I especially love the taste of the meat at Burger King. I often eat it without cheese to get that bbq flavor.
Any other place though, I need cheese to kill the taste of the meat.
The cheese on most hamburgers is an insult to the taste buds. It’s just plain bad American cheese. I’m not opposed to good cheese on a hamburger, but no one really serves good cheese.
Never a cheeseburger unless the meat is particularly bad (think British frozen supermarket burgers).
In the case of a decent hamburger, you have a chunk of delicious fat and protein that tastes like A. Why add some other delicious fat and protein that tastes like B?
Exactly. The burger is merely a means of conveying the cheese to the mouth. A tasty conveyance, but so.
Back when I ate meat it would be cheeseburgers all the time, and I’d always lift up the top bun, put fries on and put the bun back.
Now I do the same except with veggie burgers.
Now, don’t get me wrong - I love cheeseburgers just as much as the next red blooded 'Murrican. But the cheese can, and often does, overpower the taste of the beef. And the taste of good beef is, you know, why I eat burgers in the first place.
Look, all I’m saying is that hamburgers shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. In fact, the recipe for the best burger I’ve ever eaten is 100% cheese-free.
Cheeseburger, cheeseburger. But I prefer swiss cheese, not the usual American, which isn’t even cheddar, but a poor facsimile.
Missed the edit window, so I’ll add:
What the printed recipe above leaves off (but what is shown during this TV episode) is the thin film of mayo that Alton schmears on the bottom bun, followed by a healthy grind of black pepper over the mayo. Place the burger on top (and, if you’re me, top that with a bracing slice of raw onion), and the juices from the perfectly cooked burger will combine with the pepper and mayo to produce a heavenly sauce that complements the burger perfectly. Mmmmm!
Also (and this is JMO, of course): Cheeseburgers are for kids, hamburgers are for adults.
So cheese is for kids and you outgrow the passion for it?
Tell that to Wisconsin. 
I know, I do that too and kick myself. Why on earth do they come standard with no cheese? It makes no sense at all - I’m an American, I like a little extra fat and dairy on everything I eat! Obviously!
No thanks. 
I voted “depends on my mood” but in I generally prefer a hamburger.
There are those days though, gotta eat a cheeseburger.
I don’t mind cheese on a burger, but not when eating out, normally. In restaurants, cheese adds a lot of fat and not much flavor, since they generally go for the blandness of American or mild cheddar. Why anybody would eat a fast food burger is a mystery to me. At home, I use sharp cheddar which gives some counterpoint.
Make mine CHEESEBURGER, please.
Fascinating, that the “no cheese” answers include both “American is too bland” and “cheese overwhelms the flavor of the meat”. Personally, I think that the flavor of the cheese (even American, though cheddar is better) complements the taste of the meat, improving both.
The only time I’ll ever have a burger without cheese is when cheese isn’t available. And granted, I’ve had some pretty good burgers that way. But they would have been even better with cheese.
Sometimes I get overwhelming urges for a McDonald’s cheeseburger, and if it can’t be staved off, I’ll just have to have a few Doritos Cheeseburgers At Night chips. But if I get any burger, anywhere, with American cheese, I try to remove half of it, as I find it overwhelming. Just a little cheese for me. (Though my favorite ‘cheeseburger’ is a patty melt, with fried onions and swiss cheese, on grilled rye bread.)
Dang. Now I’m getting hungry.
Depends on my mood: most of the time I’ll take a hamburger over a cheeseburger, but every now and then I really want cheese. I get dinner from McDonald’s way more often than I should (it’s on the way home from the dog park! I’m weak [and I don’t cook]!), and my typical order is two hamburgers and a 4-piece of mcnuggets. Their cheeseburgers are edible, but I much prefer their hamburgers.
I lived in Yorkshire for a couple of years as a kid, and always thought a chip buttie was just fries (i.e., chips) and bread. No burger. Does it vary?
I almost always prefer my hamburger without cheese. But there are rare times when I’ll order cheese: most commonly when I’m having mushrooms on the burger and need the cheese to hold them in place. Or if I can get blue cheese or pepper jack. But American or Cheddar cheese on a burger? blech, send it back.
I haven’t eaten ground beef since I saw Food, Inca month ago, but before that I would have burgers at least three or four times a week if not more. Despite the above Wimpy quote, I almost always prefer a burger w/ cheese on it.
Well, I will eat cheese on a hamburger, if Swiss is available, so “No Cheese Ever!” doesn’t apply to me. That said, I haven’t had an actual hamburger in months.