Wife wanted burgers for dinner after an afternoon at the beach, so found the nearest In-N-Out burger on our way home that we hadn't been to before. It was a good experience, with good burgers, and I continue to learn more about how to optimize my order for next time.
This location is on the NE corner of PCH and 2nd St, just East of Naples. They have configured the parking lot with cones so it can absorb quite a few cars for the drive-thru before it backs out into the street (as a negative, it does make leaving quite hard and there were 3 parking spots that are unusable in this configuration). Before we got to the front, Omar was working outside, taking the preorders and entering them into a tablet, maybe 5 cars before the front. He was very friendly and patient, need those type of personalities if working out in the mid-day sun. You then wait to get to the first window, where you pay, then go to the 2nd window where you get your food. It was ready for us when we got there...a very good system to minimize wait time at a window.
A question that Omar had asked was "Eat In?"....not sure what that meant, so just said 'Sure'. I learned it means 'Eating in the car' and they will give you your food in uncovered boxes with a paper tray to eat on. You can ask for a covered box, or can just say 'To Go' to get everything in a bag.
My wife got two cheeseburgers, plain. This must be an unusual order since Omar confirmed that it meant bun, meat, cheese only...it is entered into the system as -spread,-lettuce,-tomato (meaning that a regular cheeseburger does not have pickles or onions). It cost $4.10 each, which is steep for a plain burger...my wife confessed that she preferred the McDouble, which you can get two of for $4.
I had a different mission...wanting to duplicate the taste of a Whopper with cheese but with better meat and grilled onions. So got a Double-Double, minus spread, double lettuce, double tomato, plus whole grilled onion, plus pickle. Each was $5.90, which I think is a great deal in this day and age. I then went home, and put on Hellman's mayo and ketchup on it, and cut it in half. It's a load to handle, but tasted really good...confirming my preference for mayo/ketchup combo vs thousand-island based sauce. One thing about In-n-out is that they are consistent with their toppings....you will get plenty of fresh tomatoes and lettuce every time, even if you order it double or extra. And even though they didn't give me extra lettuce, they did give me 3 slices of tomato on each burger, which I loved. And the grilled whole onions are the way to go. It did make for a big sandwich, and the bread isn't great at holding it together so you are going to get your hands dirty.
We shared a strawberry shake ($3), which was good and a great deal. And because the saved sandwich for the next day didn't have any sauce on it while being stored, it didn't disintegrate when I heated up the bun/meat/cheese. And when I added on the cold toppings with mayo, it tasted like a McDLT, back in the day (if you are close to my age). read more