Castlemania

This is a chain that shouldn't need any introduction, but in the interest of consistency, we'll get down to brass tacks.

White Castle is an old-school hamburger chain headquartered in Columbus, OH after originating in Wichita, KS in 1921. They currently have locations scattered across the nation. Unfortunately, this blog needs to drive at least 2 hours to get to one. A similar problem was experienced by Harold and Kumar, in one of the few fast-food movies of which this blog has heard. That's very high praise to have an entire movie centered around a fast food establishment.

Pros: A whole bunch. White Castle knows what they're doing. Cheeseburgers are phenomenal. They come with onions and pickles, and that's it. This blog doesn't normally like onions, but the way White Castle prepares them renders them extremely palatable. The combination of ingredients is unbeatable. Normally, this site prefers ketchup or tomatoes on its burgers, but there's no reason to touch these works of culinary art. White Castle keeps a simple menu, with cheeseburgers, hamburgers, and french fries as the anchors. Limited-time options show up occasionally, but this blog ignores them. White Castle fries are outstanding, always well-salted in this blog's experience. The fries stay hot, which is a key component of good fries. Perhaps the greatest part of White Castle is the size of the burgers. They're small, so eating 5 cheeseburgers in 1 sitting isn't out of the question. This blog's personal record is 6, which this site realizes is child's play. There's simply a great satisfaction with saying that you ate 6 cheeseburgers, a large fry, and only spent 5 bucks doing it. Which brings to mind another positive, cheeseburgers costing between 60 and 64 cents each, varying based on location. Lastly, many White Castles are open 24 hours, which is a nice advantage when any crave strikes.

Cons: Could probably have better service, but that's not to say there's a service problem. Fast food service isn't going to be perfect service, so perhaps White Castle is doing as well as they can under the circumstances. A legitimate complaint with White Castle is their lack of dark soda options. Only Coca-Cola is offered in the non-diet varieties. For a chain to provide the best soda options possible, it needs to offer multiple non-diet dark sodas. If White Castle added Cherry Coke, Dr. Pepper, or some other alternative to Coke, they'd get a better ranking. Personally, this website has to travel at least 90 miles to reach a location, which is problematic.

Overall Ranking: 9 out of 10 fryers. Only service, locations, and soda options could raise the ranking. Given that practically every fast food establishment pays workers near minimum wage, this could be the highest ranking this blog will give out. With another dark non-diet soda, it could make up a quarter fryer or so. Affordability, tradition, and taste contribute to the best experience this blog has had at this juncture. An absolute joy to visit.

Burger-only Ranking: 10 out of 10. This blog wouldn't have initially guessed that this combination of ingredients would be the ideal burger, but it is. The proof is in the patty, as no one says. It's only a fantastically tasty burger that carries a fast food chain for 80+ years with minimal menu changes.