Also we need to have 2 separate burger buckets for fast casual and actual fast food
Fast casual restaurants like Shake Shack and Five Guys have legit patties of thick beef and their burgers are closer to $10 a pop. Fast food joints usually charge half the price for their burgers
Fast food:
Freddy’s and Culver’s are new to my town. I’d give Freddy’s the edge on fries, but the burgers are pretty comparable.
McDonald’s is what I first ate growing up, so hard to disassociate the burger from the memories. Agree with the fries must be hot or they fade badly.
These three are the closest to the house, so when FF burgers are on the menu, they are the choices.
Steak and Shake and A&W were the burger joints on MS field trips. S&S has table service, and has gone down as it was squeezed from FF on price and better quality competitors like 5G without table service. Might not be around 10 years from now.
S&S, Wendy’s & Five Guys are the next nearest to the house. One kid dislikes W since he got sick after eating there one time, so that is normally off list. Haven’t tried their reformulated fries yet. 5G is good, eat there occasionally.
Hardee’s, BK, and Sonic are the next distance away. None are worth driving farther to me. Eaten a fair amount of Hardee’s in rural towns. Chronically slow service.
Two local FF burger chains: Jack’s and Milo’s. Jack’s burger is OK, breakfast was better, menu similar to Hardee’s. Milo’s is limited menu (they only added chicken sandwich in the 2000’s), has a unique sauce that Mrs G doesn’t like, plus fried pies and a locally famous tea you can buy in stores. One Milo’s was close to last job, one of my friends loved it, so we ate there together probably once a week (he did so more frequently).
Recently got a Mooyah, which is chain, think upper FF, but haven’t tried it.
Really, 44 posts in this thread about the cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast, and not yet one post about the Big Kahuna Burger??? They’ve got some tasty burgers!
Full disclosure, I haven’t had a burger from fast food places in years. I’ve pretty much converted to chicken full time if/when I dabble the fast food arena.
I am only rating the burgers, not the other food/fries:
Five Guys - the only one that gives you fresh jalapenos so they go to the top
BurgerFi - maybe I’m a sucker for the overrated more expensive ones
Shake Shack - yep
Wendys
Culvers
McDonalds
Burger King
Hardees
White Castle - originally higher, then I thought twice, this is where it belongs
Whattaburger - This is where I’d say “never again”
In N Out
Steak n Shake - woof
I don’t think I’ve had a burger at any other fast food places
There is a limit. I had a burger at the Mandarin Oriental in DC years ago (conference was there, I’m not normally swanky like that). I bit into it and a full ounce of juice poured out. And I respect the ability to cook that, but it was kind of a nightmare after the bun was saturated. Just like the Wordle on Wednesday, it was MOIST.
Oh, yes, was going to add RR. A sit down, good, on par with 5G at least. Nearest is 25 miles from me, so definitely not worth driving there.
White Castle and its southern cousin Krystal are not quite burger joints, IMO. The thing they serve is really something else than a burger. Called them gut grenades in college. Didn’t stop me from eating a dozen every so often back then.