ITT: People who don’t know what fast food is. If you are seated, wait staff takes your order, and you wait 15+ minutes for your food to be prepared, it’s not fast food, even if you’re ordering a hamburger and fries.
Probably A&W. I’m shocked to see so many people saying Wendy’s. Their meat is tasteless, imo.
What does it for me is that they use such fresh vegetables to balance out the Burger
Five Guys
In Canada, it’s easily A&W.
A&W burgers are so basic, they’re almost bland.
Dairy Queen, Fatburger, Five Guys, Burger’s Priest - they all easily clear A&W burgers.
Chubby chicken is gas tho.
Most of those other places aren’t available in Canada. Also, Canadian A&W is independent from American A&W so maybe their food is a bit different too. Canadian A&W is great
I’m in Canada, those places are all within a kilometre of me rn
Oh really? Huh. I’m also in Canada and haven’t heard of any of them other than Dairy Queen. Weird. Alright I take back my comment then, other than still believing that A&W is great here
I’m a big burger’s priest fan, holy smokes rules.
I’ll throw my hat in for Harvey’s, easily one of the better veggie burgers and you get to choose toppings.
For actual fast food - - that you can order in a drive-thru and not have to wait around for - - the best around here is honestly Wendy’s. They’re not anything id pay $20 each for, but their average burger is better than their just-as-fast competition.
If by “fast” you really mean “without waitstaff”, they’re all great. 5 guys, smashburger, fuddruckers", and a dozen tiny chains all make burgers worth paying a premium for.
About the only place NOT worth getting a burger at is anyplace with waitstaff. They just dont take them seriously enough to do a good job, and wind uo about as good as a slightly well-run McDonald’s.
(*: i think this one went out of business.)
I agree with the first part but vehemently disagree with the third paragraph.
I suspect it varies wildly based on where you live, but in Chicago there absolutely ARE places with waitstaff worth getting a burger from.
wendy’s single with cheese and bacon. fries. frosty. classic lunch.
but, if there was a white castle nearby–that’s where i’m going. the original ‘fast food’ burger is still the best.
I only disagree with paying a premium for a burger at the other places.
It’s a freakin burger, not a steak. $15+ for a burger is nuts (and I worked in restaurants at one time, so I understand the challenges for them, it’s a tough business).
I like Whataburger and in n out equally, sometimes i feel like one, sometimes the other.
I have a hard time recommending Whataburger to others – you’re not missing anything special if you’ve never had it.
But – it’s my go-to. Give me some meatycheesyblobness and spicey ketchup please.
My experience with Whataburger is that the food is mediocre, and if it weren’t for bad service, they’d have no service at all. In fact, there’s one Whataburger that I have failed to eat at twice because no one came to the counter both times I tried.
In N Out
Dick’s in Washington state
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There’s a local burger place where I live that’s basically an In-N-Out without the branding. Excellent cheeseburgers. The owner even uses locally sourced beef so the burgers are pretty fresh.
There’s something like that near me, but it’s a Five Guys clone. Seems like a good idea if you can get established locally. Small menu, nothing complicated.
Burger Fuel. Only in NZ though :(
A&W
We have a local fast food chain called Good Times.
I’d put their burger up against all other national fast food chains. I’m willing to bet, though there’s a litany of other local fast food chains all over the place that could compete. Part of the joy of traveling in the US, as far as I’m concerned.
We just started getting In-N-Out locations here a few years ago, and it’s lovely for a cheap burger. But let’s not pretend it’s anywhere close to the best around. Plus their fries are so bad it’s shameful.
Good Times’ Wild Fries are divine. And strangely for a fast food chain they have decent green chile for said fries.
I used to live in Colorado but not anymore and Goddamn do I miss Good Times. The wild fries and that SAUCE, man. It’s amazing.
Wild dipping sauce.
"…We’re gonna be big. "
Remember in like 2009 or something when the got rid of the wild fries and started only selling “fresh cut fries” that tasted fucking horrific? I boycotted that place and then wrote multiple complaints to the company. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one, they brought wild fries back eventually.
We did the exact same thing. I wrote a weird email where I compared their removal of wild fries to McDonald’s manipulation of McRib availability to influence whale migration patterns…
Clearly I was on to something…
Freddy’s
The king burger, from the Burger bar in Roosendaal, the Netherlands
Wetherspoons ‘Beyond’ veggie burger used to be the absolute shiznit. They stopped being cheap though, so there’s no real reason to go there any more.
I’m a fan of SmashBurger
Same. Easily the best quick burger.
