Earl Reviews Carl's Jr. - Taking My Mouth To Memphis...MAYBE - A Review

Carl's Jr.™ has a storied past in our neck of the woods. A few years ago, Carl's Jr., a west coast success story, effected a purchase/merger of the bigger east coast chain by the name of Hardee's®. How does that have anything to do with my area, one might ask? Well, a few years earlier, Hardee's took over an institution here in Utah, Dee's Hamburgers, famous for CHEAP burgers and lots of locations...oh and their animated clowns on their sign. So Dee's became Hardee's and then Hardee's became Carl's Jr. here.

There are still remnants of Dee's in the form of their Denny's style family dining restaurants around the valley. The bright clown is gone, as are the nickle burgers. But the story doesn't end there. My beloved aunt was outraged when Carl's Jr. began to advertise their Six Dollar Burger. She exclaimed that she would NEVER pay for a Six Dollar Burger at a fast food place through a drive through. What she didn't know was that the Six Dollar burger was actually a six dollar value, for under four dollars at the time. Enough of the storied past, now for the review.

My errands today took me near a Carl's Jr. and my eyes went to their ThickBurger® menu offerings, particularly the Memphis Barbecue. I ordered the single patty version. My photo to the left shows their ad inviting us to take our mouths to Memphis, and as you can see, I did! Mine didn't quite look like their ad. As I unwrapped mine, for some reason the bun had a cut in it. Very shallow and very strange. As I removed the top bun you could see the components: A ground beef patty, American cheese slice, fried onion slices and BBQ sauce. The BBQ sauce was just right, but I don't know why this is a Memphis BBQ ThickBurger® . It was definitely a burger, but it was not thick, and didn't have any discernible BBQ except for the little bit of sauce, which was good, but not what I felt was advertised. Let me show you in the next photo

Their Ad (Top) As Delivered (Bottom)

While it tasted fine, it was not what one would expect based on the photos and description. It was supposed to include pulled pork and if there was any it was so small it couldn't be seen or tasted. The price was about $5 bucks, which would have been a great price if it looked like the ad, but it looks more like a McDouble, only it's not double. I hope it was just the location I visited. I will have to try another and see what I get.

By The Numbers:
Service: ⭐(Drive Up Was Quite Slow)
Food:   ⭐ (Tasty but disappointing)
Price: 💲💲💲💲 (Expensive for what I got)