Sharks Burger

Fifteen years of family, Angus beef, and a mural named Lola

There are burger places all over the Hero Way corridor now, but regulars still drive past three of them to pull into the Shell station parking lot, because the gas pumps are not the point — the griddle in the back corner is. Sharks Burger has been doing this since 2017, and the thing that keeps people coming back isn't nostalgia, it's that the burgers haven't gotten lazy.

The story. Brothers Diego "Dino" and Peter Bullara, along with chef and nephew Chris Piccininni, had large aspirations for their restaurant, and since Aug. 20, 2017, Sharks Burger has helped hungry customers chomp on enormous Angus burgers, sandwiches, fluffy fries and golden-brown tater tots. The business set up shop inside the Shell Texan Mart at 12681 Hero Way West, with the hope that it would take people just one visit to become regulars — the kind of loyalty the owners talk about in terms of their restaurant-industry roots. Starting in a gas station gave some people pause, "gas station food" assumptions and all, but the owners built a restaurant attached to that gas station that gives customers a reason to keep coming back.

The growth has been steady rather than flashy. A second Leander location opened June 8, 2020, on Ronald Reagan Boulevard, sharing the same menu as the original Hero Way store, and a third opened inside a Buda gas station in 2024. Along the way the family built real ties to the community — partnering with local school districts and the Leander fire and police departments, even creating a signature burger, The Tiller, named for the fire department's flagship truck. The bones of the place — scratch-made food, never a heat lamp in sight — haven't changed even as the footprint has.

The vibe. This is still, first and foremost, a counter-service burger joint wedged into a convenience store, and it owns that completely — there's a popular mural of "Lola the Shark" that's become as much a landmark as the burgers. It's casual, has moderate noise, allows dogs, and is good for groups, with both indoor seats and an outdoor patio for days when the Texas heat lets up. One reviewer put it simply: "it's tucked away into a little cozy spot, with indoor and outdoor seating," calling it a great spot for a date as much as a quick lunch run.

Morning is its own scene — commuters grabbing breakfast tacos before work — and lunch is the crunch; go earlier if you want a table instead of a to-go bag.

What to order. The menu splits cleanly into build-your-own burgers, a list of house specialty builds, chicken sandwiches and tenders, and an early breakfast menu that starts well before most kitchens in town have turned their griddles on.

Good to know. The Hero Way location opens Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 7:45 p.m., though weekdays the doors open earlier for breakfast — get there before the lunch rush if you want a seat. All locations offer on-site parking for guests dining in or picking up takeout, and dogs are welcome on the patio. Both Leander locations and the newer Buda spot run the same menu, so if Hero Way is slammed, the Ronald Reagan location is a fallback with identical burgers. Online ordering is available through the restaurant's own site for pickup at any location.

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