7 Items You Might Want To Avoid Ordering At In-N-Out

If you know what to get at In-N-Out Burger, you are in for one of the best fast food meals of your life. This West Coast chain makes excellent burgers like the Double-Double and tops them all with onions done in the style of your choice with their legendary spread. You can only find these tasty and still inexpensive burger joints in the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, and Oregon, but foodies who visit from out of state always make sure to put an In-N-Out stop on their list. 

At first glance, the menu at In-N-Out Burger is relatively tiny. But the California-based chain is known for being one of the first to have a fast food secret menu, where many of the most popular fast food secret items are hiding. These days, secret menu options like the animal style are advertised online and in stores as part of the menu, but there are still plenty of unlisted items that you can order just by knowing what to say. 

However, some things from In-N-Out are not worth the cost to your wallet or your daily calorie count. Whether it be for nutritional or taste reasons, these seven items are ones to stay away from on your next trip to In-N-Out Burger.

Here is another item that is not explicitly on the menu, but it's easy to see why people might ask for it. If someone can't eat cheese or doesn't like veggies, for example, they may ask for a plain hamburger, but they may not get something as flavorful as they wanted.

Often ranked at the bottom of the burger barrel, the plain hamburger is a cheap, boring, and not very nutritious option. Unless the In-N-Out team member behind the register asks you otherwise, ordering a plain burger will result in getting a slab of meat on a bun. This is what we consider one of the items to avoid — at least get some veggies and sauce on there if you can. They don't cost anything, so you aren't saving any money by getting this burger.

However, even a plain hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and onion doesn't compare to the rest of the highlights of the In-N-Out menu. If you can eat the cheese and spread, it's an essential part of the experience.

The fries from In-N-Out Burger have long been the subject of controversy. If you ask haters of the chain (perhaps people on the East Coast), they will decry the fries from the chain for being flavorless and soggy. While the quality may vary between perspectives, In-N-Out's fries are consistently ranked as one of the worst fast food items to order. So, let's dish about french fries.

Something to avoid when it comes to getting tasty potatoes at In-N-Out is ordering plain fries. There are numerous ways to improve In-N-Out's standard fry. For starters, you can ask to get them well done, resulting in crispier fries. On top of well done fries, you can upgrade to Animal Style, which will top your (now fortified) fries with cheese, spread, and grilled onions. Another good option is ordering cheese fries. Anything besides plain french fries will be a serious upgrade over the limp mediocrity of the standard In-N-Out fry.

Aside from some of the excessive options on the secret menu, the most caloric item on the regular In-N-Out menu actually isn't a burger. It is the sugar-loaded strawberry shake which is probably the most unhealthy item on the menu — especially if you order a large. Considering it has by far the most calories, it may be best to avoid ordering a large strawberry shake from In-N-Out. In fact, large shakes are not even on the menu, but like most items at the chain, it lives on the secret menu. 

For some reason, the strawberry shake has double the amount of sugar found in the vanilla and chocolate shakes. This is, of course, not counting the secret menu's Neapolitan shake, which is a mix of all three. And while the chocolate shake isn't that far behind in calories, strawberry takes the cake. If strawberry is your flavor of choice and you are unswayed in that position, we suggest getting a regular size. It's plenty of ice cream for one day.