worst fast-food burger joint

I worked at McDonalds when I was 16, and while it was the worst job ever (the drive-thru), I still have the Fender Deluxe Reverb amp that I bought with $3.42/hr or whatever the fuck it was, so there's that

did you play it while on the clock

"with Andy, you get service and SOLOS"

One of my coworkers used to keep his McUniform shirt in an old mayo jar so it would be extra wrinkled when he arrived for work

We also used to suck all the nitrous oxide out of the whipped cream cans and then hide the empties in the walk-in cooler

Review Brah agrees that BK is the saddest, worst and he is very trustworthy!

https://i.redd.it/d6l4d1cnxygz.png

burger king definitely the worst of these in terms of actual food, tho you used to be able to get cherry and coke ICEES there! carl's jr also pretty bad. i agree that in n out has bad fries (they're only edible if you eat them in the car immediately after getting them; as soon as they cool off, they're cardboard), but i think the animal style burger is good enough to merit their high reputation. shake shack is my favorite of any of these.

availability of veggie burgers at burger king over the past decade makes me sing their praises to the skies

yeah, to their credit BK did roll out veggie burgers pretty early on

incidentally i won't sully this poll with my vegetarian opinions

I've heard anecdotally that Jack in the Box's tacos are more or less vegetarian... they have a 'meaty' filling but they don't actually claim it's meat

thats been the legend since the 90s lol i dont think its true tho

ultimately my first choice here is McDonalds, nothing there registers to me as actual food. like if I was blindfolded and given one of their hamburger patties I don't know if I'd be able to identify what it was. that said I do love the McChicken even if it doesn't really taste like chicken. or anything else for that matter.

Legit voted for In-N-Out as well because the quality gap between how they're perceived vs what they actually are is massive.

― Milm & Foovies (Eric H.), Tuesday, December 7, 2021 1:03 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

When I was in California a couple years ago, I stopped at an In-N-Out thinking, ok, this is raved about, eager to check it out. It was slightly better than Wendy's. Baffled by the hype.

I've heard anecdotally that Jack in the Box's tacos are more or less vegetarian... they have a 'meaty' filling but they don't actually claim it's meat

― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, December 7, 2021 1:15 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

at BK we used to have tacos that were 2 for a buck. I guess the whole goal was to be cheaper than Taco Bell which is a hell of a thing to aim for. I fucking hated them because they were so hard to make, the shell only pried open like half an inch and would often just break immediately. and people would order like 12 at a time. anyway they didn't taste too bad honestly but the meat was like this brown paste and I often wondered if it was even meat at all

in n out is dope yall weirdos... their stores are always in good shape and the food is always fresh as fuck

In'n'Out has a somewhat limited menu but I don't know all the cheat codes

lol the in n out voters itt are classic ilx 'thinking too hard' votes. only one of these places has served me still-frozen food and that was burger king.

In-N-Out's "secret menu" is akin to asking Taco Bell guy to squeeze one of every sauce packet onto your meal. it's part of what makes In-N-Out dogshit.

yes but the poll is titled 'worst fast-food burger joint' and in n out is clearly not the worst

At DQ, we served people still-frozen food and they loved it (the ice cream, yes, but occasionally a chicken strip).

A while back I stopped at a McDs after many years of not going there and the quarter-pounder I had was way better than I remembered. Turns out that they had recently improved how they were cooking the meat, and had seen significant sales increases as a result. The fries were worse than I remembered though.

https://i.redd.it/3yfg7ctrhmv71.jpg

The fries were worse than I remembered though.

I think they were forced to remove the horse fat

it was beef fat, because a rich guy had a heart attack and sued

at BK we used to have tacos that were 2 for a buck. I guess the whole goal was to be cheaper than Taco Bell which is a hell of a thing to aim for. I fucking hated them because they were so hard to make, the shell only pried open like half an inch and would often just break immediately. and people would order like 12 at a time. anyway they didn't taste too bad honestly but the meat was like this brown paste and I often wondered if it was even meat at all

A friend of mine claimed to have worked at Taco Bell corporate HQ and said that TB got a fair amount of their beef by pressure-washing it off of beef skulls. Waste not want not and all that.

Oh right I'm thinking of the McRib:

McDonald’s has long claimed the mysterious meaty-substance inside the McRib is pork-shoulder, but new DNA evidence from Consumer Reports reveals McDonald’s savory little secret: The McRib is made from horse meat.

this thread was destined to result in a tangle of horse meat conspiracies and accusations

Yes McDonald's fries changed the fat and got significantly worse. Can't stand the smell of being in a McDonald's anymore and absolutely will not eat their fried offerings but I do think they bring some decent sandwich game, especially at breakfast. I get drive-thru or takeout. As a 50-year-old American human, I can simply eat McDonald's as a medicine for hunger. I know what to expect, it's easy to eat, I am not disappointed. Not a gourmet experience but by no means the worst.

I can eat a burger from Steak & Shake, Wendy's, Roy Rogers, Sonic, In & Out, or Five Guys without complaint (which is not to say that it always sparks joy, just that I can consume their offerings without being deeply sad afterwards).

Hence I voted for White Castle, which is uniformly bad & hated

The rest I have either not tried or don't remember well enough to opine

i'm loving it (this thread)

lol the in n out voters itt are classic ilx 'thinking too hard' votes. only one of these places has served me still-frozen food and that was burger king.

― Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Tuesday, December 7, 2021 2:33 PM bookmarkflaglink

"now when you get home, you're gonna wanna pop this in on Meat setting for 3 minutes, or until you see oozing pus coming out of the burger and it starts to turn reddish. then put the toppings back on!"

BK has the high aspect ratio chicken sandwiches going for it

May need to quibble on Steak & Shake a bit because I don't quite regard it as a "fast-food burger joint" in the same category as most others listed here.

I'm originally from St. Louis and throughout my life Steak & Shake has been a place you went, parked, got a table, ordered from an aproned server, got food on a real ceramic plate, and then paid for as if you were at a normal restaurant.

Therefore it is taxonomically distinct, in my mind, from the rest of the places (where you order at a counter and the food is in a bag or maybe on a plastic tray). At Steak & Shake you could have a milkshake taller than your head, in a real glass vessel, perhaps even with more of it on the side in its metal shake-containing entity. An actual real cherry with a real stem.

I don't know why presentation should matter this much but it does.

Plus, I have distinct memories from the 1970s of A&W restaurants with a phone at each table, so that you could order from there - we shall never see the likes of this again, although Red Robins (and Olive Gardens) have web-enabled table kiosks that get close to that same magic.

I guess it's not so much the presentation but that the food is of a quality that's capable of being presented in that way.

Hence I voted for White Castle, which is uniformly bad & hated

Counterpoint: White Castle is good and loved.

Steak & Shake was the only restaurant I'd ever seen get entirely shutdown for too many health code violations

McDonalds fish filet sandwich is good. I think their restaurants tend to be cleaner and more pleasant in the Midwest. Shake Shack burgers are tasty, if a bit greasy. For worst, I would write in Johnny Rockets, due to an unfortunate reaction to one of their burgers about 10 years ago.

Crown Burgers – Restaurant chain based in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.

lol at this making the cut. they aren't terrible tbh.

mcdonald's has a few ok things ime but it all tastes like a simulacrum of food

Most curious to try Max Hamburgers of the far-flung options.

Johnny Rockets is very depressing. I swear it was the shit in the 80s and 90s tho.

Who will rep for Culvers? Any good?

RE: Five Guys, I was a happy customer of the original pre-franchise Five Guys location (Arlington VA circa 80s/90s), like, my burgers were made by one of the titular five guys. Very local, pretty tasty. Their handling of fries remains pretty solid, at least at the locations I go to.

Unfortunately the franchised locations - especially those in airport terminals - are not bringing the same attention to detail, so I can totally commiserate with folks who are disappointed.

xps Yeah Crown Burgers is a cut above the likes of McDs etc.

My Steak 'n Shake experience did not involve aproned servers and ceramic plates, lol. I only ever ordered via the drive-thru, but I don't think the indoor part of it was at all fancy. This was in Florida.

I have to say: A couple years back, I went into McDonalds & Burger King in Barcelona just because they had cheap beer on tap and there was a bathroom

I'll rep for Culvers. xp

Culver’s is very good

i wish i could have culvers :(
i think its very important to check out the local mcdonalds when traveling abroad. i love mcdonalds as a brand. so twisted and gross. great colors and 70s nightmare characters. theres an unofficial mcd's museum out here in some dude's house it's sick.

Culvers is ok. Which in fast food graded-on-a-curve terms means its pretty good. Custard flavor of the week or month or whatever is a good marketing tactic, though I find their custard suffers when compared to places that only do frozen custard.
I remember going to their attempt at an upscale fast casual place, Blue Spoon, near their headquarters in Prairie du Sac and liking it but apparently it's closed.

Who will rep for Culvers? Any good?

― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, December 7, 2021 3:21 PM bookmarkflaglink

I've only had their cheese curds, which were decent, but not even the best *in my city*! (sadly the best curds here are from a guy with a food truck that you can't easily access regularly, and I don't remember the name of his business)

The Johnny Rockets at Cedar Point was the worst burger I’ve ever eaten. Awful processed crap.

IHOP was only good when you could smoke in there. 2AM, drunk, the glass smokers cave filled with secondhand nicotine - tastebuds are irrelevant anyway.

just want to chime in and say i love Cook Out, Cook Out rules. also we had a Rally's where i grew up in the South and it was definitely a level or two above McD's/BK/etc. Rally's was good!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Not sure how scientific this polling is, but BK wins in a landslide... I'm a little surprised, but I haven't been there in years

I thought I voted for Sonic, but I guess I just decided to shoot my mouth off instead. Well anyway, fuck Sonic.

haha me too! add another one for Sonic

Same

Silent majority

i also voted for sonic wtf

Stop the Steal!

White Spot kind of an unfortunate name

I don't understand why Burger King polled the most votes in this. My nearest Burger King - which I went to a few days ago - rules, while the McDonald's in the same town blows goats. I've eaten in a lot of Burger Kings and the worst experience I've had is getting a burger that wasn't terrible but could have been better, and felt a bit thrown together. MacDonald's on the other hand always seems to be disappointing - some places trend towards undercooking their burgers and slapping them together so the burger in its bun looks like it's been sat on, while in other places the burgers and buns are dry. Generally I think that McDonald's was much better in the mid to late 80s.