The Best Burgers You Can Get at a Fast Food Restaurant

This upscale chain burger comes with hardwood-smoked bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, and a wide choice of possible cheeses — American, cheddar, Swiss, pepper jack, provolone, or “bleu cheese crumbles.”

Unlike Taco Bell, this chain (which has locations only in the South, the West, and parts of the Midwest) offers burgers as well as Mexican-ish fare. The Double Del combines two patties with tomatoes, lettuce, diced onions, American cheese, and the house burger sauce.

At these sister chains (Carl’s Jr. in the West, Hardee’s in the East), this specialty burger — slightly thicker than the usual fast-food patty — comes with American cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and dill ranch dressing on a toasted potato bun.

Considered this chain’s flagship burger, the Jumbo Jack tops its patty with lettuce, tomato, pickles, chopped onions, ketchup, and Jack in the Box’s own mayo-onion sauce.

American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, pickles, ketchup, and Smash Sauce (a mustardy mayo with chopped pickles) add up to a “classic” here.

A hefty half-pound of British beef — in the form of two patties — is topped with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup, mayo, and onion for this big signature burger (there’s also a Dave’s Triple if you’re really serious about meat).

The Whopper’s quarter-pound patty is piled high with tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, and sliced white onions and dressed with ketchup and mayo.

This emblematic double-decker combines two patties (with a slice of bun between them), along with pickles, lettuce, chopped onion, and American cheese.

The signature burger at this beloved Texas-based chain (which has locations only in the South and Southwest) tops the patty with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, diced onions, and ketchup. Customization options include a brioche bun or Texas toast, pico de gallo, and various dressings at no extra charge plus a choice of five different cheeses and such additions as grilled jalapeños, avocado, and fire-roasted mushrooms for 55 cents to a buck.

White Castle began popularizing the mini-burgers called sliders roughly a century ago, and the classic cheese slider is still a customer favorite. It’s a small patty steam-grilled over a bed of onions, then topped with American, jalapeño, or smoked cheddar cheese and served on a particularly fluffy little bun.

Pile two patties, American cheese, pickles, and onions on a ketchup-dressed bun, with tomato, lettuce, mustard and/or mayo as options additions and you’ve got this Indianapolis-based chain’s Double ‘n Cheese Steakburger.

Two patties, two slices of American cheese, red onion, pickles, and ketchup on a buttered, toasted bun — that’s Culver’s Double ButterBurger Cheese.

This cult-favorite California-born chain, with locations only in the West and Southwest, constructs its Double-Double with two patties, two slices of American cheese, sliced or grilled onions (your choice), lettuce, tomato, and what the company calls its “spread” — a blend of mayo, ketchup, and sweet pickle relish.

The standard Five Guys burger is a double patty on a toasted sesame bun with a choice of some 15 toppings — as many as you want — including all the usual garnishes and condiments as well as hot sauce, green peppers, grilled mushrooms, and more.

“Carnivores rejoice!” exhorts the menu in reference to this popular Wendy’s option. Like Dave’s Double (No. 16), it involves two patties adding up to a half-pound of British beef, in this case enhanced with six slices of applewood-smoked bacon, ketchup, and mayo.

Fuddruckers offers a DIY approach to burger-building. They supply a patty (available in four sizes from a quarter pound up to two-thirds of a pound) — on a dome-topped house-baked bun. The burger, says the chain, is then “ready for you to pile it high at Fuddruckers free market fresh produce bar.” Various cheeses and premium toppings (from a fried egg to smoked bacon) may be added at extra cost.

This is basically the Five Guys hamburger (see No. 6) with the addition of two slices of American cheese and two strips of applewood-smoked bacon, plus, as with the plain burger, a choice of 15 different toppings in any combination.

The signature burger from this comparative newcomer to the burger game (it started, in something like its current form, only in 2004) involves one or two hormone- and antibiotic-free beef patties on a Martin’s potato roll with lettuce, tomato, and mustardy Shack Sauce.

Curiously, reviewers seem to prefer the single-patty version of this burger to Dave’s Double (see No. 16). The toppings are the same — American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup, mayo, and onion.

This California-based chain developed a reputation for having a secret menu, whereby the initiated could customize their orders in various ways. They now promote some of the possibilities on what they call their “not so secret menu” — the star of which is undeniably the animal-style burger, a patty coated with mustard, served with lettuce and tomato, the sauce they call “spread,” and optional pickles and/or grilled onions.

Less is apparently more to burger connoisseurs, who repeatedly place this McDonald’s basic at or near the top of their lists. There’s a slice of American cheese on either side of the quarter-pound patty, with pickles and slivered onions on top.