In-N-Out in Hong Kong

Being a native Southern Californian means I grew up eating at In-N-Out Burger. The chain was birthed in Baldwin Park, California in 1948, and featured the very first burger drive-thru in existence. By the time I was born, there were eighteen restaurants dotting the Greater Los Angeles landscape. I have no “first memory” of dining at an In-N-Out Burger, it’s just always been there in the background.

I don’t generally care much for fast food in general, but I always make an exception for them. Their burgers are fresh and tasty and best of all, cheap. Their employees are so bright and cheerful you can’t help but feel good about eating there. It’s one of the things people who move out of California miss the most, and the most requested first stop for friends and family flying into California when I used to pick them up at LAX.

Several years ago, In-N-Out Burger started creeping eastward… they opened one in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was only slightly indignant about that. Because in my mind, In-N-Out = California. You can’t have California in Nevada! But then they opened one in Utah and then Texas. And I got really indignant! The icon on the In-N-Out packaging is a palm tree! There shouldn’t be an In-N-Out where it snows and palm trees don’t grow, right? Right?

But then we moved abroad, to Asia. We’ve lived in Tokyo, Macau, Shanghai, and Hong Kong – twice. There is amazing food in all of those places. I don’t lack for an amazing meal in just about any neighborhood. But you know what Asia is not generally known for? American-style Burgers. When we first lived in Macau in 2011, there were only two places to get a good burger. Both places had cloth napkins, tiny single-serving glass bottles of ketchup, and waiters who refilled your water whenever you took a sip. Guests around us commonly ate their burgers delicately, with a knife and fork. And the bill for a party of two never came under the equivalent of $50 USD. The burgers were excellent, I will give them that. But sometimes the only thing that hits the spot is In-N-Out, with gallons of ketchup which comes from a self-service pump and Barq’s Root Beer on tap.

And then, a gift. An image started to be shared over Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, a copy of a copy of a copy of a flyer proclaiming a pop-up of In-N-Out, taking over another Hong Kong eatery for just a few hours. I had to calculate if the cost of the ferry from Macau to Hong Kong, plus hours in the sure-to-be-extraordinary-long queue would be worth the taste of home for this California girl abroad…

I confess, I didn’t go. Sundays were work days for my husband at the time, and my kids were just eight and eleven then, with absolutely zero interest in letting mom walk down memory lane with her taste buds at such a high cost in time and funds for just a burger. After all, there was a McDonald’s just a ten minute walk from our flat, no need to pass through immigration to get there. Deep sigh. McDonald’s has a place in this world, and that place is the heart of eight and eleven year old boys.

Flash forward to 2018. In the years since that first In-N-Out pop up, we moved to Shanghai and then back down to Hong Kong. We’ve flown back to Los Angeles a few times, feeling very grateful for the In-N-Out drive thru just a few blocks from LAX. A bit has changed in those six years, including my sons’ taste buds which now appreciate the difference between a frozen patty and a hand formed one. Hong Kong has hosted a couple more pop-ups, and many more decent burger places have opened. None have that exact taste of home, but we’ve been gone so long, our memory has faded.

And then suddenly, another gift. Overnight there’s post after post on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram over a new burger joint opening up in Hong Kong. No, it’s not In-N-Out Burger. It’s Shake Shack. It’s not a California brand, but a New York one. I didn’t grow up with it, but it has burgers and fries and shakes so good I feel a pang of guilt for my beloved In-N-Out Burger whenever I talk about how much I love a Shack Burger.

But what’s the saying? When in Rome, do as the Romans do? If In-N-Out Burger, who is willing to put an restaurant in Salt Lake City, Utah where it snows in the winter won’t come to Hong Kong, where there are actual palm trees growing wild without any special care, well, I have another saying for that. If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with. And wow do I love Shake Shack!

The cost is somewhat in the stratosphere for a counter service place that gives you a buzzer to collect your meal, but not quite Macau-fancy-burger prices. Our family of four had four burgers, four shakes, two fries, and four beverages, and the total came to $580 Hong Kong Dollars, which is the equivalent of $78 USD. That could feed a basketball team at In-N-Out, where a single burger is less than $2 USD. But it’s still far cheaper than a flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles! Now when we go, we get just one order of fries to share instead of two, and everyone can choose a shake OR another beverage, not both. Water is free, so everyone has thus far gone with the shake.

And their shakes leave In-N-Out far behind, because Shake Shack offers a dream come true: a peanut butter shake! In-N-Out who?

Just recently yet another American import has entered the burger scene in Hong Kong. Five Guys Burgers & Fries opened in November in Wan Chai. We haven’t been yet, but it’s on our list as soon as our love for Shake Shack starts to wane. Reviews say it’s awesome. You know what I say? I’m totally okay with you creeping allll the way to the East Coast of America and then heading to the Far East, there’s still room for you in Hong Kong, In-N-Out!