In-N-Out Secret Menu Survival Guide

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/03/the-in-n-out-survival-guide-we-ate-every-single-item-on-the-secret-menu.html

by jasonwilk • 15 years ago

115 45 15 years ago

aht.seriouseats.com

josh33• 15 years ago

Didn't realize that animal style including cooking the mustard into the patty

arepb2• 15 years ago

And curiously, Animal Style fries don't include mustard.

arepb2• 15 years ago

List of hidden menu items http://www.yelp.com/topic/san-francisco-in-n-out-secret-menu...

cachemoney• 15 years ago

Just because you put the word "Hacking" in the title, doesn't mean there's actual hacking involved. Flagged.

coderdude• 15 years ago

The article isn't worth flagging over the submitter's poor title choice. I prefer the real title of the article because it actually tells you what you're going to read: "The Ultimate In-N-Out Secret Menu (and Super Secret Menu!) Survival Guide."

jeromec• 15 years ago

Oh come on! I enjoyed that immensely and if it wasn't on HN I would have never knew about it. As a native Californian I feel truly well-equipped now. I had known about the Animal styles, and extra meats, but almost everything else is unbelievably new. BTW, another trick I learned which wasn't mentioned in the article is dipping your fries in your milkshake. Try it, trust me.

m_myers• 15 years ago

Fries in a milkshake? That sounds even worse than my friend's practice at Mexican restaurants of using the honey (intended for sopapillas) on his tortilla chips. Never could figure that one out.

SoftwareMaven• 15 years ago

Fries in a Wendy's frosty is far superior. There is something about the consistency that is just right. For those who haven't tried it, just think of it as the American fast-food version of Thai food: that magic combination of sweet and savory.

teaspoon• 15 years ago

A better title would be "Gratifying My Intellectual Curiosity Regarding In-n-Out". It still pleads relevance to HN, and is even more difficult to argue to be inaccurate.

tptacek• 15 years ago

Hey, guy who's been here for a couple days and has never written a comment more than 50 words long who just flagged a J Kenji Lopez-Alt story --- written by probably the best food writer on the web today --- about something you can actually do at In-N-Out burger, an SFBA hacker moth-light?

I just flagged your comment.

I suspect my flag will have about as much impact as yours, but, like yours, it sure made me feel better.

Welcome to Hacker News. We like articles like this.

rsheridan6• 15 years ago

This kind of reminds me of the story in Steven Levy's "Hackers" about how the early MIT AI Lab hackers learned the ins and outs of Chinese-language menus that were not intended for non-Chinese at Chinese restaurants (this at a time when egg rolls were still sort of exotic).

regehr• 15 years ago

SWEET AND SOUR BITTER MELON!

avree• 15 years ago

Read this: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

>On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

Lots of hackers eat In-N-Out, the 'secret menu' is something that's pretty interesting. I learned something out of this, and while it wasn't entirely highbrow or technically complex, I'm still glad it was posted to HN.

ironchef• 15 years ago

There is actual hacking involved.

Per the definition: "Hacking (English verb to hack, singular noun a hack) refers to the re-configuring or re-programming of a system to function in ways not facilitated by the owner, administrator, or designer"

The owner (or in n out burger corporate) would like you to enjoy from a very limited menu. The article writer was attempting to circumvent that and use the underlying system in a different manner to produce other results.

mayukh• 15 years ago

Spent $55 ordering the entire menu ? pretty cool

AmericanOP• 15 years ago

Next time you're at Chipotle ask for half-and-half meat (e.g. half chicken half carne asada)- you usually wind up with way more protein than you normally would since nobody wants to give you less than half a scoop (x2).

I think I found my answer to the 'successful hack of some (non-computer) system' question.

akashs• 15 years ago

i've also on many occasions just straight up asked for double meat, and i've never been charged, probably because it's always another person ringing it up.

chopsueyar4• 15 years ago

Usually when I combine Chipotle meats, it does not come out well.

The corn does, though.

If you get the vegetarian version, you get guacomole free and you can use the beans for protein.

georgieporgie2• 15 years ago

Now, that could be considered a restaurant hack. Writing a blog post about discovering a well-documented 'secret' (i.e. "we want the general population to order quickly") menu is not hacking. At all.

Also, I'm sorry to say that In-n-Out is simply not that good. There are countless local, independents that serve a much better burger, and have a variety of fresh, seasonal shakes.

kf• 15 years ago

I've found it to be true that In-n-Out isn't that good on an absolute scale, but it's great for how cheap it is. I can definitely get a better grass fed beef hamburger for $10 (or an even better one made from the ground lamb at the Berkeley Bowl for $8.99/pound) but haven't had a better fast food burger than In-n-Out.

clistctrl• 15 years ago

In-n-Out as a burger compared to the entire burger ecosystem true enough, not very awesome. However in its own category it reins king. I feel like it dominates 2 cross sections, the first of course is fast food. Compared to almost any other quick burger joint its the best. In terms of the style (I've seen referred to as 'West Coast style' which is a thin paddy, often several of them relying on sauces and veggies for substance) it is also near the top.

There's also a lesson for HN to take away. In-n-out is a extraordinarily example of making the best product they can using the best production methods they have for their target market.

golgo13• 15 years ago

Since we don't have In-n-Out in Texas, I was excited to try one out. On a trip to Las Vegas, I made the walk to the one on the other side of the highway, from the strip. It was mediocre at best and I never really saw what the big deal was. What really surprised me was Fat Burger. I only knew about Fat Burger from the Ice Cube song, "Today was a good day." I thought it was some made up place, like Big Kahuna Burger. Fat Burger was good stuff and if you have a chance, get one of those! Google Map Link: http://bit.ly/i6GuZi

middus2• 15 years ago

So you are doing your best to supersize yourself [1]? I highly doubt that you would ever get away with too few protein in a fast food restaurant.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me

innes• 15 years ago

What's this!? Fast food is unhealthy, you say??

monocle flies out of eye into glass of sherry

brokentone2• 15 years ago

You can also ask for double of anything other than the meat for free-including tortillas. Added to this hack gives you a double-sized burrito!

jawartak• 15 years ago

When my co-founder and I went to interview for YC W11, the only good restaurant near our hotel was an In-n-Out. We were there for four days. We didn't find out about the secret menu until dinner of the fourth day...

ghshephard2• 15 years ago

Unfortunately, as a (very) regular patron of the relatively new In-n-Out on Veterans Blvd in Redwood City, I can attest that many of these items aren't actually known to all In-N-Out outlets/cashiers. In particular, the Flying Dutchman is not very well known, and cashiers either try to order (A) A protein style Double-Double (with all of the sauce), or, (B) when they enter it as a Z-Plain Protein, I don't get the cheese.

So - at the end of the day, I've had the most success carefully describing exactly how I want my burger prepared - they are pretty much prepared to do anything. Use the Secret Menu as a guide, but be prepared for Cashiers _not_ to know some of the names.

rexf• 15 years ago

Have you ever seen anyone order the Flying Dutchman? Someone must order it every now and then, but it's more novelty than meal candidate.

(I tend to go with the Double-Double w/ onions. If I'm feeling particularly unhealthy, I'll get animal style fries.)

I wouldn't order the Flying Dutchman (just meat + cheese). If you do, then more power to you.

ghshephard2• 15 years ago

It's actually the only thing I order at In-N-Out - It's a pretty good low-carb snack.

robflynn• 15 years ago

I ended up falling in love with this page: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/07/the-burger-lab-h...

His reconstruction of the in-n-out double-double animal style. I miss it so much from my time in California.

I anxiously await returning to the area, but until then, I may just have to recreate the experience following his plan.

chopsueyar4• 15 years ago

Chik-Fil-A Hack(more like an easter egg):

Employees are required to say "My pleasure" whenever a customer says thank you.

I try to see how many times I can get them to say "My pleasure."

chopsueyar4• 15 years ago

McDonald's has "All-American" Hamburger and Cheeseburger meals. It is a small fries, small drink, and single-patty burger.

anateus• 15 years ago

Denny's has free wifi, open 24/7, free caffeine refills, stabbings are quite rare, basically a hacker's dream. So, Denny's Bacon Hack:

You can order a side of bacon (4 strips) for about $3 or... order a Grand Slam Breakfast and make all 4 components be the bacon (2 strips each), giving you 8 for about $5, a saving of $0.125 per strip! Those savings sure add up during an all night coding/bacon tear.

wtn2• 15 years ago

The only hack you need is fries with no salt. This order ensures that you will get your fries piping hot, as they must create a fresh salt-free batch.

mambodog• 15 years ago

Then ask for some salt.

wtn2• 15 years ago

You could. I prefer ketchup, which has plenty of sodium itself.

Also, it cools piping hot fries,

dclaysmith• 15 years ago

I loved this article on the Mc10:35.

http://www.geekologie.com/2010/03/secret_mcdonalds_menu_item...

tastybites• 15 years ago

You can get any of the sauces they put in the burgers on the side to dip your fries into also.

On a related note, I recently at at 5 guys and it was 2x as expensive and about 1/2 as good as in-n-out. Anyone who says it's better is absolutely nuts. They expanded too fast.

brokentone2• 15 years ago

Nice writeup. Engaging writing and good idea, ordering it all at once on a story that has otherwise been beat to death. As an aside, I'm surprised at how many of my college friends don't know about the secret menu despite growing up on In-n-Out.

In-N-Out Secret Menu Survival Guide

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