I tried the most bizarre thing on the menu at Carl's Jr. - and it surprised me

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

• One of Carl's Jr.'s signature sandwiches is the "Breakfast Burger."
• It's essentially a burger with egg, bacon, cheese, and potatoes.
• While it's not as bad as it sounds, it's not the absolute best either.

Carl's Jr. is more known across the country for its titillating history of ad campaigns than its food. Yet during my recent first-time foray to the chain, I noticed something rather strange stood out on the menu: the "Breakfast Burger."

On lazy weekend mornings as a kid, I remember my mom throwing a stray sirloin steak - one that didn't make the cut as dinner during the week - onto the cast-iron pan and searing it aside a pan of scrambled eggs. In essence, it was a breakfast steak.

Although it sounds pretty normal now, I thought it rather decadent at the time - even then, I knew that steaks are expensive cuts of meat. But it was delicious: a fantastic balance between savory and tender rare steak, salted just so, and the rich and fluffy eggs folded with butter and a dash of milk or cream.

So the idea of a breakfast burger seemed vaguely familiar; beef and egg, just as memory served! Yet this is fast-food, not a cozy kitchen on a Sunday morning. And Carl's Jr. is, judging from the past, more apt to go overboard with a burger than to play it easy. Of course, as one expects, this sandwich turns out to be another beast entirely.

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