In-N-Out Burger — Restaurant in Arroyo Grande

For years I heard about legendary In and Out burgers. Walking in I knew only to expect something remarkable with the burgers. I passed a rows of cars packed in the drive thru, and positioned myself at an extending out the door queue. of  Doubles, Cheeseburgers, and burgers were the entire menu. No Jalapeno burgers, no big mac,no western Sunday mixes, convoluted burgers with too many toppings, none of it, this was a place dedicated to the craft of a simple cheese burger and fries.

So i ordered the double and put myself in the plastic fast food chair. I removed my mask and unwrapped the burger observing what contained a lifetime of hype. I bit into it.

First let me tell you - I've had a lot of burgers in my time. I've spent a lifetime in search of perfection, price, nostalgia, grease, and everything in between those two buns. I've done cheap burgers, fast food, restaurant, diners, gourmet burgers and fusion burgers. So I've a feel of the spectrum burgers can fall on.

This In and out burger, was a burger. A direct neutral decent burger. Not too greasy, not try, the buns were good, soft spreading its yeasty goodness, the cheese melted. If there was a standard that all burgers could be measured to it would be this in and out burger.

Except as my teeth went down like a garbage trucks great there was one small thing, one thing that I never should have noticed, the tomato. Crisp, but bland, and tasteless, a mutant of looks over flavour the antithesis of very fruit or vegetable, the American tomato.

Of course there would be an American tomato in a burger bought deep in the heart of America. I should've known. But the disappointment of something bred so long for looks and plumpness that it eventually lost its taste brought me into another depression.

It made me realize as I spread my interests, love, and life far to wide and thin. I've tasted bliss and perfection on individual ingredients but in each place where you'd try and combine them all something would be missing. As I finished the burger it left me with a feeling of despair, but hope at the same time. In its imperfection I was able to still enjoy its other bits, I wouldn't say more, but it left me with a feeling of longing, and desire to keep searching for the perfect burger. Maybe in the future when Europe can import its tomatoes and cheese to America, or in and out appears...

Not sure what was going on tonight, but wow, huge disappointment! I generally post positive reviews, but tonight is the exception. To start with, they only had one person taking orders for both very long lines in the drive through. Poor girl was doing her best, but that wasn’t easy. It was dark and I couldn’t see her sign to know which number to order so I ordered a “double double meal protein style with dr. Pepper”. I assumed it was understood that a meal included fries. Then we moved into the lane for another long wait for food. After nearly thirty minutes from point of entry we got the burger and Dr Pepper. I asked for an in n out sauce (which I never received) but then I noticed there weren’t any fries. So I inquired about it and he told me I didn’t order them. I told him I ordered the meal, but that I’d be happy to pay for them there. He told me he couldn’t do that. To which I responded “you mean to tell me I say here for thirty minutes waiting for food and now there’s no way to get fries?” He walked away and a minute or two later came back with a bag of fries. I thanked him and he didn’t respond. At this point I wouldn’t have bothered to write this review. BUT as we drove away we ate a couple fries and they were hard and cold. As busy as they were I can see no way they had hard cold fries unless they grabbed them from the discard bin. Disgusting. I am absolutely appalled they would do that. My son who spent six hours today at the pool and four hours painting his room and who was exhausted and starving couldn’t even eat them, they were...

I am a restaurant manager at an actual restaurant. I planned to have in and out after work. My home location would close before I got there, so I went to this one. Big mistake.

How would you feel if you worked an 11 hour shift, with a 40 minute drive home, no food at the house, fast food as only option, ask for a very simple request of “extra cheese” or fries cooked “extra light”, you park, check your order, cannot go back to have your order remade because they are now closed, and your entire order is opposite from what you asked for and was charged for what you didn’t get……

I asked for extra cheese on my burger, there wasn’t even the regular amount. I asked for my animal style fries extra lightly cooked, i even said in a very friendly manner “barely cooked at all”, also with extra cheese.

My order was confirmed 3 different times. Once at the speaker, a second time repeated back at the window, and a third time handing the order off.

Excuse me, but why is there not only less cheese than normal, extra extra onions, and my fries were extra well done..???

Darker brown than I’ve ever seen, extremely greasy and can break in half like a tiny twig… was this purposeful because I was “picky”??? I do not understand how you can have an option on your menu, have less than 10 items, tell your customers it’s “made to order” but can’t even cook it as requested… I am never going to this location again and will be calling management. This is completely unacceptable....