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try burger 'n que's 1/2 pound cheeseburger in orland park--it beats them all

I agree -- the bacon should be molded and cooked, then it could be eaten. I'm thinking kind of like that basket weave bacon thingy I saw not too long ago...

forget objectifying women...this is just dumb - the bacon is raw!
I'd be happy to wear a fully cooked bacon bra. Now that would fulfill a few fantasies.

Steak is going to own this tourney. I love Raost Beef, but Steak got my vote.

Veal or Buffalo. Don't like buffalo meet yet I think veal should be outlawed, so I picked Buffalo. It's a shame roast beef had to go up against steak, as it's ten time better than veal and buffalo. Either way, steak will win the braket as wel as the entire thing.

long post ahead to answer the simple question for the above post

French Fries(FF) animal style like everything else on the "secret menu" came to be at the request of our customers. Before 2000, FF animals did not exist, animal style burgers did. In 2001-02, one customer must have asked some cashier if they could melt some cheese and put that on the FF. Thus the birth of the animal FF.

In 2002, we did not have button for animal FF on the order taking screen. We just charged the customer 40 cents for the two extra cheese and the cook would make the animal FF. There was also no policies on making FF animals. Some cooks melted chz on them, then put some fried mustard in the grill onions, added a little chop pickles along with the grill onions and spread. This was the true animal FF because it had the same extra condiments that went on the animal burgers.

The problem with this was that this is an extremely time consuming process. The FF has to come out early for the cook to make them animal style. It also took grill space to melt cheese. Not a huge deal when you made animal FF once or twice a month. When animal FF started spreading like crazy, they became very inconvenient.

The only way to make everything fresh and to order, is to have a very simple menu. One kind of bun, one kind of cheese, basic condiments. No bacon, sesame buns, chicken sandwiches etc. The cooks sees how the customer wants their burger and makes it that way. Animal FF takes a huge toll on the cook. They are fairly simple to make, but during a rush when the cook has to make some 80+ burgers/30min all with different condiments, they are just rhythm killers. They are wrenches in the cooking mechanism.

The company saw this too late and animal FF became much too popular for them to just say no when the customer ordered one. The are very few complaints about in-n-out as a company. The two big ones are lack of a menu variety and the other is wait time. The first one is never going to change because the INO foundation is built on fresh food made to order. The second one is caused by this ideology. A burger will take about 5 mins to cook from the time you order it, no matter what. During the rush this will increase and animal FF will not help. So the next best thing the company did to try and slow down the FF animal popularity was to make them very expensive.

A Double Double, THE all American Cheese, 100% beef patty, on slow rising true sponge dough with granulated sugar, with ace grade tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and secret spread cooked to order became the 2nd most expensive item behind some FF with 2 slice of cheese on them and some condiments. Imagine if FF animals cost $1.75 instead of $3+. The not so great wait time would be horrendous with the amount of FF animals made. This is why if you don't know about animal FF you never will, animal FF will never be advertised by the company and they will never ever appear on the official menu. Heck, they don't even advertise them on their official website on their secret menu tab.

So yea, they are expensive, and yea they are good. At least, some stores are now retrofitted with steam machine that will melt the cheese, making them a little easier to make, but still very time consuming. FF animals are the biggest thing to change for INO since they added Dr. Pepper in like 1997. Keeping it simple and fresh is the INO motto and FF animals are not simple. Just be glad they didn't axe them like the famous 5X5 and bigger burgers we used to make.

Thanks for reading and thanks for making my check possible every 2 weeks.

Have you ever had them with honey and melted butter? You might feel differently.

In-N-Out's fries are ONLY good if you order them well done. Otherwise they are soggy from minute one.

As for Animal Style fries, I've yet to try them because they are such a rip-off to order. The first time I tried I wondered why my bill total was so high. When I got to the window, I found out Animal Style Fries are MORE THAN DOUBLE the price of regular fries.

Now extra onions on your burger is free.
A side packet of Animal Sauce is free.
Cheese is 30 cents a slice.

So even if you add 3 slices of cheese on top of the fries--which they don't--the price doesn't add up.

To me they make the price so outrageous so anyone that orders it will really think twice. I don't need a small paper basket of fries that costs as much as my double patty hamburger. Sorry.

This is the worst Americanized rip-off of Poutine I've ever seen!

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u51/witchywife/Poutine2.jpg

@toad3000:
I completely agree about never writing off an establishment on opening day...that's why, if you read the rest of what I wrote, I went back again about 2 weeks later and had the EXACT SAME EXPERIENCE. Some of the things that I had a problem with really should have no bearing on when I went...the quality of the ingredients like buns and cheese are not going to change and should have been INCREDIBLY fresh on opening day. They should never be more fresh than when I went the first time. Those were two of the biggest problems for me. Gummy buns and cheese that tasted worse than what they use at McDonalds is not going to win any points. And they were the exact same the second time, which tells me that there's no reason to expect that they'll be any different in the future.

But the other things like getting an order wrong, possibly seasoning the meat wrong and cooking it poorly...I can understand that being done on opening day. So I went back and tried again...and it was all the same. Almost exactly. Should I try again and expect it to be different? Possibly, but why when there were so many other things that I didn't like about the place. There are too many good burger places in town, why waste time going back again and again that I've already been to twice and have not enjoyed?

And my biggest complaint was the price. So, if I have now waited a couple of months and go back again, do you think the price will have dropped by 1/3 to be more in line with the quality? I'm fairly sure it won't.

But thanks for the "rocket science" comment. I think I really gave them a fair shot. I didn't just go on opening day and then bash them. I went twice, had two OK experiences, but nothing that I feel that I need to have again. After all of the hype I've read about the place, I was quite disappointed. And I was blown away by the price! Thanks for trying.

In n Out will make anything anyway you want. Strawberry shake syrup on your fries? As you wish.

The problem with animal fries is the cheese will coagulate before you get settled in your seat. Never get them to go. I modify these and get the fries well-done, with grilled onions and grilled chiles, if the InO has peppers. Cheese only if eating on site. No spread.

i like my animal fries extra crispy :)

totally agree with the well done -- in n out always undercooks their fries. but oh my god you can't knock it until you try it -- seriously -- ANIMAL FRIES = HEAVEN.