I just remembered that Dairy Queen also has sternoburgers.
White Castle has great fries, but the little greaseballs they call “burgers” :eek::eek: DH loved them. He grew up in Chicago so they may be an acquired taste.
There may be an aspect to that, but I certainly know people who love them (my Hungarian ex-girlfriend whenever she visited would load up on them) even not having grown up with them. Like I said, it’s best not to think of them as hamburgers, but rather their own thing. If you don’t particularly like onions, though, they’re not for you. That’s kind of the defining flavor of a proper slider. (Also, growing up, it was my Polish-born parents who loved them and introduced me to them, so no cultural association or having grown up with them for them, either.)
What’s odd is now White Castle has Impossible Burgers (a vegan burger) that actually tastes more than a typical American hamburger than their sliders do. (Impossible Burgers are actually pretty impressive and the closest I’ve had to a vegan burger tasting like beef to me, but it depends on who is doing the cooking and how well they’re cooked. They’re not as good as some of the Youtube videos I’ve seen where the host says they taste almost indistinguishable from beef, but if I were at a party and you handed me the burger without saying anything and it was cooked correctly, I’m not entirely sure I would notice. Certainly, they taste better than some of the poorer quality beef burgers I’ve had.)
Is your heart beating in rhythm? Are your arteries unclogged? Do you lack a coronary stent? Is your type II diabetes still in remission? Gentlemen I offer the Checkers’ Baconzilla…
We stopped for coffee at McDonalds a lot in the afternoon during our trip around the country. When there was a board, I got the coffee I wanted. When I had to give the order to the cretins behind the counter, I never did. So I’m a fan.
When I was in high school, there was a Burger Chef right across the street that was a big hangout after school for a lot of us, but not me. I remember thinking how France should sue for misappropriation of the word “chef.”
That’s where they started, although they expanded to Arizona a while ago, as Sitnam alluded to. When I was working for a credit card processor, the chain was one of our bigger clients and the managers there had a reputation with us as being as dumb as a box of rocks (example call: “My credit card machine is smoking; what should I do?”). I was asked once by a cow-orker if I’d ever eaten there. “Nope; I don’t want somebody that stupid in charge of my food.”
Therefore I can’t speak about the quality of their offerings.
I went to a Frisch’s Big Boy a while back and ordered one of their Big Boys (the burger of which the Big Shef and Big Mac are copies). I remembered them as delicious. What I got was close to inedible. The patties were dry and cold, the bun was stale. Maybe that visit was just an aberration. I will have to try again some day.
Burger Chef was horrible and if they were still around, would win this thread handily.
I’m with the Whopper-haters. Too sloppy, not at all a road burger… and a hamburger you can’t eat driving a car better have something going for it beyond “flame-broiled”.
Whataburger has the same problem - shredded lettuce and diced onions covered with mustard make it more difficult than necessary to eat one-handed while driving. Leafed-lettuce and sliced onions are far better for the road warrior - what the hell is Whataburger thinking? Driving up US 83 between Abilene and Amarillo and you have to worry about mustarded onions falling in your lap? Seriously?
Big Mac fails because it, too, is messy.
Looking at the contenders, going to say the Whopper. It is a hamburger so bad, it wasn’t even worth driving past a McDonalds to get a Whopper for $.10 a few months ago.
I’ve had horrible burgers at both Red Robin and Outback Steakhouse. Both places insist on over-salting / over-seasoning the meat. I love burgers , which is why I ordered them at these places, but these were like salt licks. Practically inedible. I also frequently have trouble getting a true “rare” burger at these places, but I can deal with slightly over-cooked, even medium. But why do strip mall parking lot chain restaurants over salt everything?
My comment after a party at Outback…”I guess Australian food is just like American food, only way saltier”.
To be able to custom make their burgers, they have the patty precooked. If they hit a slow point you might get one that has been held on the grill. They are best when they have a good flow of customers.
Caveat: their prep method could have changed since I had reliable insight.
Big Mac for me, too. What’s up with the extra bun piece? And I’ve never been a fan of the secret sauce. Give me a Hardees Thickburger or even a Wendy’s anything over a Big Mac.
Forty years ago when I had my first Big Mac, I thought it was the greatest thing ever.
Nowadays when I get one, all I taste is shredded lettuce and bread.
I don’t know what changed, the Big Mac or me. Probably both of us.
McD’s to me had 2 signature sandwiches the one for show not for eating, the Big Mac, and the one that’s the ‘go to’ signature the quarter pounder (w/ cheese).
Big Mac, Whopper (prefer the junior), Wendy’s, White Castle. I love them all! Just depends on my mood. I also have a couple of diner-style holes-in-walls near me (White Rose and White Diamond) that also have tasty burgers. And each of these is different, so I appreciate all of them. Most franchises have little control over the quality of each location (McDonald’s is the exception), so you have to know which locations to avoid. I can’t remember the last time I had a truly bad burger. Every once in a while, some kid screws up the optimal condiment mix, but that’s the risk with fast food.
We’re on the Las Vegas strip right now and just stopped at the McDonald’s for a cheap soda and to see what a McDonald’s on the Las Vegas strip looks like (pretty much like any other except for the security guard at the door). Anyway, they had their inhouse music playing, and an announcer came on and said “When’s the last time you enjoyed a Big Mac?” I burst out laughing because I couldn’t remember if I ever really enjoyed one.
My (other) contender is Hardee’s classic quarter pound burger. Even with no toppings the burger is so greasy, and the bun so soft, that when they add mayo the whole thing is a slippery gooey mess that’s impossible to hold and eat. I like the taste ok but I don’t like having to wash my arms after eating there.
They have 6 Checkers in Vegas. I’ll try that when I visit at the end of the month.
Big Macs.
I have had 5 Big Macs in my life. The first three were in my teens. One on a bus trip with my school and we all had to get big macs. My meat was badly undercooked. About 3 years later I had one on a trip in California… also sort of raw. The third years later in Montreal Quebec, was actually physically cold inside. (this was all in the 80s)
It was about 15 years before I ever wanted to try a big mac again. I had one, it was properly cooked but I found it greasy and I did not enjoy it. About 6 years ago I had a weird food craving and tried it again. That was the best of them all, and it was merely not completely revolting. Maybe I will have another in a few years, but I really don’t care if I have one or not.
My family loves A&W but I only really like the teen burger. I definitely prefer Wendys if I must do fast food.
Out of the national chains I have to say the Big Mac is the worst, if only because that’s not really what I’m after when I want a burger.
Wendy’s burgers are bad because yeah, as another poster mentioned they’re cooked in big batches on the grill ahead of time, then held on the cooler side of the flat top until they start to dry out or are ordered. The buns aren’t warmed at all - no toasting or anything, just straight out of the bag - then combined with a pile of refrigerated toppings and what you have is a cold, dry burger. If you ordered it with cheese, there’s a layer of congealed grease between your cheese slice and the meat. Just yech.
I have to take a stand for the dear departed Burger Chef. The Big Shef was a fine copy of the Big Boy and was available for years before the Big Mac. The Burger Chef Funmeal was copied and became the Happy Meal. Burger Chef had the Works Bar where you could dress up your burger of choice just how you wanted it. Their burgers were flame broiled, not cooked on a flat top.
I miss Burger Chef.
I don’t think the Frisco Burger at Hardee’s is their signature, but when it is done right (the toast has a nice crispy layer, the sauce/cheese is hot and gooey, the bacon crisp, the tomatoes cool and fresh) it can’t be beat. It’s one of the few foods in this thread that cannot be improved on at home with even the freshest of ingredients, it just wouldn’t be the same.
Even at a gastro pub I’ll order their Patty Melt to be like a Frisco Burger and it always just makes me wish I lived closer to a Hardee’s.
For whatever it’s worth, White Castle is currently the only fast food chain selling Impossible burgers and it’s the best thing on their menu. They’re still small, but the patty is much thicker and it’s much closer to a “pub slider” than the classic WC.
I’m not a vegetarian, but those WC Impossible sliders have become possibly my favorite fast food burger out there. Chewy little umami bombs…