Best Burgers For Your Buck

A burger and fries used to be the trusty sidekick of the American wallet. A few bucks, a paper bag, and you were good to go. Now you blink at the drive-thru menu and suddenly lunch costs somewhere between twelve and eighteen dollars. That’s why researchers at NetCredit decided to treat fast food like a science experiment. They weighed the patties, measured the fries, and calculated the price per ounce. The results turned the burger world upside down.

First surprise: the best burger value isn’t the cheapest burger on the menu. It’s Whataburger. Their classic burger costs about $5.92, but the patty weighs a beefy 3.56 ounces. That works out to $1.66 per ounce, the best value of the 14 chains studied. Meanwhile McDonald’s has the thinnest patty at just 1.06 ounces, yet still lands second in value at $1.91 per ounce.

Here’s the quick burger breakdown:

• Whataburger – $1.66/oz
• McDonald’s – $1.91/oz
• Smash Burger – $1.96/oz
• Burger King – $1.99/oz
• Wendy’s – $2.21/oz
• Culver’s – $2.22/oz
• Shake Shack – $2.27/oz
• Dairy Queen – $2.38/oz
• Carl’s Jr. – $2.39/oz
• Jack in the Box – $2.45/oz
• Sonic Drive-In – $2.46/oz
• In-N-Out Burger – $2.91/oz
• A&W – $3.13/oz
• Five Guys – $3.59/oz

Fries brought an even bigger twist. The best value wasn’t a budget chain. It was Shake Shack, with 6.17 ounces of fries at just $0.40 per ounce.

Quick fry rankings:

• Shake Shack – $0.40/oz
• Culver’s – $0.50/oz
• Five Guys – $0.54/oz
• In-N-Out – $0.64/oz
• Smash Burger – $0.66/oz
• Wendy’s – $0.69/oz
• Burger King – $0.77/oz
• Jack in the Box – $0.81/oz
• McDonald’s – $0.89/oz
• A&W – $0.89/oz
• Carl’s Jr. – $0.92/oz
• Whataburger – $0.99/oz
• Dairy Queen – $0.99/oz
• Sonic Drive-In – $1.27/oz

One more twist: Smashburger wins protein density at 15.7 grams per 100 grams of burger.

The lesson from this greasy little economics class? Don’t just read the price. Sometimes the real deal is hiding behind the bigger bun.

Doug O’Brien