Soggy buns, waiting too long for a cold meal, and missing out on the nostalgia factor. White Castle is an iconic restaurant well known to many — but that doesn't mean everyone is a fan of the regional establishment.
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00:00Soggy buns, waiting too long for a cold meal, and missing out on the nostalgia factor. White
00:06Castle is an iconic restaurant well-known to many, but that doesn't mean everyone is
00:10a fan of the regional establishment.
00:13If you're already into American cuisine, there's nothing about a classic hamburger that should
00:17elicit alarm. But White Castle's burgers sort of defy the commonly associated traits that
00:22make this beef sandwich what it is. Allow the buns to prove our point. Sure, the slider
00:27rolls have a springy fluffiness, and the company even goes to the trouble of leasing out bakeries
00:32to supply the stock for its 300-plus locations spanning the country.
00:36Unfortunately, the buns have earned a bad rap, and this is because of the numerous complaints
00:41that the texture suffers a tendency of going soggy. As it stands, we can assign blame to
00:46White Castle's cooking procedures for provoking rage in scores of visitors. The staff behind
00:51the counter don't grill the sliders as you'd expect for an average fast food chain, as
00:55the patties are actually steamed. While the meat and onions sizzle away together on the
00:59stovetop, Cooks then pop open the buns and place them on top of the pile. Rather than
01:04each component cooking separately for assembly at the end, the little burger comes together
01:09entirely in one go. It's a convenient shortcut that infuses a recognizably savory flavor
01:14and works to soften the beef patties to a cushiony consistency.
01:18The downside, though, is the bread roll may be mushy and borderline disintegrated by the
01:23time it's boxed up and delivered to the takeout window.
01:27Onions are a beloved garnish most burger purists can't resist.
01:30"...about those tender little White Castle burgers. Those little itty-bitty grilled onions
01:35that just explode in your mouth like flavor crystals every time you bite into one."
01:39On the other hand, the umami kick they contribute can be too much, which makes all the vocal
01:44opposition to White Castle's food make sense. According to critics, the problem is that
01:48White Castle does not treat onions as a simple complement to enhance its bite-sized specialties.
01:53The vegetable is downright inescapable, bleeding straight through the plush bun and flattened
01:57patty. On the original slider, the flagship product, you'll experience strands in just
02:02about every mouthful you can choke down. Minus a single pickle that's rounded it out over
02:06the last century, the punchy umami tone is about the only flavor you detect in one of
02:11its many burgers.
02:12And in a similar vein to the highly detested bread buns, it's the culinary practices White
02:17Castle adheres to that seems largely responsible. The onions, you'll find, are seared on the
02:21grill top in a massive layer. This is so, when staff place the beef squares on top,
02:26the shredded morsels brown simultaneously with the meat. As a result, the burger is
02:30imparted with the telltale aroma of pure onion — an overpowering scent not everyone will
02:35find agreeable, clearly.
02:38Tiny as they are, White Castle's mini-burgers remain an outlier in the fast food world for
02:42a reason that's fairly stark — the lack of condiments. Look at the menu at White Castle
02:47and tell us if you see any sauces offered on the sandwiches. Nope, we don't see any
02:51either, not even ketchup.
02:52How about those people that don't use ketchup? What are they called again? Al-Qaeda? Ugh.
02:57Minus the Bacon Ranch Chicken Slider that hit menus back in 2022, every slider essentially
03:02arrives undressed. To no surprise, this doesn't entice many customers who weren't already
03:07familiar with the company's plainer approach to burger making.
03:10While one could argue White Castle's slider formula was engineered to require no condiment
03:14of any kind, you would be ruining its essence by slathering on ketchup. The simplicity of
03:19onion, pickle, and beef, to them, is the holy trifecta that defines it. This philosophy
03:23potentially filtered into the rest of the offerings, which explains the slew of unsatisfied
03:29customers.
03:30Where a whole pound of beef can translate into multiple cheeseburgers elsewhere, White
03:34Castle can cash it in for 18 of them. They measure two and a half inches in length and
03:39width, making them a snap to wolf down one by one, which is good news if you happen to
03:44be named Harold or Kumar. However, less enthused customers tend to feel cheated by the miniature
03:49sizing regardless. People tend to be disappointed by White Castle's teeny tiny patties because
03:54they're expecting a regular-sized hamburger.
03:56But the thing is, they're not like other establishments where you can invest your appetite into a
04:00single creation like the Whopper or Dave's Single. They're sliders. The smaller dimensions
04:05not only mean you can eat more of them, but this was the purpose of the eatery's goal
04:09when it launched in the 1920s. Churning out as many hamburgers as the demand could feed
04:13upon was exactly where the mini-sized format took off.
04:17I think from the very beginning it was the idea that they had to be small and easy to
04:21share."
04:22White Castle's selection of crinkle-cut fries, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, and chicken
04:26rings seem decent enough, but ask around the web and you'll discover a good number of people
04:31find them weak. Online, franchise chatter and YouTuber Luke Foods were united by their
04:36disdain for the french fries, finding the execution unmemorable, unseasoned, and barely
04:41crispy — the bare minimum for a french fry. Is this how everyone feels about White Castle's
04:45food? Obviously not.
04:47Nevertheless, the grievances do contain some truth if we were to only look at the ingredient
04:52information made available on the chain's website. There's zero indication that the
04:56fries and hash browns sport a vibrant seasoning blend. Raw potato and vegetable oil comprise
05:01the first few ingredients, followed by preservatives. No wonder they leave people unimpressed.
05:07Maybe sliders don't cost a nickel like they did in the Roaring Twenties, yet one thing's
05:10for sure — White Castle's crowning achievement remains consistently friendly on the bank
05:15account.
05:16Among the over 350 drive-thrus operating throughout the heartland and beyond, one burger will
05:21still cost you around a dollar — still below the going rate of a discounted cheeseburger
05:25at other chains. And by packing these petite snacks in paper sacks or cardboard suitcases,
05:30the chain feeds the notion that you're somehow scoring a stupendous deal on your order.
05:34Truth is, plenty of folks think the opposite. The sheer volume of food creates the illusion
05:39that you're getting away with highway robbery, especially when the price point is unbelievably
05:43affordable. Consumers whose taste buds haven't been colored by bias, however, claim the food
05:48doesn't add up to be worth the money, at least for what you get.
05:51Those who only visit the drive-thru to optimize their hard-earned cash might opt for combos,
05:57And even then, it's not clear that you're saving much more money than if you had swung
06:01by a different establishment for a conventional handheld. The gluttonous fantasy of diving
06:05mouth-first into greasy, bite-sized buns on the cheap is something we expect the brand
06:09banks on — and unfortunately, visitors aren't buying it.
06:14White Castle churns out large quantities of food. As reported by Nation's Restaurant News,
06:18a single location can typically sling about 1,800 sliders every hour — a maximum count
06:23that likely fluctuates given the foot traffic. Despite doling out these orders at a frequency
06:28rivaling the Boston Marathon, however, some patrons refused to put up with White Castle's
06:32longer-than-average wait time. One user on Reddit called it the, quote,
06:36"...slowest fast food place in existence," and went on to add,
06:39"...usually it's only 15 to 20 minutes, but I've seen it take two hours before."
06:44If you look at how the kitchens operate, you might understand why the fast food chain,
06:48ironically, isn't super fast. For one, crew members are actually assembling the sliders
06:52fresh from start to finish. They aren't nuking them in the microwave, nor are they snatching
06:56them off a heater, which they bag up for the guest. Munchie jokes aside, scratch cooking
07:01is taken extremely seriously by the chain, to the point that if batches of burgers aren't
07:05claimed in half an hour or less, they'll be disposed of.
07:08"...the burgers can sit on the grill for as long as 20 minutes before the grill automatically
07:12starts cooling down and the sliders need to be discarded and fresh ones made."
07:16Any drive-thru in the year 2024 would be celebrated for taking a slower, manual approach, but
07:21diners aren't looking to fritter away their lunch hour held up in line, and we can hardly
07:25blame them for axing the chain from their routine.
07:29Any kind of digestive trouble causing your stomach to gurgle and twist is a nightmare
07:33to endure, and for some diners, White Castle usually stands as the culprit of this agony.
07:37The bite-sized morsels tend to have a nasty habit of brewing up a storm in your bowels.
07:43Devouring heavy food is bound to upset the tummy, and that's regardless of the franchise.
07:47They don't call them greasy spoons for nothing, right? Though White Castle isn't unique on
07:51this front, a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread with an employee reveals how the chain exacerbates
07:56the problem thanks to its prized ingredient, steam.
07:59Basically, the steam draws out moisture from both the beef and the bun, and since the meat
08:03is high in fat, it inevitably will leak grease. This causes the juices to combine and basically
08:08coats the whole slider in oil. Another theory for the gastrointestinal fury in your gut?
08:13The onions, since they harbor a sugar molecule linked to stomach troubles.
08:18So many people can't stand White Castle's food, and all that takes for a few of the
08:22haters grimacing from the sidelines is simply looking at it. We know it isn't fair to judge
08:27exclusively on looks, but how can you not judge when the beef is a bizarre hue and the
08:31buns practically expel grease just by holding it in your hands?
08:35Frankly, location can be involved in the nasty-looking batches diners over the years have encountered.
08:40Though White Castle doesn't lease out franchises, it's just common knowledge that some outposts
08:44have crew who are better equipped at making the food palatable.
08:47The transcendent gut bombs can turn into nightmare fuel very quickly if they happen
08:51to step into a storefront with spotty kitchen staff. Otherwise, it's simply different strokes.
08:56Even if you're committed to the White and Blue Palace, not everyone will enjoy sampling
09:00a bite of sopping bread glued to gray, mousy meat.
09:05Reaching the pickup window to collect your parcel of steaming hot food is one of the
09:08joys of drive-thru ordering. We think of it as the reward at the end of the finish line.
09:13Yet pulling over to discover your lunch, which took a lot longer to get than you anticipated,
09:17isn't even warm? That really grinds the gears, and seems to be a complaint aired by more
09:22customers than you'd think.
09:24True, White Castle is far from the sole offender hawking cold food. That would require putting
09:28every takeout spot on trial, and who has time for that? However, the problem occurs very,
09:34very persistently, and studying up on the company's food safety facts online illuminates
09:38one particular possibility — the shunning of heat lamps. It's an open secret that White
09:43Castle doesn't artificially warm its wares. Short of maintaining a supply on the stove
09:48awaiting customer purchase, the burgers won't touch another heat source again — that is,
09:52until it's packed up and stewing in its own aromas.
09:55Maybe the burger will be fresher, but lacking the burst of warmth essentially chills your
09:59takeout meal — if not the goodwill you could have for the chain.
10:04Patronizing White Castle is a love-it-or-hate-it experience. People who, from afar, remain
10:08gobsmacked by the hype might need to reckon with whether the royal-leaning chain was part
10:13of their lives to begin with. There are only 15 states in America where you can pull up
10:17to devour its oily delicacies in person, and most will be scattered throughout the Northeast
10:22and the Midwest. The fact is, White Castle is not a readily accessible establishment
10:26— it's regional. If you're not in a region where these eateries are abundant, acquiring
10:31a taste for it could be a struggle later on.
10:33With the kind of limited availability that inspires pilgrimages, fans of the chain are
10:37definitely going to take pride where they can. This also plays into another factor,
10:42which is nostalgia. As explained in one Yelp review, the fare is a little perplexing unless
10:47you enjoy an emotional attachment. With one user writing,
10:50"...I think people who grew up on these have the sliders as part of their memories, but
10:54for everyone else, it's quite bewitching."