A while back, after seeing commercials for Burger King offering their Double Cheeseburger for only $1, I made the comment that we should do a face off of the big 3 burger companies that offer double cheeseburgers for a buck. Newbs took that to heart, and today when I got off work said we should do it. Why you might ask? Maybe it’s because he’s on spring break and our internet was out all day. Maybe I like to think I’m still in college. Maybe it’s because it was Thursday! Who knows, but we got in the car and headed out. What follows is a deeply scientific study comparing the major burger companies and their offerings of Double Cheeseburgers.

We approached this with no specific goal or method in mind. Just down the road from us in one shopping center, lie all three hamburger joints within 200 yards of each other. America at its finest. After collecting our feast, we headed back home.

Wendy’s
Our first stop was Wendy’s. They call their DS a Snack Attack Double Cheeseburger. And for one point starting out in favor of Wendy’s, their burger is actually only .99 not the full dollar. And if you calculate the savings over the course of 30 years, eating a double cheeseburger every day, you could save just over $100 !! Moving on.
Wendy’s on first unwrapping was definitely the least appealing and sized much smaller. Inside it is mustard, ketchup and mayo – a unique to Wendy’s. Unlike BK and MD, Wendy’s did not include pickles and only one slice of cheese. For all these burgers their owners taste is very apparent. You know when you are eating a Wendy’s burger. The biggest thing that I noticed was missing lettuce. I’m so used to eating Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxes, I miss that crispy freshness.

Wendy’s Stack Attack: 380 calories, 20 grams of fat, weight: 135 grams

Burger King
Moving onto the King. Burger King advertises their burger as being much larger than McDonalds, and they aren’t lying. The BK DC was by far the biggest. A lot of it appears to be in the bun, as it is quite a bit thicker, but overall it’s a much bigger burger. The pickles were much crunchier than McDonalds, and the meat had a very distinct “grilled” taste to it. Probably that “flame broiled” taste spray they tout so much.

Burger King Double Cheeseburger: 570 calories, 34 grams of fat, weight: 189 grams

McDonald’s
Lastly, MickyD’s . This burger was BY FAR the greasiest. You cannot unwrap the double cheeseburger without getting greasy fingers. Everything had grease on it. The wrapper, the bun, the cheese, the air. The MD sandwich was very hard to pull apart, due to the stickiness of the cheese to the bun which was nice to see fully melted cheese. McDonald’s includes onions on their hamburgers, and it gives their burgers a very distinct taste. It’s not a very hamburgery taste, but it’s the taste of McDonald’s. Probably what a roadside gas station and shame taste like. MD DC used to be the single thing I would order at the golden arches prior to their release of the Angus Burger, so I might have a little taste memory bias in this friendly competition.

McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger: 440 calories, 23 grams from fat, weight: 165 grams

In the end, all double cheeseburgers were very tasty, and I’d eat any of them for some quick on the go nourishment on a long road trip. But if I was forced to rank the three, I would definitely put Wendy’s last, and the BK and McDonald’s in the lead, with probably McDonald’s edging out for the win.
Also here shortly we have a first for timjanderson.com a guest post from NEWBS!!

Double Cheeseburger Challenge

On Friday night, Kate wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday.  We had both heard and seen a new Cameron Mitchell restaurant up at Polaris called Marcella’s and decided that would be a fine choice to try out.  Reading briefly what type of place this was online, I had the idea it would be your typical Italian pizza and wine restaurant, but it is quite a bit more than typical.

The idea of Marcella’s, is somewhat similar to Bucca di Beppo’s.  At Bucca’s if you have a large group, you order a couple of large “family style” dishes that you all share.  At Marcella’s, your typical dish is not nearly as large as a “family style” portion, but the idea of sharing is the same.  Your table is provided with a plate stacker, where multiple entries can be placed, and you are constantly provided with stacks of small appetizer plates.  Since this was our first time with this new experience, we ordered in typical fashion. An appetizer of calamari and then two entries of rizzuto and a margherita pizza which we both shared.  During the meal we picked up on how the actual meal experience was to take place.

The idea is that you keep ordering small dishes that are constantly brought out to you.  The typical time from request to on the table is about 10 minutes.  The ideal setup would to be to go with a party of 4-6 and everyone kinda orders something to share one after the other or two at a time.  Similar to how a Chinese family style restaurant is.  Another original aspect Marcella’s has is serving Italian meats and cheeses.  We didn’t try any this visit, but the couple next to us did, and I would be up for some testing some with a bigger group.  Finally, pricing is very conducive to the type of ordering system just described.  Your typical plate costs about $8-12, which would probably cost about $5 more at your normal fancy Italian restaurant.

A couple other notes.  We were surprised by the attire of the wait staff.  Jeans and t-shirts were the norm.  The environment was very noisy and and somewhat cramped, but it didn’t bother us too much.  It kinda gave you the feeling of “eating in Grandma’s kitchen” - to quote Kate.  Overall, Marcella’s grew on us over the course of the meal, and walking out we both agreed we very much enjoyed it and would love to come back with some more friends.