Then what you’re really talking about isn’t the flavor of the burger but the flavor of the sauces and buns. Which puts you way off on the wrong track to my way of thinking. (Tastes, of course, may vary.)
I’ll take a nice thick, juicy burger, medium rare, made from good high-quality beef (not the low-grade-beef-and-filler the fast food places sell).
The best burger I’ve ever had was from a little place on 2nd Ave in NYC, Paul’s.
Listing this as your number one choice costs you all credibility. The Big Mac isn’t a burger. It’s not even FOOD. I’m not convinced it’s even organic.
The mark of a good burger (or at least one such mark) is that ketchup is entirely unnecessary.
I try not to think of McD’s as food. It’s a ‘taste experience’. Sort of like gum. You don’t eat it for the same reasons you eat actual food, you eat it purely for something tasty.
You do know that the Big Mac doesn’t come with ketchup? None is necessary, either.
Fast food burgers are their own category, I agree. I get cravings for In-N-Out, Fatburger and McDonalds.
The Wendys’s near me is poorly run, so I don’t go there anymore. I prefer Jack’s tacos (which are not tacos, the same way that Big Macs are not burgers).
I make burgers at home a lot (using 50% ground sirloin and 50% Italian sausage for the meat). When I make those, I am trying to be better than restaurant burgers - not fast food.
I agree with the main problem with the sit-down burger places - too much bun and beef to get your teeth around it, and you get the gloppy mess instead.
Damn you, I want to argue with this and even Pit your for the slam - but you are too right. We at least have In-N-Out, but after that it gets ugly. We are the home of chain shit restaurants.
:mad:
One more - for those of you in Tulsa:
http://www.ronshamburgersandchili.com/
That is where I stole the idea for the sausage/beef burger. I grew up with the Baber family, and I miss the burgers and chili.
I’m a sucker for several fast food burgers: In N’ Out Double Double, Culvers Butter Burger w/Cheese, the Fatburger, McDonalds double cheeseburger. I’m also starting to grow fond of Five Guys, after having mediocre experiences there before, I’ve finally had some good luck.
To be perfectly honest, I usually prefer fast food burgers to fancy steakhouse or pub burgers. I don’t like 1/2 lb patties. That’s way too much meat for me. I like a small 1/6 pound patty (1/4 will do as a single patty), cooked on a flat-top grill to crispy edges, with ketchup, mustard, pickles, onions. Nothing else.
In the event I do get a pub burger, I like those cooked medium rare with a fried egg on top. Yum yum!
Oddly enough, I can’t stand Burger King or Wendy’s. The latter used to be really good in the 80s (or so my childhood memories inform me), but every time I try to revisit Wendy’s (about once every six months), it’s just terrible. I’m also not a fan of the Big Mac. Give me the double cheeseburger or perhaps a quarter pounder with cheese, but nothing else on that menu.
I knew it would with a lot of people, but what’s the point of making a list unless you’re going to put your ballsiest and most authentic opinions on it? I stand by the Big Mac as the tasiest burger I’ve ever eaten, and repeat that I’ve sampled the gamut of burgers from coast to coast and even a few overseas.
When I was an undergrad I practically lived on Wendy’s Junior Cheese Deluxes. 99 cents? Hell yeah! Two, please.
I agree that fast food joints make the best burgers. If I want something beefy, I’ll get a steak - and at most burger prices at a good restaurant, it’s not that much more expensive. A burger is not about the beef, so much as the whole taste/texture experience. There’s also something intregral about the no table service, so I also disqualify Red Robin, TGIFridays, etc.
That being said…
The Big Mac is almost a perfect piece of food. The flavors, textures, everything is just so perfectly balanced (although I take the pickles off).
White Castle is tremendous, and the Whopper is just wonderful, although I can’t eat them too often.
My #1 - The Baconator from Wendy’s. It’s kinda evolved into a joke, due to how unbelievely unhealthy it is, but it is the best burger I’ve ever had. I only have them on vacation, but I guarantee that trip will include one trip to a Wendy’s
My #1 Small Joint - The Burger Palace at Imperial Palace. Just regular good, cheap food, but the burger straddles that line between homemade and fast food very well. I heartily recommend it next time you go to Vegas…
Weirdest thing I’ve read yet. Ground beef is a fantastic way to deliver good beef flavor in a relatively tender vehicle.
Just don’t go to the Burger King in Dupont Circle, DC. My God they can be awful. I don’t know who is running the place but your Whopper is liable to have been sitting around for a few hours then nuked to oblivion - including the lettuce & tomatoes, etc - when you order it.
A well-run Burger King makes a pretty darn good Whopper though. I much prefer them to McDonald’s.
Carl’s Jr. can be the same way, but if you find a well-managed one, those $6 burgers can be oh so decadent. Big, juicy, greasy, slathered in guacamole, bacon and just about whatever else you’d want.
I’m also a vegetarian (and have no idea why I opened this thread), and I haven’t had a burger in at least ten years. I was curious. The Hardee’s commercials make it look like those are really good burgers. Yet, I notice nobody mentioned Hardee’s here. Does that mean those commercials are lies and their burgers suck?
Please illuminate me.
FTR, I was probably the biggest fan of Quarter Pounders with Cheese, but I did love Big Macs. I never cared much for Whoppers because, IMHO, mayo on beef is an abomination and wrong, wrong, wrong. I’m also interested in how Whataburger stacks up. I love their egg sammich, but try not to eat it more than once every couple months. The grease is horrific, but at least it’s a real egg.
I would put:
-every cut of steak
-carne asada
-prime rib
-stew beef
above ground beef, and only:
-beef ribs
below it.
I cannot believe what i am seeing. FF places DO NOT make great burgers. the reason is, they all use inferior beef, and overcook them. Take some nice fresh ground chuch-form a patty 1" thick-and grill it till the inside is jsut pink-that is a GOOD burger!
Surely you’ve heard the jingle, “have it your way?” I have the ketchup omitted, myself. Custom ordering usually ensures a bit extra freshness, too, if you think they’re pre-making their burgers. It’s usually easy to tell, since there’s a big rack of them sitting behind the cashier.
I forgot about Jackson Hole. So good.
Yes, of course I have, darlin’, but I’m not entirely convinced that their average-aged 17-year-old staff have heard it, judging from the slack-jawed blank stares I’m met with when I start rattling off ‘my way’. I still go to BK to get the Veggie Burger, which is a bit vile unless I custom order. I want it made like a Whopper, but if I say that, I get mayo, so I have to very slowly and carefully list each ingredient that I want on it, and usually several times because… well, I guess repetition is the key to learning (they never get it right the first time) :rolleyes:. (I’m learning to say, “Add cheese…” PAUSE “Add lettuce…” PAUSE… “Add tomato…” so they can find the little button before I roll on to the next item) I think the BK Veg Burger is good if you get all the salad bits on it. I wish they’d flame broil it though… They nuke 'em and they’d be so much better flame-broiled.
I also wish the other fast food joints would follow suit and offer standard veggie menu choices. At Taco Bell it’s easy to get meatless items, but Veggieburger Big Macs? Not so easy to come by. At Chili’s all of their burgers can be made with a black bean burger, so they’re going to have to get my vote for best burger. I’d go for the mushroom swiss black bean burger with lettuce, tomato, onions and pickles.