You Won't Find A Single Microwave In Any Of This Fast Food Chain's Locations

Ina Garten counts an In-N-Out burger as her favorite fast food, and Gordon Ramsay states that the chain makes his preferred fast food burger. You know, therefore, that the food has to be banging, even if you aren't lucky enough to live within this West Coast company's 10-state catchment (as of now). What you may not have realized, however, was the fact that In-N-Out boasts some culinary bona fides to prop up its stellar reputation with celebrities and plebeians alike. Namely, its stores don't contain even a single microwave.

In-N-Out explained the matter on its Instagram, stating, "we don't even own a microwave or a freezer." In fact, all the food that In-N-Out serves – namely, burgers, fries, and milkshakes — is made fresh and never involves frozen or nuked food. Burgers are ground from chuck beef in specialized patty-making facilities, while potatoes are individually cut into french fries, and all the toppings on your burger (lettuce, tomato, and onion) are sliced fresh. 

In fact, In-N-Out's commitment to keeping everything as fresh as possible is exactly the reason why you'll never find a location on the East Coast. To manage quality to strict corporate standards, all stores have to be located within 300 miles of one of the In-N-Out processing plants. Unlike the unresolved question of why you can find 7Up but not Sprite at In-N-Out, the matter of this fast food's commitment to banning microwaves isn't mysterious.

Is In-N-Out totally alone in being microwave-free? Not even close. Fellow burger joint Steak 'n Shake announced that it would be removing all microwaves from its restaurants by April 2026, while Five Guys and Bojangles are two more chains that get by without the assistance of Chef Mike. There are numerous other regional and national companies that have sworn off microwaves and proudly tout the fact.

According to a Reddit thread, however, some casual restaurants are guilty of the same microwave use that their fast food brethren have eschewed. Keeping in mind that these are largely unproven social media claims, alleged employees of Applebee's, Chili's, Olive Garden, and Ruby Tuesday report frequent microwaving of frozen items. Whether Panera also resorted to nuking food was the subject of heated debate, with some self-professed employees reporting that they hit the buttons themselves.

Is a microwave inherently a bad thing? No, according to science. As long as food is cooked in microwave-safe containers (since plastics leaching forever chemicals and shedding microscopic bits into food is a real concern), microwave heating is no less virtuous than any other form of cooking. That said, In-N-Out's microwave ban is part of a greater commitment to freshness that should definitely be lauded. It's not so much that the chain isn't using microwaves as the fact that it doesn't need to, since the food has been processed so recently. As a consumer, that's something worth cheering over.