First Look: It’s McMuffin-Style Rolls and Double Cheeseburgers at Nouns Hamburgers in South Yarra

Prahran Market’s new Market Square tenant Nouns Hamburgers is a burger-focused spin-off of Malvern’s Nouns Deli, an NFT-funded sandwich shop known for American-style sangas, breakfast rolls and fried chicken that closed in late 2024.

Now the team has further distilled the concept. “We just wanted to lean into the classics and keep it simple,” says co-owner Guy Bentley.

Nouns Hamburgers is a collaboration between Bentley (Leonard’s House of Love and Leonardo’s Pizza Palace), Todd Vanneste (Weekdays Design, Frankie’s Tortas and Tacos) and Aaron Trotman (Non). It’s the first time the trio have formally partnered on a venue together.

Heading up the kitchen is chef Prakasit “Noon” Sammasit, who has worked with Bentley since Leonard’s opened more than a decade ago, and led the kitchen at Nouns Deli. “I’d be scared to put a number on how many burgers he’s cooked,” Bentley says. 

If there’s such a thing as burger muscle memory, Sammasit has it, and he’s using it to make cheeseburgers layered with onion, pickles, ketchup and mustard; double cheeseburgers; fried chicken burgers with ranch; battered fish with tartare; and a meatball sub with vodka sauce, salsa verde and pecorino.

“You’re biting into it straight from the takeaway box while you’ve still got your fruit and veg in your hands,” says Bentley. “We wanted it easy, something you can eat standing up, sitting down or walking through the market. It shouldn’t slow you down.”

Breakfast sees the return of the Muffin Top, a sausage-and-egg McMuffin-style sandwich that was one of the deli’s biggest sellers. It’s joined by the Mighty Market, stacked with sausage, bacon, egg, cheese and beer-soaked onions.

Drinks are made and canned on-site: lemonade juiced fresh daily, pink lemonade steeped with strawberries and raspberries, and seasonal iced tea made using fruit sourced from the market – a peach iced tea is on offer at the moment. 

For dessert, Nouns serves “Ice-Cream Burgers” – ice-cream sealed inside a bun using a jaffle-maker-like hot press, which crisps and locks the edges while keeping the centre frozen. The team is currently buying in the ice-cream, but has plans to make it in-house in future. “They’re fun,” Bentley says. “It’s still a burger, just sweet and crunchy.”

The opening of Nouns Hamburgers is part of the market’s broader effort to reinvigorate the courtyard dining precinct. The new burger shop is one of four new venues opening in the former Mr Hoddle site, joining Japanese restaurant Matsuyama, ex-Fonda group chef Samir Slimane’s Pacho Taqueria, and fishmonger Fatboy Lobster, which sells freshly shucked oysters and lobster rolls.

Nouns Hamburgers
Shop 809-2, Prahran Market, 163 Commercial Road, South Yarra
No phone

Hours:
Tue 8am–3pm
Thu to Sun 8am–3pm

@nounshamburgers