(bump given the recent mention in another thread)

ive given up..my requests often turn out the opposite of what i asked so no mustard will be extra mustard lol

id expect plain to be just meat and a bun , BUT id follow up and say just meat and a bun right

Meat and bun or meat, cheese and bun if a cheeseburger. It's how my partner orders it, but he always adds, "Meat and cheese, nothing else on it."

(And don't yell at me for bumping. It was linked in another thread to update. )

I like his style. My phrase is always "Meat, cheese, bun. Nothing else. Yellow mustard on the side. No dijon mustard."

I always wonder when I order a plain cheeseburger at the server who asks, "Do you want cheese on that?" Would I have ordered a cheeseburger if I didn't? (In-N-Out seems to get that; I can order a plain cheeseburger and not get interrogated about the cheese.) Regardless, the "meat, cheese, bun; nothing else" approach seems like a good one for future use.

Reminds me, though, of a time I ordered a specialty burger of some sort at Burger King sans sauce, and they said, "We can't make it without the sauce." I asked the clerk, "I thought it was 'Your way, right away?' here." Still a bit baffled at how a special menu item "required" the sauce. Maybe it came prepackaged, frozen, sauce and all... but that seems odd, particularly from a food prep standpoint (reheating without separating the bun from the patty and the toppings seems a bad idea in particular).

Growing up in a small midwestern town, we had a quaint phrase "everything but" which mean everything except onions. You didn't need to travel too far away to get puzzled looks when you gave that order.

Look at those crazy people in England who bring you a sandwich or a cake when you order a tea !

Easiest just to say what you want and not leave these things to chance.

At least they ask. I've ordered plenty of "plain cheeseburgers" and had them served without cheese. It doesn't seem to occur to them that I would have ordered a hamburger if I didn't want cheese, but alas...

I get the opposite. I order a hamburger and get asked "do you want cheese on that?" If I wanted cheese on my burger, I'd order a cheeseburger.

Interesting experiences. Once in a McDonalds I ordered a quarter pounder "just the sandwich" indicating I didn't want the meal, and got just meat + cheese + bun without the usual accoutrements

There are parts of Pennsylvania I have visited where you ask for a "lager" and you will get a Yeungling, no questions asked. I tried that elsewhere once, probably somewhere in the southeast, where Yeungling was on tap. The response was "Okay, which lager?". I guess the tap handle came without instructions.

More and more local restaurants, chains included, don't have hamburgers listed on the menu. Just cheeseburgers of various sorts. I am forever ordering a cheeseburger without cheese. Occasionally they subtract something from the price. But not often.

Same here. My single biggest problem when ordering a hamburger is getting cheese on it even when I specifically order it WITHOUT cheese. Even happens when there are both hamburger and cheeseburger listed, I order hamburger, employee asks if I want cheese on it , and I say NO.

NYC here
Regular coffee is just coffee. Decaf is decaffeinated coffee. a "coffee, regular" is regular coffee with milk and sugar. Black coffee is just "coffee, black"
A "burger, plain is just meat and bun. A "burger" is whatever they normally put on it.

If they don't reduce the price you should ask them for some of that free cheese (for your cat, maybe)