Whataburger — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

Update: Now that the hype has died down, I wanted to give them another try. The food still sucks and has way too much mustard. I asked for a small cup of water to have with my burger and I was charged 35 cents for that plus another 10 cents for PIF, which I have no idea what that charge was for.

Original Review:

Texas, you should be ashamed that you even compare this place to California's In n' Out Burgers!

Pros: Employees were friendly and location is open 24/7, something not found so easily in CO. Size of the burgers were also on the bigger side compared to competition.

Cons: Everything else.

After months of waiting and being hyped up to try this Texas chain, I was severely disappointed after my visit. Whataletdown!

My order was for a Double Whataburger w/ cheese, a Bacon & Cheese Whataburger, large fries, and large onion rings. Due to the backed up drive-thru, they hand you bad printout of their menu WITHOUT prices. I wasn't ordering a crazy amount of food so I was a bit shocked when my total for this order was over $25. Food was neither cheap nor fast!

The drive-thru wait was long but since this is the 1st location opening in CO and everyone wants to try it, it was understandable. What I didn't appreciate though was that the line gets split in 2, and in my line there wasn't someone to take our orders. Meanwhile, the other line is steadily moving and getting their orders in despite entering the drive-thru after us.

The price and the long lines I can get over, but ultimately it's the taste of the food that matters and this is where I find Whataburger to be a major fail. When I think of different burgers such as a Big Mac, a Whopper, a Famous Star, a Jumbo Jack, Double-Double, etc. what makes each one unique to the others is the special sauce they put on it, whether or not you like the taste of that sauce or not.

I did not seem to be able to taste the Whatasauce used in their burgers. All I could taste was a heavy amount of mustard! The burgers did not look appetizing either from the pale brown color of the meat to the pale colors of the tomatoes and lettuce. It lacks the fresh look and taste that In n' Out provides.

While the burger sizes are on the larger side, I was surprised with their serving size for their large sides of fries and onion rings, which sadly was nothing to write home about either.

Save yourself the hassle, time, and money and go to the In n' Out Burgers across the street. Their burgers are about half the cost. Even their cardboard tasting fries are better than what Whataburger has to offer! For the price that you'll be paying, I would suggest Shake Shack or heck, even Red Robin if you have time to sit down. You won't be paying much more and at least that comes with bottomless fries.

Shame...

I have always had issues at this Whattaburger. The customer service I had in the drive-thru wasn't terrible. The lady I spoke to on the speaker was very nice and made sure my order was correct. The lady I spoke to at the window was very monotone and didn't talk of great me, just asked for my payment. She did offer my daughter some fruit snacks as she handed me my order as my daughter was upset, which was nice. The young lady handed me an order and came back out before I had left and mentioned to me she handed me one to many bags. I gave her back the bag, drove around the corner to find out I only received 2 of my five meals and my dessert items were also missing. I went inside with the bag, was not greeted at the counter where a young man was working so I said "Hi" as he was looking at me with a blank face. I let him know I was missing my items. In the back there was multiple staff talking back n forth finding the bag that was missing to my order. They gave me the bag as items were still missing and I had to wait again for more missing items. The food was already cold and their fries are only good fresh. I was more upset at the fact that they didn't offer to remake my meal NOR DID THEY APOLOGIZE. I have been a fast food general manager for over 7 years and if my staff acted this way, they would not have a job. The establishment seemed so disorganized and it seems at the drive thru they didn't even look in the bag to make sure items were correct. Mind you, I was the only car in the drive thru at the time. I was more upset that I spent over 30 minutes to get my food and it was still incorrect. Customers will be upset they had to wait, but less upset and likely to come back if the food was fresh and correct. Vs waiting, cold food, and terrible customer service. As a fast food manager, the general manager and or the Area Coach need more assistance. This is ridiculous. Called for a full refund. I spent $70 and this was not worth $70. I expect my refund in full. I will...

TLDR; bun was so hard and dry you couldn’t eat it, customer service was abrasive, wait was longer than I expected. Go to In ‘N Out or Freddy’s in the same vicinity.

Now I realize that the explanation of why people scream ‘Whataburger’ is actually a curse word when they realize they spent good money on this trash.

This was my first time to Whataburger and was expecting good things based on the hype of what people were willing to wait in line for when they opened.

Unfortunately, this experience from beginning to end was a complete disaster.

Customer Service - my wife had an offer in her account and was able to show the cashier on the website the offer and was trying to click on redeem but it wasn’t working. They were trying to troubleshoot it and eventually just said they don’t know how to do stuff on their website so you have to download the app. Not a big deal but just annoying. The manager actually came over and tried to help and immediately chewed out her employee in front of us for touching our phone. Would hate to work in that environment.

The wait - there was only one order in front of us inside (I know the drive thru was slammed, so a bit of grace) but we waited almost 15 minutes for 2 burgers. Seemed excessive.

The food - got home with our food and unwrapped it to proclaim ‘WHATABURGER.’ You’ll see in the pictures how disappointed I was in this burger. Nasty looking, cheese wasn’t even melted (glad I paid a $1 extra for cheese)! Tiny hamburger encompassed by a massive bun, to make the bun to burger ratio way out of whack. To make matters worse, my wife’s hamburger bun was so dry that I couldn’t even crush it with my fingers. I was able to crack it and got some nice bread crumbs crumbling to the plate. Awesome.

As MANY other reviews have said, In ‘N Out, Freddy’s, Five Guys, Smashburger…all have burgers and experiences that are far...