7 Steak 'N Shake Burgers Ranked Worst To Best

My first restaurant job was at Steak 'n Shake, where I worked the overnight weekend shift. In between the people leaving the bar looking to get something in their bellies at 2 a.m. and the elderly regulars who came in at 6 a.m. looking for company while they sipped their coffee and read their newspapers, I always snagged a sandwich for myself (and the occasional chocolate milkshake) with my employee discount. It's one of the few places where you can enjoy a burger for breakfast, and in my college days, I did that often.

A lot has changed about the chain in the almost 20 years since I worked there. It's rare to find one open in the middle of the night anymore, for example, and the regular table service has been replaced with a fast-food-style setup where you order at a kiosk and pick it up at the counter. But in spite of those changes, I was thrilled to find that the food still has the same classic diner vibe it's always had.

I tried seven burgers from the Steak 'n Shake menu, including my familiar favorite and some that weren't even on the menu the last time I was there. Though some of the sandwiches surprised me, all of them were good, and the best of the best was to die for.

The Frisco Melt is a patty melt made with two fresh — never frozen — Steakburger patties, American and Swiss cheeses, house original Frisco sauce, and grilled sourdough. It's unlike anything else on the Steak 'n Shake menu, and it's been my go-to Steak 'n Shake sandwich for almost 20 years now. When I brought it to the table, I immediately called dibs on it, though my kids didn't put up much of a fight as they dug into the Original Double 'n Cheese and the Butter Double Steakburger. But it ended up being my least favorite on this list.

Don't get me wrong, it's a tasty sandwich. But the sourdough toast was too greasy, and the Frisco sauce was much more ketchup-forward than I remembered. Copycat Frisco sauce recipes usually blend Thousand Island and French dressings with ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, but I was expecting the Thousand Island dressing to take center stage. I can't say for sure whether the recipe has changed or I've just oversold it to myself with nostalgia, but either way, it was outranked by every other burger on this list.

The Original Double 'n Cheese comes with two smashed Steakburger patties, one slice of American cheese, long pickle slices, and sliced onions. It's a simple, classic cheeseburger, and my kids barely let me get two bites out of it before they devoured it. And that makes sense, because it has similar vibes to a cheeseburger from McDonald's or Wendy's, though obviously with much higher quality Steakburger patties and their delightfully crispy edges.

As far as fast food cheeseburgers go, the Original Double 'n Cheese isn't the greatest, but it's far from the worst. It's moist and flavorful, and the fresh onion and tangy pickles make a nice contrast to the rich, meaty burgers and cheese. I don't have a single bad thing to say about it — there were just much better burgers on the menu.

I do think it's a little weird, though, that there's also a Double Steakburger Double Cheese, which is completely identical except for one additional slice of American cheese. I absolutely think that extra slice of cheese would be a huge benefit to the sandwich. I just don't know why they need a whole extra menu item for a single slice of cheese when they could just make the Original Double a Double Double and call it a day. In fact, even though I ordered the Original Double 'n Cheese, I appear to have gotten a second slice of cheese on the sandwich anyway. I'm definitely not complaining about that. It just proves my point that having two nearly identical menu items is unnecessary. 

The Triple Steakburger, as the name suggests, is basically a double Steakburger with an extra Steakburger patty. The toppings are the same as the Original Double (pickle and onion slices), though, strangely enough, the Triple Steakburger has the optimal one-to-one cheese-to-meat ratio, while the Original Double inexplicably has only half that.

I actually enjoyed the Triple Steakburger more than I thought I would. It has a similar vibe to the Triple Baconator — one of Wendy's wildest burgers — with the much tastier Steakburger patties compared to ordinary hamburgers. It's delicious and satisfying, but three patties just seem like way too much meat to me. I also object to sandwiches that require me to unhinge my jaw to take a bite. I mean, really, what is the point of a sandwich if I can't eat all the layers at the same time? And while I was surprised to find that the Triple Steakburger was, in fact, comfortably biteable, I still contend that it's too many patties for one burger.

The Bacon 'n Cheese Double Steakburger is yet another variation on the Original Double 'n Cheese. It has the same two Steakburger patties, the same single slice of American cheese, and the same pickles and onions. But the main difference between the Original Double and the Bacon 'n Cheese Double is — you guessed it — bacon.

So, there's really not a whole lot to say about it that I didn't already say about the Original Double. It could, of course, use another slice of cheese (I think most things could use more cheese), but aside from that, it's a really darn good classic cheeseburger. And I have yet to meet a food that couldn't be improved by adding bacon, including this burger. The Bacon 'n Cheese Double Steakburger is the best of the classic cheeseburgers at Steak 'n Shake, but it still couldn't compare to the specialty burgers at the top of this list.

I love a good barbecue bacon cheeseburger, and the Western BBQ 'n Bacon Steakburger at Steak 'n Shake is a great one. It features the two Steakburger patties and one slice of American cheese that you get on the Original Double, but the similarities end there.

In place of the classic sliced onions and pickles, the Western BBQ 'n Bacon has two kinds of onions: diced and fried. I love how this combo brings out both the sweetness of the fried onions and the intensity of the fresh ones. Then it's all topped with crispy bacon and drizzled with a sweet and smoky barbecue sauce. The sauce is smooth and tangy, a perfect contrast to the richness of the meat and cheese. This burger hits all the right notes with no downsides at all. In terms of overall ranking, the only difference between the Western BBQ 'n Bacon Steakburger and the number two sandwich on this list is just vibes, man.

I nearly had to fight one of my children to try this burger before he could swipe all the delicious onions off the top, but I managed to get a couple of good bites of the Butter Double Steakburger in all its glory. Like the basic Original Double, the Butter Double Steakburger has two Steakburger patties and a slice of American cheese. Then it's piled with a mountain of sweet, slippery sautéed onions and melted butter.

It's gooey. It's melty. The sweet onions and salty butter are even richer than the Steakburger patties and cheese, and the whole combination just works. Though I have complained that a double cheeseburger should have two slices of cheese, the onions on the Butter Double Steakburger more than make up for that. The only thing I would do to improve it, personally, would be to replace the American cheese with Swiss. But as it is on the menu, it's still almost unbeatable. Almost.

The Garlic Double Steakburger is, hands down, one of the most delicious cheeseburgers I've ever had in my life. It's got two Steakburger patties and a slice of American cheese on a pillowy toasted bun smeared with garlic butter, and topped with garlic salt. If this were my last meal in life, I'd die happy.

While I did say that the Original Double 'n Cheese would have been better with a second cheese slice, the Garlic Double Steakburger restores the balance by adding garlic butter to the burger. It's dripping with deliciousness. The ultra-thin burger patties are crisp and meaty, and the seasoned bun ensures that not just every bite, but every last morsel, is loaded with garlic flavor.

After tasting all the burgers on this list, I still savored almost every crumb of the Garlic Double Steakburger. I didn't even realize I was eating the whole thing — I just kept taking bite after bite like a ravenous garlic zombie. In fact, I was so engrossed in this burger that I forgot to take a picture of it and didn't realize it until I went to upload my photos for this article, so I had to go back and get another one. Oops. What a shame.

I selected seven burgers from the Steak 'n Shake menu, with a focus on variety. Most burgers have both a single and a double version, but since the Steakburger patties are so thin, I went with the doubles to avoid losing the burger in the bun. I ordered them all in one visit at one location and tried them hot from the kitchen. Though there was no one deciding factor that distinguished them, the main criteria I used to judge the burger were taste, texture, originality, and vibes.