Best burgers near the Saddledome

If you have ever stumbled out of the Saddledome after a 4-3 overtime loss, dragging your jersey behind you and trying to figure out where in this city you can get a burger at 10:45 on a Tuesday night, you know the problem. Stampede Park is bordered on three sides by industrial Calgary, and the fourth side is the Elbow River. The food options inside the Dome are fine for an arena, but they cost what arenas cost, and they close when the gates close. So you walk.

This is the burger map for that walk. Pre-game patties, post-game patties, and the rare 11pm option that does not involve a McDonald's drive-thru on Macleod Trail.

Pre-game burgers within walking distance

National on 17th · 17th Ave SW

Twenty-five-minute walk from the Saddledome, or four minutes by Uber. The 17th Ave location of National is the move if you want to do dinner properly before the game. Their burger is a thick patty, smoked cheddar, bacon jam, brioche bun, and the fries are crinkle-cut the way they should be. Pair it with a tap pour from one of the Calgary breweries on rotation and you are set up for the night.

Trolley 5 · 17th Ave SW

Trolley 5 is a brewpub first, but the kitchen punches above what you would expect from a place with their own beer on tap. The double smash burger with house pickles, on a potato bun, lined up next to a flight of their own lagers, is one of the better $25 you can spend in Calgary on a game night. Same 17th Ave row as National.

Cluck N Cleaver · Mission

Technically a fried-chicken sandwich place, but the chicken sandwich is so good and so close to the Dome (15-minute walk through Mission) that any honest list has to include it. The Korean fried-chicken sandwich is the right pre-game move when you do not feel like a beef burger.

Burger 320 · Beltline

An unpretentious Beltline burger spot. Hand-formed patties, no truffle aioli nonsense, and a proper griddle. About a 20-minute walk from the Saddledome. The kind of place where you can be in and out in 35 minutes and still make warmups.

Post-game burgers (the late-night problem)

The Saddledome empties around 10pm on a weeknight game, 10:30 with overtime. Most Calgary kitchens close at 10. This is the gap.

Tubby Dog · 17th Ave SW

Open until 1am most nights, 3am on weekends. Tubby Dog is hot dogs not burgers, but they have a burger menu and they will be open when you get there. The "Sgt Pepper" with cream cheese and jalapenos is the right post-loss order. Dive bar energy. Cash recommended.

Peters' Drive-In · 16th Ave NE

Calgary's iconic drive-in burger, open until midnight every night. It is not a walk from the Saddledome, you need a 10-minute drive north up Macleod and across, but it is the burger Calgarians have been ordering for sixty years. The shake is mandatory.

Jamesons Pub · Britannia / Mission

A British-style pub that does a real pub burger and stays open past most kitchens. Walk-able from the Dome through Mission. The kitchen runs late on game nights when there is a crowd.

Boogies Burgers · Bridgeland

Worth the short drive across the river. Boogies is a Calgary classic, open until 9pm most nights so you only catch them after an early game, but the patty is the kind that ruins fast-food burgers for you for a week. If you have got an afternoon Flames game (rare, but it happens for nationally-televised matchups) this is your post-game move.

Inside the Saddledome

If you skip the walk and eat at the rink, the burger options inside the Dome have improved in the last few seasons. The Saddledome has Calgary Burger Co. concessions on the 200 level (Section 220 area) doing a pretty solid double-stack. Local Public Eatery has a stand on the upper concourse during Flames games. Concession prices being what they are, expect to pay arena tax. See the Saddledome food and drink guide for the full menu and the rules around what you can and cannot bring in.

The Stampede week burger problem

During the ten days of the Stampede in early July, every restaurant within a 20-block radius of Stampede Park is slammed and many switch to a limited Stampede menu. The walking-distance burger plan goes out the window. Two strategies that work: book a 5pm reservation at National or Trolley 5 if you have evening rodeo or grandstand tickets, or skip 17th Ave entirely and head to Bridgeland or Inglewood where the crowds thin out fast.

The pre-game / post-game rule. If your game ends after 9:30pm, decide your post-game spot before the puck drops. Trying to find a burger in Calgary after 10pm without a plan is how you end up at a 7-Eleven taquito. Tubby Dog or Peters' are the safe bets. Everywhere else, check the kitchen close on Google before you walk over.

Independent property. Part of the Fat Monk Media Network. Not affiliated with the restaurants listed. Operated by Fat Monk Media Ltd. (Alberta).