Maybe your burgers at home don’t include non-beef filler, like Harvey’s do.
I’m another one who thinks it’s a pretty good burger, but if there’s a Whataburger or Braum’s on the way there, I’m eating there instead. The In-N-Out fries suck unbelievably, though. Lazy, crappy fries. I’d rather have the crinkle cut ones Braum’s fries up, by far.
McDonalds fries used to be fantastic. But then they switched from frying them in beef fat to vegetable oil, and they just aren’t the same. They’re pretty good, but not spectacular, like they used to be.
Wendy’s has the best burger to my taste. They also have the never-frozen beef. In-N-Out is okay, but the queue makes it too inconvenient to go there. I’ve found that McDonald’s quarter pounders are good. Those patties are not frozen either.
So, if I want a fast-food burger, I’ll pick Wendy’s if one is close, otherwise it’s McDonald’s, although if I happen to drive past an In-N-Out with a short line I would go there.
What the others said, with the additional caveat that you have to eat them instantly. I’ll allow that they turn cardboard-like faster than any other fries, but in the few minutes just after coming out of the frier, they’re near-perfect. I think they were better yet when fried in beef tallow, but that was what, 30+ years ago? I can’t do a side-by-side to be sure.
Yeah, they changed those patties a few years ago (2018, it looks like – fresh patties and cooked to order). They actually taste like a real hamburger now … which I don’t want. When I go into McDonald’s, I want a McDonald’s burger, not something that actually tastes like a real hamburger, goddammit! Same problem I have with the White Castle 1921 slider. I mean, it’s a perfectly fine little burger, but I want that greasy oniony White Castle taste if I go to White Castle. That’s WHY I go to White Castle.
I think McDonalds uses beef flavor on the fries somehow. There was some bruhaha not too long ago about their fries not being vegan, and they had to disclose all the ingredients and process of creating their fries.
Not to mention the fries. A “regular” order is more than two people can eat, if they’re also having a burger. It’s a huge amount. But the place is expensive. For the same price, I could get a Killerburger that had more meat and the fries were included. Now that was a burger that was hard to finish. So was the full-sized burger at PDX Sliders, which was made from their own combination of meats, ground on the premises. Now my mouth is watering and there’s nothing I can do about it.
I’ve had it in Calfiornia as well; does this make a difference?
I’ve had it near LAX airport and also in or near Santa Barbara-Goleta area. Both seemed the same to me.
Note: My mother-in-law buys us this In N’ Out meal when we visit California and it is by no means bad, even those fries I said were pretty substandard. I totally would eat there again. Just not, you know, remarkable in any way other than not being nationwide.
Heheeh, get the 2 cheeseburger meal, then. They haven’t changed those a bit!
But I mean, it still tastes like a Quarter Pounder to me, just an unusually fresh one.
Sinful confession coming up. I truly have not been to McDonald’s for a long time, much preferring our local Burger King when I feel like fast food. But I have in the past – and probably will in the future – ordered three McD’s kids’ cheeseburgers at a time. These are not hamburgers or cheeseburgers in any meaningful sense of the word – they are a uniquely McD’s fast-food thing. But in their own right, their greasy unhealthy high-fat and high-sodium goodness is a treat when I’m in the mood for that sort of thing. Fortunately for my health, that isn’t often.
I go for a McDouble when I’m in the mood for McDonald’s (or sometimes the spicy crispy chicken). I like when they have their jalapeno version of it around. There was one summer when they just introduced them that I just went crazy having them almost every day for two weeks at different McDonald’s around town. When they were on, they were fire (and they were cheap.) But lots of inconsistency.
McRonalds, Trendy’s, Whatabogusburger, In-N-Out-N-In-N-Out-N-In-N-Out Burger, et al—bah humburger!
If you want the very best fast food, you’ve got to get in your Tesla Timemobile and drive to Gino’s Hamburgers in mid-Atlantic America, in the 1960s/70s.
Burgers AND KFC, all under one roof! Yes, you heard me right. Gino’s acquired the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise for the mid-Atlantic States way back in 1962! And, this was back when KFC chicken tasted like chicken, not Kentucky Fried Chickenshit.
Think you’ve got to take out a second mortgage to purchase a bucket of chicken? Nope, a bucket of fried bird carcass pieces was just $3.50 at Gino’s back in the day. Heck, you can’t even buy a chicken beak for that nowadays!
Were Gino’s Hamburger hamburgers good, you ask? The Gino Giant!? The Gino Sirloiner!? Is a bear catholic? Does the Pope shit in the woods? You bet they were good!!! In fact, they were the best! The Gino Giant predates the Big Mac, and it smacks Mac’s butt in every conceivable way.
And, Gino’s Hamburger’s jingle was by far the cleverest, most existential, most transcendental jingle ever witnessed by humankind: “Everybody goes to Gino’s, 'cause Gino’s is the place to go!” That pretty much says it all, in a namaste nutshell.
And, unlike virtually all other fast food restaurant commercials, which are historically and painfully crass, low class, and annoying, Gino’s Hamburger commercials were suave, sophisticated, and high class.
Gino’s Hamburger was fast food’s high-mark haute cuisine.
…unless we get back into our Timemobile and drive a few years further back, to the Horn & Hardart automat.
Yes. Great burgers, maybe the best in fast food. And I was a line cook slapping burgers and breakfast for a year.
The fries- meh.
I concur. The fries are good, tho.
Spurlock is a liar and a fraud.
True. Like KFC’s gravy.
Said Sanders himself:
My God, that gravy is horrible. They buy tap water for 15 to 20 cents a thousand gallons and then mix it with flour and starch and end up with pure wallpaper paste. And I know wallpaper paste, by God, because I’ve seen my mother make it.
To the “wallpaper paste” they add some sludge and sell it for 65 or 75 cents a pint. There’s no nutrition in it and the ought not to be allowed to sell it.
A bunch of people seemed to have claimed that it may be better in California due to fresher stuff, I think. So noting that my disappointing meal was in Cali
I grew up in Los Angeles and have always had a soft spot for In-N-Out. When I moved to northern California with my dad it’d be many years before I could revisit a restaurant.
I moved further north to SW Oregon in middle school.
Several years ago In-N-Out opened their first location in Oregon, just a 20 minute drive from where I lived. I went one time after work and was greeted with a long line. I did finally get my order in and the food tasted about as I remembered.
One thing I’ve noticed with their food is that it tastes a lot better when fresh, and once it starts to cool down the tastiness deteriorates pretty quickly, more so than with food from other chain burger joints.
Now I live in Washington and the one nearest to me is in Keizer, OR, about an hour’s drive away. Maybe on my next trip south I’ll stop by there if the line isn’t too long.
In N Out is awesome, including their fries and shakes, despite the dose of the ol time religion in every order.
Notaburger sucks. I had a patty melt one time, and it tasted like they rolled it in salt before they cooked it. Their burgers are blah. Only the hatch green chili burger is any good, but it is rarely available, and only in season (not this season thought).
Wendys is like cheapo McDonalds. Gah.
5 Guys is overpriced crap. If it cost three bucks, it would only be an OK burger.
what I like about Wendy’s is their steak fries for breakfast, but I wish they’ add to lunch/dinner
actually, McD had to change fries flavor because a Sikh complained (if you don’t want beef products, why go to McD which specializes in meat–you can get fries at KFC!)