The Difference Between Burger King And Habit Char-Broiled Burgers

If you live in a suburban or metropolitan area, odds are that you're never more than a few miles away from an easy burger — but no two burgers are created equal. Some burgers are smashburgers, thin patties pressed into a flattop grill until cooked evenly, and others are square-shaped burgers, like the ones Wendy's is famous for. When it comes to Burger King versus the Habit Burger & Grill, both chains tout char-broiled burgers, but the difference between the two boils down to a matter of equipment.

Habit Burger & Grill char-broils its burgers on an open flame, while Burger King uses a specially-made upright broiler. Using a real flame when cooking a burger often gives the food a distinctly smoky taste, which is what Habit Burger & Grill's food is known for. We even ranked the chain in fifth place on our comprehensive list of 21 American burger chains ranked worst to best. Burger King does technically char-broil its burgers with a real flame, but it looks like more of an enclosed machine that allows the burger-beast to spit out over a dozen burgers at once.

The Charburger, as Habit Burger & Grill calls it, is cooked over an 1800-degree Fahrenheit flame in an open-kitchen where guests can watch the chefs make each burger fresh in the moment. A unique blend of spices, paired with caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo, and cheese, helped put these Southern California burgers on the map. Each Charburger, from the Charburger with Cheese to the BBQ Bacon Char (among all of the charburgers at Habit Burger & Grill), is seared with those classic grill marks that prove the food spent time over an open flame.

Burger King's upright broilers were designed for the chain itself with speed and efficiency in mind. The conveyor-style operation evenly broils each burger over a real flame, producing an even char on each patty and reducing the amount of time Burger King employees need to spend monitoring the burgers (and here's more on how Burger King's famous flame-grilling method really works). Although Burger King's method is more machine-operated, the burgers are still char-broiled over a flame, which produces an altogether different flavor than simply grilling the patties on a flattop.