People Say Culver's Is REALLY Good, So I Decided To Try It Out

    I'd never had deep-fried cheese curds before; clearly I've been missing out.

    Crystal Ro
    by Crystal Ro

    BuzzFeed Staff

    If you've never lived in the Midwest (like me), chances are you probably haven't heard of Culver's. For the uninitiated, Culver's is a popular fast-food chain that originated in Wisconsin. I have heard people compare it to other legendary burger joints like In-N-Out, Five Guys, and Shake Shack.

    So when I found myself in Utah and within reach of a Culver's, OBVIOUSLY I took time out of my little road trip to try it.

    The outside entrance of a Culver's restaurant; it has a brick facade and a blue trim
    Crystal Ro / BuzzFeed

    Because, ya know, when in Rome...or, in this case, the Midwest.

    Here's what the entire menu looked like at the particular location I visited. I was slightly overwhelmed by the fact that you can customize your ButterBurger order so much, but honestly...great feature! (Gave me Five Guys kinda vibes.)

    Crystal Ro / BuzzFeed

    Now, according to this one Reddit thread, the items first-timers should get at Culver's are a ButterBurger, cheese curds, root beer, and a scoop of vanilla custard. I, personally, detest root beer, so I did not order that, but I did get a ButterBurger and cheese curds and opted for mint-flavored custard (instead of vanilla).

    Before I get into the food, I wanna point out a few small but interesting things that caught my eye while I was waiting. First, I was highly intrigued by this pump of FRY SAUCE?!

    A metal box with a pump and a label that says La Fleur's premium, old fashion fry sauce
    Crystal Ro / BuzzFeed

    IDK who LaFleur is, but I was ready to try their sauce.

    They also offered baby bibs here, which I thought was a nice touch for people with kids or, ya know, very messy adults.

    Plastic bibs you tie around your neck with the words I'm a butterburger baby printed on them
    Crystal Ro / BuzzFeed

    I did wonder for a hot second if I might need one. 

    And — hello — there was a fridge dedicated solely to custard to go.

    A tall glass-front fridge full of pints of frozen custard
    Crystal Ro / BuzzFeed

    Nothing wrong with that!

    After ordering at the counter, we just had to wait at our table for the food to arrive. In my experience, most fast-food places have you come back to the counter to grab your order, so that was another nice touch. Guess that's Midwestern hospitality for ya!

    View of our table, with a number tag for our food to be delivered
    Crystal Ro / BuzzFeed

    The only other fast-food chain where I've had this kind of table delivery service is Chick-fil-A.

    And here's what our food looked like when it arrived:

    A tray with two Butterburgers, some onion rings, and cheese curds
    Crystal Ro / BuzzFeed

    Given the name, I thought the ButterBurgers would look more, well, buttery?

    Of course I tried the ButterBurger first. And, I gotta be honest here...I thought it was just okay.

    Crystal Ro / BuzzFeed

    The burger definitely had a fresh-tasting patty, but I thought it could've used more seasoning. Also, I asked for my burger with ketchup, mustard, and mayo, but for some reason my burger came with only mayo. :-(

    Supposedly, these are called "butter" burgers because of the buttered bun, but I didn't really taste the butter. It was a good bun, just not...buttery! Overall, this wasn't a bad burger, by ANY means, but I found it about average. I'd say this burger was closest in taste and style to Shake Shack, but lacking the same level of flavor.

    The cheese curds, though, were A+++++.

    Crystal Ro / BuzzFeed

    I'd never had deep-fried cheese curds before, and clearly I've been missing out. 'Cause these things were verrrrrry good.

    Also, I was VERY pleasantly surprised that the cheese curds were a mix of TWO types of cheddar (yellow and white)! Huge win for Culver's. The yellow cheddar was, well, cheddar-y and delicious, and the white reminded me a lot of a mozzarella stick.

    And the fry sauce? It tasted like a tangy mayo-ketchup mix.

    White bowl of light orange sauce
    Crystal Ro / BuzzFeed

    My boyfriend ordered onion rings, so I dipped a few of those in the sauce (sorry, we didn't get fries because IMO, fries basically taste the same everywhere). I thought the fry sauce was good, but it didn't blow my mind or anything. 

    And finally, as I suspected, the frozen custard was delicious.

    Me eating the mint green custard
    Darren Leis / BuzzFeed

    So, apparently, frozen custard is different from ice cream in that it uses egg yolks, thus making it thicker, creamier, and softer than ice cream. And I found this to be totally true about the custard from Culver's. (Also, I learned that Milwaukee is the "Custard Capital of the World"!)

    I'm actually not a HUGE ice cream/sweets person, but even I thought this was delicious. I'd be curious to try other flavors they have or even try a Concrete (where you mix fun toppings and stuff into the custard) one day!

    Final thoughts:

    Culver's is great! The hospitality, service, and food are clearly a major step up from your average fast-food chain restaurant. I'm still gonna call myself an In-N-Out girl when it comes to burgers, BUT I'll be dreaming of those iconic cheese curds for a long time to come; 10/10 would recommend.

    Note: I was not paid by Culver's to review their restaurant or give it a positive review. I literally just wanted to try it and happened to come across one.