The Expensive Burger Chain That Serves Up The Best-Value Fries

With prices increasing at fast food and fast casual chains, customers are always on the lookout for the best deals. To help diners get the best value for burgers and fries in the U.S., NetSpend conducted a study by tracking prices across 14 different burger chains. The results were surprising, with one expensive chain found to have the lowest per-serving cost for its fries.

If you're searching for the cheapest fast food meal, you might not consider Shake Shack, which typically has the highest prices. However, NetSpend's research found that the per-ounce cost of the chain's fries is 40 cents, making them a better value than Culver's, Five Guys, In-N-Out, Smash Burger, and Wendy's, as well as the other five restaurants studied. In fact, Shake Shack's fries were 10 cents cheaper per ounce than Culver's, which were found to be 50 cents per ounce. A medium order of fries at Shake Shack weighs about 6.17 ounces, far more than McDonald's 3.99-ounce serving of fries, and costs about $3 depending on your region.

To determine the average price-per-ounce of items at each chain, NetSpend weighed each dish on a standard kitchen scale and then compared weight to price. It should be noted that even menu items from the same chain, particularly french fries, may vary in size and weight from restaurant to restaurant or even day to day. To get the most bang for your buck, dig into the results of this survey.

NetSpend's study found many other surprising stats. Whataburger, which is popping up in more and more places across the U.S., actually has the least expensive cheeseburger, at least when looking at per-ounce cost. The classic Whataburger sandwich with cheese costs around $5.92 (depending on region) or $1.66 per ounce. It's served on a large bun with a slice of American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, and mustard. The burger weighs in at a respectable 3.56 ounces, which is larger than comparable options offered by the other fast food chains included in the study.

The second-best value cheeseburger on the list is McDonald's. The no-frills, single-patty cheeseburger is $1.91 per ounce, or a whole 25 cents more expensive per ounce than Whataburger's. The sandwich comes on a regular bun and includes a 100% beef patty, a slice of American cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup, and mustard, and weighs 1.06 ounces, making it one of the smallest fast food burgers studied. We ranked the classic McDonald's cheeseburger at number eight in our taste test of all of the chain's burgers, finding its mix of simplicity and nostalgia appealing. And at just $2.02, the cheeseburger is still a good value for anyone trying to pinch pennies while eating out.

Rounding out the top five best-value cheeseburgers, per NetSpend's study, are the All-American Smash Burger, Burger King's cheeseburger, and Dave's Single Cheeseburger from Wendy's. The most expensive burger per-ounce comes from Five Guys. Its Little Cheeseburger ended up being $3.59 per ounce, with the total sandwich ringing up at about $8.39.