Another thread is slowly being hijacked about the best place to get burgers so I thought it was time.
What chain restaurant has the best Hamburgers/Cheeseburgers - and fries - in the USA?
My nominees:
There is the West Coast war between fans of Fatburger and In-N-Out. Actually, the folks living on the West Coast are lucky to have two great chains like these but I have to give the nod to In-N-Out - great burgers, best fries in the US and the prices are cheap!
Another chain here is Red Robin - fantastic burgers (but crappy fries). They are a bit pricey ($7.99 and up) but worth the price.
The only other burger chain I like is in NYC - Jackson Hole was one of my favorites when I lived there, but haven’t been back in years and don’t know how they are holding up.
My opinion is on record: Fatburger makes great burgers, but In-n-Out beats them by a mile! Fresh fries…you can see them slicing the potatoes in the back. Leaf lettuce, never frozen meat, the Secret Menu…still the best.
No, no, no! *Fatburger’s burgers are superior to In-N-Out. Hands down, no doubt. And Fatburger’s fries are better as well.
My votes in decreasing order:
Fatburger
In-N-Out
Wendy’s
Carl’s Jr.
Del Taco or Wienerschitzel
Burger King
I can’t bring myself to put Jack-In-The Box or McDonalds on the ‘best burger’ list. But McDonalds makes a good fish sandwich, and Jack-In-The-Box has tacos that are disgusting-but-sometimes-you-just-gotta-have-'em.
Red Robin is a sit-down restaurant, and so is TGI Friday’s. Good burgers, but expensive.
Best Burger Ever is from a place that no longer exists: Joy’s in Barstow. Hasn’t existed since the '70s. They had a gread mac’n’cheese salad to boot.
Second-best burger is also from a place that no longer exists: The Kittyhawk at Santa Monica Airport. It’s now The Spitfire Grill (where the screenwriter for the film got the name – IIRC his office was upstairs from it), and their burgers aren’t as good.
But we’re talking chains here, so those two don’t count.
I give the nod to In-N-Out despite the fact that I live in Five Guys’ hometown. Five Guys is quite wonderful (although in the last year I think I’ve noticed a drop in quality), but it’s not a patch on In-N-Out.
Fuddrucker’s isn’t fast food in my book. You have your fast food and you have your “other” hamburger.
Fud’s is good, but Culver’s ain’t bad. There’s another place that’s more of a gourmet hamburger, but I can’t think of the name of it. I only ate there once, and it was fab.
I like Rally’s. Definitely, not the best burger, but it is the best burger value.
I’m from the midwest but spend time in the South, so I’m going to have to put in a vote for Sonic as the best burger. They have a big, tasty, and fresh fried burger.
Wendy’s burgers are pretty good… a double or triple with cheese always satisfies my hankerin’ for a hunk of, a slab, a slice, a chunk of… BEEF.
I got a thing for Big Macs, too. I have a special sauce addiction… it’s the crack of the burger world.
I first had Rally’s on one of my earlier trips to New Orleans. Definitely a decent value for the money. But as you say, not the best burger compared to the competition.
A couple of years before I left L.A. a Rally’s opened up a block away from In-N-Out. Both were mere blocks from my home.
I must be missing something. I was travelling out west a couple weeks ago and finally tried the much-lauded In-N-Out Burger. It’s better than any chains around here (I’ve tried Fuddrucker’s once, wasn’t impressed), but nothing special. There’s a place called Bartley’s right near Harvard Square, good burgers (mostly named for politicians) and the atmosphere is like P.J. O’Rourke’s dorm room exploded, but you could never capture that sort of thing in a chain.
Living in Seattle, are we, Anastasaeon? I’ll take Burgermaster over Dick’s.
And seriously, the best burger I can get these days is in my own kitchen.
I dare you to eat at the Jack at 4th and Mission and repeat that claim.
In-n-Out’s only OK, and their religious overtones are an ingredient I’m not fond of. Ignoring that, I’ve never been able to understand the fuss over them. Yes, the food is fresh, but uninspiring, and the fries are undercooked. You shouldn’t need a secret menu.
One of the best burgers I ever had was at a donut shop near the freeway. Absolute hole in the wall place with winos in the parking lot, but they were serving up a nice big burger cooked just right, covered with real cheese and thick bacon. They must have scored a great deal on premium bacon that day as all of the specials had bacon.
Wendys always seems to overcook their meat until it’s crumbly. Not to crazy about their buns either - there’s an odd sweetness to them.
For a dependably good anywhere burger, my pick is Burger King’s Whopper. Sadly, BK’s fries are horribly inferior to McDonalds.
Speaking of McD’s - the Big Mac is a food entity unto itself. Not necessarily better or worse than anything else, but unique.