60 free Hamburger trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
57 free hamburger trivia questions with answers. Nobody agrees who invented the hamburger. A Wisconsin teenager, two brothers at a New York fair, a Texas lunch-counter cook, a Danish immigrant in New Haven and an Oklahoma farmer all have a claim, and this quiz walks through every one of them before moving on to the sandwiches that conquered the world. Expect the origins of the word, the first fast-food chain and its five-holed sliders, how the Big Mac and Whopper got their names, the cheeseburger's Pasadena birth, Wimpy and Popeye, Guinness records for size and price, plant-based patties that bleed, and regional oddities from Australian beetroot to Japanese rice buns and Hawaii's loco moco. It suits pub quizzes, food nerds and anyone who has argued about the best burger in town. About a third of the questions are easy, and a handful are genuinely hard. Every answer was checked against a reference page, mostly Wikipedia and Guinness World Records, and the source sentence appears under each question.
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Q 01The word "hamburger" derives from the name of which German city?
Hamburg
Exactly how the city and the sandwich are linked is still contested; one theory credits Hamburg America Line ships that began sailing to New York in 1847.
Q 02"Hamburger Charlie" Nagreen claims to have sold the first hamburger at an 1885 county fair in which state?
Wisconsin
He was 15 and flattened a meatball between two slices of bread so fairgoers could eat while walking; he returned to the Seymour fair every year until his death in 1951.
Q 03Louis' Lunch, which claims to have served the first hamburger in 1900, is in which city?
New Haven, Connecticut
The Library of Congress endorsed the claim in 2000; the burgers are still cooked in cast-iron vertical broilers made in 1898 and served on toast.
Q 04Ask for which condiment at Louis' Lunch and you can be shown the door?
Ketchup
The only permitted toppings are cheese spread, tomato and onion, and a sign warns that this is not Burger King and you do not get it your way.
Q 05At which event was the hamburger called "the innovation of a food vendor on the pike"?
1904 St. Louis World's Fair
The Chicago Daily Tribune had already described a five-cent hamburger steak sandwich cooked "while you wait" back in 1896.
Q 06Hamburger claimant Fletcher 'Old Dave' Davis ran his 1880s lunch counter in Athens in which state?
Texas
His burger came with mustard, Bermuda onion and a pickle on the side, and he and his wife Ciddy later ran a stand at the 1904 World's Fair.
Q 07The Menches brothers said they invented the hamburger in 1885 after running out of which ingredient?
Pork sausage
They found plain ground beef dry and bland, so they added coffee and brown sugar to the mix.
Q 08Which city did Oklahoma's governor proclaim 'The Real Birthplace of the Hamburger' in 1995?
Tulsa
The Bilby family says it was served on a yeast bun on July 4, 1891, at Grandpa Oscar's farm.
Q 09White Castle, credited as the first fast-food hamburger chain, opened in 1921 in which city?
Wichita, Kansas
Founders Walt Anderson and Billy Ingram started with $700; oddly, the chain has not had a restaurant in its birthplace since 1938.
Q 10How many holes are punched in each White Castle patty so it steams through without being flipped?
5
The patties cook on a bed of onions and water; in 2014 Time named the White Castle burger the most influential of all time.
Q 11White Castle's tiny square burgers are commonly known by what name?
Sliders
The chain trademarked the spelling "Slyder" and used it from 1985 to 2009.
Q 12White Castle co-founder Walt Anderson is credited with inventing which burger staple?
The hamburger bun
He is also credited with turning the kitchen into an assembly line, the template for all fast food that followed.
Q 13Franchisee Jim Delligatti created the Big Mac in 1967 and first sold it in Uniontown, in which US state?
Pennsylvania
It cost 45 cents; Delligatti said he received no royalties for it, just a plaque, and ate one every week.
Q 21Dave Thomas founded Wendy's on November 15, 1969, in which city?
Columbus, Ohio
Its square patties, with corners poking past the round bun to suggest plenty of meat, were modelled on Kewpee Hamburgers in Thomas's home town.
Q 22Fry cook Lionel Sternberger reputedly invented the cheeseburger in 1924 in which California city?
Pasadena
A 1928 menu from O'Dell's in Los Angeles listed a cheeseburger smothered in chili for 25 cents.
Q 23Two rival bars in which city claim the Jucy Lucy, a burger with molten cheese sealed inside the patty?
Minneapolis
Matt's Bar and the 5-8 Club sit three miles apart on Cedar Avenue; Matt's drops the "i" from Juicy and calls correctly spelled versions a shameless rip-off.
Q 14Before "Big Mac" stuck, the burger flopped in the marketplace under which name?
The Aristocrat
The Blue Ribbon Burger also failed; the winning name came from Esther Glickstein Rose, a 21-year-old advertising secretary at head office.
Q 15In which year was the Big Mac ingredients jingle, "two all-beef patties, special sauce...", commissioned?
1974
When Malaysia revived it in 2008, anyone who could recite the whole thing in under four seconds won a free Big Mac.
Q 16In which year did The Economist begin publishing its burger-price Big Mac Index?
1986
Pam Woodall introduced it as a semi-humorous illustration of purchasing-power parity, and it spawned the word "burgernomics".
Q 17Burger King's Whopper was introduced in which year, priced at 37 cents?
1957
Co-founder James McLamore picked the name because he thought it conveyed "imagery of something big".
Q 18Where was the Whopper Jr. accidentally created in 1963 for lack of Whopper bun moulds?
Puerto Rico
Manager Luis Arenas-Perez used the smaller regular buns on hand, and the result was adopted worldwide.
Q 19For an April Fools' Day prank in 1998, Burger King advertised a Whopper designed for which customers?
Left-handed people
The ad claimed all the condiments had been rotated 180 degrees to suit southpaws.
Q 20Which 1984 presidential hopeful used Wendy's "Where's the beef?" line in a debate against Gary Hart?
Walter Mondale
The director had wanted actress Clara Peller to say "Where is all the beef?", but her emphysema left her unable to manage the longer line.
Q 24Burger-mooching J. Wellington Wimpy debuted in 1931 in which comic strip?
Popeye
Creator E. C. Segar based his personality on William Schuchert, a theatre manager fond of tall tales and hamburgers.
Q 25Britain's Wimpy Bar chain opened its first outlet in 1954 inside a Lyons Corner House in which city?
London
The brand began as Wimpy Grills in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1934, and many UK branches were rebranded as Burger Kings in 1989 and 1990.
Q 26In the United States, National Hamburger Day falls on which date?
May 28
Cheeseburgers get their own day on September 18, and the UK marks a National Burger Day in late August.
Q 27The heaviest hamburger ever recorded by Guinness, at 1,164.2 kg, was built in 2017 in which country?
Germany
A team of six cooked it in Pilsting, Bavaria, on 9 July 2017.
Q 28What did Juicys Outlaw Grill in Corvallis, Oregon, charge for its record 777-pound burger?
$5,000
Listed at $5,000 with 48 hours' notice required, it was recognised by Guinness as the largest hamburger commercially available.
Q 29An In-N-Out burger ordered "Animal Style" is cooked in a thin layer of which condiment?
Mustard
It also gets pickles, grilled onions and extra spread; the chain has trademarked both Animal Style and Protein Style.
Q 30Palm trees planted in an X outside In-N-Out nod to founder Harry Snyder's favourite film. Which one?
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
In the film, the treasure is buried under "the big W" formed by four palm trees.