Wendy's

Wendy's is a classic! It's no Burger King but it's not bad. Their burgers are square and don't taste that good, but honestly Burger King are the only burgers I think taste good, so I might be broken. Their chicken is decent, their salad/potato selection is on point, and they have a cute redheaded mascot. Plus it's cheap and everywhere! Road trip!

Spicy Chicken Sandwich: Pretty good! Just chicken, bun, a little mayo but not too much, tomato, and lettuce. A solid and filling sandwich, and a little spicy but not too bad. 6/10

Junior Cheeseburger 4 for 4$ meal: What a deal!!! The cheeseburger gave me heartburn but was pleasant otherwise. The fries were good and soft, good in BBQ sauce. I got coffee for the drink(!) which was very tepid but otherwise fine, they even included creamers. The nugs were the worst part, they tasted a little rancid but that's probably because I ran out of BBQ sauce to cover them up. I should buy BBQ sauce for home! 7/10

Junior Bacon Cheeseburger: This is a classic, although maybe a little too much mayo and could use more ketchup. But a nice compact burger, solid and reheatable in the microwave if you take off the top bun! 7/10

Caesar Side Salad: I keep getting this instead of the garden side salad by accident. Hmph. Anyway, it's decently big for a side salad, and the croutons and dressing are separate and have ingredients right on them for peace of mind. The salad just has lettuce, cheese, and cheese on it (parm of two types) which is kind of a lot, but it tasty enough. Fine but nothing special. 5/10

Junior Cheeseburger Deluxe: This is like the JBC but with no B. It's not bad, but I wish there were no mayo or pickles too. Also the burger is no Burger king burger. But it's filling. 6/10

Garden Side Salad: I finally got one, but it was labelled as "taco salad". IDK if that's a mistake or not, but this was pretty basic -- it's just lettuce, cheese, tomato, crouton. It was fine, not tasty or really healthy, but took a while to eat which is good. 5/10

Southwest Avocado Chicken Salad (half size): I got this because they got our order wrong and charged 20$ for just this and a fry. Oh well. The salad is good. The chicken and fact that it's a salad made me nervous, but it was fine. I didn't use the dressing, but it was still moist enough. The cheese was not cheddar which was surprisingly good. And the salad was then like 220 cal total, which is great. 7/10

Fries: I mean, fries are fries. But I like Wendy's fries way more than McDonalds, since they are softer and thicker. Fries are good if you have a ton of ketchup, otherwise they're pretty boring. Solid but I'm not sure the calorie information, might be spooky. 7/10

 

Cold Brew: Yikes. I was so excited about the addition of cold brew and breakfast over all, but the Wendys in Lanc is hot garbage. They don't wear masks and they gave me a frosty instead of a cold brew and we had to drive back around to get this. And then it tasted very bad. Did they pee in it? Honestly I hope so, because it tasted like trash. Chemically and very weird and bad. I still drank it but only out of desperation. 3/10

Maple Bacon Chicken Croissant: I'm not into mixing sweet and savory, but the internet likes this so I tried it. It was "meh". I didn't even realise I got the right thing because the croissant was like a regular bun almost -- I think it was just really stale? The bread still tasted good, with a syrupy sauce, but overall this package was not great. The chicken patty was fine, no soy, but it didn't seem to go with the sauce. The bacon also tasted really stale. The potato wedges side seemed like they could be decent but felt a little spongy/old. I should try a different non-shit Wendys someday when Covid is Cov-done. 5/10

Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburger: Yo, this was good. It could maybe use ketchup, because the patty flavor on its own isn't great, but the bread is nice like french toast, the pub sauce and onions are great, the bacon was more like bacon fat than pieces of bacon but was still good. Overall it was very tasty and honestly not TOO much food. 7/10

Dr. Pepper: Amazing soda even though I don't like soda. 7/10

Vanilla Frosty: This was OK, but not as good as the vanilla dessert options you can get at McDos or Arbys as a nut free human. Too icy or fake or somethin'. 6/10

Crispy Chicken BLT: You can't get this in a combo! But it's a solid chicken sandwich with bacon and cheese on there. Tasty. 7/10

Chicken Nugget Kids Meal: Honestly this is such a good deal. Less than 4$ for fries and nugs and a drink AND a toy! The nuggets were better than the spicy ones usually are, which is interesting. McDos has pea nuggets and Wendys has pea bread, so I have to check the ingredients 5000 times, but this was safe, anyway. And I got a bottle of water and a little crayon toy! What a life. 7/10

Iced Tea [Sweetened]: If you order Iced Tea, they give you sweetened Iced Tea. This is bad. It is way too sweet and not even lemony or complex. Also, I spilled it and it is sticky. 4/10

Iced Tea [Unsweetened]: After many failures, I finally converged on the unsweetened iced tea! (After reading the recipt, I learned it's just Diet Fuze). It tasted like plain iced tea. Much better than the sweetened one, although sadly, still sticky (and I didn't even spill it, but yet)! 6/10

Cobb Salad: This is the only safe salad left! It's fine, but there's no veg. Just chicken, cheese, egg, baco, tomato, and ranch dressing. It's supposed to come with onion crisps, but they only gave us one open bag for two salads, so neither me or my dad risked trying those. The salad was frozen, but it tasted OK. I wasn't allergic. 7/10

Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 6/10

Cello Whisps - Cheddar Cheese Crisps

These are good, but like La Croix, it seems a little overrated. People rave about these, but it's just dried cheese! Come on! Anyway. We're dealing with crunchy little circles of pure cheddar cheese (plus some salt, enzymes, etc). They do taste like the crunchy burnt bits of microwave mac and cheese edges, which is a very specific niche. It's good if you're into cheddar cheese. The texture is fun enough, they have lots of holes and so are light and airy (thus "whisp"), and if you suckle them rather than chomp chomp chomp, they have a very oily mouthfeel. I suppose this accounts for the 99% daily saturated fat!!! Anyway, I don't really want to binge a bunch of these, because it's a sharp (!) cheddar flavor, but I probably will eat them all anyway. Alas. At least they have protein.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

{TRUE lemon}

What a strange, stylised name. Anyway, these are little sugar like packets of lemon flavor (no sugar, just lemon crystals). It's a cute and convenient idea, but it doesn't excite me that much because I'm more of a coffee-as-drink-of-choice gal. I bet this would be good in hot or iced tea though. Anyway, I'm trying to drink more water, so this is good for that too. 1 packet is the same as one wedge of lemon, supposedly. I found it a little bit weaker than that, but maybe I go whole hog on my wedges (I mean, I do - I eat the fruit part, yom yom yom). The taste is authentic lemon though, it doesn't feel packaged or artificial or anything like that. No complaints!



Overall
Cost: 5/10 (5$ for 32 packs)
Taste: 6/10

P.J. Whelihan's

This place is basically Buffalo Wild Wings - a sports bar with lots of TVs, wings, burgers, etc. However, I am optimistic that the food is better at PJs (even though they don't have an online allergy menu...yet?). They have more than just chicken and burgers, they have salads, steaks, even pasta too. Granted, I didn't try any of those things - we only split some nachos, which were good and had nice white cheese sauce on them (as well as chili etc). I also got 2 blue moons (they were 4$, which is about standard). The waiter was nice, maybe a bit too attentive, but the atmosphere was pleasant and it was easy to see the TV from the table. Yay, world cup season! Anyway, the nachos were good, the menu looks promising, they have daily drink specials, and the place was clean. What more could you really want from a sports bar?

Cobb Salad (no bleu cheese): this was really good! Tasted refreshing and healthy and well-mixed, and just the right size. Dressing was fine but not overpowering, chicken and avo and egg were all good, very happy! 8/10

Pretzel nuggets: Not that many or very filling, but only 5$. Cheese was real cheese which was good. Boyf didn't like the cheese but the nuggets were OK for both of us. 6/10

Frozen Summer drink: This was tequila, bacardi strawberry, lemonade and sugar and whipped cream. It was great even though it made me nervous as usual. Only 5$! 8/10

PJ's ultimate combo: This is an app sampler, with wings (hardly sauced at all so I didn't love, but not terrible); tots (great and moist, I was impressed); mozz sticks (cold and average); and chicken fingers (better than Deer Park but really need dip of some sort). Overall it was more than enough food, very filling! I liked the tots. 6/10

Quesadilla: This was so dry!!! It was just dry chicken, a tiny bit of cheese, peppers and onions. I guess it was fine and didn't make me too ill but just it was so so dry. And it came with only sour cream to dip, no pico or guac? Amateur hour over here! 6/10

Basket of Tater Tots: This was the true neutral of food. Fine and a lot but very boring. 5/10

Loaded nachos (with chili, no sour cream): I ate way too much. I regret it all. Good though. 7/10

Cheese steak nachos: This was way better than I'd thought; the white american cheese is so good and I wish there were more. The lil steak was good too, and the green onions. Chips are fine and salty. but not enough cheese, and too much chips! Also very awkward to eat by yourself in a group. 7/10

Smokin' Pork BBQ sandwich: This was actually pretty good, very filling. It was odd looking and had a soft texture but tastes good, a lil spicy. There was a nice BBQ flavor. The fries were good. The cold slaw was not amazing, too creamy and no zip, but it was passable as a sandwich spread. 7/10

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Freeyumm Double Chocolate Cookie

This "cookie" was very dense and oaty. It looked like a thin hockey puck! There was certainly chocolate flavor, even creamy chocolate flavor, but overall this tasted more like an oatmeal chocolate dessert, but "healthy". I wish there were fewer oat bits actually. It's not terrible, but not really what I consider to be a cookie. The packaging is cute though, and it's fun to try something new and nut-free - but there are better options out there.






Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 5/10

Goya Medium Salsa Verde

"Medium-hot", huh???? If this is medium, then the medium Tostitos salsa from before is like "EXTRA SUPER MILD". What I'm saying is that this is very hot to me. I like it! It's not painful, even to my sensitive midwestern mouth, but it is spicy for sure. Way spicier than Chipotle's `hot' salsa (which I also think has a decent kick, to be honest).

The texture is almost that of applesauce (OK, sounds gross, but....) -- it's smooth, no big chunks of anything. Also tastes less acidic, less oniony, so I like it a lot. I haven't really had many green salsas because I'm scared of mole which has peanuts and is often green. And pesto! That famous Mexican pesto. Anyway I don't have a lot of salsa verdes to compare this to, but among the jarred salsas (and salsas in general) that I've had, this is one my favorites. It's really nice.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (about 3.30$)
Taste: 7/10

Coca-Cola

You know I'm going through some stuff when I review a can of Coke. But I'm trying to save money and I have a bunch of these cans leftover from a party in my fridge. So, Coke calories it is. To be honest, I've never been a big fan of sodas, especially colas or fruit sodas, but this was better than I remembered. The coldness, the can, the carbonation, all were pleasant things. I guess La Croix was a gateway drug. Anyway, the taste is still not great, it's so tar-y or sticky and the idea that it's just rotting my insides is hard to overcome. But it paired nicely with pizza and was fairly enjoyable and refreshing.




Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 5/10

Tostito's Chunky Salsa - Medium

I've been dealing with some tooth pain, so now is the perfect time to embrace mushy foods like salsa. I was lucky that someone left this (blissfully unopened) jar of salsa behind at a party, and now that I have 0200420 tortillas to go through, this salsa has been a real blessing. I'm sure it'd be good with tortilla chips as well, but I've been using it for tacos and breakfast quesadillas, and it really helps to cool down the hot food, which is great. The taste is good, just like you'd expect, and the "medium" is hardly spicy at all, which is good I think. It's like restaurant salsa but a little chunkier, brighter red, and less cilantro/garlic. Just tomato, pepper and onion in a tomato sauce. On its own it's unremarkable, but it's a nice moist addition to many Mex-adjacent foods.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Stouffer's Green Pepper Steak

This is more good than bad (thus the 6), but it's nothing special and I probably wouldn't get it again. It's not very big, which I guess isn't necessarily bad (only 270 cals!) but it's therefore not very satisfying either. The amount of watery sauce is too high for the amount of (so-so) rice. The beef strips are a cool thin-strip cut, they look like bamboo shoots but beef. They don't have much flavor, a little chewy, but didn't make me super itchy so that's good. The peppers and tomatoes are the highlight, and overall the flavor is that of a nice stuffed pepper/pepper steak, just a little muted. Nothing very objectionable to complain about, just fairly average on the whole.

Overall
Cost: 7/10 (On sale for 2.33$)
Taste: 6/10

Classico Marinara with Plum Tomatoes and Olive Oil

This sauce is perfectly serviceable. It's not my favorite marinara (I think that's actually Barilla!) but it's not the worst I've had (Prego?) either. It has decent firm chunks of tomato, a noticeable garlic flavor, and it isn't overwhelmingly sweet. It's a little watery, but not too much. A nice red color, tastes fresh, and does the job of a subtle red sauce - tastes good but not overpoweringly so. I have no issues with it, and if it were on sale again I'd pick up another bottle. Supposedly it lasts 5 days once opened, so we'll see about that!






Overall
Cost: 8/10 (2$)
Taste: 6/10

Goya White Corn Tortillas

What a deal. The thing about Goya is, it never tastes THAT good, but it's reliable and sooo cheap. Same deal with these tortillas. 30 for like, 3$ max, and they last for 1-2 weeks in the fridge. You just have to commit to a tortilla-only diet and you'll be saving mad dough.

Anyway, I don't love corn tortillas, but they've definitely grown on me lately thanks to the cheap and varied street tacos at California Tortilla. These particular tortillas are thicker than flour ones, more dense/lardy, with more flavor and firmness. I won't fool myself into thinking they're healthy, but at 60cals each, they're probably better for you than bread(???). I used these for some (bad) tacos, but they crack in the crease really easily, which is unfortunate. But would they really work for a quesadilla? I'm not sure what the solution is, and I've also started to get a little tired of these after eating 1/3 of them, but they are versatile, a great deal, and decent. So there.

Overall
Cost: 9/10
Taste: 6/10

La Tortilla Factory Barbacoa Slow Cooker Sauce Starter

Yo, I have serious "beef" with this sauce. Actually I'm not sure if it's the sauce or the instructions or the meat I used that really boned me. What happened though is that in the end, my barbacoa turned out super dry. So the problem is that slow cooked stuff, you shouldn't look inside the pot too many times, you know, or it won't cook (that's burned me before!). The instructions say to use 2-3 pounds of chuck meat, but my pot is smaller, so I just used ~1.5lbs. I used the full amount of water/sauce mix, and exactly the time specified by the package (8hrs -- yes, it does sound long, DOESN'T IT?). Final result: mad dry meat. Thus I didn't get much flavor on it either. So now I have a ton of meat. It did shred, and it is cooked through, so I guess it's technically edible, but I am not enjoying the process. It makes a lot. The sauce tastes only of burnt meat. I cannot in good conscience recommend this, but that's OK because I've never seen it in a store anyway.

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 4/10

Fresh Express Caesar Salad Kit

Things like this are nice, honestly. I always ask myself in the store "what am I doing spending 3-4$ on SALAD?" but it's cheaper than a restaurant and tastes just fine. It's fresh and it's express. Now that America's romaine scare is finally over, I can indulge in pure romaine salad with dressing, cheese, and crouton. This kit is prewashed, so you can just pour everything in the bag and shake it up, then eat. Super quick and easy and tastes nice, and not too heavy/dressing-laden either. I use the full amount of everything which adds up to about 420 calories, not too bad. This is enough for two bowls of salad, but I usually just eat the whole thing as a meal. It's refreshing and smells like a good time. The dressing does have anchovy in it, but I've never had a fish-allergy reaction from small amounts of Caesar dressing (knock on wood) and this is no exception.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (3.33$)
Taste: 7/10

Lean Cuisine Comfort - Roasted Turkey Breast

Normally I wouldn't bother to specify the `subtype' of Lean Cuisine we're talking about, but it seems I've already reviewed a "Roasted Turkey Breast" with different sides from LC. In the end, frozen turkey meals are all pretty similar, but this one has the bonus extra of containing a sweet apple compote! The apples are sticky and sweet, like the inside of an apple pie. I expected them to have more 'goo' but I guess it wasn't really needed. The turkey part was also fine - and there was the goo I was looking for; there's plenty of watery gravy in this pocket. The gravy is quite mild/neutral, as is the dressing, which varied between soft and crunchy without much flavor (just bread and celery). The turkey tasted fresh. Overall this is a sturdy little meal, especially for ~260 calories, although it could use some potatoes, corn, and a roll to really elevate it.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (On sale for 2$)
Taste: 7/10

Homebrew Pickle Mix - Snappy Apple

So, it doesn't look like this pickle mix is even made anymore, which is a blessing in my opinion. Here's the situation: I don't really like vinegar or pickles, even though I've been trying my best to acclimate to them. But more than that, I really really dislike sweet/savory mixes. Pick one, food! And this was a pickle (ick, so savory ... but also apple (sweet?) so it was very offputting to me. The product itself is fun though, you just put some fruit in a jar and boil the packet with water, vinegar and sugar and then refrigerate it all for at least a day.

It was a super easy process and it seemed to go off without a hitch. The problem I have is more with the idea of pickled apple in the first place. They taste like a sweet and spicy pickle, except also an apple with a little cinnamon/clove added. Pickle + apple pie is not a combo that interests me. So now I have a lot of apple pickles left which I will try to foist on unsuspecting visitors. But at least I tried something new! Bad news: I still have a pineapple and onion pack left, both of which I am dreading. Maybe if I can come up with a larger dish that could incorporate them??? Is there such a thing?? Advice welcome.



Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 3/10

Dogfish Head Mixed Media

This seemed really exciting because it was made with wine(?) but it doesn't taste like wine or grapes or fruit. It tastes like an ale I guess. It is 7+% alc though, which is good bang for your intake buck. I like the label art and the ethos, even though the taste is disappointing. I guess I'd rather have wine. At least it's not at all too sweet, but it's not really fruity either. Kind of a generic beer flavor but not watery or hoppy or even malty. What else is there? Wheat ale? Maybe like a shock top without the orange flavor. Hmm. It's bitter, but not at all sour (which is too bad). Honestly I don't love it. Tastes european. Even though it tastes bad though, the feeling~~~ from it is always pleasant. No headaches, hangover, or depressions!


Overall
Cost: 3/10 (Like 13$ for a sixer?)
Taste: 5/10

Friendly's Original Fudge Sundae

Yum yum yum ice cream in my tum, that's what I always say. I wanted to buy a celebration roll but I figured I should be more modest, moderate, etc, so I got this nice single serve cup from Friendly's instead (Only 1.50$ and 290 calories)! It's the perfect size and very tasty. The ice cream is soft and creamy, there's a good amount of fudge (of course I still want more, but it's there) and whipped topping. It tastes like a real sundae, which is a rare treat for allergy girls. I'm a fan!



Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 8/10

Zeigler's Apple Cherry Carrot Fruit & Veggie Juice Blend

Unless it's mixed with vodka, I don't really drink juice, so I was kind of predisposed to dislike this. I only want sugar in desserts and coffees thank you very much! But this is a cute container, a carton rather than plastic, and it has vitamin C and carrot juice (ew) so that's healthy. I also waited until the "best by" date to drink this, which is my bad, but I don't think it impacted the flavor. The flavor is OK. It's not too veg-heavy which is good (no tomato juice at all!) and it's sweet and thick. Kind of like those Odwalla smoothie drinks that used to be popular (with me) (in college). The color is a bit offputting, it's a dark brownish-orange, but if you don't look at it and don't think about vegetables then I suppose it's alright. Not sure if this is the funnest or healthiest way to get your Vitamin C, but if you like juice then it's probably just fine.


Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 4/10

Welch's Fruit 'n Yogurt Snacks - Strawberry

These are really good. They're very similar to the cherry ones, and I wish I had both at the same time so I could do a true comparison. I thought I liked cherry better but I really enjoyed these also, so now I'm not sure! They too are tiny spheres of red fruit gummy, not too chewy or sticky, mixed with "yogurt" aka somewhat sweet and crumbly white stuff. The taste is good, vaguely creamy and fruity, but not really yogurt or choco tasting. These are compelling and I always wish for more in a bag. But they are good and in nice little single serve pouches. Plus they are fairly cheap if you can find them!


Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 8/10

Enjoy Life Crunchy Minis - Sugar Crisp

These are tiny little sugar cookies; each bag has about 6 of them. Is that enough to be satisfied? No, sir, it is not. Which I guess means that they aren't terrible, I did want more of them, but honestly they aren't that good. You have to remember that the top-8 free food game is a really hard game, of course, but the "crunchy" texture of these is actually just soft and crumbly, and the "sugar" taste is more of a "is this sugar I'm having?" taste. A little bit of a molasses or konjac vibe (there's something I keep tasting in sweets like this which I've decided is konjac flour, but I don't really know if it is for sure). They are OK but they're no delicious cookie.


Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Friendly's Celebration Roll

Is anything better than a nut-free ice cream cake? Probably, but this is still a nice novelty. I will warn you that (1) it's not really a cake, it's a dense rectangle (a "roll") and (2) it's nowhere near as good; there's no icing or toppings or fudgeys or caramel and very very few chocolate cookie bits. The rest is vanilla/choco/"blue marshmallow" ice cream which tastes like low fat iced cream but I don't think it is, I think it's just freezer burn. Nevertheless, the colors, the sprinkles, and the packaging all make me feel like there's a party and I AM invited, cake and all, which is so rare and beautiful. The taste is OK but the feeling of inclusion is sublime.

Overall
Cost: 7/10 (Only 6$!)
Taste: 7/10

Federal Taphouse

Apparently this is a local chain, but I've only been to one of them, which is downtown and pretty spacious (2 floors, but I've only seen one). It put a bit of a bad taste in my mouth the first time we attempted to go, the hostess seemed super judgey and estimated a longer wait time than seemed reasonable given the amount of empty tables. We came back the next day at 3pm and it was totally empty so we got seats, woohoo. Anyway, it's a cool looking space, and the best part is the beer(/cider) list which is about 100 drinks long, all on tap and described and sorted by type. Very fun, although a little pricy at times. The food menu isn't anything special, mostly sandwiches and pizza and seafood, but it's decent. Our waitress was also really nice, prompt, and best of all, proactive and knowledgable about allergy stuff. Very much appreciated and I'd go back just based on that.

We got poutine as an app, which was good (lots of gravy) but not great. I don't think the cheese curds were actually curds - there was no squeak! They were just hunks of mozz. Still good but not really "poutine". A big amount though, so filling that I hardly ate my meal, which was the mushroom pizza. This pizza is big also and had a white sauce (boo) and thin crust and lots of mushroom (yay). It's really cheesey/alfredo-y, and tasted just like a chicken cheesesteak stromboli from Lisa's. So, it was tasty but not necessarily "pizza"-esque. I got an orange flavored beer from Germany that was bright orange and super fun, tasted pretty good. Overall a nice visit!

Cubano pizza: I split this with my boyf, who thought it was very bad and too mustardy. But I liked it! The pizza sauce is mustard instead of sauce, and on top is pork, cheese, scallion, yellow pepper. So mustardy! Very fun! If you like mustard, you'll like this. (But poutine is still better <3). 7/10

Overall
Cost: 4/10 (about 60$ for 2)
Taste: 7/10