It turns out that Hardee's, where I'd never eaten before, serves a much better fast food burger than what you get at a McDonald's. They're also the subject of this fascinating/horrifying Portfolio story about the company's efforts to make itself even more unhealthy than the competition, but I stuck to their normal-sized burger, eschewing items like the 1,400 calorie Monster Thickburger.
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Fast Food Nation
31 May 2008 05:02 pm
Comments (64)
Coincidentally, childhood obesity plateaued after the push to remove transfats from processed food made some headway.
Wait, I am from California. What is Hardee's? I thought that was the same as Carl's Jr.
Re "It turns out that Hardee's, where I'd never eaten before, serves a much better fast food burger than what you get at a McDonald's"
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The Amazon tribe says that if you HAVE to eat rat meat, it's best to eat it FRESH.
I eat fast food pretty much every day, but stick mainly to bean burritos, hold the cheese, salads, diet lemonade and ice-t. It's easy to eat out fast, cheap and healthy.
Wusses.
http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2007/06/burger-made-of-ground-bacon.html
http://www.texasburgerguy.com/2005/05/luther-burger-and-hamdog-pictures.html
It turns out that Hardee's, where I'd never eaten before, serves a much better fast food burger than what you get at a McDonald's.
Doesn't everyone? I don't mean that to be anti-fast food, but to be anti-McDonald's. I have never gotten a worse fast food burger than every one I've ever had at McDonald's.
God damn, that ground bacon burger looks good.
Hardee's is what you quasi-Americans on the East Coast call Carl's Jr, right? They do make some pretty good burgers. Soggy fries, though.
I mean, the burgers are good compared to McDonald's. Honestly, I don't think I've ever heard of a grown man eating the burgers at McDonald's. Breakfast, sure. Maybe some of the chicken stuff. But those burgers are nasty. It's hard to say what I would do without In-N-Out, but I'm sure I could do better than McDonald's.
My favorite chain for typical fast-good guilty pleasures is Jack in the Box. Larry David is right, the Jumbo Jack is the best 99 cent burger out there. The fries are really good. The shakes are actual ice cream. They have tacos and egg rolls that are horribly greasy but fairly tasty. And you can eat cheaper than just about anywhere except Taco Bell (and please, don't eat at Taco Bell).
Burger comparisons are no good unless you stipulate where you grew up and ate most of your burgers.
I grew up in Illinois and moved to CA as an adult. My gut and rear qualify me as an expert in burger consumption. A couple of comments. First, Hardee's is where you go for a fast food breakfast sandwich, not necessarily a burger. Second, Wendy's burgers tend to be better than Burger King's or Hardee's, and all trump McDonald's. (Which trumps those nasty White Castle things. Yuk. Yuuuuuuck.)
In-and-Out is better than Wendy's, though.
And any truck stop is better than all of the above.
Matt, you'll need this in 10 years:
http://www.balancepointhealth.com/page.php?pid=news
Bookmark it.
Coincidentally, childhood obesity plateaued after the push to remove transfats from processed food made some headway.
This is a joke, right? That's all we needed to do?
Matt:
Cut down on the fast food and other junk food. Eat more fruits and vegetables, lean proteins like fish, chicken, legumes. Get more exercise.
You'll feel better, slim down, and be more attractive to the ladies.
Sorry, sheriff, but it's those dudes you link to who are wusses. I mean, that's just a plain old skillet cooked ground bacon burger.
Now, these guys mean business. Two ground bacon patties, stuffed with mozzarella cheese, battered, and deep fried.
Two ground bacon patties, stuffed with mozzarella cheese, battered, and deep fried.
Arteries are overrated ;)
I was once a Hardee's aficionado (or addict). This is my story. My problem with the whole Hardee's experience is that I would walk into the joint thinking that I would order one of the sane, unbaconed, single-patty burgers but then standing there in front of the cash register I wouldn't be able to help myself. "Just this once" I would tell myself. "How can I pass up eating the DOUBLE MONSTER THICKBURGER--with all that bacon and extra patties and such it's obviously so much better than the usual Thickburger... So just today...."
Cut to: Brendan Mackie laying on his couch, clutching his distended belly, moaning, on the verge of a mild cardiac event.
I'm so tired of hearing about how bad fast food is for you.
http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_beverages.asp
Seriously. If you think you need to eat a half a pound worth of burger, you deserve the 1000+ calorie price tag. And, that's at a fast food place OR a normal restaurant. Just ask Fridays or even your local Chez Francais to tell you what their meals contain. It's just as bad. The issue isn't really how much we eat. It's how much we don't do and how much we depend on agricultural products and how much processed food with extra crap in it we eat. Buy a package of frozen meat something at the store. It's not meat. It's meat with flour or corn in it and soy additive and other crap. We shove extra calories into everything and then complain when we can't eat as much because our cities and towns are designed around transportation that requires you to sit. Build a bus system. Get rid of farm subsidies. Pass some food purity laws. Quit whining. Move your lazy butt!
"Sorry, sheriff, but it's those dudes you link to who are wusses. I mean, that's just a plain old skillet cooked ground bacon burger."
I stand corrected :)
Hardees is a chain that started in NC years ago. They may now be owned by the same company that owns Carls Jr., I don't know. They used to be better when their gimmick was they cooked the burgers over actual charcoal, but that's long gone.
They do make some pretty good burgers. Soggy fries, though.
There's an exclusionary principle at work, here - you can't get good fries and good burgers at the same restaurant.
I don't know why but it's always been true, in my experience.
Sorry to mention other chains, but I've had some pretty amazingly good burgers at Friday's and at Ruby Tuesday's. Especially the latter's ribeye burger. But it's been probably a year since I've had one, so I hope they're still good.
Re "They do make some pretty good burgers. Soggy fries, though."
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Try the onion rings with the special Hardees sauce.
The Platonic ideal of a burger is, and always will be, an In-N-Out double-double. With grilled onions. I'm sorry, but it's a fact.
I have never gotten a worse fast food burger than every one I've ever had at McDonald's.
Spoken like a man who's never eaten at a Krystal.
Re too many steves' comment "The Platonic ideal of a burger is, and always will be, an In-N-Out double-double "
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Wrong.
The Platonic idea is something called the Greasy Gus Burger. Found 30 years ago at the White Spot in Charlottesville, Virginia. On the corner across from the University.
Large cheeseburger with all the fixings PLUS an egg sunny side up on top of the burger. So that the yolk bursts when you bite into it.
Fried in fresh bacon grease , naturally.
re: It's how much we don't do and how much we depend on agricultural products
Um, what's wrong with depending on agricultural products? People have been doing that for, like 9,000 years. It's not like most of us can go out and gather wild nuts and berries.
I've had a tough time eating at Carl's Jr. since I learned of the founder's politics. Wasn't he a crazy hard-core GOP supporter and family values douchebag? Plus their burgers taste great but they tear your stomache a new...
Wendy's used to have hands-down the best burger of the major fast food chains (although I remember loving burger Chef when I was really young and lived in Ohio.)
In N Out is great but like many CA inventions it is totally over-rated by CA natives. Fuddrucker's blows it out of the water, and their potato wedges are killer too. They're a bit on the pricey side, but for a chain they are about the closest I've seen to actually living up to their self-titled "World's Greatest Hamburgher" claim. And the buns...don't even get me started on the buns.
It is true about the burger/fries dichotomy, sadly.
Re "And the buns...don't even get me started on the buns."
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Waitresses? Or bread?
eschewing items like the 1,400 calorie Monster Thickburger.
Eating the Monster Thickburger is exactly like ass chewing.
eschewing items like the 1,400 calorie Monster Thickburger.
Eating the Monster Thickburger is exactly like ass chewing.
Eating the Monster Thickburger is exactly like ass chewing.
I'm ashamed to admit I laughed really hard at that line.
Nobody goes to Hardees for lunch or dinner. Hardees is all about the delicious, but bad for you, breakfast menu. Hardees serves chicken fried steak on a biscuit for breakfast. Or if that isn't bad enough, try the pork chop on a biscuit. In Virginia, the line where the South begins and the suburbs of DC end is marked by the first Hardees.
Hardee's is what you quasi-Americans on the East Coast call Carl's Jr, right?
No. Carl Jr bought Hardees but they had the sense not to change the menu. Carl Jr's food tastes horrible. I have no idea why west coasters eat this stuff (especially when they have In-and-out). I will go out of my way to find a Hardees to start my morning with a steak biscuit.
"Doesn't everyone? I don't mean that to be anti-fast food, but to be anti-McDonald's. I have never gotten a worse fast food burger than every one I've ever had at McDonald's."
I think of McDonald's food in general, but burger's particulaly, as such highly rarefied fast food as to have become an entirely new kind of food—to be judged independently of normal food.
I like the Big Mac. It really has little or none of the attributes of an actual hamburger—none of McD's burgers do—but it is nevertheless oddly tasty.
I should mention, however, that in the early nineties at a Dairy Queen I had a knock-off of a Big Mac that was actually more burger-like but retaining the virtues of the real Bic Mac. And with bacon.
Mostly, I go to McDonald's for their french fries, which I consider to be easily the best french fries of its type.
In the area where I live (Albuquerque), there are no longer any Hardee's, but there are Carl's Jrs. A couple of years ago I ate one of their varieties of "six dollar burger" every once-in-awhile and thought very highly of them. I think I just burned-out on them, though, and most of the rest of their food isn't very good.
Twenty years ago when there were still Hardee's here, they were one of the only chains with a mushroom burger on their menu. It wasn't a great mushroom burger, but it would suffice. About twenty-five years ago Wienerschnitzel experimented with a line of specialized burgers which included a teriyaki mushroom burger. It was awesome.
Speaking of Wienerschnitzel, is it true of the rest of the country outside the southwest that there basically are few or no hot-dog fast food chains anymore? I'm sure that Chicago probably still has some regional ones, and maybe some other areas. But the hot-dog was once on an equal footing with the hamburger in terms of American fast food. No longer, and that's a shame. I guess in the big, pedestrian cities you can get them from cart vendors. But I love, love, love chili cheese dogs.
I've pretty much eaten nothing but fast food for almost thirty years now. Ask me any question about fast food, I'm the expert. :) With that in mind, I'll say with high confidence that the chief thing McDonald's has going for them is easily the highest level of predictably good service and uniformity of product of any large fast food chain. The stores are cleaner and the personnel friendlier and more professional with very few exceptions. I'd say that Wendy's comes in second in this metric, and probably Burger King third. Most of the others are very irregular by comparison. And, though this trait is derided by anyone who promotes locally owned businesses, the truth is that a high level of confidence in uniformity of service and product is something that consumers rightly value.
I prefer small, locally owned stores and restaurants. But I expect to be regularly unpleasantly surprised when I frequent them.
Two new experiences in one day for Matty!
Best Mex ff chain wasNaugles. Unfortunately, they were bought out by a far worse competitor, and even the last remaining instance inMojave shut down some years ago.
Best burger chain isWhattaburger.
Karl Malone used to do ads for Hardees. "Hwardees" is how Karl Malone said it.
Anyone ever eat one of Cookout's burger delicacies?
A bit of California FF Mex history: Del Taco was founded by three guys who soon fell out over whether to go for fast-and-cheap or for quality (at a higher price-point). Dick Naugle bought out his share and went the latter route, and was a bright spot in SoCal fast food Mexican for quite a while. Unfortunately, a cash shortfall due to an ill-timed expansion effort forced him to sell back to Del Taco, which then proceeded to ride all the way to the bottom (yeah, as bad as TB). I lost track of them at that point -- it was just so easy to find good, cheap Mexican food in Southern California that there was never any reason for me to go the fast-food route.
One of the founders of Hardees, Jim Gardner, used his burger money to go into Republican politics-- made it as far as Congress and then NC Lt. Governor before he plateaued.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Carson_Gardner
Up here in NJ, we don't have Hardee's or Carl's Jr. (I went to the websites and checked). Consequently, the only fast food places I eat at are Wendy's and, once or twice a year, White Castle. The trick with White Castle is never get more than eight burgers, because by the time you swallow #6, the pain is already kicking in. So: eight cheeseburgers, no fries, small soda.
Other than that, I get my burgers at diners.
Hardee's went through a menu change about 5 years ago when they introduced the thickburger line. Thickburgers are very good, but I generally stick with the smallest 1/3 lb. burger rather than any of the larger monsterburgers. Hardee's used to try to do hotdogs and ham sandwiches and fish and chicken and everything else, but their new menu is all about the burgers and the breakfast sandwiches. Oh and they have curly fries if you don't like their homestyle(soggy)fries.
But the hot-dog was once on an equal footing with the hamburger in terms of American fast food. No longer, and that's a shame. I guess in the big, pedestrian cities you can get them from cart vendors. But I love, love, love chili cheese dogs.
Cincinnati has Skyline Chili. They still sell coneys. Get a five way with chili, cheese, mustard, onions, and red beans. Overall Skyline is overrated, though. Their chili is not spicey, doesn't have beans, and has a sweet cinnamon taste. Plus, they eat it over spaghetti. It's weird.
Other chains that serve hot dogs are DQ and A&W.
They have tacos and egg rolls that are horribly greasy but fairly tasty.
I would avoid any restaurant that has burgers, tacos, and eggrolls on the same menu. My guess is that they don't do any of them very well.
Mostly, I go to McDonald's for their french fries, which I consider to be easily the best french fries of its type.
True
"Spoken like a man who's never eaten at a Krystal."
How true. Most Americans haven't even heard of Krystal. When I describe it to people, I say it's like White Castle, but without the ambiance. Sometimes you have to wonder how a chain actually became a chain. You'd think that after the first Krystal, nobody would have demanded a second one, much less a whole chain.
Matt, you're a DC guy - how are you not a fan of Five Guys?
They've only entered the Atlanta/Nashville markets relatively recently so I haven't had it more than half a dozen times, but their burgers are delicious. Mustard, ketchup, grilled onions, lettuce, and pickles are my toppings of choice, with cajun fries of course.
I've had the Monster Thickburger meal before. My brother and I both ordered it, and some folks behind us whispered "They're gonna eat the Monster Thickburger!" Finished the whole thing, but I wasn't overly impressed.
And FWIW, my BMI is 23 with cholesterol of 180, so a massively unhealthy meal every now and then isn't the end of the world.
Agree with the above comment about Five Guys. Had it in VA a few weeks ago while visiting, and it was excellent.
I eat a lot of fast food, too, and I have to say that McDonalds is pretty much* the only fast food place whose burgers I refuse to eat. I eat enough fast food that I make it a point to try new chains when I visit different regions of the country.
The thing is that not all fast-food places are aiming for the same ideal. In-n-Out is my burger favorite**, but I recognize that a big thick "restaurant burger" like at Islands or Red Robin is a different dish. Even within fast food, even if an In-n-Out and a Carl's Jr. are in the same neighborhood I don't always go to In-n-Out, but when I do go to Carl's Jr. I generally go for a Western Bacon Cheeseburger, which has a different flavor.
But just about anything beats a McDonalds burger. I would go a lot as a kid, but I got so fed up with them screwing up my order - KETCHUP ONLY - that on the rare occasion I went (usually because they were the only option), I went for Chicken McNuggets instead. I went about ten years without trying a McDonalds burger, decided to give them another shot, and lo and behold, they screwed it up by giving me pickles. And then even after plucking off the pickles, the burger remaining was a tasteless puck of vaguely meat-flavored blah. No thanks.
I tried White Castle for the first time on a trip to Kentucky two years ago. I can easily see how some people would find it disgusting, but I kinda liked it... very oniony and a steamy bun, but those are both flavors I like. But yeah, pretty weird. And not very meaty.
Regional chains outside Southern California I'd happily endorse would be Burgerville in the Northwest (local ingredients!), Sonic*** in the South and Southwest (tater tots!), and Steak 'n' Shake around Indiana, which is sort of a sit-down restaurant.
I also have to say I'm a big fan of Wienerschnitzel. Not that I'd ever defend them on "quality" -- lots of things are frozen, service is spotty, etc. but just because I like hot dogs, and their chili dogs and corn dogs just hit my taste buds right.
The only other hot dog chain I know of besides Wienerschnitzel and Nathan's is Skyline Chili, which is mostly only found within a two-hour drive of Cincinnati, but is pretty much ubiquitous in the Queen City. And Cincinnati chili, of course, is an altogether different thing from what one normally thinks of in the rest of the country.
* I say "pretty much" because Dick's in Seattle won't sell me one without mustard, so I refuse to eat one.
** Both for the quality and taste of the food, and my admiration for their great service, cleanliness, consistency (no franchises, all company-owned), and the overall excellent way they run their business.
*** Yes, I know there's one Sonic in the greater L.A. area (in Anaheim).
Just to add, I am overweight, but my cholesterol is actually significantly below average.
Best burger I've ever had, though, was at Hodad's in San Diego, in the Ocean Beach area. You can taste the grill in the burger, and if you order bacon, instead of one or two strip, you get a sort of chopped bacon-only hash on top of your burger. Plus very good buns and beach-town atmosphere.
"Just to add, I am overweight, but my cholesterol is actually significantly below average."
As I've said I'm a frequent fast food eater of about thirty years, and I'm 43 now, I'll follow your example and mention that I'm not overweight and have never been overweight. I do have high blood pressure, though, very high, and I've never had my cholesterol checked but I suspect it's elevated, too.
Second that for Burgerville, which has the best milkshakes out of any fast food place (and better than many regular ice cream parlors as well). Real, locally produced ice cream, plus local berries and seasonal flavors. Rasberry or blackberry in the summer is really goodm and their coffee one is delicious as well, made with ground coffee beans. Also, the sweet potato fries and walla walla onion rings are excellent.
Wienerschnitzel
"You want mustard on that?"
"NO!!!!!!!!"
If you're ever in Ann Arbor, you'll want to try Blimpy's for burgers. Have the onion rings too. I also recommend the Chicago Dog House for hot dogs and waffle-cut fries. I know I'm wasting my time with this, though, since all you liberal elitists will head straight for Zingerman's.
It appears "Chicago Dog House" is now called "Red Hot Lovers." Mea culpa. It's the one just off of East University over by the Engineering buildings.
Thlayli, I hate to be pedantic, but the song goes:
"You want Bill's sperm with that?/NO!!!!!"
Speaking of which: Hey, Amazon, if your provide a free 30-second sample of a 12-second song, people are going be pretty unlikely to pay for a download. And thanx!
http://www.amazon.com/Bonus-Fat-Descendents/dp/B000000M2R
Here's a vote for Wendy's as best all-around fast food. Burgers are good, chicken sandwiches are better, good fries, large drink portions, not too expensive.
McDonald's chicken sandwiches = acceptable
McDonald's burgers = last-resort, if-I-don't-eat-now-I-drop-dead-of-starvation fare.
I hate to spoil the party, but, apart from a 30% US obesity rate and the declining rate of culinary competency, is nobody here bothered in the slightest about how all this junk food is being produced, how animals, laborers and the environnment are treated?
Yep, it bothers me (remembers yesterday's lunch with regret). Of course, everything you said applies equally if not more to the rest of our entire world capitalist economy in the first decade of the 21st century. Guess I'm suffering a little outrage fatigue for today.
If it makes you feel better, one way or another peak oil and global warming will effect radical changes on everything, including our beloved fast food industry. Of course, I have no positive solutions to this dilemma, but then again this fall's election is a first step in starting to address these problems, right?
I was 15, maybe 40 minutes away from that European dish Niki yelling LAST CALL. Too many brews, I'll confess, had left me uncertain of my time travel. My eyes were red but still steady, and the ambient darkness outside of the bar was keenly massaging.
Fortunately, the drive back to my apartment was so-far quiet and uneventful. The Goo-Goo dolls were serenading the moon-lit moments, courtesy of some unknown local college station, but I sang along, anyway, to words I never knew. Truth be told, I couldn't get past the erotic thought of Niki earlier wiping down the bar as her huge breasts grazed the half-round railng that dripped with as much unrequited fantasy as spilt beer. Most of it mine.
But none of that really explains why I stopped at White Castle once I rounded the familiar exit ramp off of route 444.
It was just that some loose change was all I had left after an evening of half-empty joy and no Niki. Same old story. But I knew I would still eat like a king.
novakant, you won't spoil the party because we don't care. We're talking about burgers, here. Not politics.
Now obviously, an In-N-Out burger, with the thin little patty, is a different animal from a big, thick restaurant burger from Red Robin. I would argue that the In-N-Out burger is superior, though. It's rare to find a thick burger that isn't either dry or bloody-rare in the middle (and while bloody-rare burgers have their place, that place is cooked in my own kitchen where I can see where it came from). In-N-Out burger are always perfectly cooked, always juicy. The toppings are ridiculously fresh. In short, they're perfect.
For all the SoCAl people in here, there's a chain called "LA Food Show" or something like that (there's one in Manhattan Beach) and I gotta say for a thick burger, it's pretty amazing. I think I also had a pretty kickass burger at the Daily Grille too.
+1 for Sonic. When I hit a concert in Vegas there's nothing like the 3 am Sonic run (with debit card ordering from your parking space!!).
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned FatBurger. Pretty F-ing tasty although they take forever.
Couple things. The question was about fast food, not the best burger anywhere. There are a ton of places in damn near any city that beat all of these places.
Also, Fuddrucker's and Steak 'n' Shake are both great, but they shouldn't count in this category since they're more sit-down places. Some Steak 'n' Shake places have (or used to have) a drive thru, but they're not really about that.
Good points Daniel.
Here's a question to throw out there, was there a connection between Hardee's and Roy Rogers at some point? I used to love Roy's burgers when it was pit-stop time on the Mass Pike, as a kid.
Five Guys wins this one hands down, at least on the east coast. And their fries are also fantastic.
A close second: Max, which exists only in Sweden, as far as I know.
Oddly enough, McDonalds is much better here in Brazil. They use local beef for their stuff, and it is mostly obtained from livestock meant for export to Europe (hence, less antibiotics and hormones and crap). It's not haute cuisine, but it's edible.
I remember visiting the US for the first time and stopping by a McDonalds (5th avenue, NYC), thinking it'd be just the same, and gagging on the first bite of a sandwich. It was pure grease and had the texture of rubber foam. I tossed it in the garbage and ran to a Sbarro.
Comments closed June 14, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
the 1,400 calorie Monster Thickburger.
Completely OT, but my dietary approach to fast food is to eat it about once a month as a guilty pleasure. With that in mind, a 1400 calorie Thickburger sounds right up my alley. Such a burger is certainly more honest than the tack of making an incremental reduction of unhealthiness in food that's fundamentally unhealthy to begin with (e.g, "Diet Coke".)
Posted by James Gary | May 31, 2008 5:23 PM