Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Frazzled wrote:
Taco Bell is NOT Mexican food. Please don't insults Mexicans like that.

It's not really even "food".

It's great if you want to cleanse your colon, though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Five Guys is the best burger joint I've found in the U.K. Bit pricey compared to competitors. But superior value.

Be sure to get the Cajun fries - the Cajun seasoning is "free" because they want you to eat it that way.

Same reason the core toppings are "free" - because that's how you're supposed to eat it (although I usually hold the mustard, as I'm getting enough spice in the Cajun fries, above). If you're not getting the grilled onions & mushrooms on the burger, you're doing it wrong.

Are there any good fast food joints for fried chicken? I love homemade fried chicken, but Popeye's and especially KFC always let me down.

 jasper76 wrote:
Are there any good fast food joints for fried chicken? I love homemade fried chicken, but Popeye's and especially KFC always let me down.

Raising Cane's for chicken fingers.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:
Are there any good fast food joints for fried chicken? I love homemade fried chicken, but Popeye's and especially KFC always let me down.

Raising Cane's for chicken fingers.

I don't think we have that in these parts...never heard of it, but I'll keep an eye out.

Chesters is good for chicken; it's just enough breading, and thick, juicy chicken. If you like a little breading with your lot of chicken, go there. About as greasy as KFC though, I believe.

 jasper76 wrote:
Are there any good fast food joints for fried chicken? I love homemade fried chicken, but Popeye's and especially KFC always let me down.

If Popeye's isn't good enough, then the answer is "no". Sorry.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:
Are there any good fast food joints for fried chicken? I love homemade fried chicken, but Popeye's and especially KFC always let me down.

If Popeye's isn't good enough, then the answer is "no". Sorry.

I don't hate it, they just go a bit overboard on the breading IMO.

Bojangles has good chicken (in my opinion).

KFC used to be so good, now it's just diarrhea in a bucket. As far as fast food fried chicken, Popeyes is the best I found.. I wish I had a local place that makes it good, I always see them on TV and they're never anywhere near here :(

 jasper76 wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:
Are there any good fast food joints for fried chicken? I love homemade fried chicken, but Popeye's and especially KFC always let me down.

If Popeye's isn't good enough, then the answer is "no". Sorry.

I don't hate it, they just go a bit overboard on the breading IMO.

You have a weird Popeyes then. The one near me only has a light coating of breadcrumbs, just enough to get crunchy without being doughy. It does vary from place to place so maybe it's the store near you.

Another good Burger Joint - Grubbs, in Brighton.

Granted it's post-pub nosh, but their Paradise Burger is amazing.

Bun, Beef Patty, Pineapple, Peanut Butter, Banana. Sounds horrible, but it really really isn't.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Having read this thread....

I would like to make it known that the Humble British Kebab, usually consumed late at night (or very early in the morning), whilst in a state of advanced refreshment, and often involved the magic act Abrakebabra* still seems less appealing.


*Abrakebabra is where the performer makes their kebab disappear, only to later reappear, usually on the back of the taxi driver's head

Yeah. When I grew up in Germany, the donor kebabs were very tasty, thick warm bread, fresh crisp salad and feta, and crispy charred meat. How dissappointed I was on my return to England to be handed a once frozen pitta, containing decaying lettuce, what seemed like 12 chopped onions, and watery, grey looking strips of meat. Awful.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:
Are there any good fast food joints for fried chicken? I love homemade fried chicken, but Popeye's and especially KFC always let me down.

If Popeye's isn't good enough, then the answer is "no". Sorry.

I don't hate it, they just go a bit overboard on the breading IMO.

You have a weird Popeyes then. The one near me only has a light coating of breadcrumbs, just enough to get crunchy without being doughy. It does vary from place to place so maybe it's the store near you.

Popeyes franchises vary highly between stores. Their spicy chicken is probably my favorite chain chicken (I found Cane's to be lackluster with interesting sauce), but our closest location screws up the orders so much (and this is on straight by the menu orders, nothing weird; usually because they forget sides), I have given up trying to eat there.

 oldzoggy wrote:
I just looked at their menu and I do not seem to understand their concept.. It didn't look appetizing at all it all seems to be weirdly colored paste centric and they somehow seem to be proud at selling huge quantities of pepsi the drink that no one really wants to drink. They seem to have no healthy or at least fresh looking options at all.

How are they this popular ?

They're open late at night, and at least in the US, they sell a $5 box with your choice of 3 tacos/burritos/some combination, nacho chips with cheese, and a medium drink, which is about half the cost for all that stuff otherwise.

As for whether or not it's good (or Mexican), well, people don't go to Taco Bell because it's Mexican. They go to Taco Bell because it's cheap and/or it's 3 in the morning and nothing else is open besides McDonald's, and McDonald's doesn't stuff their burritos to the bursting point.

Oh, and Mountain Dew Baja Blast, which is the nectar of gods. And damn-near impossible to find anywhere else unless you live in a big city that's somewhat close to the Mexican border.

 Blind Idiot Psyker wrote:
They go to Taco Bell because it's cheap and/or it's 3 in the morning and nothing else is open besides McDonald's,

No, Dennys!

That's where you go when the clubs close.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 Blind Idiot Psyker wrote:
They go to Taco Bell because it's cheap and/or it's 3 in the morning and nothing else is open besides McDonald's,

No, Dennys!

That's where you go when the clubs close.

You only go to Dennys if there is literally nothing else in town and the town is surrounded by, at minimum, thirty miles of fething zilch. Waffle House is infinitely superior.

Waffle House is awesome.

I'm a farmer and in my student days I've worked in various food chain related industries. My least fav was the abattoir. Apart from getting some choice cuts to take home my stand out memory is the carcass hoseings that went into the meat cubes for kebabs. It was truely awful stuff. The bones were hosed and steamed to remove fragments for the cubes. Suffice to say no matter how drunk I got in my student days I never ate one and the smell is enough to turn my guts inside out. Seriously people good quality cuts of meat are worth paying for. Especially in the US, food is crazy cheap out there. UK isn't far behind.

 Blind Idiot Psyker wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 Blind Idiot Psyker wrote:
They go to Taco Bell because it's cheap and/or it's 3 in the morning and nothing else is open besides McDonald's,

No, Dennys!

That's where you go when the clubs close.

You only go to Dennys if there is literally nothing else in town and the town is surrounded by, at minimum, thirty miles of fething zilch. Waffle House is infinitely superior.

Waffle House is way too far away from where I've lived.

Dennys, you get breakfast, which is pretty much impossible to feth up.

I don't know if the Taco Bell in the States or as OP said in the Netherlands is better.

But the Taco Bell in the mall is food I wouldn't even feed to captured ISIS personnel in an interrogation.

Can anyone tell me what Jack in the Box is like? I somehow saw the adds on YouTube and now I'm curious.

We have a place called SuperMacs that's really good. Most of the burgers are double patties and you can have near any kind of sauce over the chips...sorry, fries.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Can anyone tell me what Jack in the Box is like?

you can have near any kind of sauce over the chips...sorry, fries.

JitB is like McDonalds, but with a hair more flash. Same amount of indigestion, tho. They have cheap, crunchy tacos and curly fries - the curlys aren't bad. Arguably better shakes than McDs, but still well short of a proper hand-spun.

That sauce... can I get cheese curds with gravy on my fries?

Jack in the Box's tacos are pretty dire in my opinion. They don't mess around with their Ultimate Cheeseburger, though. At 1am, when you hazily imagine the quintessential fast food cheeseburger, that's it.

Doner kebab is the ultimate.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
So what's this Wendy's I keep hearing about?

I may have visited one in 1994, but couldn't say for certain.

Home of the square burger patty. Greasier than Burger King, fried on a griddle, not over a flame. I generally get their chicken strips rather than a burger, though my brother is a big fan. Decent fries, though, probably 2nd to McD's for fast food.

For fast food burgers, I'll take Harvey's any day. Flame cooked and made to order in front of you, no such thing as a 'standard' burger. South St Burgers is a step up from that (and they have New York Fries). Five Guys is roughly equivalent IMO, though I've only eaten there once.

@ JohnHwangDD

I think they have gravy...they definitely have curry cheese fries. It's made to be a hybrid of an American fast food joint and a British (or in this case, Irish) chip shop so gravy chips are definitely a possibility.

Oh, goody. I love cheesy, gravy fries. So tasty!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
So what's this Wendy's I keep hearing about?

I may have visited one in 1994, but couldn't say for certain.

They also advertise their meat as 'never frozen', which they seem to back up by using a lot of refrigerated trucks for shipping. Whether that has any impact on quality I can't tell, I haven't been in a Wendy's in ages.

The big local thing in my area is Braum's, which is sort of like an upgraded Dairy Queen with a small grocer built-in to most locations, except with food besides the ice cream that is actually edible. They do something similar to Wendy's but more extreme in that they don't ship more than 200 miles away from their farm HQ. They're pretty good, but their fries leave something to be desired.

Of course, everyone knows frozen custard is superior to frozen ice cream anyway

Wendy's is arguably the "best" fast food chain in the US, where the burgers are pretty decent, and they have some relatively healthy options (you can sub a small salad for the combo fries). "Never frozen" means that the patty cooks better, more evenly. You can test that by making a patty and freezing it yourself, before cooking it on the pan.

Farm-to-table is becoming a big thing here in SoCal, particularly for fast casual dining.

I consider Wendy's above McD's and Burger King. But 5 Guys trumps all three. Hardee's/Carl's Jr. is also pretty awesome. Also, nobody mentioned Sonic? Best onion rings!!!