Sweet Willie

My kid burger warm fuzzy is Hamburger Heaven in Elmhurst IL
https://www.hamburgerheavenelmhurst.com/

-

BamaVol

I had the same experience as a kid. They even brought the root beer in real glass mugs.

There are still A&W's around. The ones I've been in are paired with another QSR franchise and I don't remember what it was. The last one I was in was in Newport TN. The root beer is still good but there was nothing special about the food anymore.

VivoPerLei

I'm intrigued by this comment and several other similar ones made in this thread. What has changed over the years - have our palates outgrown the products, or have the franchises changed the recipes over the years? Is it just like everything else - compounded cost reductions over the years eliminating what made something special in the first place, or is it us?

CDTraveler

IMO it's the meat that makes the difference. Fast food places never used top quality beef, but IME it used to taste like beef, not a food lab experiment. Read up on "pink slime" and you'll never look at a burger the same way again. When the patties are flat, grey and have weird blobs of oozed "protein" all over them (I'm thinking of my last Five Guys experience) I wonder about what is really in them.

BamaVol

I suspect you're correct, but it would probably take someone who's been in the business, or a supplier to the business for the last 50 years to truly answer the question.

My recollection of restaurant burgers as a child was that they tasted like steak. That is the furthest thing from my mind when I bite into a restaurant burger today.

Now, by restaurant burger, I don't mean a QSR burger. That is another thing entirely, although that's what this thread is mostly about. Large QSR chains probably have much greater control over what they serve and I expect that there's more chemistry than cooking involved in the flavor.

danielonn

The Counter Five Guys and Smashburger are my places for a good burger. Umami is good too. In Los Angeles by LAX Culver City try George Peterelli's Steakhouse for their burgers and steaks. Whataburger is just meh for my refined palette dry and overpriced and overrated.

Oreto

I would agree with the Tucker's comment for the most part. They're OK but I'm not a fan of the stringiness of their onions. I would like them more if they were diced. Way too messy for me as they are currently.

I haven't seen the smaller chain/local restaurant dominance with regards to taste that most people think goes without saying. It does happen, in my opinion, but it is far from certain in every market. Were I to hazard a guess, I'd peg it as somewhere in the 10-15% range. I think you'd be surprised just how many of those mom and pop stores use items of similar quality as their more well-known competition.

makeUturn

I do not find any of the chain burgers to be all that great. As someone previously mentioned, the meat should taste more like a ground steak than some flavorless meat patty. In almost every city or town, there will be a local restaurant serving a much better "real" burger and often for less money. The trick is finding that place.

JBord

There's one factor that we DO know. As you age, your taste buds weaken or become less sensitive. It's likely the reason we don't like vegetables as children and sometimes grow to love them. I suspect that's one of the culprit's here. And it's also likely that the small shops season their burgers a lot more than a chain, and that it's not all about the quality of the beef.

BamaVol

I still grill steaks with minimal seasoning and they taste like steaks. I won't completely discount your theory, however. I cannot deny that I am forty years older than I was forty years ago.

JBord

I guess I was making two separate points really. First, the taste buds. That part is fact, not theory.

The second point was the seasoning, and mere theory as you note. The fast food joints are generally not doing anything special to the burger before it's cooked. I assume many of the small, non-chain burger joints people have compared to here ARE doing something. Maybe as simple as salt and pepper, but it may be other seasoning that doesn't stand out on it's own but makes a difference. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that those places are using a higher quality meat. Also, texture matters. A patty I make by hand and ensure is not over-worked is going to be better than a pre-made patty you get at McDonald's, in terms of texture.

teddybear99

Has anyone tried BurgerFi? It's a little on the expensive side, but the burgers actually have that steak taste to them. I guess it might be the Angus Steak they grind up for them.

www.burgerfi.com

Gregory Nelson

A major selling point of Whataburger is that they don't cook your burger until you order it, so it's at least hot when you get it, unlike places like BK or Mickey D's.

BamaVol

I'm pretty sure Steak n Shake does the same thing and I prefer theirs.

Bakpapier

Wow, I didn't know there were that many burger chains in the USA. We only have burgerking and macdonalds, that's it. Out of those two I definitely prefer burgerking as being the far superior choice over mcdonalds.

We have some local chains too that try to do burgers, however I don't get a burger often, so I can't comment on that. I only know that I once tried a burger from our local chain Smullers and it was absolutely terrible.

Of course there are also restaurants that sell actual house made burgers, but imo that's a completely different category/class.