As a kid, I had more than my fair share of Happy Stars and Western Bacon Cheeseburgers at Carl’s Jr. restaurants so I was somewhat surprised that we actually haven’t talked about Carl’s here on Cheap Eats yet.

I think part of the problem is that while they are definitely pushing their 99 cent items nowadays in order to compete with Burger King and McDonald’s, Carl’s Junior has always seemed more of a “high end” burger fast food place to me. In fact, my mom would always take us there when we were at the mall back in the day, because they just seemed to have “healthier” options. Like Fried Zucchini and numerous Chicken Club sandwiches. These, of course, weren’t exactly the cheapest things on the menu. I must say that I rarely got sick from eating burgers at Carl’s Junior, while McDonald’s was Russian Stomach Roulette.

Fast forward to today, and they’re right up there offering cheaper items with the best of them. I haven’t been to the fast food joint in awhile (they closed down the nearest one to my house) but I am continually getting Carl’s Junior coupons in the mail trying to get me to eat their Six Dollar Burger. You’re usually left sitting there wondering which fry cook was drunk this time in the kitchen.

Unlike the Six Million Dollar Man, the Six Dollar burger doesn’t look like a million bucks in person. Oh sure, you see the commercials of them dropping one of these bad boys from a height of a foot or so and it sure seems to plop down well, fat and juicy and full of goodies. In real life, not only does the 6 dollar burger cost like $4.00 alone (which in my opinion is not cheap enough to make a big deal about the $2 you save) but usually comes looking like a hurricane hit an In-n-Out burger joint.

There’s no semblance to the nice, expensive looking burgers in their commercials. Then again, when has a burger in person ever looked like the one from a commercial? I do applaud them in their adventurous choice of materials to make these so-called restaurant burgers. The Portabello Mushroom burger was at least interesting. Now they’re offering up a “Jalapeno Burger” (sorry, I’m to lazy to grab the tilde “N”).

Sounds sort of interesting… and should you choose to accept that mission, you might want to know that Carl’s Junior coupons are one of the few fast food coupons that can be found right on their website. It’s only $1 off, but still that probably helps make the six dollar figure more palatable. According to their site it contains: Jalapeno Peppers, Pepper Jack Cheese, Angus Beef, Red Onions, Tomatoes and Lettuce, Santa Fe Sauce (that last one is probably just spicy thousand island dressing).

Anyhow, they only offer the $1 off on the Jalapeno Burger, but if you should happen to look in your local mailer, you’ll probably see other $1 off coupons for things like the Western Bacon Cheeseburger, Breakfast Burger, and Hand-Scooped Shakes or Malts. That last one sounds interesting… I’d like to know how they’d go about scooping the ice cream WITHOUT using their hands. Is it like a fast food robot that does the scooping? I think I will pester them with questions like these on my next outing there…

Price: $1 off Jalapeno Burger
Available at: Carl’s Junior website
Cheap Eats Score: 5/10