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Wendys Burger Reviewed: Classic Single with Cheese and Fries |
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Prof. Beef |
Dr. Meat |
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| Mr. Wendy is in big
trouble. His restaurants are stylishly designed, very clean and
offer an array of foods ranging from stuffed pita-salad pockets, spicy
chicken sandwiches to baked potatoes. But their staple, the
American cheeseburger, falls flat on its face. On one recent visit
to a newly remodeled Wendy's, Dr. Meat and I found the only customers in
the facility were employees. We were the only "civilian"
customers in the house, and it still took a week and a half for the
counter person to correctly process our one order of a Classic Single
with cheese and fries. Several off-duty employees joined us for lunch, but even their discount wouldn't bring me back. If Mr. Wendy's pita-pocket salad is worth the wait, I will never find out. Their burger was a fried, thinly pressed, square of fresh hamburger. When eaten separately, it tasted like hamburger - bland, tasteless, unseasoned meat. Even our French friend, Chef LaMonde, would never send one of his creations to a table without some seasoning. American cuisine, like any great world foods, needs spice, even if is only salt and pepper. Mr. Wendy spends the extra dollar and prepares fresh hamburger; he now needs to go that extra mile and sprinkle on a tad of spice. Not only was the beef without flavor and hidden under an unmelted slice of American processed cheese, it was cold, as were the three pounds of condiments piled on top our sad meaty square. Mixed between the buckets of mayo, catsup and mustard were the ice cold, whole leaf iceberg lettuce, slices of white onion, and pickles. The bun reminded me of the egg yellow bread that I used to get at the school cafeteria when I was in second grade. Mr. Wendy's fries, although frozen and tasteless, were slightly better. They were hot, golden brown, and lightly salted. These potato like sticks were a bit larger than most of the standard frozen fries, and if they didn't taste like fresh-cut fires, they looked like the real deal.
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Since I actually ate the original Wendy's back in Ohio you can imagine my delight as I drove into the parking lot to review their single with cheese. The restaurant was clean and airy, there were employees all over the place, but none of them were actually working. None except the "Irish Setter with a drooling disorder". In a day and age of multi-tasking this "manager" had a difficult time "reading" the pictures on the cash register. But alas I digress, we here to review the burger. Wendy likes to refer to herself as "hot and juicy" in a not so subtle attempt at the long held Madison avenue belief that, "sex sells" type double entendre'. The only thing hot and juicy at this store was the afore mentioned cashier's slobber all over the counter, the burger on the other hand was Cold and Sloppy. Sloppy with ladles of mayo, catsup, and mustard. The produce was practically frozen and the dry square patty was room temperature. My experience here had me longing for the drive in burgers wrapped in foil. | |
