The Burger King You Grew Up Going To Looks Way Different Today

Do you remember when, decades ago, Burger King restaurants were dim and somewhat dreary, with popcorn ceiling tiles, wood-paneled walls, and pleather backing on the booths? I remember it all too well.

Working at Burger King in 1989 as a teenager was my first-ever job. I worked many hours, so I had ample time to become quite familiar with the interior. The light was fluorescent. The color palette was brown and retro-rusty. And the whole place was a dissonance of chatter and noise: beeping when the fries were done, a ding to signal the arrival of a drive-thru patron, the slamming of the old-school cash register drawer, and voices ordering Whoppers or asking for extra ketchup.

The dining room floor was still carpeted back then. I know this because when I was the dining room hostess I swept up discarded fries from the shag carpeting with an old-timey, vacuum-like floor-sweeper contraption. I also had to mop the sepia-colored floor tiles (or was it linoleum?).

The menu selection wasn't huge. We mostly had one or two basic options in each menu category, though I fondly remember the now-discontinued Burger King Italian Chicken Sandwich. You could get classics like a Whopper or Whopper Jr., but there weren't all the bells and whistles and plant-based options like there are today. My uniform was pretty hip for the era: A navy blue and brick-red polo shirt, black pants, and a baseball cap, all of which smelled permanently like meat.

In the past several years, Burger King has been working on revamping its image. That includes not only its restaurants but also its menu (including its new chicken nuggets) and service features, including programs such as the Burger King Whopper Guarantee. Restaurants now look modern, trendy, and cutting-edge. Burger King locations today have all the latest technology and kitchen equipment, and their sleek design looks like something that should be on the cover of Architectural Digest, unlike the chain's slightly older design model known as 20/20, which dates back to the late 2000s. The concept was somewhat futuristic, like a big-city diner with bright red chairs, exposed brick, and corrugated metal.

Among the most recent Burger King design templates are the Garden Grill and Sizzle, which were implemented during a recent major restaurant upgrade. There were around 80 restaurants with the Sizzle design in the United States in 2025, with plenty more in the works. These restaurants incorporate digital ordering kiosks, digital drive-thru technology, and contemporary design elements such as open, industrial ceilings and flashy, Whopper-centric décor. The exterior of these restaurants gives off a Frank Lloyd Wright vibe: plenty of steel and glass, contemporary lines and angles, and a very boxy-looking layout. Burger King plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in this new look.