Another +1 for Culvers. I have never had poor service or seen a dirty resturaunt or bathroom, and I have stopped at them all over the midwest. Good food for the price, all food is fresh made, and I have never had a problem at one. Staff is always polite.

They're well run with polite, courteous employees. I like their food. They serve custard instead of ice cream have a GREAT lemon ice at some locations. You can get a Pot Roast sandwich or a Pork Tenderloin sandwich as well as the usual hamburger stuff. It has lots of stuff on the menu a Midwesterner would take for granted so as a displaced one I appreciate them a lot.

And during Lent they serve Walleye as a fish option!!!!  

No, like breaded and fried balls of cheese.

Related gripe: Why in the blue fuck do they not offer poutine? They have all of the ingredients, even the gravy.

good stuff

No. Cheese curds as in cheddar cheese pieces before they are squished together and aged. they deep fry them. Another Midwestern thing guaranteed to stop your heart!

They built one next to my work a year ago.  Have lots of good stuff.  
I'm there right now waiting for some fried chicken. Ha

People fall into 2 camps.  In and out or Culvers.

I would eat at a Culvers as much as I could.  And die a happy death due to a heart attack.

The problem with Culver's is that the burgers are so good, that you feel like it was a wasted trip if you get one of their other sandwiches instead (which are also good). The Pork Tenderloin is pretty good, as well.

ETA:



There is one within walking distance of my office. I usually wind up there at least once a week.

Butterburger Double Deluxe and Cheese Curds For THE WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have three in my immediate AO. Culvers, Five Guys, and In-N-Out are my top 3 burgers, but the nearest In-N-Out is about 2,000 miles away.

Agree. I've been a few times when I've gone to the midwest, always expecting to like it more. I'm just not blown away by it. The burgers are super greasy. I thought I'd like the cheese curds more than I do. They're OK, just nothing special.

Aww heck no! With Lunch and dinner every day of the week you can get both! I'll happily take either! Different tastes for different days!

I have an in-n-out, five guys, chick-fil-a, and there was a culvers that closed all 5 minutes from my house.

I am pretty sad about losing the culvers

Their meat is actually cooked on a flat top so it's got the nice brown crust, not like a regular limp fast food patty. I like a Butterburger with cheese curds and a chocolate custard with caramel sauce. Worth every penny.  The kids meals are awesome too, if that's something you've got to consider.

Culvers better than INO?



Oh, wait, you're serious.

Let me laugh even harder.




Let me put it this way...

I don't have either near my house.  I travel a few times a year to both the West Coast and the Midwest.  I'm a completely impartial observer here.  I have no hometown favorite to root for.

In the Midwest, Culver's is the only option.  I don't mean the best option.  I mean the only option.  Aside from a few oases like Chicago, St. Louis, etc, the Midwest is a food desert.  It's nothing but deep fried shit covered in ranch dressing, watery beer, and frozen pizza.  I'm not trying to insult you guys, and I understand the cultural appeal of your "specialties" like pasties (which are English poor people food anyhow, and you also make them wrong), that imitation poutine thing, imitation German food, whatever the fuck a hotdish is (apparently you just dump tater tots and baked beans together, I guess?)...  Look, I get it.  It's all comfort food, and there's a strong cultural appeal to it.  That's the value - not whether it's really that good, but whether everyone thinks it's good, which they do.  You guys have a better food identity than most of the country, and you're not stuck up about it.  That's a really great thing.  It's humble and it's welcoming.  But...  it's just not that great.

The West Coast is the opposite.  The food is awesome.  Any type of cuisine you can imagine is done well, and local specialties, of which there are dozens, are exemplary.  Anywhere in Southern CA, you can order fish tacos, and they're going to be fucking incredible.  Oh, some places are still better than others.  That's the nature of the game, that somebody is going to win.  But I've not once had a bad one, even from the shadiest Mexican joint imaginable.  But, there's no cultural inclusion there.  People don't sit down with each other to share a meal and reminisce about the last time they enjoyed the local specialty.  They just eat great food, expecting it to be great, because it has always been great.  Great is normal.  It's not particularly welcoming.  It's gastronomically better in every conceivable way...  but it's not friendly.  People don't value it.  They'll defend it with zeal, which is well and good, but they don't celebrate it.


That's the appeal of the Midwest.  You guys are the underdogs.  Nothing you do is by-the-numbers better than anything on either coast.  But you've got fuckin spirit.  You're a team.  You get shit done, and you take pride in it.  You hold your heads up, stick together, and when the world is like, "Hey, what do you got for a fast food burger?"  you're like, you know what?  Maybe it's not the best, but it's good quality, and we're going to do our own thing.  You're going to serve it to you with pride, and it's going to be something both good and unique.

You don't have to be better than INO.  You're not anyhow, so it makes no difference, but that doesn't matter to you.  You're going to keep doing what you do, and rightly being proud of that.  That's what I like most about Culver's.


But in the Midwest, I eat at Culver's because I have to.
On the West Coast, I eat at INO because I want to.

That's just the way it is.  But that's fine.  Don't try to be INO.  You gotta do you.

I didn't realize they have expanded so much. I'm from Northern IL and I remember when they were pretty much only in WI and surrounding states. And yes, Culver's is the shiznit

I like everything but the butterburgers. Cheese curds are good, their custard is outstanding.

The cheese curds and their Concrete Mixers are to die for.

I'm still carrying a whole bunch of them around on my waist.

I'm jelly.

Fuck you, I would replace the In-n-Out that's 5 minutes away from my house with a Culver's in a motherfucking HEARTBEAT. In-n-Out has, like, 3 things on their menu, and 2/3rds of them are bland as shit.

They are good as far as WI standards go but they're no In n Out by any stretch. I would say about on par with Sonic or Five Guys. Serious Burger here is better IMO. I miss In n Out and Carl's Jr. WI folks don't seem to know what good food is a lot of the time, they love quantity over quality. People here eat at Old Country Buffet slop houses and think it's good because they can stuff themselves with lots of crap. The west and south kick the shit outta us in the food dept besides cheese and maybe bacon. Even Jack n the Box is and upgrade over most places here I would love a hate chicken here but it wouldn't be the same because of the midwest feel. Southern hospitality with yes sir/no sir, yes ma'am/no ma'am is what make Chic Fil A great IMO.

My thought as well.  I've been a few times when they first opened up here several years back.  Haven't had the urge to go to one since.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Culver's FTW, and heart attack.

Fries are the bomb too.    

Remember these words.

Double bacon butter bomb.

Enjoy.


(Worked at a Culver's while in high school, circa 1994, one of the  first ones opened in wisconsin)

Let me give you a perfect example of what I mean by Midwest v. the coasts.

Say you go into a non-chain, semi-casual restaurant.  Neighborhood, locally-owned place, maybe even regionally famous.  The kind of joint that gets a lot of repeat business.


On the coasts, you'll pay your money and you'll get a good meal.  After a few repeat visits, you'll get to know the people there, and maybe develop a rapport.  The bartender will remember your favorite drink, the owner will wave hi as he walks the tables, maybe you'll make some chatter about current events of local interest.  The menu will be good stuff, often with seasonal options, and pared down to maybe 25-30 items.  They may or may not have a chef's special of the day/week.  Maybe they'll have a rotating soup or vegetable.  Generally ordered a la carte, but entrees come with a choice of two sides.  That sort of thing.  Everyone knows exactly what I'm talking about here.

But the Midwest...  It's like you teleported back in time to the 1980s.  If there was a smoking section, I'd swear I was back in 1985.  Booths with the back-to-back benches and tables not attached to the floor or anything.  Small chairs for fat butts.  Some places don't have free refills on soda.  There's a glass-front deli cooler at the front door that showcases all the cakes and pies for dessert (and you have a fuckton).  The waitress waddles up to your table beaming with joy and starts making small talk.  No rush, what are you in town for, well, my sister's husband just...  and this is normal.  Patrons at one table will talk to patrons at another table.  Aw, you like the Packers?  Me too!  Go Packers!  And then there's the question that comes as a complete surprise.  What kind of dressing do you want on your salad?  My salad?  But I only ordered a chicken sandwich.  That's okay, everything comes with a salad.  Remember that shit from your childhood?  And it's in the fake wooden bowl, with sliced tomatoes (obviously from the sandwich prep station), canned black olives, the red onion slice thoughtfully placed on top so it can be removed if you don't like raw onion...  Everybody gets a fucking salad.  No reason, it's just polite.  It's hospitality.  And the menu...  holy shit, there's got to be a hundred things on this damn menu.  Why would you ever have so much shit on there?  And it never changes.  Oh, you might get a special once in a while, but it's just going to be some variation on a regular menu item.  Oh, it's the "cowboy" burger!  We put barbecue sauce on it.  Ooooh, that sounds fancy.


It's the fuckin salad, though.  It's simple, it hardly costs anything, but nobody on the coasts does it.  Oh, you can order a side salad.  But that takes something away from the meal.  The Midwest, no matter what you order, you're getting ten pieces of lettuce, two tomato slices, and some other small things.  It's the smallest of things, and so easily overlooked, but it's that mark of hospitality that makes all the difference.

You can't do that on the coasts.  You'll tie up a table for 90 minutes.  You'll go out of business.  You've got food to serve and taxes to pay.  A half empty restaurant with friendly service and free shit?  You'd last 3 months in any coastal state.

But not in the Midwest.  You'll be the anchor of the damn community.


Crazy.  It's like a different planet out there.

Until I read some thread where Deej said something about Culver's I had never heard of them.. went to their website and dang.. got one just a few miles away so.. off I went. Let me say, I was surprised how good they were, how nice the employees were and the shakes/concretes/malts were.. well.. they won't replace my favorite Whataburger.. but all others are now way down on my list.

In the realm of feeder lot raised beef and FF joints.. Culver's is tops.

Grass fed/free-range beef hamburger places.. those top all others including Whataburger but they are few and far between (thankfully I have one of those too.. just 3 miles away).

You're wrong.

They have precisely one thing on their menu.  Double-double animal style.


And it's better than anything else you can buy from a drive-through, anywhere in the world. (Excepting drive-through liquor stores, which, obviously, you know?)

Yes, you'll need a larger belt

Burgers are thin as paper and fried crispy.  Vanilla custard is grainy and gross.  The mixed custard flavors never have enough of the mixed in stuff.  If you advertise a flavor as Oreo volcano explosion(oreo's, mini m&m's, chocolate syrup, etc) It damn well better have actual oreos and m&m's in it.  Not a small piece of Oreo and 3 m&m's on top of a scoop of vanilla.  That annoys the shit out of me and is a result of the don't give a shit service of the teenagers making your order.  The soups are ok and the cheese curds would be better if they were battered instead of breaded.

I've stopped eating there completely.  I prefer the mom and pop custard/burger joints around here.

...and their better than Five Guys Burgers too!!!

I think their food is excellent for fast food. Love their butter burgers.

But you will need to go on cholesterol medication after a meal there.

I generally concur though their breaded pork tenderloin sammich is kinda disappointing. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. Everything else I've had there has been good to very good.

No, Thats disgusting. We are talking about Deep Fried Cheddar.

One finally opened down here in my neck of the woods. Was running through the drive-through - found the owner running it. Thought it was cool of him to set the example for his employees.

I go there for the cheese curds and root beer. They could do better on the burgers, they are ok but I'd prefer they not have a fat lady sit on them and smash them thin before cooking. The buttered buns are the way burger buns should be prepped.

Clean with good food.  Try the cheese curds, they are very good.

Cottage Cheese????? Surely you jest. Go there now. Order cheese curds. Report back. Wisconsin is waiting on you.

I fucking love Culvers, and I go there every time I am home, it's one of two places I MUST go to.

Animal Style burger and fries are awesome, but that's 1) not on the menu  and 2) really only one example.

The following things at Culver's are delicious:

1) Butter Burgers (obviously)
2) Custard (Turtle Sundae FTMFW)
3) Fries (In-n-Out can't hold a candle to them)
4) other sandwiches on the menu (chicken, fish, etc)
5) Goddamn cheese curds.

In-n-Out? A burger (OMG you can add patties and cheese!) and fries. Maybe their shakes, but they're not that great. Oh, and you can add cheese, onions, and thousand island to shit. I'm so excited.

Not necessarily knocking In-n-Out, because they do one thing rather well, but Culver's beats them by a long shot.

i heard the Onion burger has a resounding effect on your cravings..

you should get one.

The food is better than typical fast food, but slower and more expensive as well.

I like the cheeze curds and the frozen drinks.  Freddies and Culvers tends to have thin, overcooked burgers, just like any other fast food joint.  

They are great for what you are, but you can't beat making your own with fresh ground 80/20, or the 1/3lb Costco burgers are excellent as well. Cook your own and they stay juicy and they can be whatever internal temp you like.

Both of these establishments blow Whataburger right out of the water.  Whataburger serves the burger like a dried out brown potato chip.  Fucking horrible.

It really is. I grew up in Wisconsin, went to the University of Wisconsin, then moved to MS when I got stationed there. Attitude is similar, so it wasn't a big change.

I'm now stationed in NJ, and what you described is very accurate.

You're also accurate when talking about being proud of what we have. I work with people from all over the country and there are two states that people are the most vocal about being from and being proud of - Texas and Wisconsin. Texas, because well, Texas. Wisconsin is just a different kind of place. The Packers and the Badgers are a lifestyle, not just a team we root for or a college we went to. I am damn proud to be from WI and even more proud to be a Badger alum, and that sentiment is felt very strongly throughout the state.

Have never been disappointed by culvers food.

They are as close as I have found to a Chick-fil-A for burgers

Whataburger is still better than both of them....