GEW: Burger King - Food, Fun and Armwrestling
Written: Jul 10 '00 (Updated Jul 13 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive. Lots of napkins. Bottomless pit of sodas.
Cons: High in fat and calories. Pie was greasy. Hamburger lettuce falls apart when you eat it. Chicken had a strange, orange color.
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| vandyke's Full Review: Burger King |
My recent visit to Burger King, on an otherwise bright Sunday afternoon in a suburb of San Francisco, ironically ignited my casual interest in Taco Bell, Carl's Jr., Jack-In-The-Box, McDonald's, and even the dreaded Wendy's - for lunch.
(This review appears as part of the Great Epinions Write-Off [GEW] hosted by lovdbyGod7. The hosting review is at the following url: http://www.epinions.com/rest-review-3A7F-18495E12-39691D2C-prod5
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BK: Help Wanted
I'll admit to the necessity of fast food as an aid to help remedy the hunger pangs of a fast-paced society - BUT as my wife and I stepped up to the Burger King door, the fluorescent orange 'Help Wanted' signs plastered to the inside glass windows, and the words 'Help Wanted' lettered directly onto the glass door (alongside the Burger King logo), trumpeting the need for good help like the abject warning of a lighthouse beacon, gave us momentary pause.
I thought," Maybe we could go easy on the 'have it your way' concept and this time, let Burger King have it 'their' way." - I mean, why confuse the help? Undoubtedly some teenager who only wants to make money for the summer and could care less about the state of your Whopper - or Whopper Junior as the case may be.
Cheap Choices
From the vast array of choices (Whopper hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, fish sandwiches, with or without the fries or the medium drink in packaged deals numbered from 1 to 6..all for under $5), plus your choice of self-served sodas or iced tea or coffee - we ordered:
1 spicy bbq chicken sandwich, onion rings, medium drink $4.39
#1 meal: Whopper burger, medium fries, chocolate shake $3.69
1 Hershey's Sundae pie $1.19
Service was speedy. The young man who took our order made a handwritten note on the order itself to ensure its accuracy and followed up with a visit to the food prep workers just to make sure. 'Have it your way' is the motto and it appeared they knew it and practiced it.
Three's A Crowd
As we wandered back to our seats, entrees 'on-trays' (so to speak), I noticed this Burger King was hopping. There were numerous couples, an old lady in a funny hat sporting a funnier brooch, and a group of at least 10 teenagers who were loudly enjoying a healthy game of arm-wrestling (It's the truth, cross my heart and hope to die.). They reminded me of that scene in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' where Marion and some big bruiser have a drinking contest in the middle of a ragtag ruffian group in a bar, somewhere in, I think, Nepal.
Strange Eats Remind Me Of Stranger Faces
And so, finding a seat, we ate our bounty. My wife immediately picked the drippy iceberg lettuce from her whopper. I could see the lettuce was limp and soaked through and through with a most unattractive mix of slimy mayonnaise and ketchup. The fries were crisp and hot, though. The onion rings, the same.
The BBQ Chicken sandwich (cajun?) was the most strange shade of orange. Like french salad dressing. Or like Siegfried and/or Roy's face. Or like your local newscaster wearing their instant 'tan' pancake makeup. Your pick. Something like it was on my chicken and I was eating it. It was spicy and soggy from the tomatoes. I looked back at the inviting picture of it over the counter, silently swearing at the food stylist who made it look so hot, fresh, crisp and beautiful.
The Hershey's Sundae Pie was not good. It WAS sweet but... But it was greasy. Kind of like Crisco icing. It quickly coated my mouth with a, I am assuming, PROTECTIVE layer of oil so as to 'grease the skids' and allow smooth passage throughout my ailmentary canal.
FYI: Chief ingredients of the Hershey's Sundae Pie are: Partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening (soybean, cottonseed, palm kernel, coconut and palm oils), water, reduced fat sweetened condensed milk (sugar, skim milk, whole milk), sugar, cream sheese (milk, cream, cheese cultures, salt, xanthan gum and/or locust bean gum and/or guar gum....
I would go on but the list is long and I am already way past 100 words. Let's agree that it was like swabbing your lips and tongue with a sweet, chocolaty grease and call it quits. (And isn't partially hydrogenated oil carcenogenic??? Whatever, I know it isn't good for you.)
Calories and Fat OR Fat and Calories - Have It Your Way!
The teenagers who were raising the volume level by whooping it up (on possibly a sugar high) while arm-wrestling were being quieted by an uncomfortable Burger King representative as I approached the counter to gather more info for this epinion.
"Hi! I was wondering if you had some nutritional information for the food you serve here. If so, may I have a copy?" I asked earnestly.
'No. We don't have any information", was the reply from the perplexed, youthful, mentally preoccupied yet valued Burger King employee.
And so I promptly went to the poster on the wall by the self-serve sodas and read the nutritional information (a copy of which is also on the official Burger King website.)
All hamburgers from Whoppers to Whopper Jr.'s, single patty or double, with or without mayo have at least 15 grams of fat. With mayo and the most fat you'll eat is 67 grams (Double Whopper with Cheese and Mayo and a trip to the cardiologist please).
Not that I'm a health nut but that isn't factoring the calories (up to 1010 for a single sandwich) you get from your fries, onion rings or soda! (Small fries, 250 calories, 13 fat grams. Onion rings, 380 calories, 19 fat grams, Coke medium, 280 calories) PLUS, don't forget that tartar sauce and even ketchup has calories!
Upsetting, huh?
While a listless Burger King employee swabbed empty tables with a dirty, wet (can you say 'ecoli'?) washrag, my wife complained that her stomach was a little upset and left half her hamburger.
I finished my food, ending with the chocolaty Hershey's grease pie and savoring the total Burger King experience.
Ode To Burger King
I thought about the other fast food places and got a hankering for a taco from Jack-In-The-Box... or Taco Bell...but nothing from BK.
Burger King, the 'king of burgers'! Ode to high-fat, high-calorie, high-chloresterol (Double Whopper with cheese tops out at 180 mg) and purveyor of listless customer service is alive and kicking at 280 Metro Center in Colma, California - where the population in the cemetaries there outnumber the living. Clearly, Burger King is doing their part to contribute to the vast Colma 'underground'. Go there after reading this and don't say I didn't warn you.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
vandyke
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Location: SF Bay Area
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 83 members
About Me:
Reactions? Opinions? Contact me at vdr at spectrumfcu dot org with comments!
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