A WEYMOUTH restaurant is competing for the chance to have its burger named the best in the country.

The Dorset Burger Company, on King Street in Weymouth, is one of 16 finalists for the National Burger Awards 2017.

Hundreds of restaurants, pubs, bars and street food traders entered their signature burger recipes and DBC’s Smokey Joe was picked as one of the top 16.

It could be a very happy February for the restaurant as it is up for best restaurant at the South West Tourism Awards as well.

It is set to be a gruelling night at the burger awards for head chef Ross Kay as he has to cook four signature burgers, four technical burgers and four burgers using a mystery ingredients box, all in 50 minutes.

DBC has entered its Smokey Joe burger in to the awards.

Co-owner Emma Cogan said: “We were really pleased. I think there were 350 entries. It was an online entry, we just thought we would have a go. We were really pleased to find out we’re in the final.

“We’ve got a busy February. We won at the Dorset Tourism Awards in December and we go to Bristol on February 2 to see if we’ve won the South West awards.

“It’s really good news to be recognised. We entered one of our more popular burgers the Smokey Joe.”

It will also be showing off the best of Dorset ingredients as it is made with Dorset Red cheese and locally sourced mince and bacon.

There will be four prizes on the night, including the overall winner.

Emma said that it will be a high-pressure environment for Ross and she will be going along to support him. The award winners will be decided by a team of judges including Christian Stevenson, who broadcasts across a variety of channels, Hawksmoor co-founder Richard Turner, Byron head of food Fred Smith, Telegraph food write Xanthe Clay and Andy Waugh, founder of Mac and Wild which won 2016’s award.

An awards ceremony in the evening will be hosted by DJ BBQ and the overall winner will take away a £1000 prize.

As well as other local independent establishments from around the company, some national companies will be competing for the award.

The National Burger Awards will be held at the Islington Metal Works in London on Wednesday, February 22.

The South West Tourism Awards will be held at Ashton Gate in Bristol on Thursday, February 2.