C+
Love/hate Burger King? You'll love/hate the Sourdough King
My superpower is I can walk into any fast food restaurant blindfolded and identify it by smell. McDonald’s smells like…
A blind taste test to determine the best ranch dressing
As Heinz and ketchup goes, so goes Hidden Valley and ranch. Brand affinity affects taste perceptions, and as we found…
B
White Castle's Impossible Slider cleverly disguises its fake meat subterfuge
It was true before Harold & Kumar, but the 2004 surprise-hit film confirmed what many of us know: White Castle is…
A-
Haggis-flavored potato chips are offal fun
The Brits have a far more sophisticated potato chip culture than us Yanks. This is not some big revelation. One…
Which is the tastiest kosher-for-Passover potato chip?
The grocery store seasonal aisle is a refreshing bastion of predictability: Valentines’ Day chocolate, Halloween…
B+
With Taco Bell's Strawberry Skittles Freeze, you may actually taste the rainbow
Taco Bell is selling a Slurpee-like frozen drink that tastes like red Skittles. If that first sentence did not evoke…
B
Carrot cake yogurt offers guilt-free indulgence without the requisite post-nap
I’m reading this fascinating book right now by Jonathan Kauffman, called Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers,…
The Takeout's exhaustive guide to fast food sauces
Let’s spend a few minutes on the crucial topic of sauce. My biggest question is: Do we treat sauce as a vehicle, an…
New Cheez-It Duoz bring caramel popcorn and pretzels to the dance
For a snack combination to succeed, the whole must be greater than the sum of the parts. Take Chex Mix, my favorite of…
A
Raising Cane's serves a more-than-able chicken finger
I’d never heard of Raising Cane’s until I visited my girlfriend out in Las Vegas, where she lived at the time. She…
All of Dairy Queen’s Blizzards, ranked
When Dairy Queen introduced the Blizzard in 1985, it was a big step forward in ice cream shop innovation. Before, you…
B
Canada Dry’s Ginger Ale And Lemonade dares to update a classic
We ginger ale/beer nerds are lucky to live in such a gilded age, with so many artisans brewing fantastic product (and…
C-
A&W debuts poutine not with a squeak, but a whimper
It’s a wonder to me that more fast-food restaurants don’t serve poutine. The vast majority already have fries, and a…
How much does Halo Top taste like full-fat ice cream?
I had a conversation with my colleague Kate recently, who graciously allowed this old fart to peek into the mysterious…
Ben & Jerry's piles on the truffles to both fantastic and mediocre results
I’m not thinking about nutrition when I’m eating Ben & Jerry’s. I’m eating Ben & Jerry’s because my dog ran away, or my…
Diet Coke squeezes fruit into four new middling flavors
Just last month, Coca-Cola announced it was unveiling new recipes of its Diet Coke line, and half the Diet Cokeheads I…
A-
Panda Express' orange chicken remains the pinnacle of junky Chinese-American takeout
The closest I ever came to being a racist was over orange chicken. My Hong Kong immigrant parents never expressed their…
Campbell's Skillet Sauces are passable crutches for less-than-passable cooks
As someone who cooks daily and relishes laboring in the kitchen, this recent deluge of ready-made skillet, slow-cooker,…
B+
With Nacho Fries, Taco Bell enters—and dominates—the French fry game
Loyalties to fast food French fries run deep. But for all the love they garner, few fast food chains have made attempts…
A
Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix lets you take the best part of Red Lobster home
As a non-fan of baby-back ribs or unlimited breadsticks, I tend to avoid the giant sit-down restaurant chains. I am…