# Overrated food and drink (brands) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [October 12, 2023, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515 "2023-10-12T11:40:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/121 "2023-10-14T22:39:05Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Both Five Guys fries and In-N-Out fries are war crimes. At least In-N-Out has decent to excellent burgers. I’ve never had one at Five Guys that was worth writing home about. The two chains have locations basically across the street from one another right at the freeway exit for my town. I usually skip both of them and go to [Baker’s](https://www.bakersdrivethru.com/menu/) instead, which is between the two I’m not kidding when I say a burger at Wendy’s is better or equal to In N’ Out. McDonald’s burgers are pretty pathetic, but a nice single or bacon burger at Wendy’s outdoes any burger at In N’ Out. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/122 "2023-10-14T22:41:16Z")
_Non gustabus_ and all that. Wendy’s doesn’t even make my Top 10. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/123 "2023-10-14T22:43:39Z")
Five Guys has chopped green pepper as an optional condiment, which I don’t think any other fast food chain does. I love chopped green pepper on a burger. So that, by itself, makes it a top burger chain. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/124 "2023-10-14T22:51:20Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > _Non gustabus_ and all that. Wendy’s doesn’t even make my Top 10 What are your thoughts on Culvers? Probably my top pick for a fast food place. ---
**Author:** ![mtnmatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/125 "2023-10-14T22:54:12Z")
WRT mustard on burgers, the In-n-Out “animal style” burger is fried in mustard and served with pickles and grilled onion (I leave out L&T and spread). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/126 "2023-10-14T22:57:19Z")
Never had them. I’d give them a try if I ever saw one - they sound interesting. (To **Mahaloth**. Animal-style I’ve had. Lots.) If I was going by sheer number eaten, Farmer Boys and Del Taco would be my Top 2. That’s because they are between home and work, so I default to one or the other. #1 is a LA area chain known more for their pastrami than their burgers, but a custom burger from [The Hat](https://thehat.com/locations/) is what I dream of at night. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/127 "2023-10-14T23:01:44Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Farmer Boys and Del Taco would be my Top 2. I personally find Del Taco’s burger to be an inferior knockoff of In-n-Out, and they don’t even have pickles. Fortunately, the rest of their menu is consistently good. Miles better than Taco Bell, and generally less pricy. I eat there way more than is good for me, since there’s one just across the street from my work and they almost always have some kind of good coupons or promos on the app. ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/128 "2023-10-15T00:34:58Z")
I wasn’t impressed with Shake Shack burgers. And I went there in the middle of the afternoon and I still had to wait too long for that mediocre burger. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/129 "2023-10-15T00:51:55Z")
> [@MagicEyes](#): > > I wasn’t impressed with Shake Shack burgers Ditto, although the one time I went to one (also in Vegas) I thought the cheese sauce they put on their cheese fries was pretty good. At this point, if you’re a regional fast food chain and you don’t have a location on or near the Strip, what the hell are you even doing? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/130 "2023-10-15T00:59:20Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Dunkin Donuts used to be a donut chain with pretty good coffee. Now it’s a coffee chain with donuts of whatever quality. That’s it. When they baked in-store, they had better donuts and a better selection. Now, their selection and their best donuts (chocolate cream and cherry cake) are nowhere to be found. They cut back drastically when they added muffins. Clearly donuts are not as popular, but they don’t give any reason for them to be popular. I will note that DnD advertised “the World’s Best Coffee” in the 60s (and before), so the stress on coffee isn’t a change. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/131 "2023-10-15T01:18:25Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > > [@MagicEyes](#): > > > > I wasn’t impressed with Shake Shack burgers > > Ditto, although the one time I went to one (also in Vegas) I thought the cheese sauce they put on their cheese fries was pretty good. They’re an NYC thing that’s spreading. Here in FL they’re big due to all the displayed NYCers. My take is: “Totally gross, but an extra $8 just because New York”. Went a couple times, won’t be going back. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/132 "2023-10-15T01:20:22Z")
Any opinions on Steak N Shake? I know that their milkshakes are handmade fresh and not from a machine. I know they have daily shake happy hours when they are half price. Their shakes are great. Sadly, I couldn’t visit Steak N Shake before I became allergic to red meat. They used to have posters with Roger Ebert waxing poetic about their burgers. Are they as good as he claimed? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/133 "2023-10-15T01:27:32Z")
Nope. The shakes are good and their advertising was (is?) great. Their burgers & fries are … scruffy for lack of a better term. I’d call them 1960s typical. ---
**Author:** ![tymmawr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/45deac/32.png) [@tymmawr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tymmawr)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/134 "2023-10-15T01:27:43Z")
The year: 1976 Tym and friend Sludgepile hitchhike from Ohio to California with an extended stop in Estes Park Colorado. In Estes Park a mythical (twasn’t distributed in Ohio at the time) 12- pack of Coors is illegally purchased and consumed. (I was 16 my travelling companion Sludgepile also WAY underage)These were the old “thumb slicer” cans and I remember thinking that short of the innovative can design, THAT was cool, it was better than PBR but not much. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/135 "2023-10-15T03:18:41Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > According to the author of the Steamed Hams scene, so somebody with high fast food burger credentials, the best fast food burger is at Culver’s. Our kid brought a friend home from NYC and she had to try Culver’s (loved it, even went back … _after_ she’d checked ✅ Fish Fry and ✅ Supper Club off her _Midwest Delicacies_ list). If I’m on the road, I’ll stop and grab their Snack Pack: a small burger (tastes like right off the grill), fries (very potato-y), and… the best Diet Root Beer I’ve ever tasted. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/136 "2023-10-15T06:14:13Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > Where I grew up, southern Maine, near OOB,… I had to look that up. Old Orchard Beach? > [@silenus](#): > > The two chains have locations basically across the street from one another right at the freeway exit for my town. I usually skip both of them and go to [Baker’s](https://www.bakersdrivethru.com/menu/) instead, which is between the two. So, the Baker’s is on the median, then? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/137 "2023-10-15T08:48:31Z")
lol id take it lol ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/138 "2023-10-15T12:56:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > However, McDonald’s still has its essential properties of consistency, value and cleanliness going for it. People keep repeating this as if it is true. I’ve had really shit burgers from McDs from a number of different locations in the uk. Crap bun. Crap burger. It is possible that it is it true in the US. Perhaps even true worldwide about 20 years ago. But there are plenty of awful burgers to be had with this chain in the UK, and this is long since changed. They are my last choice, and I use to live out of hotel in the UK where the food choice was end of day sandwich from Tescos or McDs, and I ate McDs perhaps twice in nine months (both times because there was a voucher). ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/139 "2023-10-15T13:19:06Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > > [@carrps](#): > > > > Mustard is a southern thing? > > I just assumed so because once I move from Texas getting mustard on your burger was as rare hen’s teeth. A quick Google search seems to confirm it. Not at McDonald’s. They make their standard burgers the same way all over the country, with ketchup **and** mustard. I worked at a McDonald’s in Illinois for several years back in the 1980s, and having made thousands of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and quarter pounders, I can definitively state that the standard burger had ketchup, **mustard** , pickles, and onions (reconstituted onions for the small hamburgers/cheeseburgers and fresh chopped onions for the quarter pounders). I have since eaten at McDonald’s all over the country over the ensuing decades (including New England where I now live), and the standard burgers are still made this way: with ketchup and mustard (along with pickles and onions). ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overrated-food-and-drink-brands/991515/140 "2023-10-15T13:27:36Z")
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