In-N-Out

Animal-style grill cheese sandwiches at In-N-Out are great... I made sure to stop by the In-N-Out in Kings County off I-5 to get me a couple of them for the road... unfortunately, those grilled onions are like canned corn in the sense that they are sturdy all the way through your digestive tract. And the fries suck after 5 minutes.. otherwise, classique.

Didn't you guys just have one in upstate New York that took out a road or something? Do you want more?

Do you want NOTHING SHORT OV TOTAL WAR?

I'll tie this all in to In-N-Out some way... acutally there's a pretty easy way.

One of the odder things in high school was the guy who didn't get what it meant when people took 'In-N-Out Burger' bumper stickers and trimmed off the 'B' and 'R' in 'burger.'

DICK'S!

There is an excellent In-N-Out style burger place in the East Village called Blue 9 Burger. People here don't know what In-N-Out is so they don't market it as such and of course it's not quite as good but it is the same basic idea: super fresh, simple, limited menu, hand-cut fries, real shakes etc.

Hah...who needs those guys when the DC area has Five Guys? Mmmmmmm, Five Guys' burgers...

i think the key to in n out burger aside from the obvious (fresh, unfrozen meat/produce) is when you order the burger with grilled onions, the way the grilled onions and cheese blend together is very pleasing to the taste.

the secret menu at In N Out

I love:
Barney's Burgers in the Yay Area
Father's Office in L.A.

i never saw how the end of that series came out (i imagined not very pretty). did i miss anything?

Damn you!

x-post

Also: Barney's.

that honor may just go to burgerville (northwest burger chain that only uses fresh, locally produced ingredients). when i go to portland next month i'm making a special trip to bv, and i hope it's as good as i remember.

Leee-Do you like Barney's?

I also like Taqueria Cancun on Addison (I think). My wife took me there the other day to cheer me up after a bad day at work. She is great.

in and out is vile, but their fries were kind of good in a sickening way.

Barney's is basically my favorite place to eat. I used to go to the one on Piedmont with My NYTimes and sit for hours in the rear patio. One time I stayed so long that I had *two* meals there!

No wonder the Islamic world thinks we're so strange. Can you imagine Koran verses being printed on the backs of cheesburger wrappers?

God help anyone hankering for a nice Chik Fil*A on a Sunday.

I'm thinking there are more acute examples of religious extremism on both sides.

In-N-Out, Chick Fil*A. What other food place serves The Word with their hot fries?

Also, Leee took me to Bongo Burger and it was awesome.

Our hamburgers are made from fresh, 100% pure beef. They are free of additives, fillers and preservatives of any kind, and we buy only chucks, the front ribs and shoulder. No other parts are ever used. Our butchers carefully hand-cut and grind the beef in our own facility at which point the patties are shipped directly to our stores in refrigerated trucks by our own drivers. This way we have total control over the production of every burger.

Our commitment to freshness doesn’t stop there. Our lettuce is hand-leafed. Our American cheese is the real thing. And we use the plumpest, juiciest tomatoes we can find. All of our ingredients are delivered fresh to our stores. In fact, we don’t even own a microwave, heat lamp, or freezer. We even bake our buns using old-fashioned, slow-rising sponge dough. And we make every burger one at a time, cooked fresh to order.

Of course, what's a great burger without great fries? At In-N-Out, we know a french fry is only as good as the potato it comes from. That’s why we use the highest grade potatoes and ship them fresh from the farm. Then we cut them right in the store, one potato at a time. And cook them in 100% pure, cholesterol-free vegetable oil. To top it all off, we also make our delicious shakes from real ice cream – just like we used to make at the first In-N-Out back in 1948. We wouldn’t do it any other way. Because when it comes to burgers, fries and shakes, getting fresh is a good thing.

this sounds impossibly dirty

http://www.garment-district.com/store/new/7duffs_sm.jpg

http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~zblocker/britpics/duel.jpg

The good news now that I'm back in MS is that Carls Jr. bought the Hardees chain a few years ago and I can get a Thickburger whenever I want. Terrible name, great burger, 1500% of the recommended daily requirement of mayonnaise.

http://www.newgenevacenter.org/portrait/civilwar/hooker-framed.jpg

it took me so long to learn that you could order chopped chilis in the burgers and it was sorta life changing.

double meat animal style extra pickles w/ chopped chilis + fries = $4.00 after tax and currently my favorite meal in the world.

Barney's is all right, maybe I always order the wrong thing.

any drink that isn't the turkish coffee milkshake = the wrong thing

http://twitter.com/IN_N_OUT_Burger

IN-N-OUT The worlds Best Burgers. (We are whilom managers for INO, we are not from corp.) Account Run By: @LeadLemming Media Solutions

lead lemming?

"whilom"... guess I learned a new word today.

nyc got blue ballz:

http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2010/04/in-n-out_or_april_fool.html

that's cold

yeah you sorta have to not know anything about in-n-out to have fallen for that...in order for them to open up an east coast branch they'd have to change completely change the way they operate.

i hope that isn't true if only because some things still deserve to be uniquely regional

in-n-out is regional because they supply all of their restaurants from the same place in southern california + don't freeze their meat/produce - it's possible for them to reach arizona and now even utah in this manner, but nyc in-n-out would require a completely different operations model.

as much as I don't like the consequences of this (having recently moved to nyc) it is pretty clearly the reason why the quality is so consistent. a utah in-n-out can produce the exact same product as a california in-n-out, a nyc one couldn't.

man I was in NV recently and I passed the in-n-out and I was like "you must go there on the way to the airport" (even a veg can order a grilled cheese & fries & it's mmmmmmm) but then I didn't manage to and now I am bummed

I always thought someone could make a killing making a slightly upscale InNOut using slightly larger patties.
If you've ever disassembled an InNOut burger, the burger itself is really puny and unimpressive (though it tastes much less like gravel has been mixed into it, compared with say Jack in the Box)

yes America's problem is that the hamburgers they eat are TOO SMALL

if only there was some way to cram more beef into their gaping snackholes

You mean like a double-double?

man the regular size in-n-out is the perfect amt of burger. it is not "too small." the other ones are making up for how bad they suck by packing on extra ozs

Truth bomb etc.

That's the unofficial name for the double-double, isn't it?

My cow-phobic friend figured out it was cheaper to buy a cheeseburger and give me the burger-part than to get a grilled cheese, so we took out the patty and it was slightly larger than a pickle slice and it looked very sad and impoverished.

re: burger size -- the InNOut burger assemblage is calibrated for quick cooking time and easy eating while driving rather than optimal burger experience.

(BTW that soderbergh sasha grey movie should have been about eating hamburgers.)

idk what kinda pickles you eat

but I want some

To be fair, in their natural habitat, the patties are flattened down more, but when we tried to extricate it, it kind of shrank into a lumpy, curly meatball with cheese wounds, so probably lost some diameter there. The rest of the burger looked like a battle zone and we decided not to try and game the system again. (Which we forgot a few weeks later by 'upgrading' our fries to animal-style by rubbing half of an animal-style burger over it)

haha we are disgusting savages.

animal style fries are the worst thing at in-n-out imo

like the idea of them seems really good, but they're just tasteless and mushy

worse than animal style shake?

haha

the fries in general are so wack.

i get an animal style burger (once in a while a doubledouble) and a small neapolitan milkshake. calorically crucial.

the fries in general are so wack.

^^^^

double meat animal style extra pickles w/ chopped chilis + fries = $4.00 after tax and currently my favorite meal in the world.

― iatee

^^^ I still highly recommend this

CHOPPED CHILIS WHATAAAATTT

so good

the fries in general are so wack.

crazy talk. they are potatoes. THAT IS WHAT FRIES ARE SUPPOSED TO TASTE LIKE.

come to dc and i will introduce you to five guys, where the fries taste like fries

no im sorry come to wherever and ill take you to burger king where fries taste like beef tallow AS THEY SHOULD

i was so psyched for in and out, the burger was great but the fries were like wack city

come to california where I will show you the above meal which costs about as much as five guys fries and also ps is much better

wait so seriously what do i have to say to get the chilis

'chopped chilis'!

"purple monkey dishwasher"

pretty spicy too

you can get them separately too (as many as you want)

in n out fry haters prefer their fries to be stored in a deep freeze for 2-3 years iirc.

come to dc and i will introduce you to five guys, where the fries taste like fries

I have been to 5 Guys in DC. their fries are not as good as in-n-out's.

I can't lie though I remember the day we had five guys...quality chow

"in n out fry haters prefer their fries to be stored in a deep freeze for 2-3 years iirc."

InNOut #1 fan Thomas Keller sheepishly admits to freezing his fries for taste. Something to do with starches.

five guys are making up for how bad their fries suck by packing on extra ozs

in n out fry haters prefer their fries to be stored in a deep freeze for 2-3 years iirc.

Whatevs, they still are limp and kind of lame. Should I try Keller's new burger place; I met a lady who works there?

disgusting savage tip: ask for something weird with your fries (no salt, well done) so they have to make your batch separate from the rest. It'll take longer, but you'll end up getting a huge portion of fries because they presumably can't give part of your batch to someone else.

damn

in-n-out fries are quite soggy but maybe it's just my local joint that's slackin. or it could be that they just get sogged in the 7 minutes between exiting drive thru and entering home

the lettuce they use is fresh as hell

InNOut #1 fan Thomas Keller sheepishly admits to freezing his fries for taste. Something to do with starches.

― Philip Nunez, Thursday, April 1, 2010 2:31 PM (5 hours ago)

i think you're confusing Thomas with Hubert Keller... which imo is akin to confusing Thomas with Helen Keller in terms of their respective skills.

Should I try Keller's new burger place; I met a lady who works there?

― Il suffit de ne pas l'envier (Michael White), Thursday, April 1, 2010 2:37 PM (5 hours ago)

I did and regretted it. Go to Spruce instead.

someone explain to me this secret menu stuff (the link upthread is broken).

love these burgers but the fries have been hit and miss ime: the INO by the airport, and the one in marin, have terrible fries, but the one in livermore(? or somewhere around there) has amazing ones.

the one time I went to in-n-out I too was disappointed by the fries

smaller burgers > bigger burgers though. I remember the In-n-out burgers were of a pretty good size. with bigger burgers the meat-to-everything else ratio becomes incredibly dangerous. the buns just can't keep up. stop this burger arms race imo.

let me give y'all a hint w/r/t to the fries:

order them "well" (ie, "double double grilled onions ketchup lettuce instead fries well arnold palmer")

I remember a few years back being vaguely aware that In-n-Out was a big deal in the US and got excited when I went past this in Bristol

http://www.in-n-out.co.uk/resource/image/image_430_430__157.jpg

Sadly it's an MOT centre ;__;

Overrated. Good Times in Denver is superior.

lol

i expect purists to froth at this, but the hamburgers at Sonic seem to vaguely approximate the taste of a regular In-N-Out burger. closer than any other chain at least, we have to make do here in godless Oregon :(

someone explain to me this secret menu stuff (the link upthread is broken).

in order to keep the menu short and simple (hamburger, cheeseburger, fries), they don't really list everything you can order. the secret menu items aren't like, different food items, they're just different ways to have your burger/fries/shake. this creates something of a secret club among people 'in the know' except everybody is really in the know and the secret menu is posted on their website.

the most popular thing is animal style burger which is w/ pickles, and onions and mustard fried on. it's pretty good... animal style fries are cheese fries w/ spread and onions. basically everything else is just a combination of more bread, less bread, more patties, fewer patties, etc. it's not like you can order foie gras. oh and aforementioned 'chopped chilis' = peppers on your burger = amazing and pretty. I'm telling you guys, a burger animal style w/ chopped chilis is among best food items you can buy in america for $2.

amazing and pretty unknown*

Overrated. Good Times in Denver is superior.

The color of the sky in your world, plz to tell me about it.

thanks, iatee!

best secret menu option is getting two or three flavors in yr shake

dont get ppl who dislike in-n-out fries but wtv

i did the extra crispy/well thing, sorry bros. the burgers are blood dimaonds, though

dimaonds
diamonds

the secret menu items aren't like, different food items

exception is the grilled cheese sandwich

isn't it just the same cheese + bun?

sliced bread

Overrated. Good Times in Denver is superior.
good lord, no it isn't. i live out here. i would trade a hundred good times for one in-n-out. (ok that last sentence would sound really weird taken out of context).

"sliced bread"

Really? I've only ever had the grilled cheese on a bun.

I haven't ordered one in like 20 years lolz

hmm I wonder if my grilled cheese adolescent memory is of EZ-Out (which was across the street from In-N-Out)

!

dude are you from Upland?

upland is one of my favorite california city names

dude are you from Upland?

yeah (I think we've had this conversation)

Fucked Upland, as my high school friends used to say ...

wait I knew J0hn was Inland Empire, but you too Tyler...?

http://www.sierranatureprints.com/fruit/Cuplandpride.jpg

No, I'm from the South Bay, but I had an aunt/uncle who lived out there, so i was driving out there regularly in my youth ...

and virtually my whole family went to Pomona, as well ...

best secret menu option is getting two or three flavors in yr shake

― max, Friday, April 2, 2010 2:49 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

<3neapolitan<3

vanilla + another flavor is good, but neapolitan is overboard imo

http://www.johnbracken.com/upland/upland_1.jpg

Pipeline 4EVR

I would trade a hundred good times for one in-n-out is my motto

words to live by imo

the fries at In-N-Out and Five Guys are both just "pretty decent" imo. don't get the fuss either way. i go for the burgers.

'confusing Thomas with Helen Keller'

Helen must've used frozen fries, too, then:
http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2007/01/in_his_cookbook_bouchon_thomas.html

What's this thing where you're supposed to leave fries in water overnight?

that's nuts, thanks for linking PN. there are much better fries in the SFBA then at Bouchon, that's for sure, not that TK cooks much anymore... it's cool that someone called him out on going thru Sysco which you would not expect at those prices.

i do love how how so many restaurants have to have a "thing" though. in-n-out's got the secret menu, five guys has their "fill your bag to the brim with fries" and peanuts, etc.

too many food shows on tv with "it just wouldn't be a meal at Big Ed's without their signature two steamed artichokes and boot filled with home brewed chipotle horseradish sauce!".

If we are going to bring the 909 into this, I should point out my ridiculous yet strongly-held belief that the In N Out on Garey Ave. in Pomona (one of the old ones without indoor seating) has the best milkshakes of all the In N Outs. Similarly, I rep for the fries at either of the two locations in the San Fernando Valley on Van Nuys Blvd. (Sherman Oaks and Panorama City), which are usually a lil' crispier (but not overly so) than the locations that were closer to me when I lived in West LA. I will still take the softest of In N Out fries over Five Guys (although there is a way-too-expensive mini-chain out here in DC called BGR that has some amazingly great Yukon Gold fries, which I will admit are better than either In N Out or 5 Guys). My usual routine at 5 Guys is to not order any fries, and save more room for free peanuts.

Basically I think I have been to In N Out so many times that I came to believe that each individual location is like its own unique, slight variation on the theme. This probably isn't true, but it did enable me to justify going to every new In N Out I could find, in the name of science.

I salute this noble effort.

PN I've seen people commenting on fry recipes say to soak your fries in sugar water overnight - supposedly helps with the overall crispiness

it's all about taking the starch out of the potato which leads to a better fry texture.

fuck dallas
http://sidedish.dmagazine.com/2010/05/24/first-in-n-out-burger-in-texas-is-approved-for-garland/

Hi: Comparing In and Out to Krystal’s? Give me a break. Have you been dropped on your head?

http://grab.by/grabs/6ad544c24d39074b8b6b9fd25dd20ca1.png

okay 5 guys is out here now... the beef is disgusting... wtfff. the fries taste "fluffier" than in-n-out's but i prefer belgian style to oreida or whatever so no big deal. but seriously, thank god they have bacon to disguise the flavor of the beef. that is some sad ass shit. sorry mid-atlantic dudes...

otm 5 guys is hella overrated, esp considering the price

where is it though?

had never even heard of 5 Guys prior to seeing one in Portland over July 4th weekend.

we didn't eat there

good call imo

5 Guys started with just a few places in Northern Virginia, outside Washington DC, then they began franchising...I liked the original pre-franchising locations.

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/07/the-burger-lab-how-to-make-an-in-n-out-double-double-animal-style.html

final product is pretty convincing except for the bun

Culver's is just as good as In n Out and doesn't get the love it deserves.

A wonderful world.

Best reason to move out west

One of the few things I dislike about being a vegetarian is I can't eat here anymore...I guess I could have fries

grilled cheese

once ate at in-n-out and the vegan dude only had fries and he seemed cool with it but it kind of hurt to see that also i wanted some of the fries.

Yeah adam get the grilled cheese.

i once tried negotiating with a vegetarian to order a cheeseburger, but order it with a burger on the side because it was equivalent to a grilled cheese, and about the same price, so i could have the extra patty. this burger arbitrage didn't work out.

if you can get grilled cheese maybe you can also get animal style fries?

> 5 Guys started with just a few places in Northern Virginia, outside Washington DC, then they began franchising...I liked the original pre-franchising locations

I thought it was just me! The burgers at the two recently-opened Five Guys near me not as good as what I remembered from 10 years ago. Even then, the fries were too greasy, but the burgers were good. It's still a great value though - their "little" burgers are the size of everyone else's regular ones. And of course the free peanuts while you're waiting are awesome.

I've heard raves about BGR: The Burger Joint from several of my friends but haven't made it to one yet.

UH

if anyone in the UK wants to give it a try, i will ship you TWO chipotle burritos for $25. i accept paypal.

was just coming here to post this:

http://www.midtownrow.com/product/in-n-out-burger-double-double-burger-classic/

This guy in NY paid http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/07/the-burger-lab-how-to-make-an-in-n-out-double-double-animal-style.html20 to have his shipped (but I bet his employers paid the tab).

When I was doing the bi-coastal thing, I would meet my XGF at JFK with a bag of "fresh" in-n-out double-double/fries.

Yep i've done that, then u take some bagels back west for the bros.

Pro tip: take the burger dry w/sauce on t side

http://shanghaiist.com/2011/10/26/caliburger_bringing_patented_in-n-o.php

had this the other week for the first time ever. pretty good burger for fast food, and not a bad price, but prett lame fries and the milkshake sucked

I really don't like how their patties taste.

gotta eat the fries fast or they start to suck

Fries are great! I hate crispy fries though. Kev order them 'extra crispy' next time if you like them crispy.

big fan of the strawberry milkshake. tastes like bubble gum.

habit burger >> in-n-out

also twice as expensive, no?

oh wait, i'm thinking of the counter. habit is pretty damn good.

A combo is ~$6 so it's a bit more expensive if you count patties. but there is more meat

I also think you have to judge by maximizing goodness/cost

k3vin, if you are near a habit, get one and give us a ruling. I am typically underwhelmed by in-n-out, but I'll rep for habit. the fries will be much better. i do like in-n-out neapolitan milkshakes, though.

they just opened a habit near where I work, I plan to try it out soon

Looks like they have a Habit here in Phx, had never heard of it, will check it.

had five guys for the first time a couple weeks ago. salty, lumpy, gross.

yeah in n out fries are great if you eat them immediately after you get them, but they're awful if you wait any longer than that. the burgers are perfect no matter what.

five guys is soooo overrated and soooooo overpriced. Cajun fries are bomb though

I can't believe I ever was nervous to order from the secret menu here. I thought they would sniff me out as being not insider or cool enough? Will I never get over that? If you order the secret animal style fries, they come in a box that says Animal™ Fries. What a secret™! They're weird, I have eaten enough animal style burgers that all I could think was "it's like eating a fry-flavored burger."

they did not used to come in boxes that said "animal fries" that is p. dumb

Also IIRC they were advertising Uggs w/an In-N-Out logo that you could order from the "company store."