IamA (Whataburger Employee) AMA!

How old were you when you realized your true calling?

Well i started working there when i was 17, and i'm only 18 now. It's just a job while i'm in college.

Do you ever think to yourself "Man, whata job?"

I'd take it any day over McDonalds or Burger King, but its still a minimum wage job.

Do you take orders better than you take pictures?

Definitely. I work drive-thru every now and then and i'm good at it.

Thanks for taking that in stride, so follow-up: does everyone share roles, or are some people only cooks, some people only take orders, etc?

At the one i work at, which is a pretty busy one, there is 1 or 2 people doing drive orders and they take orders, cash people out, and prep vegetables and grilled chicken and stuff like that. There are two different grill and prep table setups, one for dine-in, and one for drive-thru, and there is 1 grill person and 1 board(prep) person at each setup. Then there is 1 person up front taking orders, 1 person on fry station, 1 person that hands out the food and the drinks, 1 person that takes B-lane orders( there are 2 lanes of drive-thru), and one person that helps out fry station and floats around, usually a manager.

I had Whataburger for the first time recently (from Canada & there are sadly none here, not around me at least) and its SOOO good!

Anyway, my question is: is Whataburger your first choice go to for fast food?

Yeah it is, partly because its half off for me, and partly because its really close to me. When I feel dirty I get taco bell though.

Dirty?? How dirty we talking?

When I want to eat really unhealthy food.

But... They don't put ketchup on it...

What?

Is this different in Florida? When I was in San Antonio, they only put mustard on the burgers... Was so odd ; )

yeah its mustard, but what does that have to do with the comment above you? :O

I don't know of any fast food places in Canada that don't put ketchup on burgers... There could be some...

As a Canadian having Whataburger for the first time, I was shocked, shocked I say, that it lacked ketchup.

Oh i got you, haha.

As a manager at Whataburger, you better hope corporate doesn't see this...

Why? I haven't said anything bad

It's part of the companies media policy. Check your handbook good sir.

Plus there's nothing that leads to me

I mean, I said I worked in Tallahassee but there's a lot of whataburgers here

What do you love to eat there?

What dont you eat after working there?

Patty Melt, A1, Hbbq sandwich with honey butter instead on a bun. Chop House with sliced cheese. and my favorite is 9 piece bites meal with lots of creamy pepper, i dip the bites, fries and bread into the sauce.

And, there's nothing there that i don't want to eat after seeing how its made or anything. But i've never had the fish sandwich, because i dont like fish all too much.

Whooaaaaaa HBBQ sandwich with honey butter?! My life has changed. I lament that I can only get the HBCB between 11 and 11.

Yeah its damn shame that its only served during breakfast now.

Can you PLEASE get a store in California? Seriously? Please?

I'm just a normal employee haha, email corporate.

But...but...wait! You have In and Out. To even suggest that any other food be available within a 200mi radius of that is blasphemy, sir, BLASPHEMY, I TELL YOU!!!

Sincerely: all the In and Out Fanboys

You haven't ever had Whataburger before have you?

I've been in Texas for 40yrs. Of course I have. Did you not catch the sarcasm?

Them Californians love them some In n Out

Fuck Yes we do! But I remember Whattaburger fondly... just amazing deliciousness between two buns of love, soaked in the grease of heaven. Not to say In N Out isn't as good, they are, but Whattaburger is more of a rarity.

Buns of love

Nooo :( sorry

Thanks for your service. I appreciate that you provide my favorites.

Are there any things on the menu that you would not eat?

Are there any tasty things we can order that are not on the menu?

1. No, but our coffee is pretty shit.
2. You can order any variation of anything that's on the menu, no matter how you want it, it will be made for you. I saw in r/cfb one time, that this guy replaced the buns in his burger with grilled cheeses. He said it was heavenly but i haven't tried it.

Make yourself a coffee shake. Delicious.

We used to make off the menu snacks when we were dead.

One of my coworkers likes to make those.

will you please tell the texan bastards who run your company to build some damn whataburgers in south florida? i would murder untold millions to get a whataburger around here.

One of my managers told me they will be expanding, but I don't think it will happen for a while. There are multiple Whataburgers in NW Florida though, so if you are ever leaving the state go by there haha.

Yeah we have a few up in Jacksonville where I live.

Oh damn, I didn't think they went past Tallahassee.

Did you go to Whataburger University? There's one in north Austin and I'm always so curious whenever I drive past it.

No i did not, and i've never heard of that until now, but on our first day we have to do a few hours of orientation type stuff on a laptop, and it's called Whataburger University.

The burgers are so damn good.

What can I do to make them at home? Any tips?

Also, they are all made to order so the patties are always hot. We can only hold the meat for 5 minutes after it comes off the grill.

Must be hard holding the meat for 5 minutes without burning your hands.

We have employees that come in just to play hot potato with the meat.

Might be the special seasoning, its salt, pepper and other stuff they won't tell us. Other than that the 100% beef and the sauces.

It's just salt and pepper, haha

I'm almost positive it says that it has other ingredients, I'll let you know after my shift tomorrow

I love the spicy ketchup. What's your favorite sauce?

By the way, that's the sauce on the Patty Melt.

Creamy Pepper, by far.

Have you ever noticed that some people take the order numbers away. I've seen some at friend's house and it always gives me a good laugh. Do you guys just find it funny and easily replace it or what?

One of my friends has like 25 hanging from his rear view mirror in his car, and my brother has a few and i have 2 in my room. Our managers just order more when we're down to like 50, i think.

Is there anything you would advise people not to get now that you've seen how it's made?

The way we make grilled cheeses is pretty weird, not gross, but weird. basically they take a piece of wrapping paper(the paper the burgers are wrapped in), and put 2 slices of cheese in it and put it on the prep table which is heated.

My old job did it differently. (It is a franchise though) But you take your two pieces of toast after letting them go through the toaster. Then put one slice of cheese on each slice. And then lay the toast (cheese side down) on the grill to melt. Those who were a master at it could let the cheese melt first then put the toast on top and pick it all up without a problem.

One of the guys at mine does that when he's making it for friends, but we're not suppose to

how do you feel about W moving the home office from Corpus to SA?

I work at one in Florida sooo, neutral?

Why did you feel the need to put whataburger employee in parenthesis?

I'm dumb and didn't realize it until after i posted it.

What kind of stuff that only employees know about that costumers don't know about their food. In General working for fast-food doesn't change your mind about eating it??

I was surprised when there was nothing like that when i started working there. Everything is sanitary and clean.

What about the food? Any weird shit?

Nope, nothing weird. I guess you could say the eggs in taquitos are from a milk carton type thing and not freshly cracked, while our biscuits and sandwiches are like you'd make them at home.

Ya I was talking about stuff like that. Like seriously egg from a carton lol

i mean, its still real egg, just faster.

Have you gained weight from working there? I would, especially with the discount.

Maybe a little. The discount is so nice.

Do you play video games?

Yeah I play league and steam games.

So it's not just a fictional establishment from King of the Hill?

No it's not haha.

How's your boss/co-workers?

I'd say it's pretty decent. I get along with maybe 75% of the people there, and i get along with most of my managers.

I absolutely adore Whataburger! Is there anything there that you wouldn't eat from a quality or freshness standpoint?

The coffee is pretty nasty. Everything else is good.

you like Whataburger? Is Whataburger free for you?

Yes, and half off.

My only question is: when you cook the grilled cheese, you put the cheese slice on the wrappers previously containing raw hamburger meat?

Nooooooo. We have stacks of paper to wrap the burgers in after they are ready to hand out. We grab one of those and put the cheese in that.

Is it weird that I love the chicken sandwich there?

Not at all! That's my dads favorite thing there.

We're supposed to be getting 2 new Whataburgers in NW Arkansas! How do I make a Breakfast on a Bun taste as good as Whataburger?

I've actually never had a BoB before, but you can order burgers 24/7! :D

Wait, what do you mean by Breakfast on a Bun? The one we serve at Whataburger?

What was your worst experience with a customer?

There's been a few times where customers have straight out ignored me when I say hi and have a wonderful day, in the drive thru. We have two lanes for drive-thru, and this guy came through during a really busy dinner hour, and he said "Why do you have two lanes if you can't even keep up with one?" when we were having like 7 minute times,(time a person is in drive thru) and i just said "have a wonderful day!" and shut the window. If I remember another one ill let you know.

I used to work at a Whataburger. My worst experience was a very busy Saturday night when a group of people ordered about 10 taquitos and two drunks who said they were with said group walked up took the food and left. This put us really behind on food times and caused a mini riot inside the store when all the customers were pissed about their wait times and decided the best way to deal with it was for everyone to stand at the registers and yell at us as we were making their food. Which in turn made the customers waiting to order mad. It was a huge shit storm and I was very happy to stop taking orders at 3 am (we close the inside during night hours).

Wow, that's a dick move. Ive never seen anything like that since i started working.

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In all seriousness, its a fast food restaurant, that's mainly based in Texas but is in several other states in the south. I believe it ranks next to Jesus on Texans favorite things.

The best damn burger joint in the south.