Even In-N-Out Stan Michael Symon Admits Shake Shack Is Better

A staple of fast food chains is burgers and fries, and fans are quick to defend their favorite choices. While the burgers might not be the big draw at McDonald's, the fries are a winner, with 40% of people saying McDonald's has the best french fries. The real shocker here may be that only 6% of people favored In-N-Out Burger's famous fries. 

But when it comes to the debate around burgers, there's a major point of contention between In-N-Out fans and loyal Shake Shack customers. We've taken a deep dive into whether Shake Shack or In-N-Out is better and compared the two restaurants in categories like meat, cheese, number of menu items, price, and more. Ultimately, we decided that Shake Shack is the superior fast food chain, but not everyone agrees. For example, Gordon Ramsay sided with In-N-Out while Adam Richman ended up on team Shake Shack.

On Twitter, Michael Symon has also been a vocal supporter of In-N-Out. He quoted tweeted one person, who said, "I don't know who needs to hear this but In-N-Out is overrated," with a short and sweet "nope." That being said, Symon has agreed that Shake Shack has In-N-Out beat in one major category.

Every In-N-Out regular knows about the chain's not-so secret menu items, which includes animal-style fries. Based on one of his tweets, it looks like Michael Symon's regular In-N-Out order is animal-style fries, and he probably isn't making the trip to the chain for its burgers. In fact, Symon agreed with a tweet that In-N-Out had, "A+ burgers, F- – - fries."

One of the reasons why people dislike Shake Shack is that the chain's burgers are more expensive than other fast food burgers. But Symon explains why the steep price leads to a better burger, saying Shake Shack's "price points are based on the quality beef they use .. which is way way above most fast food places .. like waaaay above" (per Twitter). In a Business Insider video, Shake Shack's culinary director, Mark Rosati, goes into more detail about the brand's beef burgers. Rosati said that the beef patties have around a 20% fat content.

Besides the fat ratio, there are other reasons why Shake Shack's ShackBurger is so delicious, from the secret sauce to cooking the burgers evenly in a cast iron pan. Want to get the taste of a Shake Shack burger without shelling out for one? Try our copycat recipe for the ShackBurger.