Carl's Jr. Wetherill Park — Restaurant in Sydney

I regularly drive past this location and enthusiastically watched the building go and up looked forward to it's opening. Turned up today, opening day, half an hour before the "official" opening time of 10am hoping to see a ribbon being cut or the local mayor make a speech, only to find the store already open with a steady stream of customers. Oh, well. I'm here for the food.

I was greeted by many friendly and chatty "head office type" looking people offering flyers with the menu, caps, t-shirts and the Carl's Jr mascot (star) wandering around. They were filtering the number of people into the store to make it manageable and comfortable. Nice start.

Had time to decide what to order while in line. For the record, Guacamole Bacon Angus Burger, medium natural cut fries, medium coke zero and a Chocolate hand scooped ice cream shake (no cream). The order takers were efficient and friendly, obviously well trained for a new store. Had the order eat in. Went to sit down to find the smallish dining room about half full, and an inviting, interesting SOCAL vibe.

The food. This is where it started to disappoint. First the good. The burger was actually delicious. The ingredients were all fresh and vegetables crisp. The meat patty was well seasoned and cooked correctly. Not over or under cooked. Bun was perfect for a burger, and the guacamole tasty and oozy. The burger was freshly made and hot. My only criticism with the burger is that it had bacon on it, but I never really tasted it or felt it while eating.

The fries and shake however, were on the disappointing side to say the least. The fries were barely lukewarm, not seasoned very well (if at all) and on the soggy side. Clearly they had been sitting under the heat lamps a little too long. The shake had potential. The consistency and texture were excellent. Unfortunately it was really under flavoured (closer to vanilla than chocolate), and really SWEET. Too sweet for me to finish.

A couple of other points. I feel the price point is a little on the high side for the QSR segment. I get I ordered a "premium" burger, but the above came to $25.85. That's creeping towards $100 for a family of 4 and in the suburban gourmet burger restaurant range. Also (only a minor thing), the receipt looks like they are adding GST onto the prices displayed, but they are actually included in the prices. The way they display it is a little quirky.

So would I go again? Yes. I would love to give them another try. Definitely better than the slop I was last served at the yellow M chain. It was just a little disappointing for a brand new chain to the Sydney market, in a brand new store literally in it's opening hours to be served coldish fries and a shake lacking flavour.

If anyone from Carl's Jr reads this, I tried to keep this review off social media, but was unable to review through...

Went back today (hahahaha) and tried the Tradies Deal that had the Famous Star with cheese and a double cheeseburger burger. Famous Star not the best burger, meat was dry, not enough sauce and sauce was ordinary. The double cheeseburger was great, tasty, juicy and sauce was excellent. Our fries today didn’t come out fresh and hot so was like eating cardboard.

Returned today and tried the Portobello mushroom Angus burger and that was nice too. The mushroom sauce was tasty, the buns soft, burger done just right. I also ordered onion rings and they were nice and crispy though again a bit on the salty side.

I went today with family and was a bit hesitant after reading all the mixed reviews. I’m glad I did though. My observations, the chicken tenders and Angus burgers rated consistently well in these reviews and they didn’t disappoint. Kids and adults alike loved the chicken - tender, moist and tasty. The Angus burgers were a good size, similar to Whoppers and at least 3x bigger than Maccas quarter pounders! Taste was awesome, buns soft, sauce was great! The fries were very salty though. Plus points on the sizes of the soft drinks. Suggestion though would be to have water as an option in the soft drink dispenser. Restaurant was clean, and Covid safe by keeping a line outside until it was your turn to order. There was only one unisex toilet so another wouldn’t have hurt. Kudos to the owner and management as they obviously listen to customers feedback and try to fix the issues brought to their attention. Hopefully this keeps up as we’ll...

Quite a few years ago I lived in San Diego, CA. Carl's Juinor was my go-to burger there. So I was very happy when they started up here in Australia. My brother-in-law is visiting from HK & he too is a burger aficionado. He's always put Hungry Jacks above Maccas saying you only go to Maccas when it's the only thing available. We went to Carl's to grab some burgers, but there was a problem with our order. Fortunately, Jaime the manager took care of it. She went above and beyond because she prides herself on Customer Service & tries to instill that in her staff. Needless to say, brother-in-law, & our whole crew all concur that Carl's Junior is a really great burger. The meat is juicy & the cheese actually tastes like cheese (creamy & cheesy). Unfortunately for Hungry Jacks it's slid to second place as we all feel between Maccas, HJ & CJ's, Carl's is number One, HJ is second and Maccas a distant third. The Fries are great (crispy & tasty) and the onion rings are terrific, best I've had in a while. Shakes, I'm not supposed to have them with my sugar levels, but every so often I cheat. Not a milkshake, more like an ice cream shake, thick & tasty! So make a trip, grab a burger or two & have a meal at Carl's Junior. For me it's...