In the burger world, Chili’s has been making headlines with the launch of their new Big Smasher and the success of their Triple Dipper. However, we wanted to see if the rest of their burgers live up to the hype. During a visit to their headquarters in April, executives shared that they were focusing on advertising campaigns and new menu items to improve brand awareness and attract more customers. This strategy seemed to be working, as same-store sales rose 3.5% in the third quarter according to CEO Kevin Hochman of Brinker International, Chili’s parent company.
While Chili’s outperformed competitors in the casual dining industry by over 7% in sales and nearly 4% in traffic during the third quarter, there was a decrease in overall traffic. The successful quarter was attributed to a return to television advertising and the release of the new Big Smasher burger that mirrored McDonald’s Big Mac. With burgers being a significant area of potential growth for casual dining chains, with limited-service chains generating $110 billion in sales in 2023, we wanted to sample and rank Chili’s other burgers based on taste and value. We only tried full-sized burgers as-is, including fries as a side. Business Insider organized this taste test in partnership with Chili’s Grill & Bar, though BI paid for the meal and had no influence on our rankings.
Below is our ranking of every Chili’s burger from least to best based on our tasting experience:
6) The Classic – While it may be hard to beat a classic burger, this one fell short due to its lackluster flavor and texture compared to other options on the menu.
7) The Spicy Burger – Although it had a good kick of spice, it was overshadowed by other more flavorful options on the menu.
8) The BBQ Burger – This one had decent flavor but lacked depth compared to some of its counterparts.
9) The Mushroom & Swiss Burger – While this one had some nice flavors going on, it felt like they were trying too hard with too many ingredients at once.
10) The Smoked Bacon Cheeseburger – Despite having some smoky flavor from the bacon and cheese, it felt like something was missing from this one overall.
11) The Baconator Burger – This one had good flavor but again felt like something was missing overall compared to other options on the menu
