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From honey butter biscuits to cheese curds, these fast food favorites are difficult to find outside the United States.
Key Points
- World Cup attendees visiting the United States have been posting videos of their fast food orders online; however, many popular American fast food chains are already available abroad.
- We’ve rounded up seven American fast food chains that are difficult or impossible to try in other countries and selected an iconic item from each one that tourists should try.
- From Whataburger’s Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit to Sonic Drive-In’s Cherry Limeade, this is the ultimate fast food bucket list for people visiting the U.S.
With more than 44,000 restaurants in over 100 countries, McDonald’s is the second-biggest — or the biggest, if you base the rankings on revenue — fast food chain in the world. The Golden Arches’ menu varies by country, but classic items like the Big Mac and Chicken McNuggets can be found at most of its locations. While McDonald’s is emblematic of American fast food culture, I wouldn’t recommend making it a priority if you’re visiting the United States for the first time. You can most likely enjoy one of its burgers in your home country.
The World Cup has brought millions of visitors to the U.S., many of whom have shared their reactions to trying American fast food online. However, like McDonald’s, quite a few fast food chains that originated in the U.S. — including Starbucks, Burger King, Taco Bell, and KFC — have expanded to dozens of countries around the world. They might be a quintessential part of our country’s fast food scene, but their food and drinks aren’t difficult to find abroad.
If you want to sample a fast food item that you can only get on American soil, there are a few iconic chains I’d recommend visiting first. Here’s where to go and what to order at each restaurant to get a taste of U.S. fast food culture you won’t find anywhere else.
In-N-Out: Double Double
McDonald’s, Five Guys, Shake Shack, Burger King, and Wendy’s are all international. If you’re looking for an all-American burger you can order only in the U.S., In-N-Out is the place to go. The California-based chain has over 400 restaurants, most of which are located across the West Coast and in the Southwest. If you’re watching a World Cup game in Los Angeles, In-N-Out is easily accessible.
Order the Double Double, In-N-Out’s most famous offering, while there. It features two beef patties, two slices of cheese, the usual lettuce, tomatoes, and onion, plus the chain’s signature tangy “spread.” If you want to take the burger up a notch, ask for it “animal-style;” employees will griddle the patties in mustard and finish the burger with pickles, extra spread, and grilled onions.
Whataburger: Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit
Although Texas is known as the home base of this beloved fast food chain, World Cup attendees in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Kansas City can all try the Whataburger menu. The restaurant is known for a few items, including sandwiches served between buttery slices of Texas toast, but there’s one dish you must try: the Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit. Fried chicken on a biscuit can easily lean toward the dry side, but Whataburger slathers the crispy white-meat chicken with a generous amount of honey butter, which melts into the sandwich. The biscuit is surprisingly great, too, flaky and full of flavor, setting a good example for what the Southern delicacy is supposed to be like.
Related: 10 American Grocery Items World Cup Visitors Should Bring Home Instead of Ranch
Sonic Drive-In: Cherry Limeade
Considering that the drive-in restaurant has more than 3,400 locations, it’s surprising that Sonic hasn’t expanded abroad. The menu here is expansive, offering everything from chili cheese dogs to cheese-filled fried jalapeño peppers. If you want to sample a wider range of American comfort foods, this is a great option. However, if I could recommend only one Sonic item, it would be a tall Styrofoam cup of its Cherry Limeade. The chain is well known for its massive drinks menu and is often credited with helping popularize the sweet-tart combination of cherry and lime. Plus, the beverage is served over a generous amount of Sonic’s crushed ice, the perfect refreshment on a hot summer day.
Culver’s: Wisconsin Cheese Curds
Wisconsin-based Culver’s is known as a Midwestern fast food chain, but it has restaurants in Kansas, Florida, Georgia, and Texas. Its stores might not be as conveniently located for tourists who are strictly staying in a World Cup city, but they’re a road trip’s distance from several stadiums, and it’s worth making the drive to see a little more of the surrounding area and try some of Wisconsin’s iconic cheese curds. All of the chain’s cheese curds are sourced from a family-owned dairy farm in Wisconsin and fried until crispy. In addition to delivering a taste of U.S. dairy, they’re reminiscent of another part of America’s food landscape: state fairs.
Jersey Mike’s: Sub “Mike’s Way”
In contrast to Subway’s sprawling size — which boasts over 37,000 locations in more than 100 countries — sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s has around 3,500 restaurants in just three countries: the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, all of which are hosting World Cup games. Jersey Mike’s subs are also, subjectively, more delicious and reflect the typical flavors of Italian-American-style sandwiches. Just make sure to order your sandwich of choice “Mike’s Way,” which ensures it comes with onions, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, oregano, and salt. This set of accoutrements has been offered at Jersey Mike’s since the chain’s opening, and the assortment of bright, punchy toppings is common on many cold sub sandwiches (or grinders) in the Northeast.
Related: Some Restaurants Are Making Tips Mandatory for the World Cup
Dairy Queen: Blizzard
Dairy Queen is the only fast food chain on this list with locations outside North America. That said, its international footprint remains fairly limited. Of its roughly 2,300 international restaurants, more than half are in China. The rest are largely spread across the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia. If your home country doesn’t have a Dairy Queen location, it’s worth stopping at a U.S. restaurant to try its signature dessert, the Blizzard.
A cross between soft serve and a milkshake, Dairy Queen Blizzards are a nostalgic sweet treat for many Americans — especially those who grew up in Texas. The spoonable cups of ice cream come in seemingly endless variations, with mix-ins such as M&Ms, Biscoff cookies, mint Oreos, cotton candy bits, and more.
White Castle: The Original Slider
Are White Castle’s sliders the best burger around? No, but they’re good, and they hold a special place in fast food history. Founded in 1921, White Castle is frequently cited as the world’s first fast food burger chain. Its signature sliders are simple: all-beef patties topped with a pickle slice and grilled onions, served on square buns. But if that sounds too plain, the chain offers plenty of other slider iterations to try, including one that stars fried rings of chicken — essentially an onion ring made from chicken meat — and serves as an ode to another quintessential part of American food culture, processed ingredients.
Read the original article on Food & Wine
