Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Not worth it for what you get.

Ain't that the truth.

My 14yo son loves fast food burgers, always begging for McDonald's or Wendy's or Whataburger or whatever.  So I had a very proud papa moment last night when he was hungry and begging for some crappy fast food, and I told him we were going to make a homemade burger that would blow away anything he could get at a restaurant, and cost less, too.

We had about 1/3 lb of ground beef leftover from something or other a couple nights before, and we had some hamburger buns in the pantry, and some cheese in the refrigerator.  I told him how to do it all, then made him throw the skillet on the burner, form the patty, season it, cook it to order (he wanted MW but now thinks he'd pefer M), add the cheese after flipping and tent a little foil to get it to melt nicely, butter and toast the bun on the skillet surface while letting the patty rest, and then throw on some lettuce, tomato, and whatever condiments he wanted.

He took his first bite and his eyes lit up and he said, "Dad, this is absolutely the greatest hamburger I've ever eaten."

So now I guess I'm gonna have to keep a lot more ground beef around the house...

And I guess our Culver's must be different than yours.  They do have ice cream but I wouldn't say it's marketed any more or less than Dairy Queen does (DQ is a burger place here, not solely the ice cream shop that you sometimes see around the country).  Here's the closest Culver's to me:

Best burger stand burger I ever had was a green chili burger about 40 years ago at Lucky Boy in Albuquerque.

Best burger stand burger I ever had was a green chili burger about 40 years ago at Lucky Boy in Albuquerque.

Yeah there's all sorts of local places that can blow the doors off the national chains.  I'm not really including those in the comparison, but I do love a local burger stand burger.  I really only eat chain food when we're on a road trip and trying to make a quick stop for lunch or something. 

We used to have Hardee's and Burger Chef and a cheap place I can't remember, drive through only.  There is also Sonic, White Castle.  I'm not sure how some stay afloat.

So now I guess I'm gonna have to keep a lot more ground beef around the house...

And if you want to level up--grind it yourself. I usually go roughly even mix of brisket point and chuck roast, which leads to a REALLY nice fat content in there. Usually it's hard to find anything pre-ground at the supermarket with enough fat. Although I suppose you could ask them to custom grind something for you...

There is a Portillo's across the street from where we stay in Orlando.  We tried it twice, I'd say that was enough, for me.  It was OK.

Although I really like the burger at Portillo's, I eat there rarely enough that I'm usually ordering a jumbo dog with everything. Err... Two of them, actually. It gets me my Chicago Dog fix. They have decent Italian Beef sandwiches too, but it was never my favorite place in Chicago for Italian Beef, so I usually stick with the hot dog. 

And if you go back, the cheese fries are key. The fries are good, but the fries with that cheese sauce are amazing. 

Then there is White Castle of course, which arguably is the worst burger being sold today, though Crystal is right there too.

White Castle tastes better than most other laxatives.