If You're Craving A Bacon Cheeseburger, Avoid This Fast Food Restaurant

One could argue that a bacon cheeseburger is more American than a cheeseburger. Stacking crunchy strips of bacon over melty American cheese on top of a rich beefy patty is as satisfying to eat as it is to write about. Well, only if it's a good bacon cheeseburger. Unfortunately, not all of them are, so we tasted 8 bacon cheeseburgers from fast food establishments to find those worth eating and those you should avoid.

We based our taste test on the quality of the cheese, patty, and bacon, looking for optimal crispness with the bacon, a tender, juicy burger, and plenty of melty, creamy cheese. Landing in last place in our ranking is Sonic's SuperSonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger. While the ultra-stacked double burger, double cheeseburger with plenty of bacon, lettuce, and tomato looked impressive right out of the wrapper, that just made the letdown that much more grievous. The burger patties were undoubtedly frozen, as is often the case with fast food restaurants. But these patties didn't even have time to thaw on the flat top, as the insides were mushy and tasteless. The stringy, floppy bacon was as far from crispy as bacon gets. The American cheese was about the only element that did its job well. But with the two heavy hitters batting zero in the protein department, melty cheese was too little, too late. Don't let looks deceive you with this Sonic bacon cheeseburger. There are certainly better ones out there!

Sonic customers on Reddit were as let down with the taste of the bacon cheeseburger at Sonic as we were. One Redditor said they were "extremely disappointed [by] the flavor of the meat," while another said the "texture and taste was like a frozen Salisbury steak dinner. Bland, uninspired, and rubbery." A YouTube review of the SuperSonic bacon double cheeseburger gave a very thorough description by saying, "It tastes to me that they had this preassembled in a bag and threw it in the microwave to reheat it before giving it to me... the cheese is just plastered on the beef. The beef has no other flavor to it aside from the salt." The freshest thing on the burger, according to the YouTuber, was the lettuce and tomatoes.

While the bacon double cheeseburger was definitely a miss, we gave Sonic's cheeseburger a favorable review in our ranking of fast food cheeseburgers. Our favorite fast food bacon cheeseburger hails from BurgerFi, a chain out of Florida. But In-N-Out Burger came in a close second. Of course, if you really want to splurge, Tasting Table staff found some of the best bacon cheeseburgers in America at restaurants in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Denver. Or, you can always make the perfect bacon cheeseburger yourself; try Gordon Ramsay's pro-tip for next-level cheeseburgers that involves melting the cheese directly in the pan.