Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
- One of Carl's Jr.'s signature sandwiches is the "Breakfast Burger."
- It's essentially a burger with egg, bacon, cheese, and potatoes.
- While it's not as bad as it sounds, it's not the absolute best either.
Carl's Jr. is more known across the country for its
titillating
history of ad campaigns than its food. Yet during my recent
first-time foray
to the chain, I noticed something rather strange stood out on the menu: the "Breakfast Burger."
On lazy weekend mornings as a kid, I remember my mom throwing a stray sirloin steak - one that didn't make the cut as dinner during the week - onto the cast-iron pan and searing it aside a pan of scrambled eggs. In essence, it was a breakfast steak.
Although it sounds pretty normal now, I thought it rather decadent at the time - even then, I knew that steaks are expensive cuts of meat. But it was delicious: a fantastic balance between savory and tender rare steak, salted just so, and the rich and fluffy eggs folded with butter and a dash of milk or cream.So the idea of a breakfast burger seemed vaguely familiar; beef and egg, just as memory served! Yet this is fast-food, not a cozy kitchen on a Sunday morning. And Carl's Jr. is, judging from the past, more apt to go overboard with a burger than to play it easy. Of course, as one expects, this sandwich turns out to be another beast entirely.
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It’s a hefty sandwich: a beef patty, bacon slices, an egg fold, hash brown rounds, cheese, and ketchup all squished into a sesame seed bun. It’s literally an entire breakfast in a bun, like a McDonald’s McGriddle, but supercharged.
Immediately, my main concern is that the egg is, well, not an egg. Is it real? It’s definitely egg, but it’s not the honest-to-goodness, yolk-in-the-middle egg one hopes for. It’s the usual bland fast-food egg fold that everyone knows and nobody loves.
That aside, the burger isn’t all that bad when approached as a normal burger that happens to have some egg on it. The bacon is decent — not too salty, but it adds enough smokiness to bring depth to each bite.
The hash browns are actually the best part of the burger — how high that standard may be is up for debate. The salty and rich potato adds some salty smoothness that lifts the burger above being just a bacon cheeseburger with some nearly flavorless egg jello slipped between the bun.
I think its appeal is the fact that it’s only barely breakfast — and that it’s now served all day at Carl’s Jr. speaks to that. It’s best appreciated as a normal, everyday burger that’s a bit on the heavy and greasy side.
In the end, a fast-food burger isn't expected to be gourmet, or to feel healthy or "good for you." People eat them for what they are: greasy beef and cheese in bread, with a symphony of variable toppings and sauces to distinguish one from the dozens of others. And that's fine! This burger is fine — if anything, a touch more distinctive than the rest.
Think of it that way, and you’ll be rather satisfied with it. Eat it for breakfast, and… well, it’s an odd start to a day. But hey, if you enjoy it then go for it — I used to think breakfast steak was weird.
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