Web Watch loves a good burger.
When done right, it’s phenomenal. When done poorly, it’s still pretty good. Of course, we make our own decision as to where we’re going to get that burger, and go into the establishment generally knowing what we’re going to get.
There’s a difference between a McDonald’s Dollar Menu double-cheeseburger and a burger from the Burger Gourmet Bar sit-down restaurant with the $21 Kobe beef slider down the street. You get what you pay for, and as long as you’re okay with that, then the following won’t surprise you.
So yet another survey has come out, asking about AMERICA’S FAVORITE BURGER, and the 7600 people surveyed produced the following results.
Web Watch can’t say we would adjust things too much from this list, but we will provide our own commentary as we move along.
FAVORITE HAMBURGER CHAIN (adjusted to take into account the differences in number of locations, so that the thousands of McDonald’s locations won’t skew the results away from a more modestly-sized restaurant chain) resulted in the following:
- Five Guys – Web Watch finds these burgers to be seasoned nicely and has fresh condiments, but we don’t care for the cooking method that tends to leave the patty less juicy than it should. Hey Five Guys – you’re not supposed to press down on the patty with the spatula when cooking. It might take a little longer, but the flavor will be better!
- In-N-Out – Always a destination decision, but we always leave wondering “what’s the fuss all about”? Won’t stop us from going back.
- Fuddruckers – haven’t been back since they took the Ostrich burger off the menu. That was tasty. And nobody does a burger condiment bar better.
- A&W
- Smashburger – love the variety, and the SmashFries are phenomenal
- Culver’s
- Steak & Shake – Nice burger variety, and shoestring fries! We want to like this place more, but the service and perceived cleanliness of the plasticky-diner atmosphere always leaves me feeling a bit icky. Maybe its the throngs of parents with ill-behaved/messy kids that lend to that scene more than other places. “Kids Eat Free” may be good for bringing in families, but it can be a real turn off for those who don’t need to feed their own toddlers.
- Whataburger
- Carl’s Jr
- Wendy’s – Seriously? 10th place? Their recent menu changes should rank Wendy’s higher on this list.
- Sonic
- Burger King – They’ve forgotted that “Burger” is part of their name. Web Watch doesn’t need 2/3 of the things on their menu to be there. Burger King has lost focus of their core product, and that’s why they are ranked so low today
- Hardee’s
- McDonald’s – we get it, it’s a consistent burger. Just not a special one.
- Jack in the Box
- Dairy Queen
In all of the other questions on the survey (seen on the link above, and broken out by region, food quality/taste, service, cleanliness, and atmosphere) – FIVE GUYS continued to dominate the rankings. Only with Overall Value did Five Guys drop to 3rd place behing In-n-Out and Whataburger.
So what does this mean to you? If you’ve got a hankering for a fast-food burger, you can’t go wrong with Five Guys, Smashburger, or In-n-Out in terms of having that quality burger experience, based on the survey of American burger tastes.