Only ordering cheese sliders at White Castle?
Then you're missing out on portable desserts worthy of your local fair,
a package deal to feed your whole building, and a taste of the past that may not be around forever.
Opening in 1921, owner and creator Bill Ingram decided to start White
Castle as a family-owned restaurant selling five-cent burgers to the hungry masses. Now,
100 years after the first store opened its doors, the company decided to honor their
beloved restaurant's birthday with the best gift possible –– a birthday cake-on-a-stick.
The birthday cake-on-a-stick is one of the latest desserts to join the White Castle family,
alongside their cheesecake, brownie, and butter cake –– all
placed on a stick for maximum portability and satisfaction. It features everything you would
expect to see from a regular birthday cake — just smaller and sans birthday candles.
This item is made out of vanilla cake filled with confetti-colored sprinkles,
topped with white frosting, and White Castle-themed sprinkles in shades of orange,
blue, and white. It's the perfect celebratory sweet tooth fix for non-chocolate lovers,
so why not indulge? After all, no one is stopping you from buying a
whole eight-sliced cake-on-a-stick for your next birthday celebration.
French fries automatically make a meal better, but loaded fries give off
entree energy. White Castle's loaded fries were originally a secret menu item, but in 2011,
they were added to the roster by popular demand, along with the bacon and cheddar slider.
The beauty of White Castle's loaded fries lies in their simplicity, with thick-cut bacon crumbles,
melted nacho cheese, and ranch atop a bed of crinkle-cut fries. On the flip side, you can
customize this item to satisfy whatever strange flavor combinations your heart desires. A popular
option, the White Castle mutant-loaded fries from their secret menu, combines melted nacho cheese
and bacon crumbles with barbecue sauce and onion chips for an all-out flavor and texture explosion.
Few things make chicken parm better than being enclosed between two slices of bread.
But sometimes, such a move is questionable, with soggy buns and chicken oversaturated in
marinara sauce killing the experience. However, White Castle's chicken parm
sandwich was unmatched with its petite size and perfectly rationed bites. In 2014,
the burger chain released Italian pizza sliders featuring a small sandwich resembling a pepperoni
pizza and a crispy or grilled chicken slider with marinara, mozzarella, and a side of cheese sticks.
Sadly, the legendary sandwich is no longer on White Castle's menu, but its legacy and
deliciousness live on in the world of the secret menu. It's up to us to create our own slightly
better chicken parm, starting with a chicken slider, upon which you can add bacon and/or
cheese if you'd like. Then, get an order of mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce and
slide those onto the sandwich for that perfect crunchy yet melty bite every time.
In the next fast food war, instead of battling for the title of best chicken sandwich, let's
make the best fast food fish sandwich trendy. Oftentimes, fish sandwiches are underrated in
terms of flavor — from the rich amount of tartar sauce and the crispiness of the fish to the soft
flakiness inside. However, when a fish sandwich is bad, it's enough to have you swear off fish
Fridays entirely. Even though White Castle's fish sandwich is small in size, it's mighty in flavor.
Most people don't realize that White Castle has a fish sandwich, let alone one of the best.
For a burger joint, it ranks high among the pack of seafood fast food favorites,
like Long John Silver's and Captain D's — even outpacing giants like Burger King and Arby's.
Their Alaskan pollock fish patty crusted in panko is the ideal marriage of flaky and crunchy,
with a slice of American cheese adding the perfect amount of saltiness and creaminess.
Just don't skimp out on the sauce — preferably tartar.
White Castle's breakfast is nothing to throw shade at. In fact,
their all-day breakfast with delicious, hand-held options should be celebrated.
Some items are adorably sized in slider fashion, like their breakfast slider with
egg and sausage or bacon and their original beef slider with egg and cheese. But their
crown jewel breakfast offering isn't either of these — it's their Belgian waffle slider.
In 2017, White Castle introduced a line of Belgian waffle breakfast sandwiches in partnership with
a producer in Brussels, Belgium, to give that authentic waffle taste. Their chicken and waffles
slider is the Southern mashup we all needed –– a crispy chicken breast smothered in country
gravy and bacon nestled between two waffles. Their classic take on a breakfast sandwich,
the Belgian waffle slider, is the more traditional yet delicious option with egg,
bacon or sausage, and your choice of cheese. These give the McGriddle a run for its money.
In the time of Impossible burgers and lab-generated meat, a good fast food veggie
burger is far and few between. It's tough for hardcore vegetarians and vegans to find
options on the go that don't involve bland steamed vegetables or french fries. White Castle stands
out from the pack by having two vegan options — the Impossible slider and a veggie-based slider.
Don't be fooled by the color –– the veggie patty, sourced by Dr. Praeger's, is made from all the
vegetables of the rainbow, like carrots, onions, beans, zucchini, corn, spinach, peppers, broccoli,
and herbs. The veggie slider is 100% vegan –– everything is prepared on a separate grill to
eliminate cross-contamination and made with vegan buns. You will even find dairy-free cheese options
if you order from a New York or New Jersey Castle. Their only vegan sauce option is the sweet Thai,
but if it doesn't ruffle your feathers that much, jalapeño cheese is the way to go.
With other fast food frozen desserts to compete against like the McFlurry,
Wendy's Frosty, and Sonic's slushies, it's hard to imagine a little burger joint like
White Castle offering a superior milkshake. Is it the best milkshake you will ever have? No,
but it will taste best when paired with a bunch of sliders and a side of fries.
"He burnt my fries."
"He burnt my shake."
According to the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society, White Castle's milkshakes were first
introduced in the early 1950s to compete with other fast food chains like Burger King and
McDonald's. They keep things classic with only three flavors –– strawberry, vanilla,
and chocolate. If you are craving more options, order a black and white shake by combining vanilla
and chocolate, or add a strawberry to the mix to make a Neapolitan from White Castle's secret menu.
It's debatable whether or not a stick makes a dessert taste better, but at least it
avoids unnecessary utensils. Their strawberry cheesecake on-a-stick is delicious regardless,
with a delicate strawberry swirl nestled on top of a brownie crust.
It accompanies other cheesy delicacies, like their fudge-dipped cheesecake on-a-stick, not to
mention a grocery store version of the sweet treat dipped in chocolate with a graham cracker crust.
They introduced one of their newest desserts in time for their Valentine's Day dinner special.
Their love-fueled dinner, filled with fancy tablecloths and table-side service, has been
a Valentine's Day tradition at White Castle since 1991, complete with 10 sliders of your choice, two
21-ounce sodas, and a side of french fries. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their signature dinner
was turned into a to-go carryout box — perfect for a romantic fast food dinner in the car.
One of the biggest surprises we found was that White Castle has more than just American cheese.
They offer a wide array of cheese toppings like smoked cheddar, vegan cheddar, and even nacho
cheese sauce. However, their jalapeño cheese is a spicy yet savory addition to amp up any sandwich.
"Say cheese"
"Cheeeeeeeeese"
"cheese"
Apparently, everyone else on Reddit understood the assignment and has been partaking in the
spicy cheese selection to break up the monotony of regular cheese sliders. You
can add it to virtually any sandwich, such as the fish slider, veggie slider, or even
the Belgian waffle slider for an extra kick to your morning breakfast. There are even grocery
store frozen jalapeño cheese sliders for those who don't live close enough to a White Castle.
The history of onion rings goes way back. They increased in popularity in the early
1900s thanks to an advertisement for Crisco published in The New York Times. Today,
nearly every drive-thru has onion rings on its menu.
White Castle wasn't the first to sell onion rings, but they are one of the only fast food
joints that offers onion chips. A cross between an onion ring, a french fry, and a potato chip,
the onion chip is perhaps the superior option when comparing it side-by-side to the onion ring.
It's perfect for mindless eating like a french fry, but you also don't have to
deal with the onion filling coming out after the first bite. Plus, it's short in stature,
so it's easy to layer on a burger for more onion flavor or loaded french fries.
And unlike their competitors, White Castle uses real onions for their onion rings and chips.
In 1927, White Castle revolutionized the fast food industry by creating
the concept of a carry-out bag, making fast food even faster.
Their method of selling sliders by the sack has been a constantly evolving phenomenon with their
signature and easily-recognizable carryout bags. Their crave packages have been an easy
and sturdy way to transport mass quantities of sliders and fries, from their crave case
that carries 30 sliders to their crave crate that holds 100 different sliders.
In 2020, White Castle unveiled the stylish and retro-themed crave clutch to make carryout more
aesthetically pleasing. The box resembles a vintage boom box you would see strolled
down the street in the 1980s, with leather stitch detailing in the handle for superior portability.
Its red and blue colors are eye-catching, and the "long live sliders" tagline makes
the box instantly recognizable to anyone who knows the White Castle crave. It can hold
20 sliders and is worth picking up for the collectible box alone.
"If there's one thing I've learned, it's that if you're craving White Castle,
the burgers here just don't cut it."
There's nothing like revisiting the past to make you feel grateful for the present.
In honor of White Castle's centennial anniversary, they introduced the 1921 slider. The original
slider was created when the founder, Billy Ingram, pressed a meatball into a flat patty that would be
flippable and instantly famous. Since then, White Castle has produced many firsts in the industry,
and there's no better way to celebrate that than by creating a new, fully-loaded slider.
"Picture it. Sicily, 1921"
The biggest recognizable difference with the 1921 slider is its lack of squared edges
and its extra toppings. It comes with a 100% beef patty topped with grilled onions,
cheddar cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles. While they may be bringing the menu full circle
to its humble beginnings, in a way, they are making a classic feel new and inventive again.