Fast Food Restaurants That Don't Serve Frozen Beef
Image by Maitane Romagosa and Chineme Elobuike for Thrillist
Welcome to The Fasties, Thrillist'south third-annual fast food awards! The awards feature more than a dozen categories celebrating all the best foods that came out of bulldoze-thru windows over the past year—from the Best Coffee Nuggets to the Best Spicy Chicken Sandwich, and many more. Check out the full list of categories and winners.
While fried chicken sandwiches take been enjoying most of the attention lately, the humble cheeseburger remains the cornerstone of the American fast food experience. It's omnipresent, the hook on which well-nigh fast nutrient empires hang their undoubtedly smelly hats. These cheeseburgers run the gamut—from basic value carte du jour burgers to beloved drive-in icons with rabid cult-like followings.
Burgers have a lot of drive-thru clout. Only who makes the best? To figure it out, nosotros dispatched our nigh trusted fast food experts from around the country to striking each major chain. To avert apples-to-oranges comparisons, we skipped the ultra-basic offerings and express-fourth dimension-but specials, opting for what we sympathise as each restaurant's premium burger, the choice that best defines the menu. Each burger was ordered exactly how it comes—no hugger-mugger carte du jour hacks here—and judged based on its ingredients, aesthetics, freshness, and overall deliciousness. And so nosotros all took a collective nap. Here's how they stacked up...
fifteen. Checkers/Rally's: Cheese Champ
The Build: Gray cafeteria-similar burger patty, American cheese, red onion, shredded lettuce, love apple, pickles, ketchup, mustard, and mayo on a toasted bun
When y'all first unwrap this burger, y'all'll be momentarily pleased past its thickness and heftiness… before you realize there's basically a minor salad of mostly shredded lettuce and onions on acme of the meat. If you flipped it upside down and removed the bun's bottom, it might even look like a salad topped with a beefiness disk. Worse nonetheless, this patty is too sparse and gray (non enough char) to stand confronting the vegetables. This cheeseburger is unworthy of the "Gnaw" title.
14. Dairy Queen Grill & Chill: Two Cheese Palatial 1/three lb. Signature Stackburger
The Build: Shredded lettuce, white onions, pickles, tomato, American cheese and white cheddar cheese, mayo, and ketchup... hiding two dry beefiness patties
Not every Dairy Queen location serves food, but if you practise come up across a DQ with a total kitchen (they're called Grill & Chill locations), then you'll find cheap fast food staples to serve every bit the meal before your Blizzard/dipped cone/Peanut Buster Parfait dessert. Yous tin can't go wrong with crispy chicken strips and fries as function of the "$7 Repast Deal.". However, the aforementioned can't be said for the burger selection. While the cockle-cut dill pickles were a tangy delight, the beef patties on our Stackburger were charred to the betoken of almost-total dryness. Shredded lettuce ordinarily scores a point or two in our book (it prevents the patties, other toppings from sliding equally much), but these lifeless greens added an extra layer of sad to this burger. Be prepared to drown your sorrow in a Choco Credibility Extreme Blizzard.
xiii. A&W: Papa Burger
The Build: Two beef patties with a slice of American cheese on summit of each, A&W Papa Sauce, lettuce, tomato, white onion, and pickles on a manifestly bun
For those who simply associate A&West with root beer floats (fabricated with pure cane sugar!), the closest point of comparison for the Papa Burger is probably the McDonald'south Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Yet A&Westward's burger doesn't rise to the heights of the Aureate Arches' classic. The cheese, sauce, and pickles are doing a lot of heavy lifting to residuum the saltiness and the dryness of the burger, as well as the rather plain bun. Those toppings are good, but this isn't a ranking of pickles and cheese. Stick to the root beer.
12. Burger King: The Whopper
The Build: Iceberg lettuce, white onion, tomato, and cockle cut pickles concealing a wide, thin, flame-kissed patty topped with American cheese; crumbly sesame-seed bun slightly coated in mayo and ketchup
The Whopper used to do the crown proud, a hearty, flame-broiled behemoth stacked high with veggies that inspired frequent pangs of desire in our slightly clogged centre. Only as burgers got bigger, the Whopper seems to accept lost its confidence.
At first, we thought it was a fluke when we got our burger just to find wilted lettuce, tiny tomatoes, and a burger whose char—while genuinely the issue of flames—completely overpowered everything else, even raw onions. It was dry out every bit kindling, withal its minuscule moisture made the stale-tasting bun crumble into a heap. But it wasn't a fluke. Subsequent visits have confirmed this the norm, and now the Whopper reminds us more than of 1 of those reheated gas-station burgers than the 18-carat treat we grew up with. Perhaps it's considering the king diverted the realm's attention to the Impossible Whopper, a genuinely good offering that tastes more like a glory days Whopper than the original does, and of form, the Ch'Rex chicken sandwich, which tops our ranking of the best fast food fried craven sandwiches.
11. White Castle: Cheese Slider
The Build: Tiny steamed bun, tiny square burger with five holes, tiny onions, tiny piece of American cheese, tiny pangs of euphoria, followed by tiny pangs of regret
Scoff if you must, simply y'all've gotta respect a burger for sticking to what it is. Sure, what it is is a square patty punched through with holes and steamed with onions. But at a sure time—generally 2 am while listening to the Beastie Boys—it fills a void. No frills. No bullshit. Whether you lot get them in a case or at the grocery store, White Castle burgers will never be annihilation more than or less than you wait.
x. Del Taco: Double Del Cheeseburger
The Build: Double medium-thick patties, double cheese, taco-style shredded lettuce, tomato slices, diced onions, and Thousand Isle-ish spread underneath, equally is tradition in California
This is a relatively minor offer, and therefore a little inconsequential. The spread is mayo-based, the stacked patties are bland just juicy, the sesame-seed bun is sturdy, and… look, what were we talking about? Oh, right. We kind of forgot about this thing already. You're not here for a burger. You're here for succulent fast food tacos. But big ups for being a identify that has a decent burger to supplement those tacos, as opposed to the standard fast nutrient move of having terrible tacos to supplement mediocre burgers.
ix. Jollibee: Large Yumburger
The Build: Juicy patties topped with cheese, lettuce, tomato, and signature dressing on a squishy bun
Beloved Filipino chain Jollibee is rapidly expanding in the United states of america, but let'due south be real. On a fast food menu featuring incredible fried chicken, hot domestic dog- and assistant ketchup-laced spaghetti, shrimp-spiked panic palabok, and mango manus pies, the Large Yumburger is kind of an afterthought. Information technology's serviceable but bland, every bit if somebody was forced by corporate to put together a burger and just kind of played fast food bingo until a philharmonic of lettuce, love apple, cheese, and mayo filled up the menu. On a menu chock full of character, it commits the key sin of being boring.
viii. Jack in the Box: The Jumbo Jack
The Build: Medium-thick patty topped with American cheese loaded with pickles, lettuce, tomato slices, and diced onions; split top bun swiped with mayo
Jack in the Box gets a lot of attention for its stoner-friendly mashups, mega-stack chicken sandwiches, and the presence of egg rolls and mini tacos where they otherwise have no business existing. Its signature Jumbo Jack is pretty straightforward and milquetoast by comparison, and that'south a skilful matter. Unlike heir to the throne, the Buttery Jack—an unholy mess with garlic butter and Swiss cheese—the Jumbo Jack is standard fare calibrated to hit the condolement food marks. The split-top bun is sturdy, which is a skilful thing, considering this sucker has a surplus of vegetation on superlative. And the burger itself, hugged past slices of American cheese, is pleasantly salty with a slight char that doesn't overwhelm and a little kiss of mayo and ketchup to balance things out. It's a solid burger. Forgettable? Perchance. Simply seeing every bit the remainder of the menu seems patently designed to be consumed while under the influence of memory-compromising substances, information technology's understandable.
7. Carl'southward Jr. & Hardee's: Super Star with Cheese
The Build: 2 charbroiled patties, two slices of American cheese, thick love apple slices, sliced onions, leafage lettuce on bottom, and a seeded bun spread with special sauce and mayo
Carl's Jr. is basically the three-beers-deep grill-dad of fast nutrient burgers. And the Super Star with Cheese is what would happen if said dad decided to make his all-time-possible copycat fast food burger. That ways the lettuce, onion, and tomato are grocery shop-fresh. The patties are charmingly misshapen and over-charred in areas, but undeniably juicy (or greasy… it was hard to tell the difference). That might be a trouble if the fresh-baked, seeded bun wasn't so sturdy. All said, Carl's Jr. burgers are better than they get credit for, even if each bite tastes totally dissimilar.
half-dozen. Wendy'southward: Dave'due south Double
The Build: Two 1/4lb and juicy foursquare patties (considering—*dad joke alert!*—Wendy's doesn't cut corners) topped with onion slices, tomato plant, leaf lettuce, mayo and ketchup, and so crammed between a sturdy, toasted bun
The Baconator remains a strong holdover from America's brief over-obsession with bacon, but Dave's Double remains a banger of simple, well-thought-out burger execution. This thing is generous with the toppings, piling lettuce and tomato on pinnacle of those signature square patties, merely the burger's flavor is never overpowered by the other ingredients. It stands alone... so much and then that even the Unmarried is formidable on its own (the Triple? You crazy.) Wendy'southward has been doing its "never frozen" thing since well before its Twitter feed started shit-talking McDonald'south, and the chasm in quality between it and its many competitors speaks volumes to the difference it makes. There's really nothing hither masking the beef itself. Only a fiddling salt and a lot of juice.
5. McDonald'south: Quarter Pounder with Cheese
The Build: Ultra-juicy and thick 1/4lb patty with lilliputian pockets of grill char; American cheese on the acme and bottom; thick strips of onion; pickles; ketchup and mustard; sesame-seed bun
McDonald's didn't reinvent the wheel when it switched its Quarter Pounder with Cheese to fresh (equally opposed to frozen) meat a couple years dorsum. Simply damned if it didn't tweak a archetype, saving it from the doldrums of a stacked carte du jour and making information technology a star again, probably much to the chagrin of the Big Mac (has-been!).
The build'southward the same every bit it always was, a matter of elementary beauty. The sliced raw onions are notwithstanding thick and bountiful, the pickles still there to give a footling acidic punch. But the existent star is that patty, which is now nigh impossibly juicy and perfectly salty, with a good chew and a trend to get picayune pockets of burnt drippings stuck to information technology, which provide a concentrated blast of savory bliss. It's basically a dopamine shot subconscious betwixt ii slices of American cheese, which also function to forbid bun saturation. It's the comeback child this burger ranking needs, a classic that returned to the spotlight to remind y'all what you were missing.
four. Whataburger: Double Meat Whataburger
The Build: Two Texas-sized, thin grilled patties on a plain bun; tomato plant, lettuce, pickles, and diced onions; cheese upon asking (do this); proprietary mustard
The double-meat version of Whataburger's eponymous sandwich is a Texas icon: 2 five-inch beef patties slapped between toasted buns, topped with tomato, pickles, diced onions, and lettuce, and finished with a smear of Whataburger's obligatory mustard. If you throw cheese into the mix (and you should), the resulting hefty burger seems like almost too much to handle. Of course, whatever Texan will tell you otherwise. Anchored past mustard and melted cheese, the thin-still-wide patties provide a solid stage upon which the mass of fresh toppings tin can shine, even if many of them will inevitably fall out before you're done. If America runs on Dunkin', so Texas undoubtedly runs on Whataburger.
3. Sonic Bulldoze-In: SuperSonic Double Cheeseburger
The Build: Two patties glued together by two slices of American cheese; shredded lettuce and diced onions cutting pocket-sized so can re-bask them when removing them from the cracks in your seat; love apple slices, cockle-cut pickles; ketchup and mayo (by default at present!); standard bun
Sonic's SuperSonic Double Cheeseburger used to come up in ninth place on this ranking. It's safety to say it'south come a long, long manner since the last time we tasted ane. This is all thank you to Sonic'due south somewhat recent, somewhat quiet efforts to revamp its burger lineup. You probably didn't hear much about it when the chain announced that it made "incremental improvements" to every single ingredient it uses for its burgers. Well, at present y'all know. And now y'all know that this is one of the best fast food cheeseburgers out in that location right now. It's a large twenty-four hour period.
Nosotros tasted the difference correct off the bat, with the burger's noticeably improved beefy flavor, which was counterbalanced nicely by the inclusion of acidic ketchup and mayo (they didn't come up standard in the previous version). Maybe we were hallucinating from the spike of sodium coursing through our veins, but even the lettuce tasted fresher. The tomato slices with more tomato plant-y. And perhaps best of all, one of our biggest gripes with Sonic's burgers appears to have been solved: The bun didn't start to split in one-half afterwards only a few bites like previous ones. Not only did we go a meliorate-tasting burger, we also go one that's more structurally sound. Thanks, Sonic.
2. In-Due north-Out Burger: Double-Double
The Build: Spongy bun; two thin, fresh patties topped with American cheese and separated by a strategically placed onion slice; tomato, lettuce, and Animal Sauce on the bottom
Equally its slogan suggests (and reverse to the stance of a quondam editor here), In-Due north-Out is what a hamburger'south all about—and then its Double-Double sits rightfully in our ranking as ane of the top fast food burgers your money can buy. Y'all can utilise the non-so-secret menu to customize it nigh endlessly, only it's perfectly neat without any California code-speak.
The fresh beefiness patties are ground inside In-Northward-Out's own facilities and are delivered fresh—never frozen—to every location. This results in inexplicably juicy patties that marry well with slices of melty American cheese and all the other In-N-Out fixin's that come with a Double-Double: rings of bitter raw onions; plump tomatoes; In-Due north-Out's bright and creamy "animate being sauce" bejeweled with pickle relish; and crisp iceberg lettuce all sandwiched between costly, toasted buns. At that place'south a reason that In-Due north-Out is a mandatory burger for anyone visiting the West Coast. It's affordable, it's accessible, and it's California's beefy, beating heart.
i. Culver's: Double ButterBurger with Cheese
The Build: Two fresh-grilled, manus-formed patties topped with slices of Wisconsin-fabricated American cheese; red onions, pickles, and tomatoes on the lesser; grilled Kaiser-adjacent fluffy bun dabbed with butter
Hailing from Wisconsin—wearing a lightly toasted bun, cloaked with cheese, and dripping with flavor—it's your champion: the omnipotent ButterBurger. Named such due to the buttery grilled buns (though some versions of this uniquely Wisconsin treat are really grilled in melted butter), the burger is on the thin side, but information technology's withal juicy with a texture that complements the toppings and the slight crunch from the toasted bun and shredded lettuce.
You lot'd exist hard-pressed to find a chain that won't boast well-nigh its "loftier-quality" ingredients, only it's absolutely true hither: Y'all won't be getting any flaccid lettuce or translucent tomatoes. Every i of these beauties is made-to-lodge and emerges pipage hot, with its Wisconsin-fabricated cheese calculation a wonderfully balanced touch of sharpness atypical of American cheese. This is the ideal fast food burger, one that feels like it came from a mom due north' pop shop, and whose flavor is all the more transcendent with a side of cheese curds and a frozen custard. Don't know what those are? Don't worry. Culver's is expanding beyond its Midwest base. If you're lucky, "ButterBurger," "concrete," and "curd" will presently be entering your dictionary—and your rima oris—with shocking regularity. At least, we actually hope that for you lot. This burger can't be beat out.
Fast Nutrient Cheeseburgers FAQ
What is the nigh popular fast food burger?
This probably won't come every bit much of a surprise: McDonald's dominates in the United States, with more sales than whatsoever other concatenation.
How long can a fast food burger sit out?
We'll defer to the FDA on this one. According to the federal agency, unrefrigerated nutrient should not be left out for more two hours and that includes your fast food burger. Scarf it down while it'south hot or toss that sucker in the fridge for later.
When is National Cheeseburger Day in 2022?
Mark your calendars, considering National Cheeseburger Twenty-four hour period arrives on Sun, September 18, 2022.
Which fast food chain makes the best salary cheeseburger?
As far every bit nosotros're concerned, bacon cheeseburgers are in a league of their own. It'southward no wonder why several fast food chains take at least one burger piled high with bacon on their menus. So, who makes the best one? Nosotros ate them all to find out and named a winner in our ranking of the best fast food bacon cheeseburgers.
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Source: https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/best-fast-food-burgers-in-america
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