LogFAQs > #963388619

So lets take a journey back in time....waaaay back, before most on this board were even born.

So Mc'Ds has pretty much always been the same quality/food, they have not changed things up much or at least you can not tell if they have. Their fries changed a bit (think they were forced to stop adding sugar to them) but still taste mainly the same.

BK though is different, drastically different and if you go back far enough, their food used to actually be really freaking good.

Back in the mid 80's BK used to flame broil each burger and they seemed to use better meat as well. I swear to freaking god that the double whopper back then was god tier, especially after 4+ hours working construction. Those burgers were so good (I was like 13-14 at the time) that I still remember the taste.

Now part of it was hunger. I was laying cement and doing the job of a full man at 13 or so (and getting paid $15 an hour which was insane back then, even for adults). The money was great, but what I looked forward to was lunch and those insanely delicious burgers.

But then things changed, and not recently either, in the late 90's BK changed things up (1999 to be exact) switching to new broilers that were not nearly as good, nor produced as tasty burgers. I believe they also changed their meat products at the same time though no proof of that exists that is easily found.

These burgers were not as flame broiled as the previous ones, lacked as much flavor and lasted a far shorter time before becoming increadibly bland. You needed ketchup and mustard on them just for them to taste halfway decent.

But....those were STILL better than the burgers we now have. In 2011 BK got in trouble with the food board because of contaminated food etc, and had to change things up again. At that point I believe they started regularly microwaving burger patties before using them, and honestly after 2011 you could no longer tell that the burgers had been flame broiled. The easiest way to tell is to just buy flate out burger patties (used to be $2 a pop, no clue how much they are now). They are bland, no grill marks, no real taste. It tastes exactly like if you bought a frozen patty at the store and grilled it on the stove (in a frying pan), till it was mostly done, and then let it rest for 10-15 minutes and microwaved it (Try it, it's exact).

Those burgers are not tasty, all the flavor comes from the other ingrediants on the whopper (lettuce/tomato/onions/cheese/pickles/mustard/ketchup. If you just eat a patty it barely has any flavor at all and is just grey meat.

That, as far as I know, was the last significant change to BK's burgers and is what many people today consider normal (considering it's been over 11 years since the change.

Anyway, that is the sad history of BK burgers and the decline from delicious to barely edible. The only thing they have going for them is the other ingrediants, although honestly they are still better than MC'Ds burgers (which are just horrid).

Carl's Jnr/Hardies are still really good, although you need to ask them to make your burger patties fresh for the flame broiled taste to still be there. They also downgraded their broilers, but not nearly as much, and you can still the actually grilled taste on them (especially if your lucky). They vary greatly in how good their food is, so it is more than just the ingrediants and broiler that makes a difference (which can be quite large from store to store). I think some stores just broil a bunch and then microwave them like BK....while others are more proactive and broil the burgers to order instead. I always ask for fresh burgers but even then it's hit or miss with random Carl's Jnrs sadly.