Hamburger King | Best Oklahoma Town Cafe Hamburgers

Review by: Michael Stern

Hamburgers Reign, But There’s More

When George Macsas opened for business in 1927, his Hamburger King in Shawnee, Oklahoma, sold large hamburgers for 5 cents apiece, extra-large for 10 cents. Today’s prices are higher. But Hamburger King still offers a satisfying meal for a very agreeable price. Oklahoma town cafe hamburgers continue to star, but the menu also includes catfish dinners, Frito pie, stew, chili, and a unique item known as “redtop stew.” For that, the cooks top their stew with a layer of chili.

Anatomy of an Excellent Hamburger

The burgers are lunch counter beauties. They are significantly thicker than a slider. But they bear little resemblance to the big softball burgers you find in modern pubs at $10 or more. Hamburger King uses beef that is fatty enough to make the patties glisten. By the time you have eating most of the burger, its bun will approach disintegration. Please pass the napkins!

A Taste of History

We love the look of this old lunchroom with its tall ceiling and long rows of tables. Each table offers a direct phone line to the open kitchen. The menu refers to this futuristic convenience as the “electronic order system.” For those who harbor nostalgia for vintage cafes, the old west, cowboy music, Oklahoma history in general, or the history of Hamburger King in particular, the walls are a mesmerizing museum. The showstopper display is a blown-up photo of founder George Macsas flanked by King of Western Swing Bob Wills and movie star Jack Hoxie. Wills once wrote a jingle to celebrate his favorite eatery, its lyrics reading:

When you’re feelin’ blue, and hungry too

Here’s a tip to make you sing.

Pick up your hat, close your flat

Go down to the Hamburger King.

An Oklahoma town cafe with a Bob Wills-written jingle? Now, that’s Roadfood!

What To Eat

Cheeseburger

DISH
Fritos Pie

DISH
Pie

DISH

Hamburger King | Best Oklahoma Town Cafe Hamburgers Recipes

Discuss

What do you think of Hamburger King | Best Oklahoma Town Cafe Hamburgers?

5 Responses to “Hamburger King | Best Oklahoma Town Cafe Hamburgers”

Jimmy Anderson

April 4th, 2023

I really like this. Its service is really great. The taste is at another level.

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walter simon

February 2nd, 2023

Wedge fries and onion rings are a ten also. People are friendly and the service is great. It is a 50s/60s grill. When you walk in to the place you will have a flashback; pretty cool. wow this looks so delicious and yummy. i just love this hamburger. thanks for sharing this wonderful article. Was kind of scary driving to this place at night. It is in an area of Shawnee that is very old and run-down. I used my GPS to find this place and I thought it had misguided me (which it has on occasion).

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hadi

April 16th, 2022

wow this looks so delicious and yummy. i just love this hamburger. thanks for sharing this wonderful article .

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Ken French

January 23rd, 2010

My family and I ate at the Hamburger King recently. It was, for lack of a better word, “AWESOME.” In my 54 years here on planet Earth I have never eaten a better burger, and I have had some $20 burgers. Believe me, I have tried burgers from around the world. My entire family agreed: without a doubt the best burger ever.

Wedge fries and onion rings are a ten also. People are friendly and the service is great. It is a 50s/60s grill. When you walk in to the place you will have a flashback; pretty cool. Was kind of scary driving to this place at night. It is in an area of Shawnee that is very old and run-down. I used my GPS to find this place and I thought it had misguided me (which it has on occasion).

I lived in Oklahoma City for about 20 years and never heard of the Hamburger King until I saw it on this site. I now live in Ohio and that is probably a good thing; if I still lived in OKC I would probably weigh about 300 pounds because I would visit HK every chance I got. Whenever I am back in OKC for a visit you know where you will be able to find me.

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Steve Taylor

January 19th, 2010

After finding that I was going to be traveling to Oklahoma City on business, I immediately decided that a side-trip off of I-40 was requisite. Of course, after having read so many reviews at Roadfood.com, I had to find a target restaurant… just once. In this case, the Hamburger King in Shawnee was the destination.

What a truly unique place! After my father and I found the lone empty booth, we went with our internal caloric calculators, picked up the at-booth intercom telephone, and ordered the famous burgers (dad’s a single, mine a double), along with a bowl of slaw each and some hush puppies. We were not disappointed.

The coleslaw is simple, creamy, and crisp. Wonderful. And the hush puppies, which are Texas-style sticks, remind me of some rather memorable fish fries that I’ve been a part of in the past. I can’t say enough about the burgers. They’re so perfectly prepared, I daresay there are very few to rival them. They are assembled from a grilled and buttered bun, a meat patty that has not been cooked so long as to lose even a smidgen of flavor, and fresh toppings. The flavor goes all the way from the top of the top bun to the bottom of the bottom bun. These are F-I-N-E.

Lastly, since there are so many more things that I could prattle on and on about, I’ll choose to talk about the service: amongst the friendliest ever. Our server attended to every need we had with no prompting, and did so while tending to other customers with the same pleasant manner and efficiency she gave us. THAT was nice!

Highly recommended and worth every penny you pay. I believe you’ll enjoy your experience here as much as we did!

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