Ultimate List of Fast Food Hamburgers – Worst to Best

The USA is perhaps most famous for its affiliation with hamburgers. The nations love for fast food is so great that in 2013, it was estimated that Americans consume about 50 billion burgers a year, just about enough to go round the Earth 32 times. Although there is still some dispute about the foods original country, the entire world now considers burgers as a 100% American meal. It should then come as little surprise that some of the best burger joints are based in the United States. We are here to answer your question of “where?’’

Making a choice from the countless hamburger joints available to eat from may seem overwhelming to the inexperienced. Adding to the pressure of choice is the versatile nature of burgers which allows for creativity and countless options in constructing a sandwich. Hamburgers can be almost anything, and the gap that exists between some of the worst burgers and the best is pretty wide. It is very important that you choose your burger joint extremely carefully. That’s what this article is here for, though. Here is a list of some of the well-known fast food burgers, ranked from the worst to the best.

White Castle: Slider

The fact alone that this burger chain has refused to market their hamburgers as burgers but, chooses to refer to them as ‘sliders’ is the first giant clue that all might not be right here. Well, maybe they were on to something with the different name, as customers can be a bit less disappointed when they place an order and are faced with these, instead of a beautiful burger.

Touching on all the things wrong with these ‘sliders’; the dimensions may be the first. At the size of 2X2, they are just way too small. Maybe the point of their minuteness is to lure customers into buying more of them but, it’s still a big fail either way. The bun also comes in to play here, which reminds us more of a store bought roll than a burger bun. The hamburger is actually made of a thin square of patty, onions and a pickle, which makes a person feel more like a wartime refugee dealing with food rationing than a person paying for a fast food meal in 2018.

Sonic Drive-in Cheeseburger

Sonic Drive-in opts to offer just cheeseburgers on their menu, following in the trend set by many other restaurants. Rather than boring ourselves with the nitty-gritty concerning the difference between the two, we will just avoid that altogether and examine the qualities that Sonic burgers contain which puts us off.

The burger is really not much to rave about. On paper, the chain has managed to portray a perfect looking burger with a patty, enticingly melted cheese, onions, pickles, and all the other burger basics. But with all the setup, it still fails to hit the right mark.

Unfortunately, the burger beef turns out so dry and tasteless- almost unseasoned even, and the toppings are usually grossly unbalanced – over-excessive lettuce with too little of all other condiments. You’d probably be better off settling with a hot dog anyway.

Dairy Queen: Cheeseburger

Stopping at a Dairy Queen for a quick burger is probably not the first thing that comes to your mind when you crave some fast food. Honestly, you’re better off for this. The chain’s standard cheeseburger is severely lacking in the area of toppings. And, you will be getting a bad bargain for your money; 1/6 lb. patties with pickles, cheese, mustard, and ketchup. Not too great huh?

Due to its lacking in this section, the bread mostly overshadows the entire deal, not even to mention the fact that the dough is weirdly soggy. Dairy Queen also offers the Grillburger with Cheese – a typical burger with the standard ingredients. Half the time, the burger looks completely unappetizing by the time you are served. So maybe, Dairy Queen should just stick to making ice-cream in the future, and leave the burgers to the pros.

Checkers: Checkerburger

“Look up ‘perfection’ in the dictionary and this is what you’ll see because the Checkerburger is everything a burger ought to be.” You’re probably wondering why a burger with such lofty accolades is doing high on a list of worst fast food hamburgers, right? That’s because the accolade does not come from us. It comes from the burger chain –Checkerburger themselves. They have that splayed across their website burger section, and we are supposed to follow them in blind faith due to their knack for catchy rhymes.

On examining the Checkerburger, it definitely contains all the appropriate ingredients for a burger, but that’s about where its correctness stops. First, the parties are almost totally without flavor. The lettuce they use is also, unfortunately, iceberg lettuce; which we all know does very little by way of enhancing the overall taste of the burger. We also think that their failure to create their own burger sauce and substituting that by offering three condiments is just plain lazy.

McDonald’s: Quarter Pounder

McDonald’s has earned – and rightfully so- the reputation of being the best in the hamburger business. Just mentioning the name has probably already conjured up the image of their famous clown in your head, or you’ve looked out your window to see the McDonald’s right across your street. Largeness and popularity aside, are they really the best? We will judge them in all fairness, and focus on the Quarter Pounder.

According to McDonald’s themselves, the Quarter Pounder “features a quarter-pound of 100 percent fresh beef that’s hot, deliciously juicy and cooked when you order. It’s seasoned with just a pinch of salt and pepper, sizzled on a flat iron grill, then topped with slivered onions, tangy pickles and two slices of melty cheese on a sesame seed bun.” Sound solid, right? Except for the part where there are fewer toppings options available than at most other burger chains. And, the fact that the restaurant focuses mainly on speedy service makes their presentation suffer. Most likely, you are going to be served a burger with messy toppings, dry patties, and scant sauces- that is the average McDonald’s hamburger.