find the front door of Back Door Burgers.