All due respect to the chicken sandwich, but the greatest fast food sandwich of all time is the cheeseburger. Sure, the cheeseburger doesn’t enjoy the same current-day hype as the chicken sandwich, but that’s because it doesn’t need the hype. The mighty cheeseburger has always been the best, it’s the dish that made fast food a thing in the first place. Nothing beats biting into a big, juicy, savory, and beefy burger — it’s the ultimate flavor bomb, so good it’ll make your mouth water, smack your taste buds to attention and fire off all the pleasure centers in your brain.
We get it, it’s easy to forget just how great the cheeseburger can be with all the new chicken chains springing up across the fast food landscape. But we’re here to remind you of the culinary perfection that is this dish by rounding up 20 fast food cheeseburgers and ranking them from worst to best.
This isn’t the first time we’ve ranked cheeseburgers, but in the past, we’ve kept the build as similar as possible from restaurant to restaurant. We think that’s a fair way to rank cheeseburgers, but it leaves a lot of great burger builds behind.
So this time, we’re saying f*ck it. Rather than looking at similar builds, we’re instead going to highlight the very best burger on each restaurant’s menu. They all have cheese in some form because… duh. Some of the time, that means we’re featuring a classic cheeseburger or maybe even a double cheeseburger, but most of the time, we’re going to be pointing you toward much more interesting burger builds.
Without further ado, here are the 20 best cheeseburgers in fast food, ranked from worst to best.
20. White Castle — Cheese Slider
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Wow, I will never understand the appeal of this burger. Is it nostalgia? Is it because of that movie? What is it that keeps bringing people into White Castle?
This straight-up tastes like airport food. The beef is one note: salty, the onions are soggy, the American cheese doesn’t melt, and the pickles are soggy and dominate the flavor of the burger. This is a major skip for us.
The Bottom Line:
Sure, if you have a coupon or something for a free burger, by all means, go and be disappointed.
19. Dairy Queen — FlameThrower 1/3 lb Signature Stack Burger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
You have to hand it to Dairy Queen, they certainly tried with this burger, but ultimately the individual ingredients just aren’t tasty enough to make an impact. This burger features two beef patties topped with a spicy FlameThrower sauce, pepper jack cheese, jalapeño bacon, tomato, and lettuce.
The beef is grainy and dry, the pepper jack cheese is more texture than flavor, the jalapeño bacon is floppy and the produce is almost never ripe. What does work is that FlameThrower sauce. It doesn’t have sweat-on-brow-inducing heat, but it adds a mild kick and ups the savory flavor of this burger.
If only it was elevating better base ingredients!
The Bottom Line:
When the best part of a burger is the sauce, you’ve got a big problem.
18. A&W — Papa Burger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Yeah, I went with a classic double cheeseburger build, but in my defense, A&W doesn’t offer anything else really worthwhile and at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter because this is the worst fast food cheeseburger currently on the market.
Every element is bad, the bread is dense and stale, the lettuce is wilted and translucent, the cheese refuses to melt, and the meat is dry. To add insult to injury, A&W slathers this burger with what it calls “Papa Sauce,” which is so off-putting that it makes us not want to eat it in the first place.
The Bottom Line:
I’m not even sure why A&W still exists. Bad burgers, and even worse root beer.
17. Umami Burger — The OG Umami Burger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. There was a time when Umami Burger was in the running for the best fast food burger ever, and then the brand was sold, the quality dropped, and now this burger tastes like a bad hotel room service burger.
The build features umami sauce, dill pickles, Romain lettuce, tomatoes, American cheese and grilled onions. Everything a burger should have, and yet it tastes like a ghost of its former self.
The Bottom Line:
Umami Burger used to be fantastic, but in recent years it’s indistinguishable from gas station food.
16. Del Taco — Double Del Cheeseburger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
A cheeseburger from a Mexican fast food chain? If you think that’s weird, you clearly haven’t been to about 45% of taquerias in SoCal. Seriously, burgers and fries are a staple on Mexican menus, and they’re often pretty good. The same goes for Del Taco’s Double Del Cheeseburger.
Is it great? Absolutely not, but, like we just said, it’s pretty good, and a lot better than everything we’ve ranked below it on this list. The burger patties here are juicy, the cheese actually melts, the tomatoes are bright, vibrant, and ripe, and the burger sauce wraps together all the flavors and gives you a nice tangy and savory finish.
The fact that these other burger chains ranked below can’t make a better cheeseburger is an embarrassment. Having said that, there are about a dozen other things we would rather order at Del Taco than this burger.
The Bottom Line:
If for some reason you want nothing else but a burger and there is only a Del Taco nearby, go ahead and order this, it’s good! But if you’re at Del Taco, it should go without saying that there are probably better things to order.
15. Carl’s Jr. — Western Bacon Cheeseburger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
The Western Bacon Cheeseburger is our go-to burger from Carl’s Jr. It features a single beef patty atop a layer of fried onion rings, topped with bacon, American cheese, and a double dose of BBQ sauce.
The flavor is a mix of charred beefy notes, a sweet tang, and a lot of smokiness. The onion rings up the savory notes while offering a nice textural element to this burger.
The Bottom Line:
A solid mid-tier cheeseburger with bacon and fried onion rings. Not the best burger you’ll have, but it hits a certain spot.
14. McDonald’s — Quarter Pounder with Cheese
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
McDonald’s has a signature flavor that a lot of people have nostalgia for. It’s why the fast food chain doesn’t really need to do anything radical or offer amazing builds to get people into its drive-thru. So for this ranking, we’re shouting out what we think is the chain’s best burger, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese.
This is a solid burger, it features a big juicy beef patty seasoned with a dash of black pepper and a whole lot of salt, a double dose of American cheese, thin and wet pickles, caramelized onions, ketchup, and raw white onions.
Altogether it’s beefy, salty, sharp, and tangy with a gentle kiss of sweetness on the aftertaste.
The Bottom Line:
A solid, tasty burger. Pro-tip: for best results, eat this burger immediately after you order it.
13. Sonic — Garlic Butter Bacon Burger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
I’ve always thought of Sonic as more of a place you go to for sides like mozzarella sticks and jalapeño poppers, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Garlic Butter Bacon Cheeseburger is pretty damn good. The beef is a mix of salty and savory flavors, courtesy of the creamy garlic butter, further accentuated by the double dose of American cheese and buttery grilled onions.
Rounding out the burger is some mayo and a layer of crispy bacon, which further intensify the savory qualities of this burger and add a sweet and smokey aftertaste. It’s tasty, it just doesn’t compete with the more high-end burgers on the other end of this list.
The Bottom Line:
A pretty solid and tasty burger. It’s not so good that you need to hit up a Sonic ASAP, but it’s a bit hard to be disappointed in this one.
12. Burger King — Maple Bourbon Bacon Burger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
The Maple Bourbon Bacon Burger solves a big problem plaguing the Whopper — that burger is just way too damn dry. It’s charred to the point of being gritty, but the Maple Bourbon BBQ sauce on this burger helps to distract from that, while fried onions and jalapeños, as well as bacon, add a nice smokey, spicy, and savory edge to the burger.
The only real thing holding this burger back is the meat patty. But hey, you’ve got a lot of great ingredients here to distract you!
The Bottom Line:
Burger King’s best burger in recent memory.
11. Rally’s — Double Fry Lover’s Burger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
With this burger Rally’s has essentially combined its two best menu items — the Big Buford and its Seasoned Fries — into one monstrous meal, and we’re all about it! The beef is thick, juicy, and salty, topped with a layer of cajun-seasoned battered fries, two slices of American cheese, pickles, ketchup, mustard, and mayo.
I think the sauce is a bit much, and I usually opt for just mayo rather than the three, but if you want that sweetness from ketchup and the tang from mustard, definitely get the whole trifecta. This burger is salty, full of flavor, and decadent AF, which is what we love about it.
The Bottom Line:
A greatest hits package of Rally’s best flavors filtered down to one monstrous burger.
10. Jack in the Box — Classic Smashed Jack
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
The Smashed Jack has something working against it: it’s name. “Smashed Jack,” leads one to believe that this is a smash burger, but it isn’t. It’s “smash style,” which sounds like a cynical way to jump onto the smash burger bandwagon, which in itself should be disqualifying. And I’d be right there with you if this burger wasn’t actually delicious.
Ignore the fact that this isn’t a real smash burger, because it’s Jack in the Box’s best burger by a mile. A single bite will introduce you to a bouquet of savory, salty and cheesy flavors joined by rich caramelized grilled onions and the smoky tang of JiB’s burger sauce.
A new burger from a giant fast food chain (the Smashed Jack was launched at the beginning of this year) rarely makes an impact, but the Classic Smashed Jack is an exception. This burger is good enough to put Jack in the Box in a higher tier if you were ranking fast food restaurants as a whole. Should we do that? Maybe!
The Bottom Line:
Jack in the Box’s Classic Smashed Jack is one of the best new burgers to drop in recent memory. If you haven’t had it yet, remedy that sh*t ASAP.
9. Fatburger — Original Fatburger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Fatburger is the place you go when you want a good old fashioned cheeseburger. This thing is beefy, at 1/3 lb, but it’s made with lean beef which is a bit dry. Hey… at least its freshly ground! The burger is served on a soft spongey bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, mustard, pickles, and relish.
It tastes a lot like an In-N-Out cheeseburger, but… not quite as good.
The Bottom Line:
Don’t get me wrong, I like this burger a lot, but it’s nothing special compared to our absolute favorites.
8. Smashburger — Double Classic Smashburger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
I feel a bit torn on Smashburger. On the one hand, I think this is a pretty great burger, but on the other, Shake Shack exists, and they do smash patties better.
This simple burger will get you two Angus beef smash patties, two layers of American cheese, a single leaf of green lettuce, juicy tomatoes, sweet red onions, pickles, ketchup, and Smashburgers Smash sauce, on a toasted bun.
The beef patties are very thin, but the edges are nicely crisped, and biting into it provides some nice beefy flavor. The produce is great — really there is nothing wrong with this burger, something about it just doesn’t wow me.
The Bottom Line:
A great burger, but it’s lacking something to make it taste vital.
7. Chili’s — Double Oldtimer with Cheese
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
A restaurant burger on a fast food burger ranking? Yup — this year more and more people turned away from fast food in favor of restaurants. The thinking there is, “if I’m going to be paying double-digit prices, I might as well go to a restaurant.” So expect us to be paying a lot closer attention to restaurant burgers going forward.
The Double Oldtimer is fantastic, you get a 1/2 pound of beef, two layers of sharp cheddar cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, shredded lettuce, and mustard. It’s sumptuous, beefy, and a bit nutty.
The Bottom Line:
An elevated double cheeseburger. Don’t sleep on Chili’s when it comes to burgers.
6. Red Robin — Haystack Double
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Another restaurant burger, Red Robin’s Haystack Double is easily the best burger on the menu, which is saying a lot considering Red Robin has nearly twenty different builds.
The Haystack features two mini beef patties (mini is relative, this is a 1/4 beef patty, but Red Robin’s standard is closer to 1/3), a tangy and smokey mayo blend, crispy fried onions, and two slices of melty American cheese.
It’s meaty, juicy, smokey, and crunchy! Think of this as a seriously elevated take on the Carl’s Jr. Western Bacon Cheeseburger.
The Bottom Line:
Our current favorite fried onion smokey-flavored cheeseburger. Better than Carl’s Jr in every way.
5. Five Guys — Patty Melt
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
The best burger on Five Guys’ menu is the secret menu Patty Melt. Ordering this is simple, ask for a grilled cheese, and then stack patties to your heart’s content.
Our favorite build is a combination of cheese, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, and two beef patties. The result is a burger that is umami-rich, courtesy of the earthy mushrooms, with sweet caramelized onions and creamy cheese, and some juicy well-seasoned patties.
It’s entirely too expensive at over $15, so we get it if you never want to order this, but you should know that the burger is absolutely worth the price in our opinion.
The Bottom Line:
If you’re going to try Five Guys at least once, order the Patty Melt, you wont be disappointed.
4. Habit Burger & Grill — Charburger with Cheese
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
How did a basic cheeseburger build like this rank so highly? That’s how great Habit Burger & Grill’s Charburger with cheese is. This year I put this burger against In-N-Out and Shake Shack in a blind taste test, and while this didn’t come out on top, it held its own.
This is quite simply one of the finest cheeseburgers in fast food right now. The meat is wonderfully charred while retaining some juiciness, the grilled onions are perfectly caramelized and savory, the cheese is salty, yet creamy, and the pickles and mayo toppings are standard but effective.
The only real weak point is the shredded lettuce. If Habit replaced this with leaf lettuce, this might be ranked a bit higher. Yes, at this point even something like lettuce is going to weigh into our decision on where to rank it. Take it as a good sign that this is in the top five though!
The Bottom Line:
Consider us impressed! Habit Burger & Grill’s Charburger may be a basic build, but it highlights everything that’s great about the mighty cheeseburger. Without a doubt one of the best cheeseburgers in fast food right now.
3. Wendy’s — Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
The Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger is Wendy’s newest cheeseburger, and we’ve got to say, we’re thoroughly impressed with it! 2024 was a great year for new burgers.
Available in a single, double, and triple, this burger is wonderfully decadent and indulgent. It features a thick and beefy patty topped with soft and chewy roasted mushrooms, a heavy serving of bacon, melted muenster cheese, and a wonderfully pungent and herbaceous creamy garlic spread.
Our favorite part about this burger is that you get all that umami from the mushrooms, without this tasting overwhelming, which is a trap a lot of mushroom burgers fall into.
The Bottom Line:
A rich and savory umami bomb of a burger. Get it immediately.
2. In-N-Out — Double Double
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Is the In-N-Out Double Double the most overrated burger in all of fast food? Probably, but look, there is a reason for that. This is simply one of the best cheeseburgers you’ll ever eat at a restaurant with a drive-thru attached.
The cheese is legitimately the best American cheese I’ve ever tasted, it’s salty, creamy, and melts sublimely. The beef is juicy, flavorful, and salty. I’ll admit, the patties are small, but that’s why you always get a Double Double and not a single.
The produce is also always perfect. Ripe, juicy tomatoes, perfectly crunchy iceberg lettuce, and savory caramelized onions make this burger a true joy to eat. All of that is wrapped together nicely with a slightly sweet burger sauce that cuts through all the rich flavors in the best way.
The Bottom Line:
Overrated for a reason. The Double Double is the best standard build cheeseburger in all of fast food. But it’s not the absolute best burger you can buy right now.
1. Shake Shack — Avocado Bacon Burger
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
If you’ve been to Shake Shack, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this burger has topped our list. Simply put, you’re not going to find a better beef patty in all of fast food, than what you’ll get at Shake Shack.
The meat patty is beefy and super juicy, with the perfect ratio of fat to meat, cooked smash style with wonderful lacy Maillard edges that provide a nice caramelized crunch to every bite.
The meat patty alone is delicious (we know, we blind taste tested naked patties in the past), but this burger is made even better with the inclusion of creamy American cheese, thin and crispy bacon, which adds a nice smokey element, and freshly sliced avocado, which adds this buttery sumptuousness to the burger that instantly elevates it to culinary perfection.
The burger sauce is tangy, mildly smokey, and further emphasizes the savory beefy qualities of the meat. We have no notes of criticism on this burger, it’s absolutely perfect.
The Bottom Line:
If you want the best cheeseburger in fast food, it’s Shake Shack’s Avocado Bacon Burger — no contest. It’s that f*cking good.
