This In-N-Out Order Is The Worst To Make, According To Employees

In-N-Out, like any good burger joint, wants to make its customers happy. The chain's official menu is quite small, really offering up just burgers, fries, and milkshakes. To keep things interesting, though, In-N-Out is known for its secret menu items. On the company's website, you can find some items in what it calls the "Not-So-Secret Menu," but there are layers and layers of lesser-known secret menu items you probably haven't heard of. The open secrets on this menu offshoot include the chain's patty-free "grilled cheese," and the "Protein-Style" burger, which comes wrapped in lettuce rather than a bun. There is one item on this list, however, that many In-N-Out employees would prefer to be scrubbed from the menu entirely: the 4x4 or Quad Quad burger.

In-N-Out's Double Double burger is a flagship of the brand, a perfect two-patty burger with two slices of cheese to match. If you double the quantities of meat and cheese stuffed between those two buns, you have yourself a Quad Quad. As tempting as it might be to order one of the seemingly more interesting sandwiches that aren't listed on the board when you walk into the restaurant, the Quad Quad is an In-N-Out menu item to avoid for several reasons. First off, that much meat and cheese overwhelms every other aspect of the burger. Equally important, though, especially if you choose to get creative with your other requests — grilled onions, mustard-cooked patties, et cetera — is that it is liable to get on the nerves of the folks working the kitchen, and no one wants to do that.

The trouble for the folks making these burgers is that it's really difficult for them to package them nicely. "The bigger the burger, the harder it is to wrap neatly," one In-N-Out employee shared on Reddit. "4x4 is very slippery with the cheese and difficult to wrap tight enough to fit into the burger bag without having it all spill out the unwrapped side." Part of their job is making sure that when your tray arrives, everything looks tidy and delicious. With these giant burgers, that part of the job is much more difficult. What'll really get them, though, is if you ask for extras or to cut in half.

Of all the complaints voiced by In-N-Out employees, the real crime appears to be requesting a burger with extra toppings or cut — and especially one of these behemoths. "The other day we had a 4x4 extra everything including mustard fried and 5 whole grilled onions on it... then they wanted it cut in 4s," wrote another In-N-Out employee on Reddit. Typically, the burger halves, or in this case quarters, would be individually wrapped, but the employee had to serve it in one of the cardboard containers typically used for fries, where it "genuinely looked like slop."

There are definitely some folks out there for whom the 4x4 is their go-to In-N-Out order, and the chain does have it listed on its website, so while we might think it's a secret menu item to avoid, the company itself is clearly okay with it. For the sake of the employees, though, don't ask for too many extras. If you really want your burger sliced, try asking for a plastic knife.