Not a fan of cheez wiz or 'authentic' Philly cheese steaks. I like real cheese and marinara. But these were pretty bad hotel pub combos: 1. American cheese, hot sauce, onions, and mayo 2. Unknown cheese, mushrooms, peppers, sauteed onions, unknown disgustingly vinegary sauce
Fried steak sandwich with cheese popular in Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, most popular and probably originated in Philadelphia. Seems simple, but a lot of places have no idea how to make a good one. You need good quality thin sliced ribeye and good bread to make a good cheesesteak. Also the "authentic" Philadelphia cheesesteaks from Pat's or Geno's (the two big cheesesteak places in Philadelphia) use cheese wiz by default, mostly out of laziness I think. They are much better with provolone, American, or some other real type of cheese. Also, Pat's and Geno's are overrated tourist traps. There are hole in the wall places in PA and NJ that make far better cheesesteaks. Anyway, cheesesteaks are one those things that can be amazing when made well, but they can also be terrible if made by someone who doesn't know what they are doing or who uses poor quality ingredients. Honestly, they are mostly bad because most places don't know how to make them.
Pat's King of Steaks is considered the creator of the cheese steak. Their biggest rival, Geno's, is literally across the street. They've held a lot of esteem due to history, celebrity sightings, and marketing. Both are incredibly overrated and ham it up for tourists. During normal busines hours, the order taker plays the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. You can get sent to the back of the line for not knowing what you want or not ordering properly. Tourists seem to love the gimmick. The only cool thing is they are both open 24/7. They are located down unlit one way streets with Geno's lit up like a casino. It becomes an after, after, after party spot at 4:00 am. Kinda cool to be one of the drunken zombies haggardly walking towards the lights. The actual menu and sandwiches are identical but I think Pat's tastes better than Geno's. This is how close they are: Pat's on left; Geno's on right: Geno's after dark:
The more people tell me how awful the Pat's original cheese steak are the more I want to go there and get one.
The cheese steak at Pat's is pretty good... I didn't mean to imply it was awful. It's overrated because of the hoops you have to jump through. The nearest parking lot is 2 blocks away at a bank. When you get there the lines wrap around the block. Have to order and pay for the cheese steak, then wait at another window to buy soda as a separate transaction. Cash only. Rarely find available seating. I prefer a more refined dining experience!
Strictly for research purposes and science, I prepared my body for Grand Mac. The new bigger Big Mac. I was surprised to find the sandwich itself was bigger. I expected 2 extra patties on the current Big Mac. When I first saw the bigger box I was was filled with childlike delight. This could only mean that I was getting 2 quarter pound patties, I thought. But I'd be so very wrong. The new patties clock in at a combined 1/3 lb... along with larger buns, 2 slices of cheese, secret sauce of thousand island and stale lettuce. In the end, the Grand Mac suffers the same woes as the Big Mac. Too much bread and carbs but not enough meat. With proper care this sandwich could've brought world peace. But instead it's an absolute utter disappointment. I shall never return.
I have been working with 2 American networking guys for the past couple of nights and they said the only thing they really miss about American food is the Philly Cheese Steak. In other news Five Guys have applied to open a restaurant in my town, 3-4 minute walk from my office so maybe I will find out if it is worth all the fuss.
Taco Bell has a new taco with a shell made of fried chicken. Here a naked fat man eats one while sitting in his car, presumably across the street from an elementary school. The downvotes and comments are probably funnier than the video. Or if you prefer here's a strange, nerdy kid with high functioning autism in a suit reviewing it
Fake internet points is a big thing over here but people also seem to be making money off this stuff.
I spend way too much time on YT because I know both of those guys, and more lol. The first guy never appealed to me for some reason. His reviews aren't as series as ReviewBrah or as entertaining as Daym Drops. The 2nd guy is ReviewBrah... he's a semi-popular YT fast food reviewer. The formal suit is his shtick to separate himself from other YT reviewers. He doesn't provide entertainment, but does solid, very serious, reviews. There is also some debate about mental illness based on his perceived personality. But I think he's just a straight laced boring kid doing serious YT reviews. Daym Drops is reigning king of YT food reviews, mainly because he's fun to watch. Unfortunately, he's so popular his videos are basically giant ads with a small review now. BuzzFeed recently got into the food review game. It's in limited production cycles where Steve, Andrew, & Adam rate 3 similar food style restaurants at dramatically different price points. They are by far the best. Also there used to be a great reviewer called FreezerBurns who did supermarket frozen dinner reviews. But he stopped posting a few years ago.
I never really understood the point of this. It just seems inefficient. You can control the lighting. angle, and audio quality (and eliminate background noise) if you do your video review at home. I'm not sure what doing it in a car gains. I dunno man, that kid was hilarious. His 1940's style and dry humor is very welcome considering all of the other obnoxious acting screaming youtubers.
Ideally reviews should be inside the restaurant in it's intended presentation. This is how I evaluate most food. But if you're gonna film, the car is the closest control environment to eat hot food. Letting it get cold on the drive home voids the sanctity of the review imo. Anyway, I was destined on a collision course with the Naked Chicken Chalupa from the moment I saw cmdrmonkeys post. I had one for lunch today and it was great. It's the most impressive thing on their menu since the Volcano Taco and Cinnabon delights. I brought home another for dinner just to be sure and because I forgot to take a pic. I really wasn't expecting to like this but it's a winner for TB. The only thing that would make it better is if I could fill up the fried chicken taco shell with beef. That said, it was definitely the cheap fried cutlet compable to $1 Wendy's or BK sandwiches. TB is charging $3 for this. Chick-fil-A is so far out of its league I've insulted them bringing it up. Also the fat (30g) and carbs (22g) outstrip the protein (20g).
I actually don't think the naked chalupa is a bad idea. If it were lightly breaded and filled with ground beef, I'd probably get one occasionally (when drunk). A lot of food doesn't travel well. Fast food can be kind of gross by the time you get it home and it has cooled off. Filming in the fast food place is probably weird. So I get why these reviewers film in their cars while the food is still hot.
it's fast food though.. is there really a real test for anything quality here? also, shouldn't the review use real scenarios? I figured alot of people eating fast food are going through take-out or drive-thru to bring it back to their home/office to eat?