For my votes, I went with Popeye's and "other" with "other" being regional burger franchise Habit or Smashburger. Both are good, and they are somewhat interchangeable. If those are
too regional, I guess I can go with Five Guys. But both of the ones I mentioned are better. I remember hearing 5G hyped on this forum, and not being very impressed when I first tried them. But I think that, similar to the oft-described phenomenon with In-N-Out, I think it was just a case of a "good" burger joint being way overhyped. I have tried it a few times since then, and thought it was very good (for fast food) every time since.
I know it isn't the topic of this thread, but if I were doing a "favorite burger" thread, I couldn't even bring myself to pick any of the ones listed here. My top 3 would probably be:
1. The classic at Dad's, which is a bleu cheese/bacon crusted lamb and beef patty, served with habanero oil fries. I once very timidly asked my server whether it would be blasphemy to add slice of cheddar, and she said it was absolutely fine, so I did. That took it over the top. Best burger ever. (found that place years ago because of Guy Fieri's show)
2. They Doyle burger at a local pub called--you guessed it--Doyle's.
3. The buffalo bacon cheddar burger (as in, ground buffalo patty--not buffalo sauce) at a local sit down restaurant chain called Land and Ocean.
Anyhow, sorry for the digression.
Where the above poll gets tricky is that I very rarely do fast food--except breakfast. And for breakfast choices, I would actually change the above. I am VERY much addicted to McD's and Chick-Fil-A's breakfast sandwhiches.
This is the problem, IMO, of having 5 guys listed here with the likes of McDonalds and whatnot. I don't consider 5 guys fast food.
I don't see the difference. Both are burger places where you walk in and order at a counter where you pay before you get your food, which you receive within a matter of minutes after placing your order. You can either get it to go or eat it at tables that you find yourself. There's no waiter/waitress service. Price and perceived quality aside, they're the same (except that I've never seen a 5G with a drive-thru). All of the fast food places fall somewhere on gradients of price and perceived quality, but they're still the same thing on the most basic level.
Exactly. There can be a fair amount of variation in both price and quality within the realm of fast food. To try to classify Five Guys as something else, at least for purposes of this thread, is a distinction without a real difference.