I haven't eaten at Johnson's in years because their limited hours are very difficult for me to make it by there.  I've told everyone I know how good the food is here. As of today I will NEVER tell anyone about this place again.  I was headed thru town on a business trip with my son.  The timing was perfect for us to get an early seat at Johnson's. I've told him about this place for years and today was the day.  Food was ok, not what it used to be.  The guy cooking (I assume he must be the owner) never used a protective barrier between his hands and the food.  He was grazing on French fries right there in front of me.  The extra cheese is kept at room temperature on a shelf over the grill.  I am also in the food service industry and this is huge infraction!  There's also cross contamination happening everywhere here.  But surprisingly that isn't what bothered me.  It was the lack of customer service.  My son loves sweet tea as most teenage boys do.  Not once did the wait staff or owner turn around and ask me if they could get me a refill.  It seemed like he was more concerned begging for free hats from a customer.  Our drinks were empty after the fries were brought to us (this was 5 minutes before the  burgers hit the counter).  I noticed that the guy beside us, obviously a frequent customer, was receiving refills on his drinks.  I was quite surprised when the waitress never came back to check on us or offer us more drinks.  I sat there and waited for the check which never came, nor did the waitress tell me that they keep the tickets in a basket by the register. So I observed others leaving and then recognized their system (or lack of).  I approach the register and set my small 16 oz empty cup in front of the register and say "I'd like a refill please and to pay my bill". The kid locates my ticket and rings me up, hands me my change then turns around to help another customer picking up a take out order.  I wait  very patiently for him to finish his order and I say " excuse me sir, I'd like to get my refill please". He says "have you already paid?" .  Now remember I HAVEN'T MOVED AN INCH!  I'm still standing where I was when I paid him 2 minutes earlier!!  He then says "I have to charge you for a refill and you've already paid". Now lets look at the obvious...I told him I wanted a refill before I paid and NOBODY ever told me there is a charge for refills.  He could've easily charged me for it 2 minutes earlier when I was paying but didn't care about any sort of customer service.  Now let me break it down for you.  I can make 3 gallons of sweet tea for about $1.75 at my restaurant in Raleigh.  It's a 16oz Pepsi cup with about 6 ounces of ice in it.  Simple math tells you that only about 10 ounces of tea will fit in my already paid for cup.  It costs a business owner PENNIES to refill your glass of tea.  That's why EVERYBODY gives you free tea refills.  But not here...  So I leave and drive two blocks east to Bojangles and pay .99 cents for a 32ounce glass of tea for my teenage son.  Now I'm all about running a tight ship but not refilling a small cup of tea! Unreal!!
Review Source:I'd read about Johnson's Drive In in an article in Our State a year or so ago and was excited to finally get the chance to eat lunch there today. We arrived around noon and the wait for a table was less than 10 minutes. When the hurried waitress arrived to take our orders I started off telling her I wanted everything but mayo and tomato. She abruptly cut me off and told me to tell her only what I wanted on the burger. Since this was my family's first time I told her I didn't know what came on their cheeseburgers as the only menu is a small lettered board indicating the cost of each item sold. She quickly told me all the way is with chili, onions and slaw. Others in my party asked for pickles but were quickly told they didn't offer those. Everyone else ordered their burgers all the way as well because they could tell the waitress was getting frustrated with us. Whoever compared the wait staff to the Soup Nazi was correct. Drinks arrived first followed by fries which we finished before the burgers arrived. I had to remind everyone to go easy on their drinks as refills were not free. Burgers finally arrived. Mine was good and cheesy but not the orgasmic experience Our State and some of these reviews described. My wife bit into a piece of gristle about half way into hers and that did it for her. I wasn't about to bring this to the attention of our waitress. The other two in our party described their burgers as OK. We all agreed that Johnson's burgers fell far short of burgers from Cook Out, Five Guys and Smashburger. Next time I travel through Siler City I'll keep on driving and stop at Cook Out in Asheboro.
Review Source:Truly a greasy spoon hamburger joint with a wait list past 11:50. Â Please understand, the service is good, the burgers are fresh, not frozen and awesome and yet a bit greasy for me. Â There goal is to get people in and out as fast as possible. Â The prices are reasonable but there are no free refills, they want to fill your seat again, Â not allow you to socialize with free refills. Â Knowing that, the service was phenomenal and friendly. The cheese everyone talks about is velveeta. Â This is a place you need to experience. Â Get there early and plan to get in and out or get takeout. Â They run out of hamburgers about everyday and when they do, they stop serving. Â ENJOY
Review Source:We ate at Johnson's Drive In on our way to Southern Supreme Gourmet Specialties in Bear Creek. Â Got there early - 10:45 A.M.. and the place was full! Â We could have sat at the counter, but we waited for a booth instead. Â Ten minutes later and the counter seats were all occupied too, and people were waiting in line to sit down. Our hamburgers were delicious, but I had the crazy feeling we were in a Jerry Seinfeld "Soup Nazi" episode. By the way, I'd skip the fries. They aren't nearly as good as the burgers.
Review Source:I tried Johnson's Drive In and was very disappointed. Where to start....the taste. We ordered two hamburgers with mustard, onion, tomato and two pepsi's. The owner/cook presses on the patties completely squeezing out all juices. As a result the burgers were very dry and not very good.
Now for the real issue and its the cleanliness of the staff and place. Again the cook/owner never washed his hands! We watched him pattie out burgers with his bare hands then place the raw meat on the wood board in front of the grill. Which by the way he puts the bread on before grilling it. He puts the raw patties on the grill, handels the bread and never washes his hands. He had a drink without a lid above the grill. He was eating fries at the grill. Saw him even lick his fingers!!! To top it off. The cook/owner started sweeping with a broom while the burgers cooked. Again no hand washing. The young guy running the register would handle money then take cups by the lips and fill them with ice. No hand washing. A lady putting the burgers together several times would touch her face and hair while making the orders. No gloves, no washing. It is very disgusting if you really watch the staff.
Some how this place has a health rating of 101! Either the health inspector is untrained , indifferent, blind or scared to close down such a famaous place I do not know.
I will challenge anyone from Johnsons or the SilerCity health department who inspects restraunts to email me and explain how this operation can still be allowed to operate and how they justify the high health rating. Contact me at <a href="mailto:sbird407@yahoo.com">sbird407@yahoo.com</a>..If Johnsons really was inspected for public health they would be closed. The food was only average. This place runs on old memories from the very aged clientel. Most customers are 70 years or older. The poor sanitation and quality of the food is lost on people remembering happier days. Or maybe they just do not know any better. I think the food critics suffer from this same malady. People want so despertely to know little mom and pop places still exist that they overlook a lot. The reviews on this board are baffling to me.
Again I want the health department to defend their inspection!!!
We heard how great Johnson's is so we made the trip. First of all yes the hamburgers are made fresh. Second if you get it with cheese you better love cheese because that is all you will taste. The three in my family had them all the way but all we could taste was the cheese. The batch of fries we had were soaked in grease and over cooked. I did notice that some of the regulars had ordered fries and they looked much better. Three cheeseburgers, two order of fries and three sweet teas $19.54 plus tip.
Review Source:After 60 yrs of making a mouth watering Chesse Burger, I think they've got
it down pat. We've been stuffing our belly's here for over 30 some yrs. When they sell that last burger of the day you hope your the lucky one it goes to. My wife has eat these wonderful treats all her life,and she still
looks forward each time we go. A family owned Drive-In since day one.
Sit at the counter and watch your burger made. From the time that round
ball of meat is put on the grill, mashed out then flipped your mouth starts to
water. He slices a piece of velvetta chesse, then put's the chesse on the burger, then places the top of the bun on the meat while his helper to his left add's the condiments of your choice. Except no pickles, never understood that, but I manage to eat several of them each time I go. Some
times more than I should. Next time your wondering down 64 thru Siler
City stop in.......
This is a hand-pattied hunk of the freshest ground chuck (not prissy Kobe beef), and its high-fat (70/30 at a minimum) flavor is trapped within the ultimately juicy patty by frying it fast on a sizzling hot and time-seasoned flat grill, leaving just the right amount of crispy, flavorful char on its outermost layer.
What do you put on a patty like that? Vermont cheddar? Goat cheese? No! You put classic American cheese on it, whether pulled from a thin fold of cellophane or hacked off a big block the size, shape, and weight of a good brick! This is no Snooty Beauty. On the contrary, this is perhaps the most classic of the Classic Rocks genus! An American cheeseburger at its most fresh and pure, with school-bus-yellow, artery-clogging cheese all gooey over the patty, intermingling with the fatty grease, and so perfectly pressed between two steamy and greasy white bread buns.
I ordered a cheeseburger with the works, which included slaw, chili, and onions. The order of the build saw the toppings hiding beneath the patty, and a hunk of Velveeta melted on top. The patty clearly was made immediately before being fried on the griddle. It was medium to medium-well. The bun was tremendous, cooked on the griddle with the meat. The kicker was that it was buttered. A very nice touch.
I discovered this little gem via an email buddy about 15 years ago. He wasn't from around here. In fact, I'm pretty sure he was somewhere west of the Mississippi. I don't remember much about him, but I remember Johnson's!
The best experience there is to sit at the counter behind the guy making the burgers. His coffee cup sits on the grill, keeping it warm as he literally throws down some of the best burgers anywhere.
That's right, he takes a cube of ground beef and slams it on the grill, smooshing it out with his spatula. He seasons the beef, and while it's cooking on one side, he had slices Velveeta without much precision at all. Fabulously irregular chunks of the cheese-ish substance are laid out and read for when he flips the burgers. The cheese is placed on the freshly-turned burgers and the top of the bun is mashed into the gooey cheese. It's an awesome site and an awesome taste!
I like mine with mustard, slaw, chili, and onions. YUM! It is true that they close when they run out of beef, so plan accordingly. It's a great place to hit on the way to the Zoo.
This unprepossessing diner/grill is the stuff of food lore on several different levels,  at least the local level. The first level is that the ground beef is incredibly fresh, never frozen, and that there is a limited amount daily because of these constraints and cost considerations. Since there is a limit, when the beef is gone, the burgers are done for the day - much like B's BBQ in Greenville, NC does with it's chopped pork  - I know this to be true, I've been there several times when the BBQ was gone. I cannot say the same for Johnson's burgers, yet - of course, I've always made sure to arrive by at least 11AM.
The second level of the lore has to do with the take-it/or-leave-it attitude of the staff, especially the owner. Some folks think it rises to the level of the Soup Nazi, but I've never really bought into that, but just to be safe, I've always kept moving and never ask for bread.
Now to the star, the burger. It is indeed excellent, rising almost to the level of the surreal. This hand-formed patty, cooked on a seasoned grill, loaded with a lot of  Velveeta like cheese , and what ever else you care for as topping, up to a point. As is my want, when in the presence of this kind of burger, I limit the toppings to maximize the taste - maybe just mayo & pickle. They have fries and such, but I have little memory of them.
This is a small place, and there is no drive-in service, despite the name, and there is no phone - so there are no call in orders - it is a first-come, first-served food scrum. Life is good, go there, Grasshopper.
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