My Review of the Culver's "Curderburger"

October 15, 2021, was an important date to many Midwesterners. That's because, on Friday, the CurderBurger made its very limited debut at Culver's restaurants.

For those who haven't heard about this yet, Culver's — home to both the widely-celebrated butter burger and some of the best fast-food cheese curds out there — released a limited edition burger that combined the best of both items.

Initially an April Fool's Day prank from earlier this year, the idea was simple: make a patty-shaped cheese curd and put it on top of a butter burger patty . Add bread and other ingredients, and voila! You have a genuine CurderBurger.

The menu item is only being sold for one day, so at 10:00 a.m. on Friday morning, I made my way to the nearest Culver's restaurant (the burger actually sold out by 12:30 p.m. throughout all of Madison!). Arriving five minutes earlier than when the doors were set to open, I found out that others had the same plans as I did — and that the line to get this burger was already extending out into the street.

At least 20 cars were ahead of me in the drive-thru lane. It took approximately 30-40 minutes for me to even reach the speaker to make my order. About 15 minutes later, a Culver's restaurant employee brought me my meal.

I will give credit where it's due: the Culver's I went to was prepared for this day. Although the wait times may seem long, the system was efficient and went faster than I expected. As I exited the parking lot, the line remained 20-30 cars deep, but was still moving at a reasonable speed.

I had seen "previews" of the burger online — news reports showing it being eaten by local journalists. As the main part of the burger IS an oversized cheese curd, the melted cheese inside has the tendency to stretch. Since I just bought a new car, I felt it wiser to wait until I got home to try a bite.

That was probably a smarter decision than I even realized. The curd inside was able to harden a little bit more, and because of this, it wasn't as "sloppy" as I expected it to be.

My first bite into the burger was a rush of endorphins to my brain. I've long believed (and many others agree) that Culver's burgers are the best in the fast-food business. Their cheese curds are also amazing. The two, put together, was a perfect mashup.

Don't get me wrong: the taste itself wasn't *spectacular*. The CurderBurger was exactly what you think it would be: a burger and a cheese curd, together. You could get the same effect by ordering curds and putting them on a regular butter burger.

But this was a burger that got better with each and every bite that I took.

Halfway through my meal — I took my time with this one — I had to finish a project. I set my burger aside, and sadly, it was lukewarm before I could finish it up.

But it turned out, it wasn't a "sad" outcome at all. At lukewarm temperature, the burger is STILL delicious. ​

I don't know that I would get this burger ever again — it is quite a lot to take in. The cheese curd takes up more space than the buns, and even though I had mine "plain" (no lettuce, tomato, not even ketchup), I was completely filled up after finishing the CurderBurger. Given the choice between the two, I'd stick to the butter burger, and maybe split a side of cheese curds with someone else. Or, put another way: the CurderBurger is a meal that you might want to split with someone else!

That said, if Culver's decides to make this treat a regular item on its menu, it will be hard for many to say no to it. One hour after eating this mouthwatering patty-and-breaded-cheese combination, the CurderBurger is still fresh on my mind, in a good way.