12 Culver's Order Upgrades For Better Burgers And Sandwiches

Culver's offers a lot more than delicious, juicy burgers and tender, mindfully seasoned chicken sandwiches. If seafood is more your speed, there's a North Atlantic Cod sammie that has your name on it, and if you're a cheesy melts sort of person, a Reuben with slow-cooked corned beef awaits. There's even a pot roast sandwich with slow-braised beef. The wide array of burger and sandwich options is largely why it's considered one of the best fast food chains.

But as tasty as these menu fixtures are, there are plenty of ways to upgrade them and unlock their truest potential. We're talking burgers topped with cheese curds, pot roast sandwiches drizzled with savory sauce, different proteins combined into a hybrid hack, and more. Buckle up, because here are Culver's order upgrades for better burgers and sandwiches.

Culver's signature ButterBurger may rank highly on "Best of" lists, but that doesn't mean that there aren't ways to make it tastier. In fact, we have a cheesy ordering trick that'll make a Culver's burger not only better, but 10 times better. Rather than ordering a standard ButterBurger, order one without a bun or toppings, then order two grilled cheese sandwiches to use as burger buns. 

Picture the savory punch of two melty grilled cheese-buns stuffed with a fresh, made-to-order beef patty — yup, it's one seriously worthwhile upgrade. The customizable fun doesn't end there, either. Culver's offers three cheese options — American, cheddar, and Swiss — and, if you really want to take it over the top, you can request an additional patty or burger toppings on the side.

Culver's is often called the In-N-Out of the Midwest — but that's only because both are primarily regional chains. Aside from that, the two couldn't be more different. However, there is a way to give your Culver's chicken sandwich In-N-Out-inspired flavor: adding grilled onions and a special sauce. Culver's sells fried, spicy fried, and grilled chicken sandwiches, and this upgrade can easily be applied to any of them. 

If you'd like to recreate In-N-Out's signature Animal Style, it'll have to be in person. This is because Culver's doesn't offer Thousand Island dressing on its regular menu, but it is included as an ingredient on its Reuben sandwich, so you should be able to ask your server for it. Culver's chicken sandwiches come with pickles, mayo, lettuce, and tomato, which checks off three of the ingredients. You'll have to remove the mayo, add mustard and grilled onions, and apply the Thousand Island yourself. Mustard alone isn't quite like In-N-Out's mustard-cooked burgers, but this is as close as you'll get to the Animal Style experience.

Culver's ButterBurgers are pretty filling as is. After all, the standard burger starts with two patties, not one. That said, when the cravings are at a max, you can order Chili Cheddar Fries to pour on top. The clever upgrade can be done by ordering a ButterBurger with your favorite toppings and a side of Chili Cheddar Fries, then piling the fries on top of the sandwich.

Besides improving the flavor of your sandwich, another upside of this hack is that you can order however many patties and toppings you want. At some point, of course, you may need to use a fork and knife to eat it. But don't let us talk you out of satisfying your hunger pangs, especially since we know another hack that'll level it up even more: Ask your server to make the fries extra crispy and thank us later.

A grilled cheese sandwich is easily one of the top-five sandwiches ever created. But why stop at just melty cheese and toasty bread when you can load it with savory ingredients? Culver's menu has lots of tasty items that can take a regular Grilled Cheese Sandwich from zero to 100, from Crinkle-Cut Fries and Butterfly Jumbo Shrimp to Onion Rings and more. That said, the item fans suggest trying over the others on a Grilled Cheese are the Chicken Tenders. According to an employee on Reddit, "[there's] an 'add protein' button in the system just for things like that," so you should have no problem requesting it.

You can also build it yourself. Culver's sells Original Chicken Tenders and spicy Buffalo Chicken Tenders, with the option of a one-, two-, four-, or eight-piece size. There's nothing stopping you from going all out with the eight-piece option. The tenders come with two sauces that you can dip your sandwich into, and Culver's has over 10 sauces to choose from, from its Signature Sauce to Buttermilk Ranch, Ken's Boom Boom Sauce, Marinara, and more.

Culver's mostly uses lightly buttered and toasted kaiser rolls or brioche buns for its ButterBurgers and Chicken Sandwiches. In fact, the added butter is the reason why they're called ButterBurgers. However, the chain does carry a variety of other breads, including a gluten-free bun, a hoagie bun for its North Atlantic Cod sandwich, toasted rye, and sourdough bread that it uses for its Sourdough Melt. The great thing about having so many options is that you can switch things up whenever you get tired of the standard buns. 

Sourdough buns, for example, aren't restricted to just the Sourdough Melt. You can upgrade any Culver's burger with sourdough bread. The chain doesn't offer it online as a swappable option for the other ButterBurgers, but you can request it in person. Do yourself a favor and try The Culver's Bacon Deluxe on sourdough. The best part is that it only costs around $1 more, according to some Reddit users, to swap sourdough for a regular bun.

A pot roast sandwich isn't something typically found at fast food chains. Culver's not only offers it, but it's also one of the chain's most beloved menu items. This special handheld is made with premium chuck roast that's slow-braised for eight hours and seasoned with herbs and spices before being served on a lightly toasted bun. It doesn't include any toppings or come with any sauces — making it a blank, savory canvas that you can paint however you'd like.

The obvious go-to would be to drizzle it with barbecue sauce, but in our opinion, a better way to upgrade Culver's pot roast sandwich is with its Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese Sauce. It's not surprising that so many fans love the cheese sauce at this Wisconsin-born chain. And considering cheese's reputation for improving the flavor of literally anything, it's not surprising it goes so well with pot roast. You'll have to order the sauce separately, and as long as you don't mind licking drippy cheese from your fingers, this upgrade is highly recommended.

One of Culver's most overlooked sandwiches is its Grilled Reuben Melt. The menu item, which is composed of slow-cooked corned beef and stacked with Wisconsin Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing, typically comes on lightly buttered, toasted rye bread. And while rye bread is certainly the traditional bread for Reuben melts, you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't try it on sourdough bread at least once. Toss in some grilled onions, and you've got one of the best sandwich upgrades Culver's has to offer.

"Reuben melt, sub sourdough bread, add grilled onions. FIRE," said a customer on Reddit. Meanwhile, on another Reddit thread, someone suggested the same sourdough swap, but instead of grilled onions, adding cheddar and extra sauerkraut. Whichever Reuben remix you prefer, it's sure to be a tasty departure from the standard menu build.

There are two versions of The Works — a combination of classic hamburger toppings — available at Culver's. Both include pickles, ketchup, and mustard — and one version also contains raw onions. 

In our opinion, ordering your burgers with The Works is one of the best Culver's ordering tips. You simply can't go wrong with any of these ingredients. The pickles provide zestful crunchiness, the ketchup brings in sweet, savory tanginess, the mustard adds extra tang with a touch of spice, and the fresh flavor of raw onions helps bring it all together.

Both versions of The Works are only given as an option in the toppings sections of the OG ButterBurger, the ButterBurger Cheese, the Mushroom and Swiss, the Pork Loin, and the Beef Pot Roast. The Works aren't available options for some burgers, like the Culver's Deluxe, which already have most of The Works' components. However, you can create The Works yourself on all of the burgers and chicken sandwiches, allowing you to customize the sandwich to your liking. 

Culver's CurderBurger, a cult-favorite burger topped with a golden-brown cheese curd patty, was first introduced in October of 2021, but just for one day only. It was such a hit that Culver's decided to release it each subsequent October as a limited-time option. Fortunately, you don't have to wait until the fall season to experience it, because there is a way to order the CurderBurger year-round. 

To dip into cheesy nostalgia, simply order The Culver's Deluxe and a side of fried Wisconsin Cheese Curds, and load them onto the burger. While it isn't quite the same as biting into a patty-sized cheese curd, it does deliver the same iconic taste.

If you enjoy extra cheesy hamburgers, then Culver's is definitely the place to be. The chain sources cheese directly from Wisconsin, the premier cheesemaking state in the U.S.  So it only makes sense that fans love dipping ButterBurgers into its signature Wisconsin Cheese Sauce. This saucy upgrade can work with any burger on the menu, though. You could pair two cheese types with the Mushroom and Swiss, or put a whole new meaning on melt by trying it with the Sourdough Melt. When it comes to cheese, the only limit is your imagination. 

Culver's has a wide selection of dip-worthy sauce flavors, too. For example, try the Culver's Bacon Deluxe dipped into its Signature Sauce, or the Pot Roast Sandwich plunged into Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce, or even the Crispy Chicken Sandwich submerged in Honey Mustard. Or, better yet, order a few sauces on the side and do a blind dipping test to see which one you like the most.

This upgrade will seem like a no-brainer, but it's also one of those "Why didn't I think of that sooner?" types of things. If you read the description of the Pot Roast Sandwich on Culver's website, you'll notice that it's made with the same cut of beef that's most commonly used for barbecue shredded beef. When you drench the Pot Roast Sandwich in Sweet Baby Ray's, the best-selling barbecue sauce in the U.S., it'll be like having a cookout in your mouth.

Not only does it infuse the meat with Sweet Baby Ray's signature sweet and tangy smokiness, but it makes every bite extra juicy. On top of that, adding melted cheese on top and a side of pickles will introduce even more savory succulence. The pickles, in fact, can be included for no additional charge.

Culver's point of sale system has an "add protein" button that lets employees add any protein that you'd like to your order, even if it isn't an available option on the website. So, if you're into mixing and matching protein types, just think about all the ways that you can upgrade your burgers and sandwiches. We stumbled upon a wild protein mashup on Reddit that we call the cluck and moo ordering trick. However, its inventor has a more salacious name for it that we won't share here.

According to an employee, one of their customers came in every day for lunch and ordered a Spicy Chicken Sandwich with a beef patty on it. We don't know about you, but when land and sea meet in such a mouthwatering way, we can't help but spread the news. Culver's Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich comes with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and pickles on a brioche bun, and to us, it's the item worth ordering every time. So, just imagine it with a beefy, never-frozen patty on top.