It’s as Texan as spicy ketchup or a honey butter chicken biscuit. But lately, some people have been thinking the unthinkable, and even saying it out loud: “Whataburger just isn’t what it used to be.”
In their telling, the grub and the service at Texas’ favorite fast food chain has gone downhill since the company was acquired by a Chicago venture firm.
Omar Gallaga, who wrote about Whataburger for the Washington Post, joined the Standard with what he learned. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Your bona fides here are not just that you wrote this story about Whataburger; I understand that you spent some time behind the counter yourself.
Omar Gallaga: I worked at a Midwest City, Oklahoma, restaurant, the last part of my high school years. So I have grilled burgers and cooked fries and served milkshakes. And like a lot of Texans, I grew up with Whataburger. It was always in my life, you know, is always around.
So, forgive the pun, but what’s the beef here? Why are people upset?
You know, this started shortly after the sale. They’re now owned by Chicago-based BDT Capital Partners. They’re the same company that owns Weber grill. They own Krispy Kreme.
[Whataburger] were bought in 2019 after being owned for decades by the Dobson family. And that was kind of where the complaint started. People started saying, “well, I’ve noticed a service change. I’ve noticed that the food tastes different.”And this continued through the pandemic where they admittedly were having some service issues like everybody else, having trouble hiring people and staying open during that. But some of the complaints have continued.
And even as this story was published in The Post, over 1,000 comments were posted to the story. A war broke out over people complaining that, “no, it’s exactly the same. I’m having great experiences there.” And then people saying, “no, it’s definitely gone downhill.”
This has exploded over Reddit. This has exploded over local stations and news outlets over the last few years, and there’s this big debate like, has the sale of the company changed the quality of the food and the service?
Is there any way to quantify it? I mean, has anybody tried to apply a metric to what a burger is doing now versus what it was doing?
If I were a scientific researcher, I would have an algorithm, but it’s completely subjective – and I think regional, too. I think what’s happening is people in locations like Kansas City – where the company admits they struggled to kind of get off the ground when they entered that market – some of those people are not having great experiences.
But then if you talk to people in Texas, they will tell you, “it’s exactly the same as what I grew up with.” So it really comes down to people’s tastes.
Competition from places like P. Terry’s [a Central Texas chain] and Five Guys, and people’s tastes change. I had a period where I wasn’t into Whataburger for about a year or two; I just wasn’t into it anymore. And then I came back.
We have an anecdote in the story about a pro wrestler who had a bad experience at Whataburger – several bad experiences – and decided, “this sucks; I don’t like this anymore.” He posted a TikTok about it. A year or two later, he’s back at Whataburger, eating the food again.
So I think people’s experiences shift and change. And then some people just feel like, “no, it’s not for me anymore.” And other people are completely loyal to it still.
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I do wonder whether there is perhaps some Texas nationalism at work where there’s a level of displeasure about “these carpetbaggers from Chicago changing our cheeseburgers.” Does that have any resonance to you as you reported the story?
There’s definitely that. There’s definitely the sense that, well, it’s not locally owned anymore, even though the family is still very involved with the company. But then there’s also the opposite, which I found, after the Post published the story, of people saying, “we don’t want your Texas exports.”
You know, there’s a lot of people in other parts of the country that do not like what’s coming out of Texas and are letting us know. And they have said, “it’s from Texas. I don’t want it.”
I think there’s an element of that any time you have a new restaurant coming into a market. I remember when In-N-Out came to Texas and you had some folks saying, “I don’t want this California cheeseburger. What’s this all about? Give me a Whataburger.” But the lines were around the block when they finally came.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was there in line when it first came to Austin. And now I kind of think of it as kind of mediocre for me. But yeah, people love it. And that is a name that comes up most often when you’re comparing to Whataburger is people compare it to In-N-Out.
Well, you got to talk to some folks from Whataburger for this story. What did they tell you about whether things have changed and what their plans are for the future?
I sat down with Ed Nelson, who is the current CEO. He will be running Whataburger until the end of the year, and then they have a new CEO coming in. He acknowledged the issues. He said, “I’ve seen the Reddit comments. I’ve seen what people are saying online.”
And they have been working hard to address some of those complaints. When they go to a new market like Kansas City and the lines are too long and people have to wait and there’s trouble, it comes down to training and service.
As far as the food quality, Whataburger says they have not changed a thing, that the meat is being processed exactly as it always has been. And except for just changes to the menu, the food itself has not changed, even though people seem to think that it has.
I’ve got to know. What’s your take on Whataburger quality? I mean, I’m sure you ate your share for this story.
Oh I have the receipts. I was doing research.
My sense is, you know, I’m eating the same kinds of burgers I always have, and to me, they taste exactly the same. I have not noticed a difference in the food quality or the food taste.
What I have noticed that’s different is there were some service hiccups. And there’s a lot of new menu items. There’s different things to try. And they’re not for everybody. I mean, there’s green chile burgers now; there’s a jalapeño burger that they came out with. And that’s not going to be to everybody’s taste.
And I am definitely not a mustard hamburger guy. I know that’s a Whataburger staple. So I may not be the right person to ask when it comes to mustard.
I understand that you were also the creator of your own custom burger back in your burger-slinging days. Can you describe that for me?
Yeah. In high school, I invented the Omieburger, which my friends would come up and order. And that was double meat, double cheese, ketchup, lettuce, grilled onions on a super toasty bun. So that was the special.
Although there are people who have already said in the comments section of the Post that, you know, “well, he has ketchup on his burger. He doesn’t count. You can’t listen to a word he says if he eats ketchup on a burger!’ So, guilty as charged.
