The new Jack in the Box Buttery Jack – Redic or Delic?
During the Super Bowl, I saw the commercial for Jack in the Box‘s new Buttery Jack hamburger. In the ad, they picked normal people off the street try a “New Burger” and asked them if they could see this burger at Jack In the Box.
As expected, they cherry picked folks extolling the golden virtues of the burger and then “shocked” then they were told that the burger came from Jack in the Box. In one version of the commercial, Jack actually comes out to ambush the unwitting testers.
Does the actual burger live up to the commercial hype?
Lets break this down.
First let’s acknowledge that at the restaurant level, your burger will never look the one on the commercial. In the world of fast food, the actual product you get varies significantly in presentation. See an example of this below based on my experience (left).

Buttery Jack : Actual (left) and Commercial (right)
Notice that the bun was a little squashed and over toasted. The biggest distraction was the over application of lettuce, I could practically make a side salad with amount of romaine in my burger. With this said, the presentation was as expected.
Anatomy of a Buttery Jack Burger “Classic”
The first thing you notice is that the burger is wrapped in a sheath of paper, this is both for your protection and pleasure. Between the beef juice, melted butter and tomato sauce, this burger can get messy. The paper wrapping is the only thing that separates you and a dry cleaning bill.

Buttery Jack Wrapped for your protection and pleasure
Bun
The bun is of much higher quality than your standard fast food restaurant bun, it is akin to something I would get at a sit down casual dining restaurant like Chili’s or TGIF. The bread is fluffy, springy and had a over reaching sweet butter flavor. The bun itself is grilled, so expect some crispiness and inherited butter.
Creamy Tomato Sauce
The next layer is the creamy tomato sauce that is applied to both sides of the bun. The application is generous, just sitting on the other side of slightly too much. The sauce is sweet and a little tangy, I did not personally pick up that it was a creamy tomato sauce until I did some research.
Burger Patty
The next layer revealed their special 1/4 pound beef patty (weighed before cooking), which is formed into a slightly squared shape. The meat itself tasted better than the standard Jack in the Box burger meat and it had a better mouth texture. It is still not as good as a Eureka Burger, but still impressive for fast food.
Garlic Herb Butter
The Melted Garlic Herb Butter was actually impressive and the most memorable part of the burger’s flavor profile. Although the butter is meant to be a flavor multiplier, it actually provided a constant flavor note through the entire flavor palate. The butter flavor was sexy, but it did not dominate.
Vegetation and Cheese
Like I previously noted, they need to seriously cut back on the amount of lettuce they used in this burger. I like the fact that they are using whole romaine leaf, but the lettuce leaf should be trimmed and reduced The two tomato slices were fresh, no issues there
The burger features a slice of provolone cheese. I think the provolone adding quite a bit of flavor to the burger and was a great choice.

Jack Butter Burger Diagram Veges
My reaction to the Buttery Jack Burger
If I were to be ambushed on the street and asked to try the new burger, I would be able to spot this as a fast food burger. With that said, this is one of the best fast food burgers on the market right now. I really appreciated the higher quality meat, fresh produce and bun. The burger’s namesake, butter, really added something and there is nothing like this in the fast food market.

Tom Eating Butter Jack
When I first picked up, smelled, and tasted the Buttery Jack, it had some of the best traits of burgers found premium burger joints. It was as if Jack in the Box Food Scientist went to Mick’s Karma Bar in Irvine and Eureka! to do research. As the Buttery Jack tasted like a fast food version of Mick’s Karma Bar’s “Karma Burger”and the Eureka!’s “Bone Marrow burger.” No there is not a comparison to either of these burgers in terms of quality; although, for fast food, they nailed it.

Jack in the Box
Buttery Jack Price
The price of the Buttery Jack is slightly more expensive than their standard premium burger, but I think it was a fair price.
- The “Classic” Buttery Jack: $4.49 plus tax
- The “Bacon Swiss” Buttery Jack: $4.99 plus tax
Buttery Jack Nutritional Information
If you are eating fast food, you don’t care about the calories because either you don’t care, too young to care, or giving yourself a much deserved post yoga treat. I pulled up the nutritional, if you really must know.
CALORIES | 816 |
CALORIES FROM FAT | 471 |
TOTAL FAT(G | 52 |
SATURATED FAT(G) | 23 |
Trans Fat (G) | 2 |
CHOLESTEROL(MG) | 128 |
SODIUM(MG) | 1148 |
POTASSIUM(MG) | 484 |
CARBOHYDRATES(G) | 50 |
DIETARY FIBER(G) | 4 |
SUGARS(G) | 12 |
PROTEIN (G) | 37 |
See my other reviews
The Carl’s Jr All-Natural Burger
Orange County Restaurant Week 2015 Top Picks
Best Burgers in Orange County – Part 1 – South Orange County
50 Shades of Grey Food Analysis
Buttery Jack from Jack in the Box
Best Las Vegas Buffet Bacchanal or Wicked Spoon
I’ve been curious about this burger since I saw the commercial, so I’d probably give it a go. Although, to be honest, I only ever go to Jack In the Box for their egg rolls and Oreo shakes lol.
You should give my favorite fast food joint, Paul’s Place, a try (if you haven’t already). They label themselves as gourmet fast food (I assume because of the higher quality products they use), and they have some awesome stuff. Their salads are HUGE –like “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” huge. If you go, they have a few locations, but the one on Knott Ave. & Orangethorpe is the best one IMO.
Jennifer,
It was actually pretty good for fast food. The egg rolls and shakes do rock at Jack in the Box, but I much prefer the two tacos when I don’t get the burgers 😉
Okay, so I did it. I went and got myself a Buttery Jack. It was pretty good as far as fast food burgers go! I didn’t have as much of a lettuce issue as you did (thankfully).
When I still live in Texas , Jack in the box was my favorite fast food place. Sadly it doesn’t exist here in Florida
But the burger looks delicious even with the extra lettuce 😛
I had no idea that Jack in the Box was not in Florida! What a shame, I love their two tacos deal.
I wish there were a Jack in The Box around here. When I was living in California, there was one right up the street. When I think about it, it was one on just about every street.
This looks like such an awesome burger! I love the photos of you going to town!
Quite a fair review. I liked the “both for your protection and pleasure” line. I’m not a massive fastfood fan, but in the past I have had and seen people wearing more food then when they entered the take away.
Wow. Those calories are huge, Jack in The Box is truly one of the best restaurant at our place. Now there’s a lot of reason to visit it this week. Thank you for the review