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WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN

There's one opening near us this year. We are so not going anywhere near it for WEEKS.

WHAT.

I don't get it. Really. In-n-Out is a decent burger place, but it's nothing unique or special. Why on earth would people line up like that for it...? D:

Well, but go to it after a couple of months, because it really is the best fast food burger ever! (The fries are not great though. If you must get them, make sure to ask for them well done.)

I can't wait until they come to Houston!

I would so be in that line, if I could.

I cannot imagine waiting in a line longer than ten or so minutes for a burger, no matter how good it is.

I went by three days after opening. It was down to about half that. I figure it'll be reasonable by Saturday.

We have In-N-Out, and I find it bland. The burgers tend to be overcooked to a leathery toughness, too. (Stopped going after trying a couple times.)

I agree, I don't see how they can be that amazing. Personally, I do like Burger King the best, but usually I settle for Whataburger since they are the closest.

Yes! Thank you. I live in SoCal and have been underwhelmed by In-N-Out every time I've gone, but they still have this cult following. I don't get it.

Seriously! I'm not a big fan of In-n-Out...a hanging crime for someone from SoCal!

But I've always found their stuff to be just ordinary, bland fast food. I don't get why so many people are so crazy about them. They're not bad, but they're not good either. Just so-so.

They used iceberg lettuce---cold, wet iceberg lettuce including chunky leaf ends---on the burgers I've had, which certainly does not help. And I recall being unimpressed by the pallor of the tomato slice.

I don't understand the hoo-ha at all: is it all a covert religious thing?

I don't get the Krispy Kreme thing, either. And people say "But you have to have it fresh, right out of the fryer!" And I say "I have. Your point?"

My theory with In-n-Out is that, for a lot of people who like it (not everyone!), it isn't so much the taste as the emotional resonances: it was the fast food hamburger they grew up with, or the one they got on rare occasions as a "treat," or it's the one they ate at college at 2am with friends when everyone was starving and nothing was open... and so it's the memory and association rather than the taste that's doing it.

(I don't feel that way about In-n-Out, but I do feel that way about things that other food lovers would be horrified at: grilled cheese sandwiches made with Kraft cheese and Wonderbread fried in a skillet and accompanied by Campbell's tomato soup, for instance. Not as "good" as a three-cheese panini and homemade tomato bisque, but when I want it, that's what I want.)

I think Krispy Kremes are pretty good fresh, but... they're still just doughnuts. When KK opened stores in Massachusetts (all now gone, I think) they had those same ridiculous lines. I thought the people waiting in them were nuts.

I adore In-N-Out, but I wouldn't wait in a line that long for anything.

(Well. Certain instances at Anime Expo excepted.)

One opened in Tokyo while I was there, and reportedly the lines were two hours long.

That has to be it. There's a place in College Station called Layne's that serves chicken fingers. That's it - you get some sort of combo of chicken fingers and toast or beans or whatnot. Anyway, everybody I know is absolutely gaga over them. I've had them. Several times. They're chicken fingers, and not particularly special ones at that. When I point that out, the response is, "Well, the sauce is wonderful..." Er, no. It's a standard brown cream sauce with a lot of pepper in it. Nothing out of the ordinary. It's just that these guys spent their undergrad years eating at Layne's, and they're eating memory, not the food.

I'm kind of that way about Taco Cabana, because the original TC's started near my undergrad school, and as it was open 24 hours it was a student hangout. It used to be in an old shack-type building, with a big porch that had ratty plastic on the sides they rolled down when it rained. I've heard they replaced it with a new generic Taco Cabana building a hew years back. I don't think I shall return; it won't be the same. :)

Since I doubt many people in Tokyo had had a Krispy Kreme before, I guess they were there because of the reputation. I bet a lot of them were disappointed.

I think this must also be the explanation for why so many people rave about Chick-Fil-A, which to me doesn't taste any better than Wendy's chicken sandwiches.

I might be this way about Roy Rogers (which is the fast food I ate as a kid) if they still served the same food. But the fried chicken (which wasn't bad for fast food fried chicken) is long gone and the hamburgers don't taste the same.

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