Septemburger 2026: It Ends Here!!

Michael Ornelas (0:00)

Burger vs. Burger, Bun vs. Bun. We're at the end of September 26, and we're down to just four chains. By the end of this episode, we will have our winner. I'm Michael Ornelas, host of the Fine Dining Podcast, and welcome to the final September. In the first round, we said so long to Habit Burger and Grill, as Mooyah sailed past them with relative ease. Then Five Guys walked up to Smash Burger and ground them into a patty so thin, they were unable to continue the competition. A week later, BurgerFi usurped the throne from Burger King, and just last week, Fatburger said, you're out of here to McDonald's. This week, Fatburger takes on BurgerFi while Five Guys is matched against Mooyah. Who will emerge the victor? You're going to freaking find out so soon. But first, theme song.

I ate 24 burgers at 8 different chains with my guests, and 10 of them will never get talked about because of their eliminations. Let's take a moment of silence for our fallen, undiscussed comrades.

Okay, enough with honoring the dead. Let's make more dead and see who can emerge victorious in our first matchup. It's the number one seed, Fatburger, against the number four seed, BurgerFi. I ate at BurgerFi first with my partner Joyce back in June. So let's cut to our chat about the CEO Burger. So, BurgerFi advanced to the semifinals by beating Burger King. So, it's time to evaluate their round two offering, the CEO Burger. This is the one that, based on the Yelp reviews I read, seemed like the star of the show, but it was not the best burger we had there. So if they get past this round, that'll be in round three, the Breakfast All Day Burger. That one was very good. But, the CEO Burger, this was a burger with wagyu beef instead of just like the standard, and it had a candied bacon tomato jam and a truffle aioli. And then it would have aged Swiss if this was a cheeseburger tournament, but it's a hamburger tournament. And I'm back with Joyce, of course, my girlfriend, my beautiful, lovely partner. Hello.

We can hold hands. Good. Yeah.

What did you think of this one?

Joyce (3:53)

I thought it was too sweet. It reminded me.

Michael Ornelas (3:57)

Too sweet. Interesting.

Joyce (3:59)

I know you said it was tomato based, right?

Michael Ornelas (4:01)

Well, what I got out of the bacon jam was bitter. I thought it was a little bitter.

Joyce (4:08)

I thought it was too sweet for me. It reminds me of all the burger places where they do the Elvis burger with peanut butter and jelly. They did have the peanut butter.

They didn't have the peanut butter, but it just reminded me of that. And anything sweet that's supposed to be savory, I'm not the biggest fan. I can take one or two bites, and after that, I'm good.

Michael Ornelas (4:27)

Yeah, sweet and meat are not two things that I like much. But I think of Interstellar BBQ's Peach Tea Glazed Pork Belly, and that's a really good mix of savory and sweet. And you like that one, right?

Joyce (4:40)

Yeah, I don't think it doesn't go together. The savory and sweet, it's just the jam with the burger was too much jam for me, I think.

Michael Ornelas (4:48)

Yeah, again, bitter is the adjective that I remember feeling with it. I thought that the truffle aioli could have been more prominent. I think I wanted a little bit more of that flavor profile. It wasn't truffly enough for me, but I thought that the bun, the soft bun and the wagyu went great together. So, I really enjoyed some elements of this.

I do like a tomato bacon jam, and I feel like here may have been my least favorite iteration of tomato bacon jam that I've ever had.

Joyce (5:23)

That's the first time I've ever even heard a tomato bacon jam concoction.

Michael Ornelas (5:27)

I've only ever had it on burgers, I believe. And I think I've had it on like a breakfast burger, specifically somewhere else. Not a chain, but just like a one-off restaurant. And I remember it being really good there.

But this was good, but I could see all the potential for how much better I thought it could or maybe should have been. And the wagyu didn't elevate it as much as I thought it would. I gave it a 6.81, which is only three hundredths less than I gave the round one burger. But to really do well in the September burger tournament, you do need to kind of have your score go up each round. So even a small drop here, I think might hurt them. But if I remember correctly, your score is quite a bit lower.