Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Almost every picture of a burger makes me want to take a bite, but this one... no, thank you. It doesn't look good.

I don´t like the looks of this burger. Too soaked bun under and too thick bun on top. Don´t want and wouldn´t buy.

I would call this a sandwich. Not a burger. But it sure looks good!

Somehow I came to think of the Swedish McDonald's who recently started to use chicken-meat that is halal. I came to think of this as sausage normally includes porkmeat that can never be halal since muslims don't eat pork what so ever.

Swedish McDonald's promises that the slaughter of chickens they need to make food is done following all Swedish laws and regulations. But in the "slaugthering act" there is someone approved of some kind of an islamic foundation who will attend and chant islamic verses when the poor chickens are put to death.

Well... I don't like it.

I don't believe in God, Allah or anything. I just wan't to eat my food and if any animals have died for it I want them to have been killed and have lived as "humanly" as possibly. I don't want the things I eat to have been blessed by Allah! Please respect my non-belief!

And I don't like that McD, as a company, uses religious staff (or uses suppliers that uses religious staff). What will happen if McD has to downsize it's staff? Will they fire that religious guy or someone in the kitchen?

If you are religious I think you can chant before you eat or you can go to some other place where the food is prepared in the way your religion allows. But leave McDonald's out of it!

As I have said in earlier comments I live in Sweden. And I guess you've all been waiting for a comment on the swedish fast-food-market-situation ;)

I live in Gävle, a city with a population of about 93.000. Burgerwise: there are three McDonald's here. If I remember right there are two Sibylla-restaurants and two Snabbt&Gott. Two national brands. They serve burgers that are ok but the big problemo is that they don't have a unicode for the burgers. I mean that they don't make the burgers in the same way and it differs from one restaurant to another and it even depends who the guy is that is making it. From a fast-food-perspective that is a major no-no.

More interesting is that there are two Max restaurants here. Max is a swedish brand with about 60 restaurants. Expanding and growing. This year selling burgers for more than one billion swedish krona (swedish krona is about 1/8 of a dollar). I know they're planning to go international and who knows... maybe you've got a Max-restaurant in your city soon... ;)

I think Max will make it on the international fast-food scene. In my opinion - better burgers than McDonald's and a well run company... why shouldn't they be succesfull?

Burger King... a name that doesn't sound well in Gävle. I love their burgers, no doubt about that. But in Gävle they have messed up their brand and name very much. Reason: some years ago (5?) a guy moved to Gävle and said he would open a BurgerKing-restaurant. Lots of job opportunities and everybody was happy, including this city's political government. They granted this guy to buy a real estate for building a house (normally you have to wait years to do that - depending on where and so on. I don't think I have to go into that matter more. Quite complicated.) because they thought him to be important for the community.

Being granted by the municipallity to go ahead in the queue for buying real estate because of being a "VIP-person" is quite controversial i Sweden. If you do get this privilege I say it's a lot of social pressure that you have to deliver something. Many years have gone by and so far nothing. No BurgerKing. The guy says he is looking for a place for the restaurant. It's been years! What is this guy looking for!? What does this guy want!? I think most of the people living in Gävle thinks that this guy never intended to start a BurgerKing restaurant and just wanted to get a permission to build a fancy house. HOWEVER! BurgerKing has lost so much on this affair and it's hard to understand why they let this happen. Why didn't they defend theirself and their brand and name? They let this guy and their own name go down the drain and they didn't do anything to prevent it and they don't seem to care.

But they still make good hamburgers! ;)

I'm a guy from Sweden and I wish there was a way to express my thanks and gratitude to the americans who are risking their life in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wish you guys all the best.

And it looks like you can get a pretty decent hamburger there... Even though a good hamburger can't compensate for risking one's life a good hamburger is always a good hamburger.