As a Canadian I have only ever eaten A&W (and Five Guys once) so I curious what other people prefer.
In-&-Out
It is still a crappy cheeseburger, but its the way a crappy cheeseburger is supposed to be. Cheap, fast and produced by a kitchen that is a shining example of fast food.
In a day when the big three (golden arches, BK, and Wendys) have mostly priced themselves out of their own market. I make it a point to stop by every time im in a place that has one. The farthest one from California is just east of Nashville TN.
Super Duper Burgers, only in northern California right now, but hands down my favorite burger. Second is In & Out animal style.
Culver’s is the best, in my opinion. Five Guys is also very good but is spendy. Finally, Wendy’s makes excellent burgers as well.
Five Guys charges restaurant prices for barely-better-than-fast food
Whole heartedly agree with both of these.
I’d have to say Five Guys has the best fast food burgers. With Freddy’s coming in a close second.
Right now it’s the double steak burger with cheese, plain, from Steak N Shake. So delicious.
I’m realizing I like smash burgers from fast food places. For me Shake Shack tops that list, with Freddy’s a close second. I was surprised at how good I thought Sonic’s smash burger was since I usually haven’t been overly-impressed with their food. Not a smash burger, but I do like Five Guys, although they’re really expensive. None of those I would describe as particularly fast, though.
For something that’s actually fast, as in my food can be ready as soon as I get to the window from when I ordered at the drive-thru intercom I’d say Wendy’s is currently my favorite. They changed their burgers after founder Dave Thomas died and I haven’t liked their changes to the traditional lineup, but the Double Stack or Baconator/Baconator Jr. are good. The others like McDonald’s, Burger King, Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr. are consistent, rarely bad but also rarely great. You’re in Canada and I’ve noticed when we go visit my wife’s parents up there that McDonald’s is often running some limited-time variant on their burgers, often the quarter pounder, and sometimes they’ve been good, or at least interesting. We don’t seem to get those in the US, so if you want a fast food burger you might want to at least try them since you have easy access.
My recommendations might not mean much, though, because I haven’t been particularly impressed with the A&W burgers I’ve had in Canada. I’ve already forgotten what I really don’t like with them even though I had one a few weeks ago, but I think it’s something like the buns are weirdly grainy and the meat is loose and has an odd flavor. I like the root beer, though, in spite of your paper straws that start breaking down way too fast.
Super Duper, San Francisco CA
The best i ever had was the one from the “American Cafe” next to the embassy. Sadly, the embassy moved, and the Cafe closed long ago.
Second is the “Lieblingsburger” food truck, a small local chain.
With big Chain Burgers, I prefer Burgerking. Eons ahead of McD.
Fastfooood, culvers? probably culvers. buttery bread, little crisp on the buns, no gristle patties, yea they’re pretty impressive.
That’s the only fast food burger I’ve had in memory that i was like “oh shit!” in a good way. Pretty consistent quality too, in my experience.
How have you only eaten A&W?
But also, in terms of fast food burgers, A&W Canada is pretty top tier.
There are many rural parts of Canada where A & W is the only fast food choice. I’ve noticed this is especially true for service stations west of Ontario. I spent my twenties living on the road and got stuck eating A & W so much I can only stomach their chicken these days.
Yeah I currently live in a city where I can get a great burger from a food truck in walking distance of my house, but growing up I lived in a town where the only fast food burgers were A&W. When I go elsewhere a fast food burger from a multi-national chain isn’t exactly my first choice, so I haven’t had many others.
Makes perfect sense… Be thankful your town had an A&W and not BK.
Yeah, honestly. Unless OP is a young child I really have a hard time believing they’ve never had anything else. A&W is one of the least common fast food joints in Canada.
This is actually quite incorrect, A&W is the second largest fast food chain in Canada after McDonalds… Though not sure how even the spread is regionally.
Huh. Never would have guessed. I see them often enough but it seems like McD, BK and Wendy’s each outnumber them significantly. 🤷
In Ontario McDicks feels like it has a similar number of locations, but Wendy’s and BK seem few and far between. Wendys is still coasting down from all those combination Wendys / Tim Hortons, and BK I just basically do not see at all.
In terms of large, North American fast food chains, I like A&W, Carl’s Jr/Hardy’s, and Jack in the Box. In terms of smaller, regional chains, I think In-N-Out is leaps and bounds the best (though What-A-Burger is also really good). Outside of North America, I’m a pretty big fan of Mos Burger from Japan. JollyBee from the Philippines is also pretty great, but mostly because they serve spaghetti and I find that amusing.
I think Shake Shack is overrated but worth trying. FiveGuys is meh.
I also firmly believe that smaller burger chains like In-N-Out, Shake Shack, and What-A-Burger are probably more or less equal in terms of quality and what determines which you think is best is where you grew up.
I’m a Hardee’s person. That mushroom and Swiss is my fav
Dairy Queen
At various times I’ve enjoyed:
- whataburger
- in-n-out
- sonic
- krystal
- white castle
- wendy’s
Lately sonic is my favorite.
I like Dirty V (Norway) and Vincent (Germany). I can go with Max Burger (Scandinavia) too, if the other options are MacDonald’s or Burger King, as these two mainly make vegetarian food that is unseasoned and lazy.
