10 Frequent Complaints Customers Make About Culver’s

Sure, Culver’s has a big place in many of our hearts for bringing a taste of Wisconsin to those of us who can’t go there in person, but that doesn’t mean customers don’t have complaints about what they don’t like. The chain does plenty of things very well, but it doesn’t get everything right. Customers still appreciate the chain for its warm hospitality, delicious ButterBurgers, and rich frozen-custard-based desserts. However, they’re not turning a blind eye to what the chain could do better. Some are things that we think the chain could genuinely work to improve, while others are central to Culver’s personality and will likely never change.

Even loyal fans have complaints, but there’s enough to love that most customers keep visiting anyway. While long-time fans certainly know what they like from the menu, they likely also know which menu items to avoid. Some other things might annoy them, too, like some changes to the ordering process, menu, prices, and portion sizes. The good news is that we have explanations that might make you feel better about some of your complaints, and hacks to avoid others. At the end of the day, though, you’ll have to decide whether these 10 complaints about Culver’s are dealbreakers for you or not.

Culver’s is a place you think of more as an upscale sit-down hamburger place. So, you do expect the prices to be higher than, say, McDonald’s. While prices are rising everywhere, longtime customers are feeling some extreme sticker shock concerning the price of the most basic order. Plus, customers complain about how the price compares to the quality.

One longtime customer spent around $27 for two people to eat in 2026 for a combo meal (with fries and a drink), chili, and a soft drink. To add to the disappointment, they said that the chicken tasted frozen. Those comparing prices and quality between Culver’s and McDonald’s find Culver’s costs more, but not every item is better in quality — like the fries (more about Culver’s fry quality later).

A person on social media claiming to be a Culver’s employee explained that the extra cost is related to the fact that everything is made to order and it’s more of a fast luxury restaurant than regular fast food. You’re paying a little extra for a clean dining area, hot, fresh food made with more care, and hospitality. If you plan to visit often, it’s worthwhile to sign up for rewards on the app to balance out the higher cost and find coupons.

With customers complaining about high prices at Culver’s, it makes sense that portion sizes have decreased as ingredient costs skyrocket. However, it’s still complaint-worthy when loyal customers come in expecting the same portions they’re used to getting.

Regular customers immediately notice when portion sizes get smaller. We’ve even seen complaints on social media that dogs are getting shorted with smaller pup cups. Some people seem to think that the official portion sizes may not be decreasing as much as individual franchise owners are enforcing standard portions to keep costs under control. Whereas employees might have once been more generous with portions, there may now be some specific guidelines. Items that seem smaller to customers include the size of the fish in sandwiches and meals, which isn’t something that is necessarily subject to portion control.

Some customers have reported knowing which locations give generous portions and which skimp. The skimping can be out of control and more likely the product of an employee not caring enough to notice how little they’re giving customers. For example, a pint of custard should be 16 ounces, but customers on social media have reported just getting 8 ounces. Sometimes it goes the other direction, too, with customers getting more ice cream than the order should.

A big complaint at Culver’s, just like at so many other restaurants, is that some beloved items have been discontinued. For customers who always went to Culver’s for that one favorite thing and then it suddenly disappeared, losing a favorite has sometimes turned them off to the chain altogether.

There are discontinued items all over the Culver’s menu that customers miss. Some missing mains include sandwiches like the Philly Ribeye Steak Sandwich and Shaved Rib Sandwich. Some who loved the chain’s fried chicken still ask for its return. Surprisingly, the chain discontinued green beans from its sides menu, leaving broccoli as the only green option that’s not a salad. It also discontinued sweet potato fries as a seasonal product, much to the dismay of those who loved them.

There are several highly-missed dessert menu items as well, like the discontinued Orange Creamsicle frozen custard flavor. There’s also some controversy about whether Cherry Coke replacing Mello Yellow on the drink menu is the best thing to ever happen or the worst.

Lots of people enjoy Culver’s fish sandwiches, but the sandwich quality doesn’t seem to be consistent. Some people on social media go as far as to say that it’s one of the best (if not the best) chain restaurant fish sandwiches around. When we compared Culver’s North Atlantic cod to McDonald’s Filet O’Fish, we found Culver’s to have far better quality. However, a fair number of people complain about the fish as well, with some even thinking it’s the worst fish sandwich they’ve had from a fast food restaurant.

Customers on social media who usually enjoy Culver’s have been surprised when they tried a fish sandwich only to find that it doesn’t look or taste good. One complaint is that sometimes it tastes fishier than expected, sometimes being bad enough to throw away. Another had noticed that the fish sandwiches were tasting slightly fishier than the year before. We’ve also seen multiple people on social media with good-looking sandwiches complaining that they don’t have much flavor, regardless of whether they were eating cod or walleye (which shows up on the menu yearly during Lent).

Both fish get complaints, but the walleye seems to get more. One problem is that Culver’s leaves the skin on its walleye. Some people on social media claiming to be walleye fishermen or who have had fresh-caught walleye did note that walleye generally tastes fishy when the skin is left on, which they think is affecting the flavor.

One of the complaints people have about Culver’s is that the food takes so long. However, all the complaining in the world isn’t going to change this since it’s part of what makes Culver’s special; the chain cooks every meal when you order it rather than putting everything under heat lamps.

Even when customers know everything is made to order, they still sometimes complain about longer wait times. It’s not unheard of for waits of 10 to 15 minutes between ordering and when customers get their food. However, there have been some people who have had even longer wait times, like 30 minutes in the drive-through, which is certainly excessive.

Several people on social media claiming to work for Culver’s say that the goal for their particular location is to get food out in 5 minutes for indoor dining and 4 minutes for drive-thru customers. Other locations have a goal of 8 minutes. That said, sometimes reaching that goal is just not possible if the restaurant is busy. To keep customers happy, some locations even offer free ice cream scoops if they don’t meet their normal time goals. If you see that the restaurant is busier than usual, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect to wait around 15 minutes for your food. A 30-minute wait should be a rarity, but it’s not unheard of if it’s super busy and there aren’t many people working in the kitchen.

When it comes to the best types of fries, it seems like not too many restaurants get crinkle-cut fries right, including Culver’s. It’s a great fry type when it doesn’t taste like glue, end up getting grease-logged, or end up mushy. Customers on social media complain that Culver’s crinkle-cut fries often turn out mushy, soggy, limp, and flavorless.

Culver’s fries don’t have to be bad. There are people who swear that their location does a great job with its fries. It seems that the secret to getting good fries at Culver’s is for the employees to time them and not pull them out of the grease too early because they’re in a hurry to get orders out within a certain time frame. One customer said that the workaround they’ve found for ensuring they get good fries is to ask for them to be cooked extra crispy, which is actually an online ordering option. Ordering them extra crispy keeps them from being mushy and instead yields fries that are soft inside and crispy outside, which is exactly what you want from a good crinkle-cut fry. Since they tend to taste unseasoned, another hack a supposed employee has mentioned is to ask for them to be made with the burger seasoning: a mixture of salt and pepper. Of course, you can add those seasonings at the table as well.

With Culver’s having its start in Wisconsin and having so many dairy-centric menu items (ButterBurgers, frozen custard, etc.), you’d really expect the cheese curds to be top-notch. Culver’s cheese curds are breaded and fried unaged cheese chunks that have been coming from the same family farm for nearly 20 years. As such, if you’ve never had cheese curds before, you’d probably think Culver’s would be the place to go to find out what the big fuss is all about. Unfortunately, customers don’t get that excited about them, which is a shame. Not only is the texture problematic, but so is the cheese quality.

We’ve seen Wisconsinites on social media declare that Culver’s cheese curds are the worst representation of cheese curds. Some go so far as to say that Culver’s offers faux Wisconsin food (even the ButterBurgers), like fast food taco places are faux Mexican. They say the cheese curds taste more like something cheap you’d get from the frozen section of the grocery store or like cheap restaurant mozzarella sticks. They’re rubbery and don’t always make a squeaking noise against your teeth like fresh cheese curds should. Plus, they’re breaded rather than battered. If the chain hand-battered curds on site, they could be so much better. What’s really sad is that we’ve found people on social media saying that Dairy Queen, Freddy’s, and A&W have better cheese curds, and those chains aren’t even originally from Wisconsin.

Speaking of menu items you’d expect to be amazing from a Wisconsin dairy-centric chain, the mac and cheese was also disappointing when it made a menu comeback. If you walked in thinking about creamy Wisconsin cheese and automatically ordered mac and cheese to get your cheese fix, you probably wished you tried something else instead. Culver’s mac and cheese certainly looked good — like home-cooked macaroni or something you’d get from an old-fashioned cafeteria-style restaurant. While it was available, it unfortunately had a lot of complaints. If it makes another comeback, we hope it returns improved.

Both the texture and flavor of the mac and cheese were subpar, looking like something that would rank at the bottom of a ranked list of frozen mac and cheese brands. When it came to the table, it often looked like someone tossed some shredded cheese on top and threw it in the microwave to melt it. In fact, people on social media claiming to be Culver’s crew members confirmed that this was pretty much how it was prepared, but it included both Wisconsin cheese sauce as well as shredded. Customers complained about it being bland without any seasonings, sometimes not being blended together as it should be, and being greasy. It seems it sometimes didn’t get stirred. So, stirring the macaroni with the cheese can sometimes improve the flavor experience. Although if the noodles come soggy, there’s no fixing that.

If you have food allergies, one thing that can be super-problematic at restaurants is not being able to trust that the location is using dedicated fryers to keep allergens away from your food. People with certain allergies depend on fries being contaminant-free, but they aren’t always.

There are many times when employees cross-contaminate the fries with other menu items. One person on social media with allergy concerns talked to the owner of their local Culver’s, who admitted that sometimes employees will throw corn dogs into the fry fryer. The reason given was that corn dogs like to float to the top, which means one side won’t get as well cooked, but throwing fries on top of them keeps them lower in the oil. Another problem comes when someone makes a big order of fried sides, and employees use the extra room in the fry fryer to get the order out quickly. Another cross-contamination possibility happens if the oil from various fryers is mixed together during the filtration process.

If you have severe allergies, it’s sadly best just to avoid the fries. They’re not listed on the gluten-free menu because of the possibility of contamination. And if they’re possibly cross-contaminating the fries with gluten, then there’s a chance of contaminating them with other things, too.

Sometimes, there’s nothing more annoying than having to tell your name to random strangers at a coffee shop or restaurant when number systems would work just fine. In fact, Culver’s has a number system to help employees get the right order out to the right table, but employees also ask for your name, which can be extra annoying.

Culver’s hasn’t always asked for customers’ names with dine-in orders and even at the drive-thru, but the chain asks for a name and gives a number as an extra layer of identification to help prevent order mixups and to provide a personal touch. Only, it’s not the type of personal touch many people wanted. Some people claiming to be Culver’s employees have said on social media that they find it awkward, and it’s not always appreciated. They said that some customers find it creepy or invasive. Some customers balk because it’s yet another thing they worry is being tracked. Plus, it can be embarrassing for employees to have to ask regulars for their name if they don’t remember it. It also seems redundant when people use the rewards app, which already lists the customer’s name.

Of course, uncommon and unique names get misheard, mispronounced, and misspelled, like on Starbucks cups. For simplification, some people with less common names just choose a common name that’s not theirs to give. Fake names abound. Apparently, Bob is a common fake name people give.