I was sort of trying to steer clear of local places that only have a handful of locations. I could've put Volcano Burger on there, but I'd probably be the only one to vote for it (although I think someone else here might be close enough to know that place).
I went with Five Guys. It's more expensive than the other places, but I'd rather pay $15 for Five guys than $8-10 for In-n-Out (which, IMO, is massively overrated). The Five Guys burger is hands-down the best of any of the major chains, and their fries are usually pretty good.
there are times when their Quarter Pounder just hits the spot. I like Wendy's. . . .
But my daughter works for Chipotle, so if anyone asks, that's what I said.
My son worships at the altar of Chipotle, and I agree that a Quarter Pounder has a particular taste is sometimes exactly what you want.
Wendy's is a sad tale. If someone asked me 15 years ago which national burger chain was my favorite, Wendy's would've been the answer. However, sometime in the last 10 or so years ago, they changed their meat and buns, and now they pretty much suck.
Best fast food fries I ever had were the fries that Carl's Jr. had through at least the mid-1980s. I worked at one in the spring of 1985, and a box of those fries fresh out of the fryer (along with a burger than was less than a minute removed from the char-broiler) was about the best thing next to sex. The funny thing is how they were made. The product was called "Frispos," which came in pellet form in a large bag. You would dump a big of the pellets into a hopper and, when you wanted a batch of fries, you pushed a button, and a quantity of pellets would go into a small tube that would be injected with water -- thereby reconstituting the dried potato pellets into a sort of "dough." The dough would be extruded through a crinkle cutter that had a wire that would go back and forth cutting the the dough into French fry shape (with two flat sides and two crinkle-cut sides). The fries would go down a conveyer belt into the deep frier. Right out of the frier they were the perfect combo of crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I know it sounds weird, but they were awesome!
For chicken, Chick-fil-A nuggets and Popeye's spicy chicken are excellent.
Another one that I didn't include because it definitely isn't fast food is Fuddruckers. My sister introduced me to Fudds in the mid-80s. The location we went to had sides of beef hanging in the windows, which I thought was cool. Best buns ever. Unfortunately, within the last year, they've closed all of their southern California locations.
Is it even possible to go to McDonald's and them not fuck up your order.
Use the app.