Coming through in the Clutch, part II

My Top Burger of 2024—and #4 burger in all of Houston—continues to prove its otherworldliness

I’ve spilled a lot of digital ink on Clutch City Grill: first in my original gushing review in April 2024; then selecting it as my #1 new-to-me burger in all of Houston for 2024; and again this past summer anointing it as the #4 burger in H-Town in my inaugural Houston Burger Power Rankings list.

Despite the heaping praise, it’d been a hot minute since I’d gotten over to Clutch—my insatiable thirst for what I haven’t yet had continues to compel me, which unfortunately results in occasionally overlooking my faves in search of whatever’s new—and I knew I finally needed to rectify that.

And boy was I glad I did—with a triple smashburger, naturally. While the entire composition is exquisite, owner Omar Shaikh’s beef is truly the star of the show. There’s melt-in-your-mouth, and then there’s melt-in-your-mouth, and I’m hard-pressed to think of too many other Houston burgers that are this delicious and also barely require chewing—the beef is so soft it’s almost velvety. The only other spot that immediately springs to mind with beef like this is Q’s Deli.

The Clutch Burger comes standard with lettuce, tomato, onion and their signature clutch sauce, and I (naturally) added jalapeños. If I had to pick nits, I’m not sure the clutch sauce hit me quite as hard as it did that first time—still delicious, but the beef truly stole the show.

Oh, and you can’t have a conversation about clutch without a shoutout to the bun, an incredibly delicious sweet sourdough concoction baked by Sweet Mesquite Bakery. They’re essentially classic dinner rolls split in half—between its heft and the way Clutch toasts the bread, this bun is the tastiest (and most durable) I’ve ever encountered.

One thing I’d love to see down the line at Clutch is an option for more heat. The Clutch Burger itself is a masterpiece and I wouldn’t change a thing, but one or two additional menu selections—I’d LOVE to see something akin to Lankford’s Grim Reaper or Moon Tower’s Grim Creeper at Clutch—would help generate even more repeat business.