In-N-Out Burger — Restaurant in West Valley City

Chapter 3: In-N-Out—The West Coast Situationship That Ruined All My Standards

Dear In-N-Out,

You flawless, sun-kissed, perfectly grilled West Coast heartbreaker. You golden icon of simplicity and seduction. You show up with your little paper hat, your perfect buns, and that smug little smirk like you know you're better than everyone else. And the worst part? You are.

I fell for you fast. How could I not? You swept in with your fresh ingredients and "secret menu" like some mysterious rebel who only listens to vinyl and knows how to make eye contact. I was just there for a burger, but you gave me an identity crisis with a side of Animal Style.

But here's the real betrayal: you’re exclusive. You flaunt yourself across California like the prom king of fast food, flipping your perfect little patties while I sit here in South Dakota, shivering in the drive-thru line of a McDonald’s that smells like broken dreams.

Every time I travel west, it’s like running into an old flame. I tell myself I’ve moved on—until I see those red palm trees and feel the warm glow of neon nostalgia. One bite into that double-double and I’m spiral-texting my friends: “WHY DON’T WE HAVE ONE OF THESE BACK HOME?” “I’D GIVE UP MOST OF MY DIGNITY FOR THIS.” “DO YOU THINK THEY’D franchise to my backyard?”

You're not just a burger place. You’re a lifestyle. You’re what every mediocre burger wishes it could be. You’re what McDonald’s pretends to be when it wears cologne and tries to impress your mom.

But you? You don’t have to try. You just show up with grilled onions and hand-cut fries and ruin me for everyone else.

I hate that you’re so far away. I hate that you won’t commit to a long-distance relationship. I hate that I crave you so much it hurts.

But mostly... I hate that I still dream about you at 2AM while choking down soggy drive-thru fries like they’ll fill the burger-shaped hole you left in my heart.

Forever longing, forever burger-less, A fry-starved lover...

I'm a Cheeseburger fan.

THE STORE:

I've never been to In and Out burger, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It's part of pop-culture and I've heard about if from a few friends.

The store was easy access and CLEAN. Busy too. Drive thru cars wrapped around the building so in I went. Glad I did.

INSIDE:

My counter person, Nathaniel, was beaming when I entered. He was upbeat, energetic, smiling. taking care of customers, ensuring they got what they needed and actually involved, Gotta love it. The supervisor, Joshua was running the store, his energy and enthusiasm was well responded to by the crew.

I ordered the double double, another cheeseburger, fries and a coke. I wanted to try a shake, but I have been indulging way too much on this work trip!! :)

While i waited, which wasn't long, I continued to observe the hustle, smiling employees (not phony) and a good turnover of happy customers.

My food was awesome. I can't honestly say if it lived up to the hype, but it was very good. From the fry sauce on up.

I really enjoyed the double double. Buns were more dense than the regular fast-food ones, real american cheese, not the ever present cheese-food slices. They don't use microwaves and no freezers. Everything is fresh and I could tell. Burgers weren't overdone, juicy and good flavor. Not too salty, same with the fries.

This place was busy. Assembly lines of hands and burgers. I noticed Joshua confirming containers were closed in between each prep, despite how busy they were, NICE! I would highly recommend this store for a meal, I can 't say If they are all this good, but I'm going to assume...

If I could give this location a ZERO I would! I use to work for in n out and I can tell you this is not a quality location. In our mission statement it says “serve only the highest quality product, prepare it in a clean and sparkling environment, and serve it in a warm and friendly manner”. They did not serve a customer in a “warm & friendly manner” because they assumed he was asking other customers to “pay”. Which he DID NOT! A man approached him and offered. Not even 5 minutes after he received his food one of the employees approached him accused him of asking other customers to pay and told him he had to leave. To then further escalate the situation he called the cops. I understand the fact that yes you can’t have people hanging around, loitering, but as far as I knew this man, A CUSTOMER did no such thing. Instead of bothering a man who was NOT disrupting anyone they should focus on cleaning the store, compared to all the other in n outs I’ve been to this location lacked the quality host, you can most definitely see they did not care about the 15 minute lot-checks because it was messy. The employees I interacted with were nice but the ones this man encountered were NOT! People come to in n out for great quality food and for the great customer service, every person who walks through in n out doors should be treated with the same respect no matter how they look, & all customers should expect high quality service we’ve come to know and love, but frankly this location did nothing to emulate that. I and many other customers who were there agree that WE WILL NOT BE COMING TO THIS...