The Ice Cream Chain With A Surprisingly Satisfying Bacon Burger

While a cheeseburger is a vast improvement on a plain old hamburger, adding crispy, savory, and rich strips of bacon to a cheeseburger is the end-all-be-all of burger upgrades. And most fast food chains have a bacon cheeseburger on their menus. We tasted and ranked 8 fast food bacon burgers and were pleasantly surprised by the Bacon Cheese Deluxe Signature Stackburger from Dairy Queen.

Dairy Queen may be a famous ice cream chain known for its dipped cones and incredible selection of thick, creamy Blizzards, but they make a decent bacon cheeseburger, too. We didn't rank it first or even second in our taste test, and yet we wouldn't hesitate to order it again if we wanted a savory snack to precede a creamy dessert. To begin, this burger was true to its name, absolutely stacked with two beef patties, applewood smoked bacon, American and white cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles all piled into a fluffy bun. The patties were juicy and well seasoned, the cheese was decadently gooey and sharp, and the bacon was smoky. The sheer volume of veggies and cheese often comprised the bulk of each bite, but if you look at each component separately, the execution, flavor, and texture are commendable.

While the Stackburger isn't as mindblowing as our top pick, Five Guys, it's certainly infinitely better than Sonic's SuperSonic bacon double cheeseburger. That's an option you should avoid at all costs.

Redditors echo our sentiments on Dairy Queen's bacon cheeseburger, with one stating, "It's not great in the grand scheme of things, but it's surprisingly amazing for what it is." Other reviews on Facebook were a lot more complimentary. One review said, "Ya'll know about DQ? Turns out double bacon cheeseburger deluxe is good, and actually kinda looks just like the pic on the menu board." 

While many fast food chains try to spruce up their burgers with special sauces and trendy toppings, Dairy Queen keeps it basic. A YouTube review applauds the bacon cheeseburger Deluxe for not pretending to be anything more than a standard bacon cheeseburger, stating, "Sometimes the simplest things in life are the best things ... and this is a delicious simple burger. Dairy Queen doesn't get enough credit for their burgers." Another Redditor confirms, "Where I live, DQ is constantly high quality than most of the large fast food brands such as BK, Fatburger, and McDonalds." To that effect, we think that Dairy Queen's cheese stackburger is better than McDonald's Big Mac.

So, if you're hungry for more than just a dipped cone or blizzard, Dairy Queen's bacon cheeseburger is a surprisingly satisfying meal option. You might want to skip the combo meal, though, because Dairy Queen's french fries came in dead last in a ranking of 25 fast food fries.