In California I’ll go to Carl’s Jr. I like the more-charred taste of their burgers vs. Burger King. In Washington I’ll go to Wendy’s. But yeah, I’ll go to McDonalds from time to time. Weinerschnitzel has pretty good burgers too, only the closest one to me in Washington is 40 miles away. They’re not that good. (But I’ll pick up a bunch of chili cheese dogs and freeze them for later if I happen to be down in Burlington.)
At Carl’s Jr. I substitute the zucchini for fries. Devilishly hot, but they taste better than fries.
If the question is strictly “Mickey D’s or BK?” I guess I’d have to answer Mickey D’s, simply because I can tolerate the tastless burger there better than I can tolerate BK’s “fries”.
Full disclosure; if I have decided that life’s not worth living and I must have a fast food meal, I’ll get a BK bacon double cheeseburger, plain, then drive on to McDonalds and order a large order of fries to go with it. It helps that Bk and McD’s are on the same side of the same street.
Crap, now I’ve set myself up for just such a lunch. Maybe they should include a packet of Lipitor instead of catsup. Just a thought.
I categorize both Mc Donald’s and Burger King as purveyors of “cardboard burgers”. Both use the frozen, pre-manufactured cardboard meat patties that don’t taste like much of anything but cardboard (or very soft plywood). I tend to go to places that make their own patties out of what looks to be actual ground beef.
Between the two I usually always pick Burger King if I can. I prefer my cardboard broiled rather than fried. There’s also McDonald’s attitude about lettuce and tomato on the burger. For years they refused to offer any burger with lettuce and tomato included in the ingredients. Either they were too cheap to buy lettuce and tomato to add to their burgers, or lettuce and tomatos were not the “California approved” method of assembling a burger. When they finally offered lettuce and tomato on one of their hamburgers in the late 80’s it came packed in an enormous two part styrofoam package with the meat on one side and the lettuce and tomato on the other. As if to tell you, the customer, that if you wanted to violate a hamburger with lettuce and tomato, you’d have to complete the final stage of assembly yourself, as they could not, in good conscience, be a party to such burger desecration.
In addition to the above, you’ll usually find fewer screaming, whiny little children at BK.
The french fries seem identical between the two in this part of the world.
Well, once I was making a burger for dinner, and for some reason I decided to not to use the meat. Now, I’m not a picky person, but I try to be frugal, so basically all I did was grab one of those 99-cents-a-package cheapo burger buns and cheapo individually wrapped American “cheese” and melted it, then threw on a bit of ketchup, a bit of mustard, and a pickle slice.
The end result: something that tasted remarkably similar to a McDonald’s burger. Slightly different texture, perhaps, but the taste was pretty much the same (to me). As a result I’m not so inclined to at a fast food burger place.
As for fries, why waste 220 calories on a bag that couldn’t feed a rat when you can bake your own and get a 6 oz SuperSize serving for only about 220 calories. A bit of easy cheese and ketchup and you’re golden.
I used to prefer BK, but they seem to have changed the way they prepare their burgers within the last few years (or at least the local ones have). Almost overnight, the Whopper went from a tasty fast food item that almost even resembled a real hamburger to something that…tasted like a lukewarm greasy sponge that had been sprayed with some kind of chemical burger smell. I tried them on three or four different occasions, realized it wasn’t a fluke and changed my loyalties to Niskers and Wendy’s.
Seriously, yuck. And their new fries are wretched. Their breakfast menu is relatively unfucked-with at least.
I have never gotten a hot sandwich at Burger King. Been dragged there countless times, or ate there when stranded by a bad transit connection.
My friends deny this is even possible, but it’s been my experience dozens of times.
I also think their burgers taste odd with the smoke flavoring and way too much salt.
McDonalds, although neither is great. I swing through McDonalds and get their $1 sweet tea, it must be 32 ounces and lasts most of the day. Their cinamin melts are good. McDonalds fries are much much better than BK although I try to stay away from fries altogether.
If I was just having a burger I’d eat at BK, but McDonalds has a variety of things I can tolerate.
Not sure whether it’s called the same in the US but locally there’s a Big Tasty (which is actually quite tasty). Therefore McDonalds would get my vote any day.
McDonald’s French Fries are quite simply one of the 3 finest food creations in the history of mankind. Pepperoni Pizza, Filet Mignon, and Mickey D’s fries…that’s the list. For that contribution to humanity alone McD’s wins any and all debates about these restaurants merits. Their burgers could be soylent green and the staff could be a collection of lepers with Tourette’s and they still supersede BK, Wendy’s and any other tripe.
Though I do demand self serve ketchup in the dining room, forcing me to ration 3 little packets of goodness ruins the entire experience.
For the record, Mickey D’s makes a damn fine chicken sandwich these days, and the cheesy joy that is a double cheeseburger is the best $1 you can ever spend. The McGriddle breakfast sandwiches were a hell of an innovation too, I think they should have been up for the Nobel prize for that accomplishment.
BK occasionally makes an appealing specialty sandwich and those onion rings are tasty and provide fuel for the most dominating flatulence ever, but on the whole they can’t carry Ray Kroc’s jock. The use of shredded lettuce on a burger should be a crime against humanity and punishable by stoning.
Wendy’s does a nice job with the Frosty’s and the addition of Chili, Baked Potatoes and some pretty damn enjoyable salads to the menu makes them worth a visit, but they have, hands down, the worst staff across the board. Additionally their burgers are the sloppiest pile of disintegrating beef and Ketchustardayo™ you can find.
Hardee’s deserves credit for it’s callous disregard for healthfulness and balance in a diet, but that’s about it. I still miss the Frisco Melt though.
Jack in the Box is easily the worst of the lot. Just a catastrophe from top to bottom.