I’m kind of torn between In-and-Out and Whataburger. They’re both pretty damned good for fast food burgers. I may be clouding my In-and-Out memories with nostalgia for my California trips, while Whataburger is about 1/4 mile from my house, so it’s hard to say.
For sit-down, it’s also hard to say… there are some local joints I absolutely adore(Dallas: Twisted Root, JG’s, Jake’s, Ball’s. Houston: Texas Burger Palace, Cliff’s, Pappas), but for national chains, Fuddruckers is hard to beat, I’ll admit.
What kills me is the same place that will serve you a rare steak won’t serve you a rare burger most of the time- is there a perceived safety difference in steak vs burger?
Yes. A steak is a relatively solid piece of meat; any bacterial contamination that occurs after the cow is slaughtered will be found on the surface of the meat; this bacteria is killed by cooking, even for a rare steak.
Now take that same steak & chop/grind it into burgers, and the bacteria that was on the surface is now distributed throughout the burger. Cooking will still sterilize the surface of the burger, but the interior of a rare or medium rare burger won’t get hot enough to kill off any bacteria that may be inside.
I left Red Robin off my list simply because of their “Pink or no pink” policy for burgers. on the rare (heh) occasion you can get one that isnt a hockey puck I do love their Royal burger.
For fast food, Harvey’s (which I believe is a Canada-only chain) has the best burgers. I believe that you can only get a better burger by making them yourself.