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 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Wendy's is arguably the "best" fast food chain in the US, where the burgers are pretty decent, and they have some relatively healthy options (you can sub a small salad for the combo fries). "Never frozen" means that the patty cooks better, more evenly. You can test that by making a patty and freezing it yourself, before cooking it on the pan.

Farm-to-table is becoming a big thing here in SoCal, particularly for fast casual dining.

Maybe best national chain. Culver's and Whataburger are two regional chains that beats them no question.

And for the dude who said Hardee's is awesome... all culinary opinions from you are now null and void.

Burger ranking goes like this:

Fuddruckers & Five Guys (fast casual)
----
Wendy's & Carl's / Hardees (fast food)
Jack & Sonic
Mickey's & BK

Fudd's hand-breaded rings are far better than Sonic, which is for tots, not rings or fries. Fight me.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
I consider Wendy's above McD's and Burger King. But 5 Guys trumps all three. Hardee's/Carl's Jr. is also pretty awesome. Also, nobody mentioned Sonic? Best onion rings!!!

Hardee's/Carl's Jr is nice, but they're always in odd places, I find. Though maybe that's because I've only ever lived on the fringes of their areas.

And yeah, Five Guys blows them all out of the water. They're pricey though.

Of course, if you really want to talk burgers, you'd have to talk about proper high-end burg joints like Red Robin.

I'd put A&W on the same tier as Wendy's, burger-wise. Sometimes I get a hankering for actual frosty mug root beer too.

 John Prins wrote:
I'd put A&W on the same tier as Wendy's, burger-wise. Sometimes I get a hankering for actual frosty mug root beer too.

I would too, if there were more than five A&Ws left on the planet. Seriously, where did they go? Did people somehow stop liking root bear floats?

Five Guys?? Why do people tolerate this dreck? I've had the misfortune of 'dining' there twice. If you like generic early 60's burger joint grease mixed with modern pricing then Five Guys is for you! The only mercy is the small portions. My out-of-state friend took a picture of her meal because the tomato was the same color as the lettuce. Gak.

Wendy's is okay, but you take your chances with the fries. Sometimes they are ok, other times they are just cold and/or greasy. As mentioned earlier, McDonalds has the best fries. Period.

Taco Bell is fine...in small doses. I only eat the basic taco and if available the chili cheese burrito...still not sure if it's a solid or a really thick liquid though. ; )

 amanita wrote:
Five Guys?? Why do people tolerate this dreck? I've had the misfortune of 'dining' there twice. If you like generic early 60's burger joint grease mixed with modern pricing then Five Guys is for you! The only mercy is the small portions. My out-of-state friend took a picture of her meal because the tomato was the same color as the lettuce. Gak.

You must have a crappy Five Guys. The one hear is delicious and an absolute gut bomb in terms of how much food it is. If you order a small fries, you get paper bag jammed with more fries than most other chains' largest serving. You can also gorge on free peanuts, if that's your thing.

I couldn't speak about the tomatoes or the lettuce. Rabbit food doesn't belong on a hamburger.

 jasper76 wrote:

 amanita wrote:
Five Guys?? Why do people tolerate this dreck? I've had the misfortune of 'dining' there twice. If you like generic early 60's burger joint grease mixed with modern pricing then Five Guys is for you! The only mercy is the small portions. My out-of-state friend took a picture of her meal because the tomato was the same color as the lettuce. Gak.

You must have a crappy Five Guys. The one hear is delicious and an absolute gut bomb in terms of how much food it is. If you order a small fries, you get paper bag jammed with more fries than most other chains' largest serving. You can also gorge on free peanuts, if that's your thing.

I couldn't speak about the tomatoes or the lettuce. Rabbit food doesn't belong on a hamburger.

As someone who used to not tolerate any vegetables on my burgers (I still don't tolerate pickles), I am honour-bound to fight you over them words.

 jasper76 wrote:
I couldn't speak about the tomatoes or the lettuce. Rabbit food doesn't belong on a hamburger.

I said that to my doctor. He laughed.

But my heart didn't

I guess ketchup is a vegetable

Asparagus, brussel sprouts, and broccoli are the only veggies I shove down my gullet. I would try any of those on a burger, but I've never seen that on a menu.

 jasper76 wrote:
Asparagus, brussel sprouts, and broccoli are the only veggies I shove down my gullet.

Your culinary opinions are no longer valid.

 Blind Idiot Psyker wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:
Asparagus, brussel sprouts, and broccoli are the only veggies I shove down my gullet.

Your culinary opinions are no longer valid.

I only like veggies that make my pee stink extra bad

Brussels sprouts are awesome. You have to cook them till they're burnt....that's the key. They should be crispy, not squishy.

Brussels Sprouts maded with a little of garlic and extra virgin Olive Oil on a pan, with fried chorizo are very very tasty.

Have you chorizo's in USA? Maybe you call them "Spanish sausages"? I don't know.

Yeah, we have chorizo. It might be overused as a breakfast meat, mixed into eggs or potatoes.

There's some brand of soy or fake chorizo we used to buy that was freakin' amazing. Better than the real thing. They overloaded it with grease and spicy sauce to compensate for the soy or something, and the end result was every bit as greasy-delicious as Taco Bell in the early am.


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 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Burger ranking goes like this:

Fuddruckers & Five Guys (fast casual)
----
Wendy's & Carl's / Hardees (fast food)
Jack & Sonic
Mickey's & BK

Fudd's hand-breaded rings are far better than Sonic, which is for tots, not rings or fries. Fight me.

I'd fight you, but I've never been to a Fuddruckers, so challenge withdrawn. The best onion rings I've ever had came from First Class Pizza.

Oh, and where do you find In 'n' Out on that spectrum? I'd probably put it on the same tier as Jack and Wendy's. Never got why it was so holy to some foodies.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Doner kebab is the ultimate.

You know why kebab places never call it that in the US? Well some entrepreneur doesn't because someone opened a Donner Kebab (pretty sure they even spelled it that way) near me recently. Too bad for them there is already a glut of high quality Mediterranean restaurants around here.

The Bay Area's Bongo Burger is the biggest kebab chain I know, and they're not bad at all.

 amanita wrote:
Five Guys?? Why do people tolerate this dreck?

McDonalds has the best fries. Period.

Taco Bell is fine...in small doses.

Taco Bell "fine", but FG "dreck"? 1, 2, 3 strikes, you're out. You clearly don't know WTF you're talking about.

With their overstuffed Cajun Fries, Five Guys has the best fast fries in the business. By far. Hands down. McD's doesn't even come close. If cooked properly, Wendy's fries easily beat McD's fries.
____

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Burger ranking goes like this:

Fuddruckers & Five Guys (fast casual)
----
Wendy's & Carl's / Hardees (fast food)
Jack & Sonic & A&W & InO
Mickey's & BK

Fudd's hand-breaded rings are far better than Sonic, which is for tots, not rings or fries. Fight me.

I'd fight you, but I've never been to a Fuddruckers, so challenge withdrawn. The best onion rings I've ever had came from First Class Pizza.

Oh, and where do you find In 'n' Out on that spectrum? I'd probably put it on the same tier as Jack and Wendy's. Never got why it was so holy to some foodies.

There's a Fudds at I-5 / CA-91 / Orangethorpe. If I get a BOGO, maybe we can get lunch there. Anyhow, of the fast burger chains, Fudd's rings are easily the best. Never been to First Class Pizza, so I couldn't say.

InO is on par with Jack & Sonic, as is A&W. InO is marketing-driven, due to their (not so) "secret menu".

 n0t_u wrote:
Probably try it once and pray.

Yeah pretty much this, order the food and pray to god.

Oddly enough i've got the runs from vietnamese pho but never taco bell. Must have been some tainted water used in that pho or something.

 Blind Idiot Psyker wrote:

 John Prins wrote:
I'd put A&W on the same tier as Wendy's, burger-wise. Sometimes I get a hankering for actual frosty mug root beer too.

I would too, if there were more than five A&Ws left on the planet. Seriously, where did they go? Did people somehow stop liking root bear floats?

They seem to be doing all right up here in Southern Ontario. They're even in the ENroute stations (gas/food stops along provincial highways). Something like 850 locations in Canada, apparently. Interestingly, it's a separate company from the US version (bought by Unilever in the 70's, sold to its management in the 90's).

I LOVE taco bell.
Im broke, but when I get my first paycheck next week, im going to Taco Bell for breakfast.
I particulary love all the deals they have.
Still, my favorite Fast Food is JAck in the box

Some of the breakfast crunch wraps are pretty tasty.

5 Guys to me, not worth it. It's an inner-city burger joint, that you're paying four times the price for.

I can go into any burger dive in Detroit, get just as good a burger, and pay 25% the cost.

 djones520 wrote:
5 Guys to me, not worth it. It's an inner-city burger joint, that you're paying four times the price for.

I can go into any burger dive in Detroit, get just as good a burger, and pay 25% the cost.

Show me the burger and the receipt.

I get that Detroit is a 3rd world country, so real American dollars go really far, but if you're paying less than $2 for that burger, you're not getting anything close. Is it rat meat they're serving?

I thought yinz California folks only talked about In n Out burger?

 Chute82 wrote:
I thought yinz California folks only talked about In n Out burger?

Fast Food burger joints? Yeah... InO are the bomb.

But in the big Cali cities? The various FOOD TRUCKS are wicked.

I wish you guys could try Bubbaque. Alas, it's confined to one location in a back street in Belfast.

 whembly wrote:

 Chute82 wrote:
I thought yinz California folks only talked about In n Out burger?

But in the big Cali cities? The various FOOD TRUCKS are wicked.

This is accurate. The name of the truck escapes me but I had some amazing sliders from a LA food truck.

It's not a burger, but the Kool Haus ice-cream sandwich truck is F-ing amazing. They also have a brick & mortar storefront in Old Town Pasadena. I believe there a Kool Haus trucks in a few cities across the country, if one is near you try it! The Dirty Mint Chip ice cream will make your knees go weak.

Roach coaches are quite nice there. InNOut is a greasy mess.

 Frazzled wrote:
Roach coaches are quite nice there. InNOut is a greasy mess.

InNOut is great for "eat it in the car" food. It gets blown vastly out of proportion and then hated on a lot when it fails to live up, but for quick drive through fare it's great.

Love my roach coaches though

 Chute82 wrote:
I thought yinz California folks only talked about In n Out burger?

"Yinz"? Are you gonna bring Pitt into this? What's good there? I can't recall.

Anyhow, InO is just talk. It's marketing and fluff for a burger that's only marginally better than McDs.


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 DarkTraveler777 wrote:
It's not a burger, but the Kool Haus ice-cream sandwich truck is F-ing amazing.

Sorry, Diddy Reese or nothing. Fight me.

Taco Bell is/was my least favorite fast food restaurant. I'm not a fan of fast food in general, and I always thought they were the worst.

That said, a cousin of mine recently got me addicted to the cheesy gordita crunch combo. I have no idea why I like it so much, as it seems like it should be awful. It certainly does awful things to me.

I wish I had good food trucks around here, but they're all downtown and I never, ever go into the city. If I have to pay to park somewhere, I'd rather just not go. I had an idea to start a mac & cheese themed food truck at one point I was gonna call it Mr. Melty's.

I had In n Out when I lived in L.A., it was good .. I think the fries were homemade? It was a while ago. I usually went to Carl's Jr when I was out there, I always got the BBQ western burger that had onion rings on it. And I eat at Steak & Shake a lot when I go to GenCon, but there's none near where I live. Sometimes I get a really bad craving for Arby's though.. and I always have to get the large roast beef/big montana with melty cheese and curly fries. I'm tempted to try their new Gyro, but we have good greek places around here so I think I'll be disappointed.