The average cheeseburger combo meal at a fast food restaurant is going to cost you around $15. Which begs the question, why are we paying restaurant prices for drive-thru cheeseburgers when we could just go to a restaurant and receive way better quality food and better service for the same amount of money?
So… let’s do that! It’s time to leave drive-thru burgers behind and trade them in for the premium restaurant offerings.
To help guide you to the very best of the best, we ordered cheeseburgers from 10 popular chain restaurants and ranked them from good to great. Restaurants are full of all sorts of interesting builds, and eventually, we’ll get to some of the more imaginative builds. But for this first ranking, we’re going to focus specifically on the traditional cheeseburger build. That means meat, cheese, sauce, and minimal produce like onions, tomatoes, and lettuce. We found that this was the easiest way to level the playing field.
Okay, without further ado, let’s jump into the best cheeseburgers from chain restaurants, ranked from good to great.
10. Denny’s — Double Cheeseburger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Denny’s Double Cheeseburger tastes like a typical diner burger. It has a strikingly similar quality to Wendy’s, but with a meatier bite and a bigger build. The build here is pretty standard stuff, your choice of cheese (American, Swiss or aged white cheddar, we say go American) lettuce, tomato, red onions and pickles on a soft buttery brioche bun.
The meat is heavily seasoned with salt, as if it’s hiding something. Most of the flavor is being brought by the crisp red onions, which bring a sweet and savory quality to the burger, and the pickles, which are earthy, briney, and have a sharp tang to them.
The Bottom Line:
Not a huge leap up from higher-end fresh beef fast food restaurants.
9. Islands — Big Wave with Cheese
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Considering Islands has a variety of different burger builds I expected more out of the basic Big Wave with Cheese. I was imagining an elevated experience, but instead this tastes like a standard flat-top grilled burger. The build consists of cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, and mustard. You don’t have access to American cheese unfortunately, so your best bet here is cheddar or Monterey Jack.
There is a certain blandness to the meat. I think Islands relies too heavily on its more adventurous burger builds, which have additional ingredients to keep your interest. This burger is the foundation that all the other burgers on the menu are built upon, but it’s not a great starting point.
The Bottom Line:
For a burger from a chain with a menu devoted entirely to burgers, we’d expect more flavor here. But Islands Big Wave with Cheese is pretty bland overall.
8. TGI Fridays — Cheeseburger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
TGI Friday’s meat patty is way too densely packed, resulting in a burger that comes across as chewy rather than melt-in-your-mouth delicious. It tastes a little bit like a bad homemade burger made from that weird meat in a tube.
The build consists of a thick quarter-pound meat patty cooked medium well topped with a thin layer of American cheese, and sitting on a bed of lettuce, tomato, red onions, and pickles.
This burger is a bit on the dry side, so consider ordering it medium to retain some juiciness.
The Bottom Line:
The meat here is a bit tougher and more chewy than we’d like.
7. Yardhouse — Classic Cheese
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
At $17.49, Yardhouse’s Classic Cheeseburger is by far the most expensive burger on this list and you wouldn’t know it from looking at it or, frankly, tasting it. While this burger might look meaty and indulgent, the flavor is incredibly bland.
It’s topped with two layers of cheddar cheese and a slice of White American, giving it a salty, mild, and nutty flavor. The burger is served on a dense and bready bun and lacks any produce whatsoever. Yardhouse claims it uses a USDA prime blend of meat, but they completely underseason it thinking the meat will bring enough flavor to the table. It doesn’t.
While this wasn’t the worst-tasting burger we had, this is probably the last one I’d willingly spend money on again.
The Bottom Line:
Yardhouse’s burgers sound luxurious, but this is just an overpriced homemade burger. You’re better off buying some meat yourself and making your own. Even if you don’t know how to cook, you’ll probably do a better job seasoning it than Yardhouse.
6. IHOP — The Classic
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
I know I spent the first half of this ranking dunking on some pretty bad burgers, so I’m happy to say that IHOP’s simply titled, The Classic, is a significant step up from the burgers ranked lower. This burger has no business being this good, and I was shocked to find such a great-tasting burger at a restaurant primarily known for breakfast food.
The meat patty here has a nice lightly charred flavor and is well seasoned with salt and pepper. The build features American cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles, and IHOP’s custom burger sauce, which has a bit of tang, and a nice savory finish that elevates the meat patty.
The Bottom Line:
Way better than you’d expect. Don’t sleep on IHOP’s Classic.
5. Buffalo Wild Wings — All-American Cheeseburger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
If you like your burgers a bit decadent and indulgent, B-dubs All-American delivers! You get two hand-smashed meat patties that taste wonderfully beefy, heavy on salt, and incredibly greasy. It’s the type of burger that will have juices all over your hands once you bite into it, so if you don’t like a messy burger, look elsewhere.
The full build features American cheese, pickles, lettuce, mustard, tomato, and mayo on a soft and eggy challah-style bun. The mustard brings a nice tangy mild heat to this mountain of beefy meat.
The Bottom Line:
Beefy, indulgent, and ultra greasy. This is the type of burger that’ll instantly knock you into a food coma.
4. Applebee’s — Neighborhood Burger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Applebee’s Neighborhood Burger is ultra beefy with two tender burger patties that melt in your mouth. Topping the burger are two slices of American cheese, mayo, lettuce, and pickles on a buttery brioche bun. I’m tasting a heavy dose of garlic in every bite, probably from the mayo, which ups the savory quality of this burger.
The patties have a nice sear to them, with caramelized edges which bring a subtle sweetness and crunch to every bite.
The Bottom Line:
A simple but deliciously meaty burger with a slight garlic twist.
3. Red’s Double
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Red’s Double in both build, look, and size, comes across like an elevated version of In-N-Out’s Double Double. It’s part of Red Robin’s Tavern line, which is a bit smaller than its standard burger, but it makes crushing a double pretty easy, allowing you to enjoy your entire burger without having to tap out.
The burger features Red’s Secret Tavern Sauce, two slices of American cheese, lettuce, and tomato served on a sesame seed-loaded brioche bun. The meat-to-bread ratio here is perfect. Biting into it you’ll be greeted with a sweet tang that gently hovers over beefy flavor with a pleasing slightly acidic aftertaste.
The meat patty is generously seasoned with salt and pepper.
The Bottom Line:
Like an elevated version of the In-N-Out Double Double. As a SoCal native, I can’t help but love this one.
2. Chili’s — Double Oldtimer With Cheese
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Wow, this burger is melt-in-your-mouth delicious. This is for true beef lovers, the Double Oldtimes gives you two 1/4 pound beef patties, two layers of sharp cheddar cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, shredded lettuce, and mustard.
The burger is sumptuous, beefy, and a bit nutty, heavily seasoned with salt and fresh cracked pepper, which give a floral heat to every bite. This is truly an elevated burger experience and dunks on just about everything in fast food.
The Bottom Line:
A perfectly charred meat bomb of sumptuous beefy flavor.
1. Cheesecake Factory — Roadside Sliders
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Here it is, folks, or pick for the best restaurant cheeseburger, Cheesecake Factory’s Roadside Sliders. This is a controversial pick, but hear us out. This is by far the smallest burger on this list (you can kill a whole slider in about three-four bites), which might seem boring, or lacking, but what you get here are three delicious, perfectly cooked burgers. I’d order this over one of Cheesecake Factory’s full-sized Glam-Burgers any day.
The small size of the sliders isn’t a weakness, it is a strength, resulting in the perfect meat-to-bread ratio. The patties have caramelized lacy edges and are cooked smash-style. They’re beefy, salty, and melt in your mouth, and topped with a housemade burger sauce that brings in some tang and ups the savory quality. This is sumptuous beefiness at its finest.
Once you have one of these things, you’re going to find yourself rushing through the other two.
The Bottom Line:
It’s a bare-bones burger, but you’re not going to find a better meat-to-bread ratio or better-tasting patties than what Cheesecake Factory offers. This is hands down our pick for the absolute best cheeseburger from any restaurant chain.
If you don’t like the small form factor, feel free to get one of Cheesecake Factory’s full-sized burgers. But give this one a try first, more is truly more here.
