From the land of Whataburger.
They rule.
Not that any of you have any reason to visit Akron, OH., but you can taste the best hamburger at Swenson’s. Been around sine 1934. There’s a reason.
[sub]Hi, Uke![/sub]
Not greasy, buttery.
Mmmmm…butter.
I hear ya. On the grill, pan fried or broiled? Seasoned or unseasoned? Fixins?
You can ask them not to butter the bun. This is a fast food place that will sometimes have Walleye on the menu. They serve stuff like onion melts too. They are one of the better fast food places. They do not use heat lamps or microwave the food either. They have flavor of the day frozen custard.
In & Out.
Tommys.
Whataburger is okay, but Texas fast food is generally overrated. The Sonic near us went out of business, and another nearby is teetering.
In Seattle, I always go to Dick’s.
In Seattle I thought it was Kidd valley
The Other Half swears by Whataburger as the only place to buy the best there is. I, on the other hand, like it homemade if I’m gonna eat it at all. Although, Burger King can keep my attention. 
Seattle has both Dicks, and Kid valley for local fast food chains, we do have 1 Carls Jr. in the greater Seattle area (I am being generous here, its on Covington of all places) that has the incredible 6$ bacon/avocado burger.
Dicks is great with real made in the store fries from these weird things called potatoes and their shakes have ice cream in them of all things
Kid Valley has Garlic fries for the win.
best burger in town in my book for a real burger is probably the Ram in Kent (Kent station) you can get one made with Kobe style beef if you want and they will even serve it to you rare.
Man, you guys are making me hungry!!
Fast-n-cheap: Wendy’s or a double Whopper with cheese from BK
Full Service: Red Robin (extra bonus for their unlimited fries!) or Tumbleweed
I was on sabattical last June & July and missed that one.
Culvers is good.
Out here, Good Times has good food. They’re pretty much just in Colorado, though.
A lot of these burger joints don’t have chains here in the Boston area, or if they do I haven’t seen them. In n Out, Whataburger, Sonic, Red Robin’s, Dick’s, White Castle, the list goes on and on. I swear sometimes I hate living here in New England. It’s like living in a different country, sometimes.
There’s a decent place here in town called “Sweeney’s Retreat”. It’s an Irish pub. They serve really good burgers, but the buns are invariably stale, and the place is kind of dirty. Who knows - maybe if they cleaned up a little the burgers wouldn’t be as good, but a nice fresh bun would put this place in the burger heaven category. Likewise, there was a little hole-in-the-wall bar in another town I lived in in another life that was utterly filthy, but served the greasiest, tastiest burgers around. Both, though, are independent places (not chains).
Seriously, once in your life you need to have a burger from Chris Madrid’s. If anyone is ever in San Antonio let me know and I’ll take you.
Culver’s started up about an hour’s ride from where I live. It’s spreading out from there. Wisconsin is saturated with them, and the nearby states have quite a few. Give them a decade to cover the country. I like other places, but don’t consider them fast food.
Swenson’s IS a reason to visit Akron.
I’ve never had one. In fact I’d never even heard of Johnny Rockets until now. It seems that there are no locations in my area (closest locations are in Seattle and Reno according to their website).
I forgot to mention Red Robin as another chain favorite. That, and Good Wood Barbecue is another one that I like and haven’t seen mentioned yet.