What's The Biggest Burger You Can Get At In-N-Out?

When eating a double cheeseburger from your favorite fast food establishment, you might find yourself wondering just how many patties you can really ask for on your burger. While there are some examples of adding an absurd amount of patties — Wendy's T-Rex Burger being perhaps the most well known — a true meat lover is likely to find themself wondering how extreme they can go. In the case of In-N-Out, the upper limit is believed to be four patties, though the restaurant chain technically doesn't have an official limit on how many patties you can get.

Now, more specifically, the limit of four patties comes by way of the restaurant's 4x4 burger — meaning four patties and four slices of cheese — which is a known entity on the In-N-Out's not-so-secret menu, joining beloved items like the grilled cheese and the protein-style burger. The 4x4 is widely considered the biggest burger that staff members are permitted to make at the establishment, so while you might be tempted to ask kindly for a fifth or maybe even a sixth patty, it's highly unlikely that your request will be granted.

Now, if you've been an In-N-Out fan for over two decades, you may remember a time when this upper limit on the number of patties you can get did not exist. That was before one customer in 2004 ordered an unprecedented 100x100 burger from an In-N-Out in Las Vegas. A photo of the gargantuan burger has gone viral several times over the years, leading countless people to wonder why on earth they could no longer order such a monstrous menu item. Unfortunately, the reason comes down to health and safety concerns. Beyond the 100x100 burger reportedly being 19,490 calories — a sum that is monstrous even when it's split between several friends — some of the meat was undercooked due to the sheer amount of patties being grilled to satisfy just one order.

Ultimately, it proved to be a logistical nightmare for In-N-Out staff to continue accommodating customers who would ask for these obscenely large burgers. The 100x100 incident, however, is believed to have been the nail in the coffin for the limitless patty policy, as In-N-Out began rolling out its 4x4 limit on the burger in the mid-2000s, much to the chagrin of Americans who enjoy taking on intense food challenges in their free time.