I’m on holiday atm in the US (New York, New York) and one of the first things I noticed was the huge variety of fast-food available! They have all the same choices we have in Australia (like McDonalds, Subway, KFC etc) but also a lot of new places that we don’t get back home.
So here is a quick summary of my US Fast Food Journey!
Five Guys Burgers - Washington DC
This place came highly recommended and I must admit, the burgers are defineitely above-average. They are not too greasy and are cooked fresh (you can actually see the guy flippin’ the patties). The fries are first-class! Rather than the standard fries which may or may not actually contain much potato, these fries seem to actually be cut potato!! (OMG I know!!)
Roy Rogers - NYC
Roy Rogers is another burger joint. The ‘Roy Rogers’ difference is you get a plain burger to which you can add your own “fixin’s”. What the hell is a fixin’ I was thinking but luckily before I could embarass myself by asking some guy on the street, my brother in-law (who is a native New Yorker) filled me in… fixin’s are just what goes in the burger apart from the pattie and the cheese/bacon… so lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mayo etc is all laid out in a salad-bar style configuration. You grab your burder, pay for it, then go to the fixin’s bar and load it up.
The burgers themselves are ok, but while I appreciate the flexibility of the ‘fixin’s system, to be honest I just can’t be bothered - I mean it’s supposed to be fast food!
Popeyes - NYC
Popeyes is a fried chicken joint which is supposedly ‘better than KFC’. I had two pieces of chicken with a ‘buscuit’ (aka hard muffin). Chicken was quite nice, it’s pretty similar to the KFC cruchy skin chicken. The colslaw was kind of crap, and I was too scared to touch the ‘buscuit’…
Without the 11 secret herbs and spices, I was forced to actually taste the chicken.. which was actually quite good!
Wendy’s - NYC
Wendy’s is a burger joint! They don’t just serve Ice Cream and Milkshakes!! Once I got over that initial shock, I ordered the classic single, which is a standard burger with one patty and the usual ‘fixins’ (pre-made burgers with fixings already inside!! wooo!!). It was actually quite nice, the patties were square shaped and wasn’t too greasy. Chips were terrible though, not sure if it was just bad timing but they were soggy and undercooked and just plain…ew…
No Ice cream either which was a suprise, I was kind of hoping that it would be a best of both worlds kind of deal…
White Castle Burgers - NYC
I must admit I was suprised to hear that White Castle Burgers actually existed! I always thought that they had made it up for the movie Harold and Kumar go to White Castle… talk about product placement - having your name in the title of the movie!!
Anyway, onto the food… White Castle burgers are tiny, two-bite affairs which you buy in bulk! We got a “meal deal” of 20 burgers, 4 large fries and two massive cokes for ~$15!! The burgers are crap but in a good way… you know it’s made of crap but it goes down easy and tastes ok… the ultimate hangover/recovery food (see… now the movie makes sense!!)