Ethan's Blog

Rating Fast Food Burgers

I’ve been trying to eat healthier recently, and with that comes restricting myself from indulging in my favorite fast food restaurants as often as I had before. In light of this, I want to rate some of my favorite fast food burgers I’ve tried.

Shake Shack 7/10

I actually really like Shake Shack. It is a Chicago classic and whenever I take a trip to the city I make sure to get something there. My favorite order is typically the Smoke Shack which is basically just the classic burger but with some peppers and a special sauce. However, for this rating I will be looking at each establishment’s basic burger. For the classic Shack Burger there is a choice to double up on toppings which I do recommend, as well as adding the extra applewood smoked bacon. The patty is dense — thicker than the majority of the ones on this list. It has a strong taste and is all good and juicy. However, it isn’t the most well seasoned patty. Here’s something wrong with the Shake Shack’s hamburger. Despite the thick patty, the burger is very thin in size. The consistency is always unpredictable, and you have a fair chance of having a bad patty if luck isn’t on your side.

SmashBurger 7.5/10

Smashburger’s Classic Smash consists of a beef patty sandwiched between two egg buns with cheese, lettuce, tomato, cabbage, pickles, and their signature Smash Sauce. Although the seasoning is normally mild, the patties are large and are usually nice and crispy around the edges thanks to getting a good sear on the grill. Since the beef is never frozen, you won’t find any of the usual fast food nonsense here. The toppings, on the other hand, are absolutely normal and hardly worth noting — even the Smash Sauce is essentially just a mix of mustard and mayo. There’s nothing to get worked up for.

Wendy’s 8/10

The Dave’s Single is the nearest Wendy’s has to a traditionally prepared hamburger. You get cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, mayo, and onion on top of their patty.  There’s a lot of good things about Dave’s Single — on the bright side, there’s the toasted bun, which is a staple to every good burger and notably absent from any of the earlier entries on this page. Along with that the advertised never frozen patty is actually noticeably juicer and tastier than any of Wendy’s direct competitors like McDonald’s or Burger King.

Five Guys 9/10

Two patties in a toasted bun with the customer’s pick of (totally free) toppings make up the Five Guys hamburger. Lettuce, pickles, peas, fried onions, grilled mushrooms, fresh onions, jalapenos, green peppers, ketchup, mayo, mustard, relish, BBQ sauce, chili sauce, and A.1. Sauce is only a few of the ingredients. The patties are well fried, succulent, and big — though a little thin for my taste. Good thing each burger comes with two of them.

I’m not sure what else to suggest. The sesame buns are fluffy, the toppings aren’t too heavy to get in the way, and each burger can be bursting at the seams if you pick the right combination. Really good, and not to mention the fries are also delicious.

In-N-Out 10/10

I don’t want to hear any of the overrated nonsense that I see people talking about when it comes to this burger. I’ve been there a few times and I can say that it is a genuinely good fast food restaurant and it 100% deserves the hype it gets. The toppings are simple (lettuce, onions and tomatoes) but compounded with a special sauce that more than makes up for it. Everything is entirely fresh, vegetables are hand-selected, while pretty much everything is regionally-sourced and free of additives and preservatives. The patties themselves are cooked on the grill to the point of perfection, of course, and the toppings on each burger are generous in quantity without ever becoming clumsy or overbearing. You can tell they’re fresh, too, with every piece of lettuce, onion or tomato tasting like a genuine vegetable, and although that doesn’t seem like a huge deal it isn’t something you can say for many other fast food places. 

View all posts by ehe 6 Comments 

Categories: Uncategorized