Raising Cane's

More New Orleans shenanigans -- I couldn't find a single non-nut fast food chain in walking distance from my hotel except for this one, which was in a mall food court. Unfortunately, I don't really like chicken fingers (I never order them elsewhere), but beggars can't be choosers. I do like the idea of a limited menu, but it works more for me at In 'N Out or Chipotle than it does here. Anyway. I got the Box Combo, which I assume is "the default meal". It had 4 chickens (greasy and boring, but fine), fries (same), a texas toast slice (kinda fun, buttery), and cole slaw (surprisingly good slaw). Also a drink and a cup of their special sauce (slightly spicy mayochup?). It was decent and definitely filling, but made me feel like a trash can. Ah well, I'm still grateful this place was around!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

KFC

Holy heck, I haven't reviewed KFC yet? This is a shocker. KFC is a solid fast food chain in my book because apart from their desserts, they've always been nut free. One tragic point in my past is that the chocolate chip cookie that came with all their box meals used to be safe for me, per the website menu anyway, and I ate it every few months and it was a fresh warm cookie and one of my only joys in dessert-life. And then once I checked the menu and it was no longer safe. RIP cookie. But their chicken is still fine, and I like the biscuit and cole slaw a lot. Today I decided to go partially because I'm super stressed out but also because I was getting gas from the Wawa next door and I wanted a treat for doing the stressful gas-getting. (Long story I guess). Anyway, KFC is cool.

Spicy Famous Bowl: This was off-menu and cost 3.99 instead of 3$, but that's still a solid deal per calorie. This is mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, popcorn chicken, shredded cheese, and hot sauce drizzle. It was super hot and is giving me mad reflux. But it was good enough, warm and filling. I liked the potatoes and gravy a lot; the rest was just OK. I would say it was good but too spicy for my tastes! 7/10

Regular Famous Bowl: OK, this was weird. They made it nicely, lots of gravy and fresh and the cheese was nice and melty on top. But now that I could taste it, that was weird. I mixed it with a frozen bag of brocco and cauliflower lol. It was filling and warm but made me freak out about allergies, which is maybe dumb but IDK, I think my soy thing is actually legit now that I read about other people who can't eat canned soups and frozen chickens. The gravy might be sketch! But anyway, it tasted OK. Lol. The potatoes had that floral taste. I like the gravy but it was spooky. 6/10

Popcorn Chicken Combo: I got this with Mountain Dew and Cole Slaw, and also it comes with a biscuit. The chicken is a little box and I didn't get a dipping sauce because the server didn't have a mask and I was distracted. Anyway, Allergy Genius me didn't realise there's potentially soy protein in the popcorn chicken (per their good allergy menu), but I ate it before and lived so I ate it again even though I've been avoiding all soy protein. I lived, again, though it was scary I didn't really get any itchiness. Apart from that the chicken tastes good but I'd never repeat this, it is too scary. Slaw/'scuit/dew were are tops. 4/10 for fear, 7/10 taste. 

Finger Lickin' Good Sauce: I am aware this is not a meal, but you can get some for free with a meal (as I did with my #3 3 piece combo) so I was excited to try it out. But to be honest, it didn't live up to the hype for me. Allergen free but not especially tangy/spicy/savory, just kinda an oily version of thousand island dressing almost. Maybe it is better with fries than with chicken, but I think I'd rather have BBQ sauce than this! 5/10

 

Crispy Colonel Box: The Crispy Colonel is a chicken sandwich made to compete with Popeyes, I guess, cause it's got a pickle and a tiny bit of mayo-that-tastes-like-tartar-sauce on the bottom. The sandwich itself is pretty good, the chicken is fresh and moist and not too greasy, and they didn't overdo it on the mayo. The bun was a little old (and firm), but it tasted very neutral. The box comes with popcorn chicken, which is fine but soy-containing, and cole slaw which I love, and their new fries, which I don't really like -- they look fun but have basically no seasoning. However I also asked for 2 packs of BBQ sauce with this, so that made the fries (and the chicken) a lot tastier. This is also a ton of food, probably good for 2 meals. I didn't even drink the Pepsi that comes with it! 6/10 sandwich, 5/10 box (box is 10$, not very cheap!)

3 piece chicken combo: This is #3, and it comes with 2 wings and a drumstick. I like the wings, they are like smaller thighs. The drummie is OK. The biscuit I got was super hard, but I think the Lebanon KFC is just bad (sorry, dad). Cole slaw is bangin' as always. Pepsi was a lil watery. It is what it is. 6/10

Sweet Lightning Mountain Dew: This is a limited edition flavor of Dew! It's supposedly peach and honey. The peach is very real. It tastes like peach rings candy, which it turns out, I don't really like. Massively inferior to regular mountain dew. It is a fun color and tastes more juice than soda, which is neat, but it's just not for me. Glad I collected this rare bird anyway, though (on a road trip to see my favorite band! but with weird medical problems that prevent me from fully enjoying any thing :( ) 5/10

Overall
Cost: 7/10 (Usually very cheap for a meal - 5$!)
Taste: 7/10

Q says "It's pretty bad. 3/10"

In-N-Out Burger

What the heck!? An In-N-Out in Texas? I was shocked to see this, because when I was in college in LA I thought In-N-Out was a strictly California thing. I guess they randomly expanded to Texas (I wish Yoshinoya could too)! Anyway, I like this place not just because of the hype but because it's a solid burger, really tasty, and the menu is so so limited that I'll never have allergy concerns. Only burger, burger with cheese, and fries/milkshakes (Vanilla Chocolate and Strawberry) are available, which is just perfect for me. I enjoyed Cheeseburger, which had a nice crispy bun and was juicy  but not too comically huge like some burgers. A great product. The fries were fine, but I'm not much of a fry girl myself.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Taco Bell

Wait, I've never yet reviewed Taco Bell!? I guess I just suck at thinking outside the bun. But I love Taco Bell. It's like Arby's and Burger King AKA my top fast food tier. Everything basically tastes the same, which is delicious, and it's all very cheap. It's also terrible for you, but I feel better after Taco Bell than I do after Firehouse Subs for instance. Plus they have a fun druggie reputation, and are inexplicably always crowded. :D?

Fiery Doritos Locos Taco: I love these! I hate doritos but these are nothing like Doritos. 3 is the perfect meal, and 2 is passable. These are beef/cheese/lettuce inside a salty red shell. So salty but slightly fiery, not crispy taco but actually a soggy taco shell. So good. 8/10

 Potato Burrito (breakfast): This was great, a good 1 item to get, to be honest. Just cheese sauce and potato mainly. So good, so cheap, so bad for your health. 8/10

Mini Scramble Bowl: Fine and cheesy, with a little salsa randomly in there with egg and potato, not as good as the burrito though. 7/10

Cinnabon Bites: Honestly the greatest thing ever, so soft and sweet and good. 9/10

Orange Juice Mountain Dew: A bit weird in concept but to be honest, not bad for a soda. Tastes like orange soda and sunny D combined. 7/10

Cheese Quesadilla: Sadly not as tasty as the chicken quesadilla, it was overall just kind of 'eh'. 6/10

Double Chalupa Box: Yooo this was good. It randomly came with chips and queso instead of cinnamon twists, and the chips tasted really bad and fishy (I didn't eat them) but the queso was great for me, just like movie theater cheese product (note: probably not great to most people). The crunchy taco was your typical crunchy taco and the chalupa (beef) was great -- maybe too much sour cream on it but otherwise quite good. Like a taco inside in a soft fried(?) shell. Hello gluttony! It's your girl! 8/10

Steak Quesarito Combo: Haha. This is so bad for you, but it tasted very good. The combo is a hard taco (good, solid) and a drink (who cares) with the tasty tasty steak quesarito - a quesdilla rolled up like a burrito. Inside is rice, cheese goo, spicy creamy sauce, maybe sour cream, and odd flay/jerkyish steak bits. The taste is very good. But the afterbuzz is...less so. 7/10

Cheesy Roll Up: This looked pretty tragic, but it was better than I thought (for 1$)! The cheese is a mix of white and yellow, like in their quesadillas. It is easy eatin' and pleasant, but nothing special. 6/10

Beefy Fritos Burrito: I don't like fritos, so I should have known that this wouldn't be my favorite. The meat and cheese is good, as usual, but the fritos were weird and soggy. And rice didn't really "go" in my opinion, even though I normally like rice. This is far from my top taco bell item, but if you take the fritos out it is still a good bang for your buck. 5/10

Chips and Pico de Gallo: This was way better than the last time I got chips! They only give you a small portion, which is actually perfect for me. I enjoyed every chip (~10 chips?) and the whole little cup of pico, which is nice and fresh and cilantro-y. Good side dish. 7/10

Shredded Chicken Quesadilla Melt: It's no chicken quesadilla. Somehow this tastes less like the tasty goo in the regular dilla, and more like unspecified fast food glorp. It was only a dollar and it was filling, but not my fav item either. 6/10

Chips and Guacamole: Uh oh, this is no Chipotle level guac, that's for sure. It was super smooth, somehow sweet, and way too tart. Not what you want in a guac. If it weren't a veg, I'd throw it out. The chips were good but the guac was bad. 5/10

Chips and Nacho Cheese Sauce: Wow OK, this was actually really good! Definitely the best of the "chips and" crew. The chips were in fine form, and the cheese was just enough and like perfect movie theater nacho cheese. Warm and a tiny bit spicy. Love this stuff. 8/10

Chicken Quesadilla Combo: This is good, my favorite quesadilla along with a solid crispy beef taco (no beans or sour cream!). Also comes with drink with I split with my boyf. A tasty journey, but you feel a bit bloated afterwards, you know? 7/10

Loaded Taco Grande Burrito: I picked this out myself to go with chips and cheese. It was only 1 dollar, and had red tortilla strips in it that I hoped would be like fiery doritos shell, but they weren't. Just tasted like regular soggy shell bits. The rest is sour cream (but just a little), tomato, lettuce, and beef, but it didn't real super loaded. Just a little, which was nice. Unfortunately I was in quarantine at the time and can't really enjoy it because of that. 7/10 

Soft Taco Supreme: I didn't get the combo because I wasn't hungry enough, but I got two of these without sour cream (for my sensitive boyf). They were good! Soft shell, taco beef, lots of lettuce, nice tomato. I don't love the cheddar cheese but it's OK. 8/10

Note: with sour cream added, they are even better! Tacos are good. 9/10

Crunchy Taco: My boyf ordered too many tacos so I ate this for him. It's no soft taco. The shell is so tasteless, no spice or even salt. Blech. The inside is great though, beef and lettuce (and tepid cheese). It's OK but I would never pick it out on my own. 6/10

Pineapple Whip Freeze: I got this with a combo for an upcharge of 80 cents, and they gave me a Large which is too big! But I was glad to finally try this. IDK if I definitely got the "whip", but there were vague white spotches at the bottom of the cup (but only just). Anyway, even if it's just a pineapple icee that melts really fast, I liked it. It tastes just like the brown/yellow swirled slushies I (aka my dad) would get from Sheetz when I was a kid. Definitely bad for you, not super cold, a lot of syrup, kind of Tangy?? like a coke slushy but more pineappley. I wish it had more whip, I think. But it was good and made me smile even though a smaller size is better. 8/10

Grilled Cheese Burrito: Good God, it's another item I ate (half of) that my boyf foolishly ordered! Even though I didn't eat the whole thing, I regreted it deeply. It was so filling/dense, but I don't like the spicy chipotle sauce that they use. Not because it is too spicy, but because it is too mayo/ranch-y. Like the one at Jersey Mike's. I will say that the shell with the cheese on it is good. Without the chipotle sauce it would be decadent for sure. 5/10

Cinnamon Twists: These were honestly better than I remember, even though most other dessert items are still superior. These are just a light, crunchy bag of cinnamon-sugar coated dough. A fun little treat and less likely to give you regrets than the cinnabon balls -- but also way less tasty. 6/10

 

Baja Blast Mountain Dew: People love this stuff, but I don't quite get the hype, though I was never a soda lover in general. It mostly tastes like blue raspberry liquid suspended in a small amount of Mountain Dew regular. It's OK. 6/10

 

Crunchy Taco Supreme: My well-intentioned boyf ordered me this on a solo TB run. It is not my favorite taco, as you may know, dear readers -- I am a soft taco girl. Honestly, Taco Bell's crunchy tacos are just much worse than anything you can get in a tortilla or a bowl and that's all I can notice. The shell has bad texture, bad flavor, and is hard to eat!! But at least these had sour cream, which makes them a tiny bit better than the plain crunchy taco... I guess. 6/10

Quesalupa: Yeaaah buddy. This is a chalupa (fried dough shell) with cheese on it. The cheese was sadly not at all melty, but the shell is still so good and fatty. I got this with chicken which I didn't know was an option, and I think that was very good. Some heartburn upon eating (no surprise) but very tasty. 7/10

Overall
Cost: 9/10
Taste: 8/10

Q says: It's fine. 6/10

Burger King

I think Burger King is my favorite traditional national fast food chain, don't tell anyone. It's very unhealthy though, so I only get it when someone else brings it up. But their burgers are so good! And so cheap! Yum! I went to one today on the way back from a car wash; nice, nice. Just for a snack though. And I love that long chicken sandwich. Mmm.

Iced Coffee: Super sweet and creamy obviously, but tasted good and fresh and not too watery like McDo's. Plus they have it. So that's good. 6/10

Onion Rings: Everyone loves a good onion ring. The perfect side. 7/10

Cheeseburger: This was only one dollar and very good. I love burger, yum yum. 8/10

Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 8/10
Shame: 10/10

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

McDonald's

Eww, right? Who eats McDo's?! As a kiddo, it was by far my least favorite fast food place, mainly because they put chopped up onions on all their burgers and I thought that was gross. I also think the 3-bun Big Mac concept is terrible. But now I'm a little chilled out, PLUS they have breakfast all day, PLUS they have a vanilla ice cream cone with no nuts. Mmm, soft serve, so rare for nut allergy sufferers! So I've come around, and on a road trip or a lazy day, I'm A-OK with a little allergy-menu-having McDos.

I like their apple pie, vanilla cone, egg mcmuff, and way too creamy iced coffee. Hot coffee is standard/fine too.

I tried recently the Pico Guacamole Buttermilk Crispy Chicken, because it had guac and I wanted some veg. It gave me mad heartburn, but otherwise it was filling and fine. I think it'd be better with no cheese and no ranch sauce. So maybe a plain chicken sandwich would have been better. 5/10

I also tried the Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken, and even though it had little black beans I had to pick out, the dressing/chicken/strips/corn was good and refreshing (and healthy-ish!). The only downside was that it made me make eating noises and also smell bad and my boyf was perturbed and now I'm neurotic about eating this salad. But it's good though. :D? 6/10

Cheeseburger: McDonald's is gross and this burger was gross too. It was only a dollar though. But it has onions which make me vom and are so small they're impossible to remove, the burger is gross, and the bun is pretty good. 4/10

Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich: This was a crispy chicken sandwich and it didn't make me gag, so I guess it was fine. About 650 calos for a weird fake-looking shiny bun, vaguely buttery crispy chicken, small tomato, tiny lettuce, and massive gorp of mayo. But it was OK. 6/10

Quarter Pounder with Cheese: When will I learn that I hate McDo's burgers? I got this without onions because I thought I just hated little onions, but the burger still tasted the same gross way! It's like the onions are inside the patty! Or whatever bad thing is in there, maybe it's not even onion at all.  But it's truly terrible. The burger patty is the McDo's downfall. 3/10

Grilled Chicken Sandwich: This was devoid of any flavor and it was over 5 bucks. Yet it was only 380 calories, and fairly filling. It didn't have any mayo (or sauce at all), yet somehow it wasn't too dry. A weird product, but could have been worse. 6/10

Hash Brown: Don't understand the love for hash brown. Plain Mcmuff is better choice, this is oily and not great. 5/10

Bacon Smokehouse Artisan Grilled Chicken: Mistakes were made; I got this because it's chicken and not beef, and I like onions and BBQ and bacon, but the mustard made this weird, it could have used lettuce/tomato, way more BBQ and overall just wasn't a good mix for me, even though none of the parts were truly heinous. 4/10

Iced French Vanilla Coffee: This was difficult, because ordering it got us a "Sugar Free Vanilla Coffee" instead, which was freakin' gross. Second try, we learned just "Vanilla Coffee" (don't say french) is the way to go. Anyway, this is a solid way-too-creamy/sugary coffee, but it tastes good and not artificial or metallic or anything. A little like what I imagine milk is like for people who drink milk. Got a medium and it was more than enough, 'cause they don't put that much ice in. 6/10

Iced Latte: G-dang, McDonalds coffee is so difficult. I ordered plain iced latte (medium), no modifications or swirls or sugars. But it was SO PAINFULLY SWEET. Wtf. Full disclosure though, I got this via delivery (no issues there), and it was in a little cup inside of a bag lol. Very weird and cozy. No straw! I mean, it tasted like a sweet treat, but that's not what I wanted. Sigh. 5/10

McChicken: McChicken is a cute name for a sandwich. This was actually not bad; it was only 1 dollar and yet was filling and satisfying. It's just chicken/mayo/lettuce, and it could use more lettuce and less mayo, and maybe the addition of tomato or cheese or something would improve it, but it's still decent. 6/10

Pumpkin and Cream Pie: This isn't even on their online menu, but you can find the ingredients if you Google for it. And it's safe! And so good, this was awesome. It doesn't look like much but the inside is basically pumpkin pie filling and cream cheese. This is great. Spicy (in the pie way) and sweet. 8/10

McRib: Ah, the cultural zeitgeist! Top of the morning to you, Mr. McRib. I think I basically agree with the general sentiment on this sandwich: it's not bad, but not amazing. The first bite impressed me a lot; I thought it really did taste like rib insides. But then it became more bread/pickle/onion/general food-like substance. Not bad though, and the ingredients don't have any weird fillers (or legumes!). Good but not really great either. 7/10

Blueberry Muffin: So disappointing! I was so hype for the purported nut-free bakery additions since the Dunkin muffins are now may-contains. But while the top was good and moist/sweet, the rest was not sugary or wet or good, and the whole thing had kind of a chemical flavor. I like that the berries are real blueberries, but they didn't taste like it -- they tasted just like the artificial ones from my 99 cent muffin mix. Ultimately a letdown. 5/10

Hamburger (+Happy Meal): This Happy Meal came with apples, a toy, a little milk, a little fries, and a hamburger. Not bad, McDos. I was expecting to hate Hamburger as I have hated all Burger from McDos, but honestly it wasn't bad. Maybe I was just really hungry, maybe they're different now? maybe I got a good one? But the bun was nice and buttery, the meat was meat, and the onions and pickle were edible since they were focused in just one spot in the middle. Not very filling, but pretty tasty/fine. 6/10

Deluxe Crispy Chicken Sandwich: So McDo's added 3 new chicken sandwiches to compete with the Popeye's / Chik-Fil-Trash hype. Sadly, I tried this one first, and I thought it was kind of a dud. The bun was nice and buttery, but the chicken itself had a weirdly fishy/old oil taste. It really threw me. The lettuce/mayo/tomato really did not add anything, either. Maybe I just got a bad patty. 5/10

Honest Kids® Appley Ever After® Organic Juice Drink: I got this with a Cheeseburger Happy Meal, which again, is way more lit than I used to find it. This Apple Juice itself was also fun! It was not sweet at all, which is really different from any apple juice I've ever experienced, but I thought it was pretty tasty and also healthy. Very cute stuff. 7/10

Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich: The second of the three new chicken sandwiches, and sadly I won't be trying the third since these buns apparently have pea protein in 'em now (wtf). It was alright while it lasted, though -- really spicy to me, but much better than the deluxe sandwich. The chicken and bun were good (but really spicy), the sauce was just OK. 7/10

Double Cheeseburger: Again, honestly this was pretty satisfying. I still don't love the onion bits, but the pickle/ketchup/cheese is good, the meat is fine, the bun is fine. It's filling and it's fine. 7/10

 

Sprite: On the one hand, Sprite is Sprite, and it's not very good. On the other hand, I didn't like this version much. I've had better fast food sodas. Partly Sprite is to blame, but dare I say, McDos is not the best iteration of Sprite I've had this year. 5/10
 

McDouble: The name is good, good branding. But the burger was kind of dry, I still don't like the little onions on here, and even though this was edible and safe, it was honestly not very enjoyable. 5/10

Overall
Cost: 8/10, fast food is great for this (just avoid combos)
Taste: 5/10

Q says: It seems like the renovation has been bad for it. Later: This was a different McDonalds.

Sonic Drive-In

I guess the official name of this place is "Sonic Drive In" because sonic itself is such a common word! Too bad. I've only ever heard it called Sonic, so I didn't fully conceptualize that it was JUST a drive-in place because I didn't grow up near one. But we went today, and it's true, you pull up to your own little ordering window and wait for them to bring you the food. Apart from hating to drive and hating drive-through windows, I like that you get your own little menu to look at with no rush, and you can order when you're ready by pushing a button.

Food-wise, it seems like just burgers, chicken, hot dogs, and drinks, which is general fast-foody-food. They don't seem to have nuts in their non drink/dessert stuff, which is nice. I got a regular (all-america) hot dog and some mozz sticks, and both were totally acceptable but not incredible. I didn't get violently ill, which is always a plus! I would go back with no hesitation, but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (seemed decent for non-combos, maybe 2-3$ per item)
Taste: 6/10

Chipotle

If you don't like Chipotle, I don't know what to tell you!! Even my non-allergy-having peers like it fairly well. True, there isn't much variety on the menu, but it just tastes good. They also don't have any nuts there! I like the bowl or the soft tacos best. Anyway, it's just the right size to fill me up and it's also not too cheesy (if you don't get cheese, I mean) or greasy or anything fast-foody. So I enjoy it very much!

 My order is variable depending on if I'm paying or not (ha ha); if I'm not then I get steak, guac, brown rice, mild salsa, corn, and lettuce, and if I am then I drop the guac and switch chicken for steak. ;D

New Queso Blanco: OK, as you may know, the original queso at Chipotle was freakin' disgusting -- gritty and not creamy or spicy or wet or anything good at all. (My boyf inexplicably likes it but he is strange.) But they changed it to new queso blanco! Wow! Exciting! Well, bad news: it also is disgusting. Still gritty, not wet, not even spicy, and to be honest I was questioning if they even changed it at all even though they had it on the ads and receipt. Didn't even look "blanco"!! Ugh, why, chipotle? 4/10

Overall
Taste: 8/10
Cost: 5/10

Arby's

I love Arby's! I think it's my 2nd favorite fast food joint. (If you're curious, Yoshinoya, Burger King, KFC, and Quiznos fill out my top 5.)  [Edit for 2020: I live on the East Coast now and BK is nut-city, so I guess the rest of the top 5 is now: KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy's, and Jersey Mikes. But I love Yoshinoya still!] Plus, I don't think there are any peanuts in the restaurant. There are pecans in the chicken salad though, so watch out for that. Anyway, I really like all their food, including roast beef, chicken, market freshes, and subs. They recently got rid of a ham market fresh sandwich that I really liked though, so that sucks. Also my mom just told me the bread is super unhealthy. And I thought they were market fresh! Whatever. Anyway, I enjoy the #15 combo (market fresh turkey sandwich) with either curly or regular fries, both are nice. They also have a great pepsi/dr. pepper drink selection.

Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich: This DOESN'T have bleu cheese, it has normal fried chicken, swiss cheese, and (very nice) ham, but also a TOOOON of mayo which is so gross (and no veg!). Without mayo it'd be OK, but with it it's so bad. The ham is tasty though! 6/10

Turkey Gyro: I mean, I guess. In what world are we getting greek food at Arby's though? It's fine, if you don't overthink it. Good amount of meat, sauce is good, pita is good. Onions are a little weird as they're just burger onions. Maybe beef would be better. Or even better, a roast beef sandwich! 6/10

Crispy Chicken Farmhouse Salad: This was OK, I got it with Italian dressing though which turned out to be a bad choice (IDK what else they have though?). It was pretty boring overall, and I didn't really finish it but I was eating there so that might be why. The crispy chicken was fine and not itchy I think. Not amazing but it's a salad with chicken on it. 6/10

Roast Beef 'N Cheese Slider: Definitely tasty, although it might have made me feel a bit sick. 7/10

Fire-Roasted Philly Roast Beef: This tasted good, but made me feel bad inside. I also could have done without the garlic aoili, but it was OK. As in a regular roast beefer, the meat is the best part! 6/10

Buttermilk Chicken Bacon & Swiss: This was good, but not as good as I'd hoped. The bread is a bit sweet and thick for me, the chicken didn't make me itchy but had the texture/breading of a nugget-like chicken which would. The mustard was sweeter than I'd like as well. The cheese and baco and tomato were all good -- for some reason I ate this sandwich deconstructed. In all, it was filling and under 700 cals, so that's a plus! 6/10

Ham 'N Cheese Slider: This is good! A lil ham and white cheese. 8/10

Pizza Slider: This is not my usual preference - marinara and roni-esque meat. But it was solid (the tiny size helps). 7/10

Jalepeno Poppers: A rare fast-food option! These are fine, not super spicy and a bit much cream cheese. But the "bronco berry" sauce they come with was spicy and better than I thought it'd be! 7/10

Chicken 'N Cheese Slider: These were pretty good actually! I'm not a big chicken nugget/tender person, but the cheese is tasty and the bun is soft and the chicken has lots of nice buttery breading. Filling and good. 7/10

Roast Turkey Ranch and Bacon Market Fresh (sandwich): This is just like the normal turkey market fresh, except instead of yummy mustard or not great mayo, you get a double dose of "peppercorn ranch". A massive downgrade, even from mayo I think. It's filling and would actually be a solid sandwich without the ranch. I got as a combo and made it in to two meals, so it's decent as a deal, but the ranch is a no for me. Basically like watery ranch with spots in it that have no flavor. 5/10

Chopped Side Salad: This was decadent. I got it with Italian dressing which was decent here and just the right amount. I ate it all and was happy. Cheese, tiny tomato, lettuce, pretty basic but in quarantine life it's baller. 8/10

Coke Float: This was so good! I was craving sweets and ice creams I guess, but even so, this is legit great. And a small is only 1 dollar, which I wasn't expecting. Really tasty, like a coke shake. 8/10

Smokehouse Brisket Sandwich: What is brisket, anyway? It tasted like chewy bacon here, which I like. There wasn't that much meat, mostly bread, but it was still a little too filling for me! This was good, mainly tasted of bacon and BBQ sauce with some random extra bits (mayo, cheese, bread). OK, I ate it in pieces, like a dork. The crispy onion ring bits are good too. 7/10

Classic Roast Chicken Sandwich: Really not bad!! Especially for like 300 calories, this is a solid and tasty fast food chicken sandwich. Yes, there's a lot of mayo, but the tomato was nice to have here and the bun was good minus a few stray seeds. Chicken was just generic chicken, no itchiness or soy filler. 7/10

Root Beer Float: This was also good, but not quite as good as the Coke Float! Still quite tasty and for a dollar you can't go wrong. 7/10

Chicken Tenders: Apparently they were out of coke floats even though they clearly have coke and vanilla shake mix. Woe. Anyway, chicken tenders (3pc) was still good. It was more filling than I thought for only 360calos, and the BBQ sauce that you can get is solid and they give you two of them. Soy in the breading but I think it was fine, no itching. This was fine but I do like the sandwiches better I think. 6/10

Classic French Dip & Swiss: This was a roast beef hoagie with swiss, and comes with a sizeable cup of "dip" to dip into. Really thin beef gravy basically. The bread is fluffy and so good for dippin', and the roast beef is Arby's usual tasty and foine product. Cheese is also good even if it doesn't "go" with the gravy in my opinion. I also got this as a combo which was highly decadent. Overall it was nice. 7/10

Buffalo Chicken Slider: This was tasty, even though I don't consider myself a buffalo fan (but maybe I should, it's basically just "hot sauce that looks orange" apparently). The chicken was spicier than I thought and I couldn't really taste the ranch sauce, so I guess it did its job of cooling things down. They were fresh and filling (I had one in the fridge a few hours later and it held up well)! 8/10

Roast Beef Gyro: Another tasty Arby food! This was filling and fun like a sub but with the usual tasty roast beef I love. Good food product. 7/10

Jalepeno Roast Beef Slider: All the sliders are pretty solid! This one too. Like a nice little roast beef sandwich with white cheese and a surprising kick to it. 7/10

 

Classic Roast Beef Sandwich: I didn't eat sesame seeds for a very long time before I ate this, so I was like "wait am I allergic to sesame seed bun?" but I know I love Arby's Roast Beef, so I ate it. I am not allergic to Arby sesame seed bun. Whew. This is a very classic sandwich, even if it gave me a stomach ache. 7/10

 

Iced Tea: Ew, I thought this would be refreshing but unfortunately it was real gross. Even though the website says 0 cals, they obviously poured a bunch of sugar (or something) in here. Never get this. Never ever. 4/10

 

Roast Chicken Bacon & Swiss Sandwich: Yum! This was quite nice. Juicy and filling. Not too spicy, or sweet, or oily. Moist meat. Gotta love Arbys. 7/10

 

Half Pound Roast Beef Sandwich: I regret to inform you that this is too much roast beef. The normal size is preferable! Still quality stuff though. 6/10

Roast Turkey Slider: This was my least favorite slider to date, although that might be because I was legitimately dealing with the cusp of heatstroke when I ordered it. It was really dry, bread and turkey both, and I think there was cheese on it, which is OK, and possibly a tiny bit of mayo, which was gross. Either goop it on or leave it off, Arby's! I panic ordered it which was clearly a mistake. Not terrible though, just not satisfying. 6/10

Hi-C Flashin' Fruit Punch: This isn't a drink I ever crave, but I was feeling sick and sad and this did end up cheering me up a bit! It's bright red and it tastes like Hawaiian Punch. The ice definitely made it more watery and therefore more drinkable. OK in moderation. 6/10

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [~$6]
Taste: 8/10

Laura says: I love the curly fries and Arby's sauce especially. Also the chicken strips are great. Arby's all around is wonderful. 9/10

Q says: I regret everything. 2/10