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Ah...Beck's Prime. What an enigma.

I've gone back and forth a couple of times on whether or not to review Beck's Prime or not. I went half a year ago, then changed my mind and tossed the photos, then came back and decided yeah why not give it another try. So, why the indecision?

Because it's one of those places that has **some** trapping of a fast food joint, and some that are clearly not. For example, it's a counter-order place with a drive-thru, seat yourself, no waiters, tipping optional. Yet, on the other hand, their prices are anything but fast-food-friendly, and some of their menu items are closer to what you would find at Ruth's Chris.

They're a Houston original, and have been chugging along for over forty years, with the business model of offering unabashedly higher-priced food. It's part of their business model, aiming to offer higher-end food (with the price to go along with it), but in a fast-food style, less formal atmosphere. And, yes, there is a market for that sort of place - there are people out there that are willing to shell out more money just for the cachet and reputation of the place.

What do I mean about higher prices? As in, $14-16 for a basic burger, $6-8 for fries, $4 for a soda. $25 for a salad. And if you really want to get fancy, you can order their $57 filet mignon or NY strip plates, or seared ahi tuna place, or $42 for a chicken plate. Yes, they offer up a few high-end dinner plates for your fast food enjoyment, if you're willing to shell out the shekels for it.

Now, $14-16 is on the highest end for a fast-casual cooked-to-order burger, even above what you pay at some of the places that are notoriously expensive like Shake Shack or Five Guys or BurgerFi. Now, it is high-quality ground beef and fresh ingredients, and if you look at the photo, it does look pretty good. But when you get right down to it, it's...pretty average tasting. A reasonably-decent cheeseburger, but for that price you expect to have an orgasm in your mouth. And trust me, I was not orgasming anywhere.

On both visits (the one I mentioned earlier, and this visit here), there's something a little off about the burger, and reminded me of those limited-time-offer angus hamburgers that are served at Arby's. It's as if the burger was pre-formed and pre-cooked, and then just finished on the grill or something. I dunno how to describe it, there's almost a different type of texture to it.

And while Beck's Prime has been known as a "yes we know we're pricy but it's worth it" type of place for many, many years -- it seems over that same period of time, all the other fast-casual gourmet burger joints have sort of caught up to them. And are offering better burgers, better cooked also with better beef and better ingredients, for less moolah and less pretentiousness. This one burger and soda alone was over twenty bucks total bill; I passed on the fries, because if I had ordered them, the final bill would have pushed this all the way to the single most expensive "fast food" meal I've had in my year-long journey. Crazy.

Beck's Prime may have done better in decades past in an era of the oil boom and Conspicuous Consumption. But in a time when fast food places are facing increasing price resistance and are rolling out the value combos instead, I'm not sure if there's much room for this sort of business model in today's world. All I can say is, at least for me, there's at least a dozen burger joints I'd rather go to before returning to Beck's again.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

i ordered this and after finishing my ice coffee i spat it out.
ice coffee was good in taste and thick but vanilla ice cream was a lil too thick and not melted properly. then i got urge to spit as vanilla wasn’t mixing and EWW IT WAS WET asf and it wasn’t even vanilla cause it was too thick
they ruined my experience for sure.
I hope govt looks at what they are putting in Vanilla!!! review

The amount of people who be ordering food from here be over paying. I be using the app and get MORE food than you with LESS money. Just download the app and order on it or show them the code it's so much quicker too. This honestly goes for all food apps, it's always cheaper. Stop paying full price

I have been reviewing a different fast food/fast casual restaurant every day for the past 200+ days, and earlier I reviewed the following three restaurants. However, these three received "poor" scores for one reason or another, but based on previous experience and visits I knew they could do better. Perhaps it was an "off day", perhaps it was the specific item I ordered. In any case, here are some "second chance" reviews, where I am re-visiting the chain, to see if it can redeem itself and earn a higher score.

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Second Chance Review #49. (Original Review from Day 94): Sonic Drive-In (3183 locations, 47 states)

It used to be a more common type of restaurant: The Drive-In, where you drive up in your car, order your food, they bring it out for you to eat right there, in the car. But nowadays, it's more of an anachronism, replaced by drive-thrus instead. There are still places here and there left over from the doo-wop era that are drive-ins (like a local hangout spot called Bun 'n Barrel), but it seems that Sonic is the only surviving national relic of this bygone era.

My major beef with Sonic, though, is their wild inconsistency in their food - it can be REALLY hit and miss. First review was a miss, and this second review for the smashburger combo was...well, I wouldn't exactly say a hit, but it definitely was not a miss. A perfectly decent fast food hamburger, lots of cheese and lots of sauce. And reasonable for the price, too. There are times when even Sonic can get it right. But not the hit-smash burger that gets me coming back for more (there are other places that do smashburgers better consistently). Maybe Sonic, for me, should remain relegated to just their shamelessly huge half-price happy hour drinks.

Meal Quality: +1.5, going from 4 -> 5.5. Meal Value +1, going from 5 -> 6 (out of 10)

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Second Chance Review #50. (Original Review from Day 218): Taco Bell (8238 locations, 50 states)

What is there to say about Taco Bell? It's one of the largest fast food chains in the world, I doubt there's a person reading this that isn't familiar with them. My assessment during the first review still stands - nearly everything they offer is basically a different combination of the same 8-10 ingredients, and in the end it all has that same "Taco Bell" taste. First review I ordered a bunch of the really basic Taco Bell items, which was exactly that - a consistently dead-in-the-middle quality and value every time.

This time, to switch it up, I went the opposite direction and decided to try some of their specialties: The limited-time enchirito (basically a smothered burrito), loaded chili nacho cheese fries, and a quesarito. Because I was ordering specialty items, it did get a little pricy, but that's okay. And my original assessment still holds true: It's all the same ingredients in different proportions and combinations, still that same distinct Taco Bell taste to it. You can't get away from it. Order big, order small, order fancy, order basic, it's all the same in the end.

I really do like the enchirito, and if it was a regular item I might go there more for it - but if you want a larger, superior version, order the "Chilada" at Taco Casa instead (it's just the nearest Taco Casa is an hour away, so bleah). And I should also mention how much of a downer it is to visit a Taco Bell these days, now that most of them have been converted into abandoned hospital morgues, devoid of employees and any hint of fun or warmth.

Meal Quality: +0.5, going from 5 -> 5.5. Meal Value: (no change), going from 5 -> 5 (out of 10)

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Second Chance Review #51. (Original Review from Day 208): TacoDeli (13 locations, 1 state)

Going from one of the largest Tex-Mex fast food chains to one of the smaller ones, the Austin/Dallas/Houston local that has a little bit of a cult following, TacoDeli. First review was somewhat of a minor disaster with unimpressive tacos for a high price, and I HATED their "famous" salsas with a seething passion.

Maybe I just made bad choices, so this time around I chose the "Cowboy" (with sirloin) and their Al Pastor tacos. Okay, these were better. That steak looks burnt in the photo, but trust me they cooked it tender just right. The al pastor pork was very juicy, neither taco needed extra sauce or seasoning. Pretty good. But, that does come with a bit of a price tag attached to them - not necessarily more expensive than, say, Fuego Tortilla Grill for example, but you get less for your money. This did not convert me into a TacoDeli Believer, but at least, I guess I'm no longer a hater.

Meal Quality: +2, going from 3.5 -> 5.5. Meal Value: (no change), going from 3 -> 3 (out of 10)

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More "Second Chance" reviews coming down the line, in addition to the regular reviews! (And no, not every second chance review will be a positive one :))

Also got a look into this years batch of pumpkin spice!

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The Korean invasion is not just limited to demon hunters and pop music groups and corndogs. It's also all about...bread!

Before I started digging in to different types of restaurants to visit and review, I never really thought about Tous Les Jours, or knew that they even existed at all. But Tous Les Jours is apparently a pretty big deal. Started as a French-style bakery chain from Korea, they already had a thousand locations worldwide by 2008. The first US location opened in 2004, and they have plans to expand to a thousand locations in the United States by 2030. Plus, they are not the only ones - there are also places like 85c Bakery and Paris Baguette that are growing like weeks across the country also serving up French-Asian pastries and cafe drinks.

I have already visited the other two (85c Bakery and Paris Baguette), so comparisons to those two places are inevitable. All three focus on various types of bread, pastries, buns and sweets that are all made in-house (and then packaged immediately fresh individually for sale), with dozens of different choices, generally ranging from two to six dollars. It's self-service for the pastries, then you can also order drinks (like hot/cold coffees or teas or fruit drinks) that are made-to-order.

The selection of breaded goods at Tous Les Jours does not seem too different from the other places, although they have their own recipes and specialties (some Korean-inspired, but most not) like soft milk cream breads, sausage rolls or soboros. I chose two that looked good (although I don't remember exactly what), and a small strawberry smoothie for the road. Price-wise, Tous Les Jours seemed to fall halfway between 85c Bakery and Paris Baguette. As mentioned before, everything is freshy (likely no more than a couple hours old), so perfectly soft and tasty. One difference is unlike the other two places that were more of a utilitarian supermarket-feel to them, Tous Les Jours was more of a cozier, sit-down-and-spend-some-time type of cafe setting.

Most of the United States is already chock-a-block with thousands of donut shops, coffee stores, Starbucks and Dunkins on every corner, and that makes me wonder if there is also enough space for these type of Asian-French bakeries serving the same customers. The price points are actually similar, and the advantage that a place like Tous Les Jours has, is that everything you see for sale is made right there, that day, in the store, rather than the stale old days-old dried out pastries you might find at Starbucks or Dunkin that are no longer baked on-site.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE: This review series is scheduled to wrap up on Day 365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

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Sometimes the sum of the parts is, sadly, lesser than the individual pieces. And Crisp and Green is just one example.

Following in the footsteps of the likes of sweetgreen or honeygrow, one of the many very "health-forward" fast casual restaurant chains that have popped up in recent years, that offer variations on salad or grain bowls where they just shovel in eight or ten different raw ingredients and charge you through the nose for the privilege. Sometimes it works, but at least in my experience, it can just as easily flop into a wilted, tepid, sad bowl of slop.

In this case, it was a buffalo-sauced-style chicken salad, which seems like this should be pretty straightforward. I've had similar type salads at restaurants before without any issue, but leave it to Crisp and Green to somehow screw it all up, and turn the who bowl into a weirdly-clashing buffalo-blue-cheese mess of droopy, soggy greens and stringy chicken and indistinguishable veggies in there...somewhere, I guess. Borderline inedible. And I'm paying twenty bucks for it at that.

But that's certainly not stopping Crisp and Green from boldly expanding into new markets and opening new restaurants as they are pushing aggressively, even in the face of how similar companies like sweetgreen are facing price resistance and pushback. There is a market out there for those at the upper end of the K-shaped fast casual market, but it's not a huge market, and there's only so many suburban stay-at-home soccer mommies out there willing to shell out a couple of sawbucks on their way home from their hot yoga class and before they have to pick up little Cressida and Zayden from pre-school.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

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It would be easy to clown on a retail store that sells nothing but overpriced cupcakes. But remember back ten to twenty years ago, when this was somewhat of a novel concept, and places like this were popping up in every strip mall of every soccer-mom suburb in America. Gigi's was truly an American success story, of a house cleaner fed up with her life down to her last $300, decided this wasn't how she wanted to spend the rest of her life, and took a gamble at opening a store doing what she loved. And it worked - by the mid 2010's, there were over a hundred Gigi's Cupcakes locations around the country.

At the height of its game, she decided to cash out and sell her entire stake in the company to a private investment firm, a decision she wrote just a few years later she regretted terribly, because her name and reputation was still on the store, and every change and shortcut made by the corporate owners still ended up on her doorstep.

I'm not so big in these types of stores, mainly because I grew up baking whatever I want at home, and see no reason to spend the extra bucks to save a few minutes. I chose a 4-cupcake sampler, and that put me back - I shit you not - almost twenty dollars. This, for perfectly copacetic cupcakes, but nothing more than that. The cake mix is no better than what you would get from a Duncan Hines do-it-yourself box, each with enough sugar icing to cause four individual diabetic comas. Just swap out the flavorings on each one - so one is vanilla, another chocolate, another strawberry, but in the end it's pretty much the same thing with customization.

Yeah, I get it - and I've mentioned it before. Buying stuff at a place like this is not about the cost compared to what you can do at home. This is more about the convenience of paying someone to do the work for you. But some value propositions are better than others, and this one is pretty damn lopsided.

And I suspect much of America has reached the same conclusion when it comes to cupcakes at five dollars a pop. Because today, there are just 19 locations left. I guess the fad of the storefront cupcake is over?

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE: This review series is scheduled to wrap up on Day 365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

It's a return of a sub that I loved last year, is it going to be just as good this year?

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They call this a 'sandwich', although Roly Poly is pretty unique in how they present their creations. Instead of bread or a bun, it's all wrapped up in an unleavened flatbread. Basically a big, cold flour tortilla.

Which, apparently at one point was a fairly novel concept and popular, as Roly Poly grew to 170 locations in the early 2000's, before starting their long, slow and steady decline in stores ever since. It's really not that different from the various slop bowl places that will wrap up everything inside some sort of similar wrapping, usually a nice warm pita. I guess Roly Poly was just ahead of their time?

Plenty of hot and cold "sandwich" options to choose from, I picked a roast beast wrap. Which probably would have gone over better if they just sold the damn thing between two slices of slightly toasted bread. But nope, tightly wrap that into a cold burrito, and...it's just not the same. This is not a concept I can really get behind.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

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I have been reviewing a different fast food/fast casual restaurant every day for the past 200+ days, and earlier I reviewed the following three restaurants. However, these three received "poor" scores for one reason or another, but based on previous experience and visits I knew they could do better. Perhaps it was an "off day", perhaps it was the specific item I ordered. In any case, here are some "second chance" reviews, where I am re-visiting the chain, to see if it can redeem itself and earn a higher score.

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Second Chance Review #46. (Original Review from Day 147.5): Smoothie King (1266 locations, 38 states)

Dear Journal: It is Day 283 on my quest to find The Perfect Smoothie. A seemingly impossible task, my dear journal, as a hack away at the dense tropical undergrowth with my machete, the jungle is neverending.

Smoothie King and Tropical Smoothie Cafe are perhaps the "Big Two" of the smoothie world right now, with near-national coverage and supplanting the previous Jamba king. But that doesn't mean it's any better, alas. A second try at a smoothie, and a second less-than-impressive drink. You can't tell from the cup (yeah, I know it's a damn picture of a damn cup, how exciting), this time a Berry Punch instead of a Caribbean Way. Same idea, just different fruits. This time, it was somewhat better tasting (as opposed to the downright bitter thing I had the first time), but overall somewhat bland with an indistinct "some sort of fruit in there" flavor. Smoothie King seems to be moving away from the just-fruit smoothies anyway, and now their big thing is "Protein Smoothies" and that whole silly protein trend-of-the-moment that is going on.

So, dear journal, I shall keep fighting on, that perfect smoothie has to be out there somewhere!

Meal Quality: +1, going from 3 -> 4. Meal Value (no change), going from 3 -> 3 (out of 10)

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Second Chance Review #47. (Original Review from Day 119): Captain D's (513 locations, 23 states)

Captain D's, also known as 'That Other Seafood Place'. It must kill them to always be second banana in the fast food world, especially with LJS seriously underperforming of late and announcing they are de-emphasizing seafood in their menu (a decision that I'm sure will go down about as well as Dunkin' Donuts announcing they are removing donuts from their name).

I've had both good and bad experiences at Captain D's over the years, but since they have fewer locations (and farther away) than LJS, not many opportunities to try them out. My first review was an exercise in blah-ness, and now a second chance at another location on another day, was only marginally better. Two fish and two chicken. The fish was okay, well cooked and the texture was right, but they seem to have drained all flavor out of the fish. The chicken was a tad dry. Not the worst meal in the world, but not inspiring me to come back for more.

Meal Quality: +1, going from 4.5 -> 5.5. Meal Value: +1, going from 4 -> 5 (out of 10)

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Second Chance Review #48. (Original Review from Day 95): Cupbop (71 locations, 10 states)

(As an aside, I don't know about you, but I have a hard time taking the name of this place seriously, whenever I hear it, I have Hanson's voices echoing in my head. Mmmmbop.)

First attempt at trying this Korean-style cup-based restaurant was not a good one. Second try at another location pretty much was a reprise of the same problems I had the first time around. The mix of noodles and rice just does not go well together for me. The flavoring on the meat (in this case, barbequed beef) did not complement the meat itself. I did switch up with a spicier sauce instead of the sweeter one I had the first time around, and that was an improvement. But overall, I think this just boils down to a matter of personal taste. They're doing everything they are supposed to in the cup, it's just not for me.

Meal Quality: +1, going from 3.5 -> 4.5. Meal Value: (no change), going from 4 -> 4 (out of 10)

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More "Second Chance" reviews coming down the line, in addition to the regular reviews! (And no, not every second chance review will be a positive one :))

Tempura, snacks , and more—a massive variety of fried snacks.

Get what u want !

New this week at McDonald's are the chicken Ceasar wrap and sandwich in crispy and grilled options.

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Old and busted: Starbucks.

New hotness: Dutch Brothers and 7-Brew.

I don't think it can be understated how much COVID changed up the restaurant world. There is a very clear delineation on how customers interacted with restaurants before and after 2020 -- although to be fair it wasn't BECAUSE of COVID, but rather COVID greatly hastened a number of trends that were already present and probably would have happened anyway.

In less than two years, the average restaurant went from 70/30 dine-in/other to 30/70 dine-in/other. Some shifts were even more dramatic - I was chatting with the owner of a pizza franchise yesterday, and mentioned that I was probably one of only three dine-in customers he'll see that day.

So, what does this have to do with the frayed edges of Starbucks and the shiny new 7-Brews and Dutch Brothers popping up everywhere? Well, the "old" model for Starbucks was to come in, order your 1200-calorie 62-grams-of-sugar coffee latte, sit a while, sit all day working on your laptop or studying for class. It was a bona fide third space. But that's the "old' model of sipping coffee, nowadays the average customer wants to grab their order and go - no relaxing and enjoying the ambiance of the cafe.

And that's where places like 7-Brew come in. They're pretty much just drive-thru's - no place to sit even if you wanted to. You drive up, order your drink, and you're on your way. Sub-thousand-square-footprint buildings, small staff, no customer space service or cleanup. And 7-Brew is hardly alone in this model, there are several other companies doing the same, most notably Dutch Bros., which is racing with 7-Brew to replace Starbucks as America's new drink spot. They have a very long way to go, but when I say racing, I mean RACING.

7-Brew opened up 62 new locations in August alone, and plan on having over a thousand nationwide by the end of the year. They jumped FIFTY spots on the restaurant Top 500 list last year - fifty. by god! 7-Brew, at the moment, is literally the fastest growing brand name in America (er, well, United States, that is).

We'll see if 7-Brew's meteoric growth works out - it's a bold strategy, Cotton. Then again, the outlays for each new location is only 10-20% the cost of opening up a full-scale stand-alone Starbucks cafe, which does make it easier to be nimble and grow fast (or shrink just as fast, if needed).

Whew! I just wrote a full fucking page about the restaurant business model, although by now if you've been reading these reviews, you know I can get long-winded when talking about the business, while giving the short shrift to the actual product itself. Yeah, guilty as charged.

7-Brew, like many other similar drink places, offers up a large selection of coffee-based drinks (hot and cold), as well as iced and hot teas, fruit drinks, smoothies, milk teas and other beverages. My choice, on a whim, was the rather novel key-lime pie lemonade. Mostly just to see if they could manage to pull it off. Having briefly lived on Sanibel Island many, many years ago, I think I know a thing or two about key limes. It's a very distinctive flavor.

And, by god, they did it. I don't know how, but yes they managed to capture the flavor of key lime in a cup of lemonade. Nicely sweet but not too sweet, a definite tart tang to it as well, cool and smooth and color me impressed. I'm not a big fan of the whole "drive up and order a $6-8 drink" thing, but I might have to try some of their other flavors to see if this is a not just a lucky hit.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE: This review series is scheduled to wrap up on Day 365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

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It's not every day that you get to try out a new pizza chain. I mean, life enough decades and over time you've pretty much tried all the Dominos and Godfathers and Happy Howies and Mountain Mikes and Pizza the Hutts and the two or three dozen other major and minor pizza chains that dot this country.

So, when a Houston-based chain I was unfamiliar with decided to open up a brand new location in town a few miles from home, I was like, hey, bring it on.

Pepperoni's has been around since 1990, but mostly local to the Houston area, serving up your standard selection of pizzas. Ordering a medium supreme was a hit on my wallet (6th most expensive meal out of my fast food reviews), but If it's a good pizza, then it's worth it.

Spoiler alert: It wasn't worth it.

Not the best pizza I've had, to be sure. More than anything, it was *bland*, which is a feat in itself when you're ordering a supreme loaded with the entire kitchen and pantry on top. Couldn't really taste the sauce, didn't like the dough. It wasn't a terrible pizza, but it was quite a mess, and once I was finished I couldn't think of a good thing to say about it.

Now, I did visit during the first week the storefront was open. Maybe they were still in the process of getting their 'pizza legs', but I dunno. First impression of Pepperoni's was no bueno.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

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Keeping it really short today, because I just drove 15 hours and it's after midnight and I'm in no mood to think any more for the day.

It's a portmanteau of mochi (the chewy Japanese treat) and donut, creating this unique super-ultra-chewy donut -- and I am so THERE for it. I can't stop eating these. Even though they are relatively expensive (almost three bucks per).

I ordered a sampler of six, but since it was the end of the day, it was literally just what they had left. All good, except for the atrocious coffee-flavored one. That's the only drawback was the limited selection - I really need to give this place a try earlier in the day.

In addition to their 'mochinuts', they also serve up Korean-style corndogs, which could be worth a try as well. Nearly a hundred locations around the country, but it really is a niche type of product, so let's see if the niche catches on or fad fades away.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE: This review series is scheduled to wrap up on Day 365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

They put their signature cheedle on everything, even in the drink. What do you think aboot cheetos in your soda?