America has chosen the best fast food burger of the year – and it’s an underdog

The Big Mac, The Whopper, The Baconator; all popular iterations of the classic, all-American hamburger. Every year, USA Today ranks the important stats in fast food (including which chain comes out on top overall) but who makes the best burger of 2024?

The composition of bun, beef, bun gets a whole lot more complicated than you’d think, and the results of the survey varied pretty wildly across the board.

The best burger is not what you’d expect, and is from a chain that’s considered to be a bit of an underdog with fast foodies across the country.

The title goes to a West-coast burger joint that specializes in chargrilled burgers, and no, it’s not In-N-Out.

In its annual 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards, USA Today named The Habit Burger Grill’s Double Char as the best fast food burger.

The Double Char Burger comes with cheese on grilled sourdough along with shredded lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickles and caramelized onions. It can also be ordered ‘Santa Barbara style’ which includes slices of avocado.

The beef patties themselves are chargrilled and made with 100% beef, giving them that smoky homestyle BBQ flavor.

The burger is on the higher-end of fast food burgers price-wise, costing $8.61 for the burger alone, and with The Habit Burger Grill being more of a fast-casual dining spot, rather than a straight-up fast food joint, this result shows a move for customers to good quality ingredients and slightly ‘healthier’ burgers.

The Habit Burger Grill serves up burgers, sandwiches, salads, and has lots of vegetarian options, grilled meats, and serves up minimal fried food. Their tempura green beans won ‘Best Side of The Year’, too.

The chain started in Santa Barbara in the late 1960s, but rose to popularity in 2014 when Consumer Reports stated that it served the best-tasting fast-food burger, just barely beating In-N-Out and Five Guys.

Whilst the move from convenience and low-cost to higher quality and healthier is interesting and shows fast food fans’ desire for a substantial burger amid rising fast food inflation costs, let’s see how other popular chains stacked up.

How other fast food burgers ranked

The Double Double from In-N-Out came second, and the BBQ Rodeo Burger from Burger-Fi came in third, however, classic chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Sonic didn’t make the top 10.

1. The Habit Burger and Grill	Double Charburger
2. In-N-Out Burger	Double Double
3. BurgerFi	BBQ Rodeo Burger
4. Jack in the Box	Jumbo Jack Cheeseburger
5. Five Guys	Cheeseburger
6. Whataburger	Double Meat Whataburger
7. Culver’s	ButterBurger Cheese, Double
8. Burger King	Whopper
9. Carl’s Jr.	Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger
10. White Castle	The 1921 Slider

The only big-name burger that made it onto the list was the Whopper, that came in at a relatively low eighth.

With no Big Mac in sight, it looks like an underdog has taken the crown this year. Why not check out our ranking of the best fast food burgers and see how your favorite stacks up?