Carl's Jr - Rosecrans St - Hungryones.com

Not much of a lunch crowd and no line. I decided to try the $6 burger.

Things started poorly as I ordered my burger with only lettuce, tomato, and bacon but it arrived with a big blog of cheese. I tried scraping it off with a napkin but it had melted into the beef. Cashier gave me a look and stated she had asked me if I wanted cheese and didn’t believe me when I stated I didn’t want cheese. I was ready to argue that when I stated the list of ingredients I did want did not include cheese she walked off. I watched as another employee slapped another burger together within minutes. Their secret to speedy service is they don’t cook to order. I regularly go to Rock Bottom and it takes 30 minutes for them to cook a burger.

On to the burger. Bun was toasted and tasted like a standard supermarket bun. Kind of fresh with minimal flavor. Beef had minimal flavor and I could tell it was low quality ground beef like Jack in the Box or Burger King. Bacon had a salty flavor and that’s about it. Makes me long for the Niman Ranch bacon they have at Shake Shack. Iceberg lettuce and tomato were ok. Overall this burger is a bit better than cheaper burgers at Burger King due to the higher beef to bun ratio. There wasn’t much flavor but it’s better than just eating bun with a tiny amount of beef.

I also tried the fried zucchini. Normally I don’t like little slices of zucchini as you are mostly eating batter. As expected all I tasted was batter which had a bitter flavor. Reminds me of other fast food places fried foods which shouldn’t have this sharp bitter flavor which I suspect is due to old oil. It starts out as a little aftertaste in your mouth that doesn’t go away after you are done eating. In this case I suspect the oil was really bad as that bitter flavor was the primary flavor.

I wouldn’t eat here again unless I was starving and there were no other attractive options. In N Out burgers taste better and are cheaper. I can see why they have long lines.