When Ruth Parker rolled up to a Taco Bell in Carbondale, Illinois on Tuesday—something she does every Tuesday and Friday—this was waiting for her:

The source of that food-poisoning outbreak that sickened hundreds of people at a Powell, Ohio Chipotle may have finally been discovered. NPR reports that “Health officials have determined that a type of bacteria found in food left at unsafe temperatures is the cause of an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness that…

San Francisco’s Seven Stills Brewery And Distillery likes a good gimmick. They have an imperial red ale that’s made with “a shitload of Swedish Fish in the barrel.” Another pays tribute to, ah, Twins—the movie, not the baseball team. This whiskey collaboration is calls Four Legs Good and features a pup with angel…

Maybe you’ve been to a Greek restaurant lately. Maybe you ordered the flaming saganaki. Or maybe you’ve frequented a farmer’s market, and you tasted this squeaky, briny, exceptionally tasty white cheese griddling on a hot pan, crisping on its surface. In either cases, there’s a good chance you’ve tasted halloumi.

Sure, many of us have had that thought: If we just ask for a cup for water at the fast-food place, what happens if we fill it up with Coke instead? As a Montana man recently discovered, you may get arrested, although he added certain extenuating circumstances that did not help his case.

Children of the ’90s, say it with me: SUUUUUUUUUUUUURGE. Surge, for those who haven’t had the pleasure, was a “citrus-flavored” soda from the Coca-Cola company (essentially it was the love child of Mountain Dew and Adderall.) Its brief life span lasted only from 1996 to 2003, with a reemergence on Amazon and at some…

A U.K. Burger King location will continuously bless the rains down in Africa today as it plays Toto’s earworm “Africa” through its speakers on constant loop. All day. Seriously.

When it comes to popular fast-food restaurants, it’s always pretty clear who’s on the top of the heap: For example, Chick-Fil-A just topped the new American Customer Satisfaction Index’s Restaurant Report. But what about at the bottom? Reader’s Digest just reported on a survey that Nation’s Restaurant News worked on…

Today’s etiquette question: If the bag of food you receive at the Taco Bell drive-thru lacks hot sauce packets, are you more likely to receive said packets if you:

$5 Footlongs. $5 Fill Ups. $5 Lunch Combo. $5 Buck Boxes. What is it about the $5 price tag that compels us to order subs, chicken combos, and pizzas? According to this deep look from USA Today, it’s mostly psychological.

Taco Bell employees can purchase food at a discount during their breaks. Makes sense. But employees in California recently filed a lawsuit against the chain over a particular detail of that discount: To get the reduced-price food, staff are required by the restaurant to stay at the restaurant and not leave the…

After Forbes reported he used a racial slur during a marketing conference call, Papa John’s founder John Schnatter gave a straightforward apology and stepped down as chair of the company’s board. What a positive move, you may have thought to yourself. What a refreshing, non-“I’m sorry if anyone was offended”…

Have you ever visited a restaurant and said to yourself: “I like ready-to-eat food here, but how can I do more work?” Then this news may be of interest to you: Chick-Fil-A will be offering meal kits.

Imagine you’re Gracelyn Griffin, born Tuesday in San Antonio, 16 years into the future. She walks into a Chick-Fil-A with friends, they’re ordering fried chicken sandwiches and her pals reach for their wallets. Griffin holds up a hand and just says: “I got this.” Her friends shoot a puzzled look and ask: “How?”…

Fans of the Sylvester Stallone movie Demolition Man will recall that in that science fiction film, Taco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the “Franchise Wars.” So in the future, all restaurants are Taco Bell. While we can all just dream of such a paradise, Taco Bell decided to draw on that pop-culture reference…

Fort Myers, Florida police officer Timothy McCormick says he knows his burger was messed with. The veteran cop is referring to a burger he recently ordered from a Burger King, which he says had dirt or some other substance smeared onto it by employees. Even after a police review of surveillance video (yes, really)…

In college, a mentor sat me down for a chat. She told me if I wanted to make it as a theater director (those were the days), I only needed to know two things. First, I had to work harder than anyone else. And second, and more importantly, she said, “Never turn down free food.” I took that advice to heart. I love free…

July 10 update: CBC is reporting that the 6-year-old McDonald’s meal has been removed from eBay, because the auction site prohibits selling “unpackaged or expired food.” The Takeout placed a bid for $77 Canadian dollars, but was outbid—it went all the way up to $150. Man, people.

There exists an annual report known as the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s Restaurant Report, in which survey proctors ask 22,500 Americans (!) about their experiences at various chain restaurants. Customers are asked to rate restaurants on a scale of 0 to 100 in categories such as food accuracy; waitstaff…

Burger King, what are you doing?