In-N-Out Burgers is a West Coast institution. And one of the keys to their success has been keeping it simple. There are only four food items on the In-N-Out menu: Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Double-Double and French Fries. In-N-Out compliments the food with the standard array of Coca-Cola beverages and three shakes: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. And that’s the menu in its entirety…
…or at least that’s what they want you to think. The truth of the matter is that there is an extensive “secret menu” available for those in the know. In fact, the secret items actually outnumber the items legitimately on the menu.
This isn’t just stuff made up by bored employees. If you order a Flying Dutchman, “Flying Dutchman” prints out on your receipt. It’s in the computer.
There is lots of information out there on the Internet about the secret menu, but no one seems to have gotten it all, and a lot of what is out there is just plain wrong. Nothing is more embarrassing than ordering a secret item that doesn’t exist.
So, through dilligent research, we have managed to produce what we believe is the definitive guide to the In-N-Out secret menu.
Click on the name of the tester to see photos of our daring taste-test staff — Mgmt.
2×4 Burger
Tester: Josef
Description: A “2×4″ is a burger with two beef patties and four slices of cheese. You can also order a “3×3,” a “4×2″ or any other meat/cheese combo your little heart desires. Rumors of a “100×100″ are widespread and thus far unproven. (Yeah, yeah. It’s been proven now. We know. —The Mgmt.) We’d love to see a photo, though.
Comment: The 2×4 was humongous, but great.
3-by-Meat Burger
Tester: John
Description: Three beef patties, no cheese. You can pretty much order “any number”-by-Meat.
Comment: Triple the meat, triple the pleasure. Do you want your colon blocked but don’t want to wait for years and years for it to happen? Well, In-N-Out has the burger for you. I miss my cheese.
“Animal Style” Burger
Tester: Patti
Description: Mustard-cooked beef patty, additional pickles, extra secret sauce with grilled onions.
Comment: I love this burger. Best if ordered without tomato. It has lots of oniony, cheesy, goodness with “special sauce” to boot. (No one ever says that the sauce is just Thousand Island dressing.)
“Double-Meat” Burger
Tester: Maureen
Description: A Double-Double without the cheese.
Comment: The Double-Meat burger was huge — very filling. I would have liked some sauce, however. It seemed a little dry.
The Flying Dutchman
Tester: Steve
Description: 2 beef patties, 2 slices of cheese. That’s it. No lettuce. No onions. No bun. No nuthin’.
Comment: Two all-beef patties with cheese. What more can you say?
Grilled Cheese
Tester: Rachel
Description: Cheeseburger without the “burger.”
Comment: I always order the grilled cheese because I don’t eat beef and veggie burgers are boring. It isn’t as boring as a regular grilled cheese. The sauce makes it better.
“Protein Style” Burger
Tester: Aaron
Description: Any burger you want wrapped in lettuce instead of that carbohydrate-laden bun.
Comment: It felt like it was missing something…oh yeah, the bun! The lettuce wrapping actually made it less messy, but I was still hungry afterward. Next time, I’ll try “Animal Style.”
Veggie Burger
Tester: Chandra
Description: Hamburger with no burger and double tomatos.
Comment: Expected a “veggie burger.” Got a bun with whole grilled onions*, sauce, lettuce and double tomato. Not bad, but rather overly simple for eating out. Won’t order it again. I’ll stick with my usual Grilled Cheese with grilled onions.
“Extra Toast”
Tester: Shireen
Description: Leaves your bread on the grill a tad longer resulting in “crispy buns,” which is not as dirty as it sounds. Can be ordered with any burger.
Comment: About the same. Maybe slightly crispier than normal — but not much.
Fries: “Animal Style”
Tester: Ian
Description: French fries with secret sauce, onions and cheese on top.
Comment: Excellent! I will definitely order these again. Mmmmm…cheesey, oniony goodness!
Fries: “Light”
Tester: Desiree
Description: French fries cooked a little less than normal.
Comment: My light fries were very good.
Fries: “Well-Done”
Tester: Patti
Description: French fries cooked a little longer than normal.
Comment: I couldn’t really tell the difference from these vs. the normal fries. Not very impressive. I don’t think I’d bother asking for well-done again.
Choco-Vanilla Swirl Shake
Tester: Rachel
Description: Chocolate and vanilla shakes in the same cup. Swirled, not blended.
Comment: It tastes like a regular chocolate shake to me.
Lemon-Up
Tester: Tevin
Description: 1/2 Lemonade, 1/2 7-Up. Since they started letting you get your own drinks, you can make this yourself.
Comment: I thought it was OK. And it tasted like a tangerine.
Neopolitan Shake
Tester: Maureen
Description: Strawberry, vanilla and chocolcate all swirled together — not blended.
Comment: I loved the Neopolitan Shake. I expected all the flavors mixed together, but they were separate.
Tea-Ade
Tester: Miles
Description: 1/2 Iced Tea, 1/2 Lemonade. Since they started letting you get your own drinks, you can make this yourself.
Comment: It wasn’t good.
Failures
Tester: Various
Description: Not everything that we found on the Internet actually existed. So here are a few imaginary items that we ordered so you don’t have to.
Wish Burger – I assume this is a reference to a song from 1957 by The Chips, where you have two slices of bread, and you wish you had some meat. It’s supposed to be a veggie burger. Our lovely cashier had no ide what we were talking about. But she did recognize the words “Veggie Burger.” So we ordered that instead.
“On the Sal”: “On the Sal” was supposed to give us all the vegetables that normally go on the burger, with secret sauce on top, and nothing else — basically a tiny side salad. Once again, the lovely cashier had no idea what I was talking about.
But ordering the non-existant “On the Sal” taught us something important:
Although she had no idea what I was talking about, the cashier was perfectly willing to give me an “On the Sal” if I could describe it to her. Evidently, the registers at In-N-Out are a little more sophisticated than the “picture of the fries” model at Mickey-D’s.
The employees at In-N-Out will do anything to a burger if you ask them.
This probably doesn’t include stripping naked and dancing around the burger while praying to your dark gods, but it might — we didn’t ask.
Click here to get a downloadable PDF version of this menu that you can print out and take with you.
links
In-n-Out: the 20×20
Wikipedia: In-N-Out Burgers
In-n-Out: 100×100 What Up Willy!
Tags: burgers, fast food, in-n-out, secret menu
Hey. I actually work at in n out and there are still a few things that we have that arent on here. like whole grilled onion, raw chopped onions. mustard fried burger, chopped chilis, etc.
you get the real insiderds when you work.
well then tell us what it is.spill the secret.
yeah be a nice person and tell us, i don’t see why you shouldn’t.
Wait… Chrystal, I need some more detail on the chopped chilis, you can’t just start with mysteries and leave them hanging…
Chopped & whole chilies are available in most markets. Some counties health restrictions prevent us from chopping & cooking the chilies but they are available upon request at all locals.
then it won’t be a secret.
keep it a secret or everyone will know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They won’t grill the tomato. I’ve tried. Apparently it messes with their system.
I used to live in So. Cal. and I had friends order a 4×4. 4 patties and 4 slices of cheese. Is that no longer on the “secret menu”?
Actually the 4×4 IS still available. We just don’t make anything bigger than the 4×4 anymore.
the animal style fries are called animal fries
[...] you live in California, Nevada, Arizona or Utah? Do you know how to get a double-double animal style? If not, you might want to check out this regional fast food. Now, what would happen if the good [...]
Flying Dutchman? Interesting. So, it is basically two cooked patties covered in cheese? What a novel idea
WHAT THE FUCK? ANIMAL STYLE? LOL! And what the fuck happened to the Flying Dutchman? 2 patties 2 cheese on a paper?
Steve.ask them to wash your mouth out with soap and teach you a bit of self respect next time!!!
I’ve ordered a root beer float. It tastes good but I didn’t think the person who made it made it in a while because it was overflowing!
I went to the new In N Out in West Jordan, Utah today, and I saw a girl that had those Peppercini peppers on her burger. She left before I could ask her what that was called. Can anyone help me out?
Ya if you want it ON the burger asked for chopped chilies. If you want them in the package on the side ask for a side of peppers.
Oh and follow us on twitter at twitter.com/IN_N_OUT_BURGER
Apparently the counter guy misunderstood me last week when I ordered. I ended up with an “Easy” #3 (Said “Easy” at the top of the receipt) with double meat AND Animal Style, which is what I thought I’d asked for. I was a little confused at first, but I’ve been back to the same In N Out (Blue Diamond in Vegas) and ordered an “Easy” again. It appears to consist of a spicy version of the sauce, chopped chillies and a whole onion slice (1st time raw, 2nd time cooked). If you like really spicy hot, go with the “Easy.” I’m thinking I’ll stick with the “Double Easy, Animal Style, No Tomato, cooked onion.”
Actually, easy is just a way of putting a meal into the computer. It automatically adds the burger and the fries at the same time. Its just a way of communicating in the kitchen. So if your reciept said Easy #3 that would be the burger that comes with a number 3 and the fries. I don’t know what they put on when you ordered it easy, but I am glad you enjoyed it! Just make sure if you order it again, give the cashier a reciept. P.S. sorry to say but there is no spicy version of the sauce.
sorry, not reciept, description
Here are some more great ways to order. I’ll give you the how to “Say” and then the Ingredients from top to bottom…
Say – “Double-Double with both kind of onions, no-tomato, extra spread,with cold_cheese”/ Bun,meat,grillonion,meat,x-spread,lett,cold_cheese,rawonion,spread,bun.
Say – “Cheese Burger with grilled onions,add ketchup, fried mustard, and chopped chillies”/ Bun,ketchup,grillonion,cheese,meat,friedmustard,lett,toma,pickle,chillie,spread,bun.
Say – “Doubel-Double with whole grilled onions, raw chopped onions, and spread only”/ Bun,cheese,meat,whole sliced onion then grilled,cheese,meat,rawchopped,spread,bun.
Those are some of my favorites.
Also here are some popular variations are…
Well done meat
Medium rare meat
No salt on meat
Light toast bun
no toast bun
xtra toast bun
extra everything
mustard fried(comes with pickles)
Ketchup & Mustard instead
Spread on top bun
is the such thing as a chicken burger on this menu? that would be amazing
No, sorry no chicken here. Just the worlds best burgers! We leave the chicken to Chic-Fil-A they leave the burgers to us!
you both have the best… chic fil a has AWESOME chicken sandwiches and no one can beat in n out burger. its just a fact of life!
Im origionally from northern california…. what i wouldnt do for a double animal style burger-bun toasted- and animal fries. mmm… (I live in virginia unfortunately. No In n Out and no Jamba Juice. I live a sad life now)
oops “originally” haha my bad
I thought I really knew all about In-N-Out but I even learned a few things by reading this post. The Flying Dutchman was a totally new one on me.
Oh, and reading the Wikipedia article makes In-N-Out look like a walk-in restaurant. I’ve only seen one, and not till 5 years ago. Must be a Norteño thing… The one depicted in the intro animation at http://www.in-n-out.com/ is the real deal.
All of the original locations (before the proliferation during the 90′s) were a small box with walk-up window and a drive-through on either side with outside seating. I am guessing it worked better in Southern California…
or you can try a really odd In-N-Out in Fullerton CA which doesn not have a drive-thru. Placentia Ave/Chapman Ave
There are 5 locations without drive thru’s at all, they’re very odd to work in/ visit!
In N Out does have great Burgers and it would be great if they put one here in Oklahoma. But when I lived in Carson City Nevada one of the issues that the company had was if it was possible to delivere the fresh cut Ground Beef to the stores each day. Don;t know if that is true But I do miss them.
It IS true, we use a single meat supplier & never freeze anything so distribution is always a concern.
[...] compiled the most comprehensive list of secret menu items I’ve [...]