Fine Dining - Septemburger 2025: The Battle for Hamburger Supremacy

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

🍔 Septemburger 2025: The Burger Tournament Begins! 🏆 GET HYPED!! It’s that time of year again: Septemburger! The annual hamburger tournament is back, and eight chains are entering this greasy gauntlet. In this episode, I reveal all the contenders, break down how the tournament works, and review the first five burgers of round one. From a slew of mediocre burgers to Santa Claus cutting promos for Arctic Circle, this year is already unhinged in the best way. 🥊 Cook Out (featuring my Dad) vs. A&W (with Herbert Amaya) 🎅 Santa Claus Represents Arctic Circle vs. Carl’s Jr. (with podcast composer James McEnelly) 👑 Dairy Queen Wants to Melt the Competition (with Tyler Eaton) 🍔 The Tournament Sees its First Upset 📣 Wrestling-Style Promos from Each Guest 📋 TOURNAMENT RULES: 8 chains enter, each providing 3 burgers. Round 1: each chain’s “#1-on-the-menu burger.” Later rounds = specialty burgers. Seeding is based on the best burger I’ve ever had at each chain. Fill out your bracket here. YOU MAY ADJUST your picks until end of day 9/24 as you follow along. Anyone who correctly predicts the champion is entered into a drawing for the grand prize! 🎁 GRAND PRIZE: The winner can name any American chain restaurant I haven’t covered yet, and I’ll review it in Season 4. PLUS, I’ll write and record a rap song about the winner or any food/restaurant topic of their choice. 🔥 SEMIS & FINALS: Coming 9/30 on Patreon for FREE (no subscription needed), or on the regular podcast feed in October. 💬 COMMENT BELOW: Who’s your pick to win Septemburger 2025? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🎉 Patreon (Bonus episodes, full Yelp segments & more): https://www.patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Food talk, memes, cursed Yelp): https://discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@finediningpodcast 🔗 All links: https://www.linktree.com/finediningpodcast Patreon Producers: Sue Ornelas & Joyce Van 👉 NEXT WEEK: We cover Sonic Drive-In with special guest Marc Pope from the Geek Off the Street podcast!

Welcome to Fine Dining. It's going to be a September to Rememberger, an end of summer that ain't no bummer, an equinox to beat the socks off the competition, because the Fine Dining Podcast's annual hamburger bracket is upon us. We've got eight restaurant chain, 24 burgers, but just one winner that will be crowned at the end of the month. Can your favorite cement their legacy and earn a custom side plate to adorn the beautiful Septemberger championship belt or will they end up in the trash like last week's leftovers? It's not just a burger chain

that's going to win Septemberger. You can play along at home. Head on over to find diningpodcast.com or check the description of this episode and you can fill out your own Septemberger bracket. You have all month to follow along and update it as chains are 11. eliminated, and if you correctly pick the winner of the whole shebang, you'll be entered into a drawing for the grand prize.

I will review any American chain restaurant you choose in my upcoming fourth season of the show. Not only that, I'll write and perform a rap song about you or any food or restaurant-related topic and put it in the podcast. Let's get to it and introduce the field. This year, in the September Ger tournament, we've got the number eight seed, the children's toy with the nasty, deploy, it's Jack in the Box. Trying to prove that they're more than just a root beer, the number seven seed is A&W. Coming at you from the state of Utah, our number six seed is the dairy queen of the mountain west. It's Arctic Circle. Our number five seed, however, is the dairy queen of the rest of the country. It's dairy queen. Skating on into the fray at number four, Sonic Drive-in. Our number

three seed is arguably the heartiest entry in the tournament it's Carl's Jr. Our number two is trying to make the case that ain't nobody Fina from the Carolinas, it's cookout and our odd-on favorite to win it all, the red-headed

heavyweight that corners the competition it's WOW-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-E. As a reminder, the seating by how good the best burger I've ever experienced there was. So let's get to Tonight's matchups. First up, the number two seed takes on the number seven.

It's Cheerline versus root beer. Cookout versus A&W. Let's jump in and chat about the cookout style burger. Okay, our next matchup is Cookout versus A&W, the number two seed versus the number seven seed. I went to Cookout in North Carolina last year. My guest was Scott Philbrook. And we had, it was a good time. This is a highly touted pride of the East Coast burger.

And I remember really liking it. But this is September 2, 2025, not 2024. So I can't possibly base my scores off of a burger I had a year ago. So we went back. This time, I was joined by my guest for this segment, my very own father, my dad, a podcast two-timer, three-timer. You did steak and shake and shonies with me. You've taken me to all the best places.

All the best. You loved Shonies, as we can see it in the second to last spot there on the Chotchke of Mediocrity. Choney barely had a pulse. Yeah, that's accurate. Well, thanks for joining me for a meal at cookout. We can talk a little bit before we jump into the burger about the conditions of our meal there. Do you want to paint a picture for what this was like? Well, in a land far, far away, we were in North Carolina.

There were a sufficient amount of rain storms in the area, and in fact, rain pouring down on us. And as I went to that restaurant, Michael, I thought it was a sit-down restaurant, at least a place that might have outdoor picnic tables, but no. We were misguided on this because the cookout that I went to initially did have indoor seating. Here we roll up and it's basically just like, honestly, a pretty sleek looking, new-ish-looking building. Like, it seemed obvious that we would have tables inside. Yeah, and their execution was good. And then we're like, okay, where can we sit?

And they were like, that's your problem. Not in those words, but in their actions. And Michael, tell them where we sat. We sat in the dining room of the Bojangles next door. I went in, talked to the manager, and I was like, hey, I'm so sorry, can we eat someone else's food in your dining room? We didn't know that you couldn't dine at cookout. And she was like, yeah, thanks for asking. You know, we came in, ate there.

And it was just, it was a weird vibe to just sit there and unpack a bag full of cookout. And we got a lot of stuff. You got a lot of stuff. The burger in the September burger bracket in the first round is the cookout style burger. This didn't have a lot in it. It was just chili mustard and onion on top of their burger patty and their bun or whatever. and what I found interesting about this burger was chili seems like an interesting choice to have as kind of your basic burger. I always, you know, round one is just what's the number one on the menu?

They didn't have them numbered, but it's called the cookout style burger. It's the name of the place. So that felt like the appropriate one to put in round one of September. and what a gamble chili is on a burger from fast food chili. They bet on black and it came up red. Yeah. What did you think about just overall, this burger? Did you like it?

Did you hate it? Were you somewhere in the middle? I think your point is spot on, Michael, which is chili's not a core element of a hamburger. You know, usually you'll have, you know, a smash burger with onions on it or, you know, sauteed onions. You'll have something or mushrooms. Chili's not the, not the ingredients I'm seeking. And so I think it was a, it was a big gamble in, in my mind, I think yours as well. It was a, it was a losing bet. So I, I didn't hate this as much as you and mom did. Y'all were seeming, I mean, mom in particular was repulsed.

by everything about cookout. I think if you say the word cookout around her even accidentally, like, oh, do you want to go to this cookout, not even the restaurant, just the concept of a cookout, it will trigger her gag reflex. That's my guess. A little bit of a heave. Yeah. I wasn't as negative on this. I actually did think that the flavor of the meat was an above average burger, not drastically. but I do know

that the impression I got from this is about a month ago for us so this is a we're digging into our memory reserves here but I do remember both of you just being like uh uh no thank you like you know when a kid

rejects the airplane when you're like here comes the airplane I feel like that's the face y'all we're making just I uh I remember that face so long it was a lot It was a long, long time ago with, I think, broccoli for you. So, yeah, yeah.

So my score for the cookout style burger, I did think that all the other ingredients were nice and the chili just felt like an outlier that was dragging it down. This had potential for me, for a fast food burger. This definitely had potential for me. I went 5.63 on it. So it's not, I'm not like bragging about it. but I'm not calling it a below-average burger. So I have to circle all of the other burgers, not the cookout style burger,

but the A1 burger and the other burgers. Yeah, that we sampled. And the shame of it is they weren't bad. You know, they tasted fine, and the meat was a high-quality patty of beef, but the chili on top of this, kind of was a, as I said, a losing bet. And so dragged it down.

It dragged it down. So I think, you know, if I was scoring the other burgers, I probably would have gone a little bit higher. But on this one, I had to rate it 3.87 in my score metric. 3.87. Okay. So when you put your score with my score, the cookout style burger in the first round of September,

has a 4.75. Not great, not impossible to overcome. We have to throw it to the competition, A&W. Okay, 4.75, definitely underperforming for the number two seed, but wait a minute, what's this? Cookout has a message for A&W. A&W should stick to root beer, big boy. They are not a good place to be. They lived in the days of the drive-thru, and I'm telling you right now, all we should do is drive away from A&W.

They are famous for things they did in the 50s and 60s, not in this century, big boy. You're a loser, dude. You're over. Strong words from Cookout. Let's throw to A&W for their response. Look out, Cookout. It's A&W, and I'm calling you out this year for September. That's right.

We're up against you, and you think you're so tough with your down-home southern cooking and your milkshakes and your fancy pants restaurants that look all modern. Guess what? You're not, because you don't have that classic 70s charm like me and my tag team partner Rudy do, baby. And second of all, you don't have your own root beer soda. You can't just go to the market and say, hey, you know what, I'm thirsty. I kind of want a root beer. Huh? Wait a minute, I don't see cook out.

No, because you don't have your own soda. soda. But we do, baby. That's right. Get that root beer. So, Cookout, you better be scared because by the end of this, you're going to be down for the count. Believe you, me. Ah! Wow, heated. I don't know about you, but I've got to hear who wins this. Can A&W beat Cookout's 4.75 score? Let's find out. all right we are in it we are in our first matchup of the septemberger 2025 tournament cookout versus where do we go a and w i have my friend herbert standing here before me i still have not figured out my set yet because i just moved into the studio that you all have been watching me record in for the last couple of months this is technically the first

video I'm shooting here. So bear with me as Herbert stands next to me. And I know what you're thinking. He's your guest. Shouldn't you offer him a seat? Herbert, what's your take on that? You're the, uh, you're the host. You get the chair. So no, Herbert was telling me he did not deserve the chair despite me. Well, there's that this thing, uh, that he does in fact deserve the chair by which I mean the electrical chair. That's probably accurate. Um, so our first, matchup here is the Papa Burger from A&W That's the first one that we saw

That's the first one that we ate That is the number one on their menu Right The Papa burger is Pickles, Onion, lettuce Two beef patties with a fluffy bun And Papa sauce Right

Which is Thousand Island I mean yeah let's not kid ourselves That's what that's what every secret sauce is It's Thousand Island dress It's always Thousand Island dressing. It's never anything. And this, uh, I guess it had maybe a little bit of a kick, but I don't even know what I would attribute it to.

It wasn't a big kick by any means. I didn't get any kick. So I got a little, I don't know if it was like like paprika spilled onto a bite's worth of this sauce. I don't know. Yeah. But it had a little bit of something. What I will say about it, though, is it was very dry.

Yes. Yes. It was very dry and for meat flavorless, despite having double patties. Yeah. No flavor in the meat. Yeah, the presence of extra beef did not really seem to help it too much. Yeah, no. And you would think, you know, with this special sauce that, you know, it would at least have some sort of flavor to it.

No, nothing. I was bummed by this. I wouldn't say I hated it. I would call this an average burger or very close to like a perfectly average burger. I would get it again. I definitely wouldn't. I would definitely try or order the other two burgers that we had. Yes, I'm not saying this would be my default A&W, but like I wouldn't be mad if I had this burger again, I guess is what I'm saying.

It's fair. I guess what I'm saying is I did score it over a five, but not by much. Yeah. As far as I understand, you did not. No, I didn't. No, I was very disappointed with this burger, again, because. it tasted like nothing to me, really. Yeah.

And so, yeah, I definitely scored it under a five. Is there anything else we want to say about the Papa Burger? Like, the name is weird. Yeah, I don't get it. But I guess it harkens back to when they introduced Papa, Mama, Teen, and Child. Like, the mascot characters. That's right. Yeah, and I think that's fair.

I think that's probably what the etymology would be. But they had Rudy the Bear, which is like a bear mascot. And then for some reason, they pivoted to a family of, like, just the family as characters, but they're named Papa, Mama, Teen and Child. Teen is where Teen Burger comes from. Right. Which, I guess, is maybe the size of the burger or... Maybe, you know, maybe that's the A&W version of, like, a junior double whopper or something. Yeah.

I feel like I'm drawing this out just because I don't want to, like, deliver it. It's fate, but I know it's not going to be that pretty. A&W's Papa Burger, for me, scored a 5.09 out of 10. Yeah, that's accurate to your just above average. For me, yeah, definitely under five. Like I said, wouldn't order it again. I gave it a 4.42, 4.42. So when you average your score with my score, the Papa Burger is going to get a 4.76.

Yeah, that's accurate. I feel like it's definitely below average. 4.76 for the Papa Burger. All cookout needs to do is be by definition better than mediocre. Yeah, yeah. OMFG! OMFG by the skin of their teeth 1-100th of a point.

A&W has eliminated one of the top contenders in the tournament. A&W advances to round 2, 4.76 to 4.75. What an incredible start to September Gert. Let's get ready for our second and final full match of the day as Carl's Jr., the number 3-seed, goes head-to-head with the number 6-seed Arctic Circle. And joining me to chat about his home, Santa Claus is here to review Arctic Circle with me.

Okay, I am here back with Santa Claus. It's September. Oh, September. Yeah, you've got just a couple months before your big day again. So we need to break down the burgers that we got at the Arctic Circle last December. Yes. So we'll go ahead and start with the Round One burger for Round One, September. I always start with the basic. What do they got as their basic burger? So they had a what they

called the Black Angus hamburger. Okay. It's pickles, lettuce, ketchup, mayo, and bun. Like, again, it's a very simple, non-innovative hamburger. They do really advertise the Black Angus beef on every single burger. It is the Black Angus, you know, Blank, Bacon Burger, Ranch burgers, Swissburger, all the different variations they have. Like a steak. burger is what freddies would call it yes yeah how cares take a shake i thought this burger was just there i mean i put it in that category in the actual episode but it's one of those things were like thinking back on it i know it's nine months later but we had it five days ago or something like that and other than my notes i can't tell you much about it like that's just kind of how

forgettable this was as a burger it was you know it tastes like a burger i mean it was right when i bit into it it was straight out the kitchen yeah You know, very fresh, but like very small patty, very thin. I thought the bun was unimpressive. Very small. Mayo ketchup lettuce. The bun felt like kind of like the store-bought hamburger buns where it's like there's nothing briochi.

It's not a potato bun. It's just like white bread. You know, there's no softness. It's not stale. It's not hard, but it doesn't have that softness. There's just a little of it there. It's just very, very, very deeply generic. It felt like it didn't want to make itself known very much.

No, yeah. I would never order that. It just was like the McDonald's basic cheeseburger, just the, you know, they spent decades engineering the ketchup, mustard onion combo to make it like perfect. Yeah. And it has a taste. You go, oh, yeah, that's the McDonald's went instantly. It hits. This dismisses. Right. Just like nothing. And like the pickles were, you know, it's not that they were bad. I don't think you've got a pickle on my half. Nothing, yeah, I had pickles in mind. Maybe you got the pickle. Maybe they just, yeah, so low quantity of pickles, but even then the quality of pickle didn't, it wasn't impressive at all. Like, it didn't taste fresh, I guess. It tasted fresh enough to me, but just, yeah, it's just so bland and boring. Now, this is where we have to think of the lifetime spectrum of all hamburgers and give the number.

Yeah. Okay. So this thing was so painfully middling for me that on principle, I'm going to give it a 4.99 out of 10. It is almost right in the middle for me. It is that forgettable. I'm struggling to talk at length about it. I had like one note about the bun being unimpressive.

But beyond that, it was like forgettable. Yeah. But it wasn't like it wasn't, I didn't bite in and go, ugh, like it wasn't bad. No, there's no yuck. And I've, but I can't think of a burger that was yuck to me. You know, can you? I know you don't like the White Castle, but... Yeah.

But I can't think of a burger to me that's yuck. Where do you score this Black Angus hamburger from Arctic Circle? Well, the other ones they have, which are also kind of generic, are so much better. I want to go four. What did you say? I said 4.99. I'm going to go closer to 4.9. I'm going to go closer to 4.25.

When we average our scores together, the round one entry for Arctic Circle is a 4.62. Okay. So that's what they're putting out into round one. Can they beat their Septemberger opponent? We're going to cut to that and we'll find out. All right, a 4.62 for Arctic Circle's first round. At least this matchup is between two respectable gentlemen, as Santa Claus wouldn't dare to talk smack about, wait, what's this? Cut to the back. Oh, ho! Oh, you're going down, Charles Jr. This is Santa Claus from the Arctic Circle for the Arctic Circle. You want some delicious hamburgers. Get off the hood of that car. Wipe that sloppy burger off your bikini and come see us at the Arctic Circle.

So many delicious burgers and shakes and other things. For September burger, we're going to take home the September burger belt this year. If it was Corn Dog August, you'd have something in your face right now, Carl's Jr. Something delicious like our delicious corn dogs. But our burgers are just as good. We don't need a big pile of onion rings and sloppy stuff, slurp it all over the place. We've got good Midwestern values and good Arctic Circle delicious food.

So Arctic Circle is coming for you, Carl's Jr. I'm speechless. Santa, I expected better from you. That said, I will be trademarking Corn Doggist. Anyways, what does Carl's Jr. think about all of this? Let me tell you something. I never even heard of Arctic's. Circle until three days ago. But you know what? If you're coming from me, then you best

come correct. It's me, Carl's Jr. That's right, the Carl's Jr. My luchador name, however, is El Ijo del Carl. Now, I'm going to hit you, Arctic Circle. I'm going to hit you with a big Hardee's from the East, a Carl from the West, and a Polar Express right to the dome, split you down the middle. That's right. Heartic Circle. Aurora Borealis. More like an Aurora Snorealis. Am I right? Yeah, that's right. That's right. You want to come at me for September? I don't think that's going to happen. Carl's Jr., that's a household name. Arctic Circle, never even heard of you. So look out this September burger, because I'm coming for you. Incredible. El Ijo del Carl has a lot to say, but can the number three seed back it up,

or do we have another upset on our hands? Let's cut to that discussion to find out. Okay, so Arctic Circle just went. Carl's Jr. is the competitor. I'm joined by James McAnnelly, great friend, D&D group mate. I thought you were going to say, decent person. Better than decent person. And most notably, the composer for the majority of this show's music. Hello, welcome.

Thanks for going to Carl's Jr. with me. Thank you for taking me to Carl Jr. We'll talk about how we feel physically, but it's a lot. Yeah. That said, we ate three burgers for Carl's Jr. We need to put one of them up against the Black Angus Burger from Arctic Circle to see if we even get to talk about the other two. Or is Carl's Jr. going to be eliminated in the first round? Doubted.

So we got the famous star or the superstar. There's like. I have it as superstar, and then in parentheses, famous star. I'm not sure. Like it says the famous star burger over the menu, but then on the rapper, it said the superstar. The messaging was all over the place. But this is their basic burger. Yeah.

Like this is their default burger. It had tomatoes, lettuce, leto, onion, pickle, mayo. I think there may have been some ketchup in there. I'm not. I think so. Yeah. I'm not entirely sure. But the thing that Carl's Jr. is bringing to this.

tournament that the other places are not is char broiled beef patties. Love them. I loved it. Yeah. It really, really took this tournament up a level. I'm going to be honest. A lot of the places I've gone,

their first round burgers, are scoring in like the fours and fives. And that's not a, now, to be fair, this is the third year of September, gher. Right.

It's like the, Has it really been that many years of September? Yeah. Damn. Yeah. Feels like I just made that, that theme song like yesterday. I know. Still one of my favorite theme songs.

Eight burgers and tie, one burger leaves, take a look at the men ya, nothing for beefs, a fire up that grill and fry up your soul. We're looking for something that's better than mediocre. It's time for a burger in September, yes, it's time for the test, there can only one bigger of a further September, yeah, we're looking for some perfection. Just be the best burger that you can be Somewhere between heaven and ecstasy I can see that hunger it's in your life

You're going for glory with the side of the fright It's Scent Burger Yeah So my point is 16 places have already been gone through I'm not saying we're at the bottom of the bearer with this year's Septemberger choices were not, but a lot of the places that would have been my first choices to include in a burger bracket were last year and the year before.

We're talking fudruckers. We're talking islands. We're talking outback. We're talking in and out. Shake shack. Red Robin. A lot of heavy hitters. This year has Arctic Circle, which I went with Santa Claus.

Oh. Like my guest was Santa Claus. He came down to go to the art of circle. I don't know. And we'll find out. Go back and watch that episode. But my point is I'm pulling places that maybe aren't as renowned. Now, Carl's Jr.

is so renowned that it's two restaurants. It's Charles Jr. It's Hardee's, depending on where you go. Now, we did go to a Carl's Jr. Specifically, so I will say Hardy's eligible for future Septemberers, if I end up at an East Coast equivalent of this. But it almost felt unfair. This was a heftier burger.

It was char broiled. And it was really good. Yeah. It stood out. So let's talk about the famous Star Burger. What thoughts did you have on it? Well, I have a score for you. That is the, because I like Carl's Jr.

I like, I'll go, you know, not regularly, but on occasion. Yeah. And I feel like I've always really liked Carl's Jr. And I usually get like that, right? Usually get the famous star or the superstar, whatever the heck. Just give me a burger, man. Yeah, like you said, charbroiled really puts things a step above. There's something about the way, like the flavor, the savouriness of the meat that acts as a really nice foundation for everything else that is on, which I also like the flavor profile of the condiments and stuff as is on that.

So I really just enjoy that burger on my own, even outside of this, you know, like this experience that we had. So, yeah, really enjoy that and, you know, happy to, happy to run over to Carl Jr. I live dangerously close to one. I know. Yeah. So it's a, it's a problem. But yeah. What was your score?

My score was 7.23. 7.23. I didn't love it as much. much as you did, but I did like it enough to go over seven. I went 7.06. So when you average, 7.06, 7.23, that's 7.29, or 2.29 divided by 2 will round up. You're doing this right off the cuff. 7.15. Okay. Yeah. That's, I would say that's fair.

I think so, too. Berger. Yeah. So 7.15 for the famous star, Trounces, Arctic Circle, which scored like a 4.9 something. I've never been to Arctic. I don't know, whatever the previous segment said, but it was in the fours. So Carl's Jr., one step closer to winning its name on the side of the Septemberger Championship Belt. And that's why Carl's Jr. was seated in the top three. A total beatdown as Arctic Circle is eliminated from the Septemberger tournament. Carl's Jr. will roll into the second round with their Western Bacon Barbecue Burger

against A&W's Double Barbecue Bacon Crunch, two takes on a similar idea. Who will prevail? Check out the Septemberger Finals for free on the Fine Dining Patreon on the last day of the month or wait until October and I'll post it here. So A&W and Carl's Jr. are advancing to the semifinals of Septemberer, but that's not all for today.

Before its match up with Sonic Drive-in next week, I want to chat about the first round burger from the number five seed, Dairy Queen. So you may remember six months ago in March, I went to Dairy Queen Grill and Chill with my buddy Tyler Eaton. Tyler is back with me. Hello, Tyler. How's it going, Michael? And we had three burgers at Dairy Queen because Dairy Queen is an entrance of September. So I think it's time that we talk about and score what we thought of the burgers in particular.

Now, the round one burger for Dairy Queen, the number one on their menu, they were actually smart in this category. I always do it to where the first burger we review in September is their number one. And they didn't put their like super most basic dialed down burger in the number one slot. They put the, uh, the bacon double deluxe or something. The bacon, yeah, right. We got it as a single just because portion control, but at the end of the day, uh, we had a burger that was. onion, lettuce, bacon, pickle, ketchup and mustard, and burger. And there was a lot of burger.

And burger and bread. And I think I was more impressed with this than I expected to be. I was too, yeah. It wasn't amazing, but I did have low expectations for what Dairy Queen's burgers might be. I normally take pickles off of my burgers because they don't really like pickles. They were on this one. Yeah. And I was having a good time.

So that says something, you know. September. Like, dating back to the first year of September burger is what made me appreciate pickles. I used to always not like them. And then I started having them. And the majority of the pickles I've had, well, they've all been in burgers or sandwiches of some kind. And I think I've lucked out in that none of them have ever been like soggy, gross, like old. Too bright.

Like they've all felt like crisp and like fresh. And so I've not had a bad pickle yet. What did you think of the bacon on this one? I didn't get a lot in my body. It did feel like maybe they skimped, but the taste of it wasn't bad. Yeah, I agree. I was impressed with this burger. I think it also had the benefit of going first, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. As we got deeper into the meal, I was like, oh, man, this is a lot of food. I got to be more critical. Yeah, exactly. Are you a big burger guy? Do you eat a lot of burgers? I love burgers, yeah. Yeah, habit burger.

Oh, is that your go-to? Oh, my God. Yeah, for the win. burger. I mean, not I guess technically a chain because there are multiple locations, but they're very good. I like for the one. A lot of burgers. Yeah. The window

is a great burger spot in L.A. An obvious water burger. We're from Texas. My big recommendation for you is Foreman's Whiskey Tavern. Oh, I love Forns. Have you had their jalapeno burger? I have. Yeah. It's my favorite burger in the city. Really? Okay. I like I don't know if it's my favorite, but it's good.

It's really good. Shout out to Forbans. They're not listening. But they should be. Okay, so, yeah, I think putting an original bacon deluxe first on your menu makes a strong statement of, hey, we're confident in this burger. And I'm going to be honest, I think they have all the reason in the world to feel good and confident in this burger. Don't you? I think, yeah, it's sort of a quantity over quality kind of burger, though. Like, you're coming here for something gigantic.

Like, you know what I mean? Are you? I think so. I mean, we got the smaller version of it, but all of their burgers were doubles. Oh, by default. They were doubles and triples. Like, singles, you had to, like, ask for. You have to ask for less burger.

It's a customization to get a normal burger. Yes. So that's why I think they're a little bit quantity over quality because they're like, you came to Dairy Queen. We're going to give you more. Yeah, you're not here to count calories. You're not a burger peasant. You're royalty.

You have to eat like it. bro. You're maybe hungover and we got what you need. Yeah. All right. Well, if I'm scoring this burger, it was nice. You know, the patty, I do think overall was probably the thing that they could immediately improve to really up these burgers. But the combination of toppings distracted from it, and actually, distracted is an unfair term because it was, it was like, it was well enough, you know, good enough.

Yeah, yeah, no, it was doing well. Like, it was okay. It was mentally healthy, this burger. It was well-cooked, and it seemed like its mental health was in good shape. And so, and the bun, you know, there was a slight bit of toastiness to it. I think by the time I really dug in, it was maybe a little soggy, but it didn't hinder it. It was like, it was more of like, you know how in Texas, barbecue will often be served over bread, and then you eat the bread at the end because it's gotten all the, like, juice soakings of that tasty, tasty stuff.

It's soft it all up. I love that. There was a little bit of that to where I didn't mind it because it wasn't, it wasn't too far gone. I went 5.97. Wow. Okay. On this burger, which for first round burger, basic burger, and for Dairy Queen, I think is pretty good. That, okay, I know I've been very positive about it, but I did write down 4.25, which is not a great score. you can you can vent about it if you need to you don't have to agree with me no no i i it was it was okay the but it was in the you know it's like you're going there you know it's going there you know it's going to be a little bland you know it's like you're at a big chain restaurant that for me is somewhere i generally stop on like a road trip because there's not a ton of options yeah and not to be all cynical about it but but yeah i was like Like, it's, it's, it's, it's a below average burger for me.

Okay. Overall. What, uh, is your problem? I thought this was a solid little engine that could. It was, yeah, it was all right. It was all right. I think, uh, maybe just in my scoring system, I just started lower. I mean, they do usually build.

Yeah. There's one I liked a lot more, I will say. Same. Same. Same. Um, but we may never see it because it may go out in the first round. We'll find out. Uh, but when we put my score with your score, I gave a 5.970, 4.25, 4.25 doing some quick math. That equals 10.22 have 5.1. Is the average of our scores. I hope I did that math right. Whatever. I'm not going to check it, but it sounded right to me. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. That's very average. That's actually like what you're going for here. Well, Septemberger is the one time I'm looking for good. Okay. You are looking to get a high score here.

And there you have it, Dairy Queen's Bacon Deluxe scores of 5.11, slightly above average, heading into next week's showdown with the Double Sonic Smasher. Let's just hope Dairy Queen doesn't sling too much mud at Sonic and get themselves D-Qed. All right, that's not my best work, I admit it. But let's hear that smack talk, baby. Hear ye, hear ye, for the Queen of Dairy has issued her royal duty. agree that this September burger, the DQ Burger, will trounce all other burgers and rule supreme across the land for all those who are tolerant of lactose.

Sonic Burger, you fool, you road trip, garbage food stop that doesn't even have a bathroom usually. Your burger tastes of the same cowardice that led to you no longer letting your servers wear roller skates. The same way you should fear lawsuits from your clump. employees, you should also fear not pledging your fealty to the queen. Puck her up and kiss the ring because Septemberger belongs to her burger. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's my jam.

And that's it for this week's Septemberger kickoff special. Join me next week with an extra-length episode about Sonic, as I'll cover their history before reviewing the joint and reading some Yelp reviews. It's like my standard two-part episode smashed into one, and we'll also learn if Sonic was able to wrangle Dairy Queen into submission. Thanks so much for watching. Be sure to head to Fine Dining Podcast.com to fill out your Septemberger bracket and follow along as the tournament rolls on.

You can get bonus scenes, extended Yelp review discussions, exclusive interviews, and additional episodes over at patreon.com slash fine dining podcast, and make sure you follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast. I'm so glad to dine with you. I'll see you all next week. Have a fine day. Have a fine day!