Whataburger is a fast-food favorite in the South.

I visited to see if it could live up to the hype.

I was impressed by the chain's customizable menu options.



A born-and-bred New Englander, I'm woefully inexperienced when it comes to some regional restaurant chains.

In-N-Out remains a mystery to me, and the wonders of Chick-fil-A have only recently entered my life, thanks to its aggressive national expansion.

Whataburger had long similarly been an enigma to me — nearly every Texan I meet extols its many virtues, yet I had never set foot in one.

With more than 790 locations across 10 states, Whataburger is a southern fast-food powerhouse. It has been family-owned since opening its first humble burger stand in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1950. The chains ranks seventh on QSR Magazine's Top 50 Burger roundup, raking in $2.18 billion in system-wide sales in 2016, and it's expanding rapidly.

So when I found myself heading down to the Lone Star State, I decided a visit to the celebrated burger joint was a mandatory stop on my itinerary.