Fast Food Review: Carl's Jr. Southwest Patty Melt

The last time I wrote about a Carl's Jr. Six Dollar Burger, a reader made a great point in the comments - it was going for $5.99 in his or her local market. Remember when the Six Dollar Burgers debuted, the whole point of them was that they tasted "like a burger you would pay six dollars for in a restaurant." Now they're burgers for which you actually have to pay six dollars. 

Carl's Jr. just released a "Southwestern" version of the burger, in a patty melt no less. (If I were to choose my least favorite Carl's Jr. commercial, which would be quite hard, it would probably be the "flat buns" commercial of a few years back that advertised the patty melt. If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky.) The burger comes with sliced jalapenos, grilled onions, pepperjack cheese, and Santa Fe sauce. I picked up one yesterday; you can opt to get the Southwestern Patty Melt in a single or double version as well, but I went for the Six Dollar. (It wasn't quite six bucks, but $5.43 with tax.)

No surprises when I unwrapped it: the bread looked nice, golden and toasty, but ugly meat poked out from the sides.

Not a lot of "grilled onions" on this one.

But plenty of jalapenos.

First the good news: I was blown away by how spicy this particular burger was. I've eaten enough fast food burgers purporting to be spicy to know that blandness is more common than spiciness. But this thing had plenty of heat. And the melted pepperjack cheese was as good as any cheese I've had from a national burger chain. The combination of all the things made this one of the more enjoyable Carl's Jr. burgers I have ever had.

But that's a relative statement; it was still a Carl's Jr. burger, which means that strange, freezer-burned taste to the meat. I know some people who love that taste, and I respect that, but it's not for me. Of course it didn't help that earlier in the day I had eaten the best restaurant burger I have had in months (more on that one of these days), but even without that, I still would have been underwhelmed by the dull, flavorless patty. I don't know why Carl's Jr. doesn't do something to improve their burgers; can you imagine how much better the burgers would be if they put the same effort into the beef that they do with their hand-breaded chicken tenders?

If you like Carl's Jr. and you like spicy food, I imagine you will enjoy this burger. But I won't be getting one again.