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Who’s cheap cheeseburger is better? McDonald’s, Burger King or Wendy’s?

This marks the 100th review on FastFoodCritic.com and we decided to do something different. Instead of one person nitpicking a single item, all three editors worked to find which of these 5 commonly available value-priced cheeseburgers is better.

The Goal: Find the best budget cheeseburger among the industry’s 3 largest chains. Burgers judged on a combination of taste and value. 1 winner, 1 runner-up.

The competition:

McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger
McDonald’s McDouble
Burger King Whopper Jr. w/Cheese
Wendy’s Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger
Wendy’s Double Stack

We wanted to stay as close to $1 as possible. Due to the crazy economy, the prices on some of these items are literally changing before our eyes. In one case, last week’s 99-cent burger is up to $1.29 (even $1.39) this week in many locations. We’ve done our best to quote and explain current prices (and ranges) for each contender.

Let’s look at them individually, starting with McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger.

Double Cheeseburger from McDonald’s, $1.19 / $1.29 — Sadly, the legendary 99-cent burger is no longer 99-cents. Everything else remains the same except the price. Two small beef patties, two slices of American cheese, pickles, onions, mustard and ketchup. At the old price, it was undeniably an excellent bargain, and it had to be considered a front runner for this competition. But the new price increase might complicate things, especially in a menu segment where cost is top priority.

McWhat? The new 99-cent “McDouble” is a McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger with only 1 slice of cheese, instead of 2. With rising ingredient costs and the sinking economy, McDonald’s could no longer afford to sell the Double Cheeseburger for 99-cents, so the McDouble was born to take it’s place, and the Double Cheeseburger increased in price. That extra slice of cheese will now cost you 20- to 30-cents extra. This probably comes as surprising and disappointing news to many people. If the price change hasn’t gone into effect at your local McDonald’s, it will soon.

Whopper Jr. w/Cheese from Burger King, $1.20 / $1.25 — Single small beef patty, one slice American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, ketchup, mayonnaise. The price on the small version of BK’s whopper is stable, at least for now. You can also order it without the cheese, usually 21 to 26 cents cheaper than above.

Junior Bacon Cheeseburger from Wendy’s, $.99 / $1.39 — One small beef patty, one slice American cheese, one slice bacon (cut in half), lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise. The two burgers from Wendy’s are $1.39 each in some locations, so there’s no guarantee they’re only 99-cents in your city/town. The extra 40-cents can make a big difference in your eating plans when choosing from items in this low price range.

Double Stack from Wendy’s, $.99 / $1.39 — Two small beef patties, one slice of American cheese, pickles, onions, mustard and ketchup. Same basic ingredients as the McDouble, except the onions are ring sliced instead of minced. Again, the rather large price range on Wendy’s burgers teases our taste buds and wallets.

The beef patties on all the burgers are very small and thin, with Burger King’s being slightly thicker and heavier than McDonald’s and Wendy’s individual patties. On the other hand, both of those have 2 patties on their burgers versus the single patty on the Whopper Jr., so ultimately they have more beef than BK. Still, the Whopper Jr. has the largest serving size overall, at 170 grams, because it’s bun is bigger and it has more cheese, lettuce and toppings than the others. At first glance, it’s not unusual to think they forgot to put the meat on some of these little burgers because the buns and cheese cover up and hide the small beef patties. By appearance alone, you could easily confuse which patty came from which company, if not for the shape.

The buns from McDonald’s and Wendy’s are plain, very similar in size and texture, while Burger King’s bun is a bit larger and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

NOTE: We each ate the five cheeseburgers and wrote down our thoughts separately, without any conversation or messages with each other. Nobody knew what the others had said until the information and votes were gathered to publish this review.

AND THE WINNER IS…

The Whopper Jr. w/Cheese from Burger King.

A unanimous choice. All 3 editors named the Whopper Jr. as their top pick in our first Cheap Cheeseburger Challenge. Let’s face it, burgers in the $1 range don’t have a lot going for them. Their main attraction is price. Beef patties on these burgers are tiny and toppings are minimal… so they’re more like burger appetizers. And when you eat them, often times what you notice most is the bread/bun. The Whopper Jr.’s flame broiled beef patty had enough flavor to stand out from the crowd. Among these small pieces of beef, it made the most significant impact in the opinion of all 3 critics. Other things worth noting about BK’s little burger are the full-house of toppings including lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, mayo, ketchup, and a sesame seed bun. All together, the Whopper Jr. is a slightly bigger total package than the other burgers.

RUNNER-UP / 2nd Place, goes to…

The Junior Bacon Cheeseburger from Wendy’s.

It’s the only burger here that has bacon. Enough said. Bacon makes everything better! Everyone agreed the Junior Bacon Cheeseburger from Wendy’s was a good tasting little burger for 99-cents. And with bacon, lettuce and tomato, it has a nice variety of toppings… but a tiny portion of bacon is not enough to sway our opinions. It’s also difficult for us to wrap our heads around this burger when we don’t know how much our readers will be paying. $.99 is one thing, but $1.39 is too big a difference.

Interesting Fact — Our 1st and 2nd place burgers are the only 2 among the 5 which had a single beef patty. The other 3 burgers were doubles. Proving that flavor of meat and variety of ingredients were more important than number of patties.

Cheese — The cheese on all the burgers is American, and the slices are not very big. Frankly we didn’t notice much of a difference in flavor among the cheeses, though 2 of 3 editors gave the Whopper Jr. a slight edge in taste. The Double Cheeseburger from McDonald’s was the only burger with 2 slices of cheese. We all agree it’s nice and cheesy, but ultimately having double the cheese was not enough to win.

Veggies — 3 of the 5 burgers have only pickles and onions, including Wendy’s Double Stack and both burgers from McDonald’s. There’s not much to report on those. They all tasted fine. One editor noted that McDonald’s burgers have too strong of a pickle taste. The Whopper Jr. from Burger King and Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger from Wendy’s both have Lettuce and Tomato. Wendy’s includes a small single whole-leaf of lettuce while BK uses shredded lettuce. No complaints. Both were fairly crisp and fresh tasting. The same can be said for their tomatoes, though the size of slices will vary from sandwich to sandwich and store to store. Neither of these companies is likely to win any awards for their produce quality, but they still do a satisfactory job.

Final Comments — Next time you are hungry for a good cheeseburger but only have a pocket full of change, any of these 5 burgers will probably satisfy you, but we think the best choice is the Whopper Jr. with Cheese from Burger King. It has enough beef flavor that it makes you feel like you’re eating a real burger. It also has good toppings and plenty of them, and the best bun in this class. Among these small burgers, we felt the Whopper Jr. provided the most satisfying, big-burger-like taste.

All these burgers are decent tasting, solid values. None of them are bad. Wendy’s Double Stack finished in last position, but this was a tight race from top to bottom, so that should not be interpreted as a major knock against it. As expected, the recent split of the McDouble / Double Cheeseburger at McDonald’s had an interesting effect on votes. We suspect it’s also having an interesting effect at the drive-thrus and ordering counters across the country, but it’s too early to say for sure. Stay tuned.

Final Standings

#1 — Burger King Whopper Jr. w/Cheese
#2 — Wendy’s Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger
#3 — McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger
#4 — McDonald’s McDouble
#5 — Wendy’s Double Stack

**Some photos may show mustard instead of ketchup or mayo, because that is the normal preference of that particular editor and he tried them both ways.

Nutrition Facts - McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger.

Calories - 440
Calories from Fat - 210
Total Fat - 23 grams
Carbs - 34 grams
Saturated Fat - 11 grams
Trans Fat - 1.5 grams
Cholesterol - 80 milligrams
Sodium - 1150 milligrams
Protein - 25 grams

Nutrition Facts - McDonald’s McDouble.

Calories - 390
Calories from Fat - 170
Total Fat - 19 grams
Carbs - 33 grams
Saturated Fat - 8 grams
Trans Fat - 1 grams
Cholesterol - 65 milligrams
Sodium - 920 milligrams
Protein - 22 grams

Nutrition Facts - Burger King Whopper Jr. with Cheese.

Calories - 420
Calories from Fat - N/A
Total Fat - 25 grams
Carbs - 32 grams
Saturated Fat - 8 grams
Trans Fat - 1 gram
Cholesterol - 50 milligrams
Sodium - 780 milligrams
Protein - 18 grams

Nutrition Facts - Wendy’s Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger.

Calories - 310
Calories from Fat - N/A
Total Fat - 16 grams
Carbs - 25 grams
Saturated Fat - 6 grams
Trans Fat - .5 grams
Cholesterol - 50 milligrams
Sodium - 670 milligrams
Protein - 17 grams

Nutrition Facts - Wendy’s Double Stack.

Calories - 360
Calories from Fat - N/A
Total Fat - 18 grams
Carbs - 26 grams
Saturated Fat - 8 grams
Trans Fat - 1 grams
Cholesterol - 70 milligrams
Sodium - 810 milligrams
Protein - 23 grams