12 Biggest Culver's Complaints Customers Always Make (But They Keep Coming Back)

Culver's was started back in 1984 by, you guessed it, The Culvers — specifically husband-and-wife founders Craig and Lea, as well as Craig's parents, George and Ruth. The first location was in their hometown of Sauk City, Wisconsin. Eventually, the chain, known for its signature ButterBurger and Frozen Custard, would become a staple of Midwest family eating, garnering a loyal customer base within the region and beyond. That love affair has lasted, mostly, to this day.

We say mostly because Culver's, like anything and everything really, isn't perfect. And patrons have voiced a number of complaints over recent years — ranging from the food itself, to the service, to the cost. Even the famous custard doesn't escape the crosshairs of those on social media who find themselves let down.

Yet, many of the folks airing such grievances still return to Culver's again and again. Here are the 12 most common customer complaints about Culver's that have somehow not completely alienated said complainers. Have you lodged any of them yourself?

Culver's isn't exactly fast food — being that everything is made fresh to order. It is instead categorized as fast casual. To the average consumer, this can seem semantical, since Culver's outward appearance kinda-sorta screams fast food: burgers, value meals, and drive-thru. Because of this, a price-point expectation can be had. And, often, it is had. This despite the fact that the quality of Culver's burger surpasses even In-N-Out's, in the opinion of some.

"Why is it so expensive?" one Culver's subreddit straight-up asks. The moderator followed up: "Listen, I like Culver's. Really good food and the service is very nice. But why am I paying $17 for Buffalo chicken tenders, fries, and a shake?" It's even caused a bit of psychological dissonance with customers such as this Redditor: "Is it just me or does it feel like a basket is constantly going up in price? ... I feel like every time I go it ends up being a dollar more than last time."

The cost has even led to a slew of Facebook chats centered around tips, hacks, and ordering variations to get around what some deem as overpaying. Which tells you at least one thing: people are still trying to order the food.

For the same reasons Culver's can come off as high-cost, the chain also scrambles up patrons' ideas of how long they should reasonably wait. As mentioned, Culver's menu items are prepared only when ordered — distinguishing it from the likes of McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and the rest of the fast food chains. It also means, naturally, orders take longer to get to the customer. In case you haven't heard, waiting is not necessarily a consumer's favorite thing in the world.

In fact, one Redditor complainant had to squeeze their entire, run-on grievance in a subreddit headline: "Culver's drive thru takes 30 min every time from pulling up to having food in my hand. Need to take a page from McDonald's hand book it is unacceptable to wait this long for fast food." A former Culver's worker had a pithy response to this: "Then don't go through a drive-thru that serves made-to-order food."

And it does seem Culver's fans want to understand. "I know Culver's is known for not being the fastest of restaurants because they cook everything fresh," stated one Facebook post under an "I love Culver's" chat, before basically complaining. In fairness, it's been recognized that the freshness of a Culver's burger is what separates it from the rest. Perhaps some things just have to be tolerated in return for quality.

Change is a part of living. We age, society evolves, hermit crabs molt. However, not all change is welcome. Take Culver's, for example. And take its chicken sandwiches. Culver's decided to change things up with its poultry sandwich offerings. This move has, according to some customer opinion, fallen firmly under the "if ain't broke, don't fix it" column.

According to one, very descriptive Redditor: "I often have the Grilled Chicken sandwich for lunch. I had the previous GC for many previous years. I wont be able to crave another GC from there, again." It was so bad that, well, take it away again, complainant: "I bit into it the GC once and spit it out in my lap, because it tasted like an [sic] soft rubber like plastic that my teeth cut through." A fellow Redditor was equally upset: "It's abominable. Never will that nastiness touch my mouth again. It really does not seem like real chicken. The texture is waaaaayyyyy off."

Okay. Heard. And even an ex-employee on Facebook dislikes the changes to the chicken sandwiches, this time with the spicy chicken sandwich: "Tried The New Culver's Chicken Sandwich. Honestly, it's Missing The Mark for Me."

The onion. The herbaceous, bulbous vegetable from the allium family. Although the plant had been historically cultivated well before anything like a burger was invented, it's hard to imagine many things that pair as perfectly with a grilled beef patty. It then goes to reason that a burger-centric eatery would assure quality in the onion department. According to the Culver's complaint-o-sphere, however, that's not happening there.

"Does anyone else genuinely not like the grilled onions from Culver's?," went one Reddit gripe. "I've gotten them the last couple times because I usually love onions on my burgers and thought the first time was just off, but alas they're still the same."

Even the style of onion has come into question. "The last three times the onions seem to be pickled instead of the crisp, raw red onion that I love," claimed another Redditor. "Has anyone else experienced this? These are so nasty." A Culver's operator responded with a correction, but provided little comfort: "These are not pickled. These are water logged and need to be thrown out and not served."

Mello Yello was born back in 1979, after Coca-Cola decided to challenge Pepsi's Mountain Dew in the ambiguously citrus-ized soda department (the former apparently named after a hit song at the time, Donovan's "Mellow Yellow"). And while the Dew has been done by an apparently larger portion of the consumer base ever since, the Yello has maintained a loyal following — especially with Culver's diners.

That loyalty has recently and abruptly gone unrewarded, as Culver's has replaced Mello Yello with Cherry Coke at its fountain. This was not a popular move. "RIP Mellow Yellow," wrote one customer on a subreddit accompanied by a crying emoji. "Goodbye Mello Yello," lamented another, reacting to the news. As a commenter on that same Reddit semi-echoed, customers are now unable to do the combined Mello Yello and blue Powerade concoction that was apparently a thing: "wtf how am i supposed to get my culver's green."

Not sure that a single soda fountain change, no matter how beloved the replaced beverage, is going to keep the Culver's cult away from their happy place though. Yet, you never know what will be the straw that breaks the camel's back and sends them running to Steak n' Shake.

Any self-respecting fast food or fast casual burger joint needs to have a fish sandwich option on its menu. And not just for Lenten time either. People want their seafood sammies and they don't want them to be treated as an afterthought. When that happens with fish, it doesn't take much to pick it out. Culver's fans have done just that.

"Worst fish sandwich in fast food?" went a possibly rhetorical subreddit headline, accompanied by pictures of the offending meal. A TikToker was equally let down by the sandwich in his video review, captioning it, "A Disappointing Experience."

Some customers, however, vehemently disagree with the hate, such as this Redditor: "I have no idea what your location is doing but mines looks nothing like this. The culvers cod sandwich is truly the best fish sandwich is [sic] fast food."

Finally, we come to a part of the Venn diagram where Starbucks and Culver's customers intersect. (Finally!) We'll call this the "mangled name category." For years, it has been a running joke with Starbucks orders. You know, seeing "Mort" on your venti instead of "Maude" and the like. (Admittedly, these are the same workers who hate writing cute messages on your Starbucks cup.)

With Culver's, patrons are also finding this relatively new addition to the chain's order delivery process to be a joke, where names are commonly butchered. But, the kind of joke where you don't laugh. So, maybe, not a joke at all. What's interesting is that the numbering of customer orders, sans a name, goes back to the very beginning of Culver's — when it folksily used upside-down cups with numbers written on them to keep track. What was wrong with that system?

"Why do you need my name? I have a number," is the subreddit headline from a Culver's worker who then wondered, "Anybody else hear this constantly from in-house guests ever since we started asking?" This is not without merit, with a customer on Reddit supplying their own, no-frills headline: "Being asked for your name is annoying as a customer." Many agreed, in this and other forums. It seems a small annoyance compared to some of the others, however, and therefore probably not enough to keep people away.

Culver's does custard. Dang near everyone in the Midwest knows that. It's part of what Culver's has built its empire on. And custard is not only a Culver's flagship offering, this egg yolk-and-ice-cream combo is a staple of its home state of Wisconsin, where Milwaukee is considered the unofficial frozen custard capital of the world. (Although, interestingly, frozen custard was actually invented in Coney Island, Brooklyn in 1919.)

Despite this pedigree, Culver's custard has been leaving many a patron wanting, like this one here on Reddit: "My caramel cashew flavor of the day that I got with my survey coupon today had exactly 3.5 cashews and no caramel. I was sad but I also paid nothing. If I had paid $3.49 I would have been a bit peeved. I do expect better from Culvers."

They're not alone. And a lot of the custard disappointment has to do with timing. "Dear Culvers," one Redditor said, "I love you but can you please stop making the concrete mixers immediately upon order and then letting them sit on the counter for 15 minutes while the food is made?" A Redditor who'd gone through a similar experience explained the dismal end result: "By the time I get home 10 minutes later my custard is a bowl of room temperature soup. Every time."

If you mess with folks' burger toppings, they will notice. After all, they are toppings, meaning it's literally the first thing their mouth or eyes encounter (after the bun). The specific data on how many customers lift up their bread to either examine their toppings, add condiments, or both, before they dig in, is pending (let's get on this, data people). Yet, we can certainly say that it's enough for patrons to have strong opinions on what's going on there.

"Does Culver's know mushrooms come on a mushroom Swiss?" was the opening salvo of one incensed Redditor. "EVERY TIME there is maybe 1-2 mushroom slices on the burger. Without fail." A fellow Reddit-based complainant tried ordering a double ButterBurger with "the works," only to bring it back to the counter when there seemed to be barely anything on it. And yet: "They made it the same way again before I found out 'the works' doesn't actually contain the works. What the hell? Why call it that."

The very term "toppings" can also serve as a false promise to some customers, like this one: "They're called toppings, not bottomings. You're delicious Culver's but stop making me eat my burgers upside down." Fair point made, describing it all as an "unwanted burger salad" when that happens. "Unwanted" is rarely a word associated with Culver's.

People are seeing shrinkflation everywhere. The notion has played mind games with the buying public, as there's been enough evidence of companies and manufacturers skimping on products to enhance their bottom lines at the expense of customers'. This has created armies of eagle-eyed shrinkflation spotters, and they're honing their gaze on some of their favorite custard.

One Redditor implied that this has become a regular occurrence with Culver's by subredditing, "Single scoop flavor of the day shrinkflation," followed up by explaining it's been "much smaller portions our last two visits." A commenter sympathized with the pic showing their corresponding plight: "That is a tough scoop there. My condolences."

Another commenter shared side-by-sides on Reddit of a robust ad photo for the Turtle Dove custard and the seemingly half-filled, actual, IRL version they ended up with. "What an embarrassment of a scoop," as they put it. Despite these concerns, Culver's continues to add to its repertory of custards, including a just-released peanut butter fudge brownie delight. You know folks will be giving that a go ... even if they put it on a scale first, or beside a measuring tape.

The basics. What makes them so fundamental can often be what gets them overlooked, and indeed taken for granted. Problem is, it's the consumer that gets the short end when that's the case. Imagine ordering a chair that's missing a leg, or a broom that shows up with no bristles. Culver's has seemed to have done the equivalent to more than a few of its customers, and it's not a good look.

A quick scan of Culver's Reddit reveals a couple of brain-defying mess-ups. There was the no-top-bun (wisecracking commenter: "They just wanted to save you some calories on the bread by giving you one bun), there was the no-bun-whatsoever ("... gave a burger no bun"), and there was even the both-buns-there-yet-somehow-no-patty ("Ordered a Colby Jack Pub, but they forgot the main ingredient. How does that even happen?").

Despite these burger mishaps, though, people still ache for Culver's to open in more parts of America. This might be because of the customer service, as outlined by this Redditor: "(The) Management I've had a conversation with at several Culver's locations have treated me well when a mistake was made." And things even turned out okay for that aforementioned burger-less burger Redditor: "My husband said they remade my burger and gave him 2 free medium onion rings as well. I'm enjoying my burger now."

Each Culver's is independently run, despite being under the larger corporate parent. As a result, locations are not simply cookie-cutter copies of each other. This can be for better or for worse. In keeping with the subject of this article, we're focusing on the worse part; and that entails the at-times maddening inventory differences from Culver's to Culver's.

"It doesn't make sense to have an item in some restaurants but not others," aired a Redditor, reflecting a general confusion that some customers have in this regard. When it comes to a specific menu item, there's not just confusion, but despondency, like with this Redditor: "I'm in Michigan and all the Culver's locations near me do NOT CARRY THE HOT COCOA CONCRETE MIXER AND I AM SAD."

Blame and accusations get thrown around, fairly or not. "Most likely a lot of stores are lazy and choose not to run those flavors," posted one Redditor. Another commenter, however, had a measured perspective that keeps them coming back: "It's not mandatory to eat there. I'm fine with their selections." Shockingly sensible.