Basically the burger that the place is famous for or is the one in almost all the advertisements that you think is either terrible or completely forgettable. People who don’t like or eat fast food need not apply.
California resident here so my examples of signature sandwiches are from there
McDonalds - Big Mac
Burger King - Whopper
Wendys - Double Stack (Debatable, they introduced “Dave’s Hot N Juicy Burger” in 2011 but the Double Stack still gets a lot of coverage)
In-N-Out - Double-Double
Carls Jr - Famous Star
Jack in the Box - Jumbo Jack
Del Taco - Double Del
Add your own if you want
But overall I think the Jumbo Jack is the worst signature sandwich, mainly because it really doesn’t add anything special. It’s just a “deluxe” burger (patty, pickles, onions, lettuce, tomato, and cheese) and it’s “gimmick” is that it has TWO slices of cheese. Everyone else at least either adds secret sauce, another patty, or makes the patty much bigger than the normal patty. But nope, the Jumbo Jack’s only difference from their normal Cheeseburger is the two pieces of cheese along with lettuce and tomato. As you can tell, I also don’t think too highly of the normal Jack in the Box sandwich either.
For me, it’s BK. I just hate that “flame-broiled” taste. Whatever it is, it tastes oddly chemical to me, like somebody dumped lighter fluid on a grill and cooked a burger on it before it cooked off. Yuck.
Never had Jack in the Box or Del Taco. They would have to be pretty bad to be worse than a Whopper. Long ago when I was a young dinosaur the regular BK burgers were better, but the Whopper has always been a sloppy mess with a lame soggy burger-like substance in the middle.
I’m another one. I got sick from a BK hamburger when we were on vacation a few years ago. I tasted the sterno* during the burger’s way back up a few hours later. I’ve been extremely sensitive to it ever since. No BK or Wendy’s for me. Even stomach acid can’t kill that stuff.
Asuka, I’m with you on the Jumbo Jack, but I really like the Bonus Jack when they have it for a few weeks a year. It has some kind of special sauce, I think.
I would consider the Dave’s Single to be a “signature” burger more so than the Double Stack, but if we’re going with the Double Stack, I’d call that the worst since it’s small and basic.
Otherwise, the Whopper - it’s good in theory, but they tend to be sloppy and have way too much mayo on them.
I’d also argue against In-n-Out and Del Taco being on this list, as they’re west coast chains first and foremost with a far smaller national footprint than, say, Dairy Queen or Sonic.
White Castle/Krystal. There’s just nothing there. I mean, I will enjoy one every now-and-then, but that’s because there’s not one located within 100s of miles of me. I can fool myself into considering them somewhat of a treat, since they are so scarce.
BK, if for no other reason than that mayo doesn’t belong on a burger any more than beetroot does. Both are signs of Moral Decay and Societal Degradation.
I love White Castle, but it’s also one of those things that really should be a separate category, in my opinion. I mean, yes, they’re nominally hamburgers, but they’re different enough in their cooking process (more-or-less steamed over onions) that I just consider them “sliders” (for me “sliders” and “mini-burgers” are two different things. Krystal’s would be sliders. There’s a bunch of ma-and-pop places in New Jersey that do sliders as well. 100% of the burgers I’ve had at bars advertised as “sliders” were not sliders to me.)
Interesting to see so many Wendy’s votes as worst. Once again, I thought I was the only one who felt that way about Wendy’s. I go to Wendy’s for their Spicy Chicken sandwich. I had memories of Wendy’s being my favorite of the Big 3 (McD, BK, Wendy’s) back in the 80s, but over the last 20 years, each time I’ve been to Wendy’s and had a hamburger, I was sorely disappointed. McD’s has actually become my favorite of that bunch, with Wendy’s a distant second, just ahead of BK.)
