‘Fast Food’

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Chipotle x 8 at Ocho Mexican Grill

January 19th, 2012 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

The S stands for stubby.

Chipotle is kind of the gold standard of Mexican fast food (I mean, unless we’re talking Taco Bell).  You can find it pretty much anywhere, the prices are pretty good and there is no doubt that it’s fast.  But it is not alone…all over there are copycats and similar joints that may or may not have existed before the rise of Chipotle.  Ocho Mexican Grill in downtown LA is one of those copycats…sort of.  A combination of my buddy Joel and a 50% Scoutmob discount convinced me to visit this downtown twist on Mexican fast food fare and I entered with high expectations. Continue Reading»

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Local Fast Food at Palace Takeaways

October 25th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Rush hour.

One amazing thing about Rarotonga in the Cook Islands is the lack of chains.  No Starbucks.  No Subway.  No McDonald’s.  It’s enough to make a coffee-loving, fast food-devouring American feel dizzy.  Fortunately, I don’t care for coffee and this also doesn’t mean Rarotonga doesn’t have fast food.  Yes, even this slow-paced island that runs on even slower-paced “island time” is not without its fast food, but this fast food is local.

Our awesome bartender/sample-giver from the Cooks Lager Brewery, Wendy, recommended Palace Takeaways.  Situated on the outskirts of Avarua, this little shack served burgers, fish and chips and not much else.  Wendy told us they were the best burgers in town, so I had to find out for myself. Continue Reading»

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Sonic Good is Just Pretty Good

October 3rd, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

So this is what all those commercials were about...

About 10 or so years ago, the world began to see commercials for a fast food burger place called Sonic.  These commercials were often both funny and hunger-inducing.  Unfortunately, though, Sonics were only in select locations throughout the country.  Yes it was annoying, but it was also genius, because it whet the appetite for Sonic with people who had never even seen the place.  The idea was that when they would finally see one, whether in travel or with a new one being built, they would want nothing more than to devour their burgers.  And it worked, at least on me.  When I saw my first Sonic years ago while driving through Independence, Missouri, I just had to try it.  I remember it being good, but this was pre-meat blog and in the middle of a cross-country road trip, so the memory is mostly blur filled with the knowledge that the meal kept my internal fuel running just as long as I needed it to. Continue Reading»

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Apparently, I was Thinking Arby’s

July 13th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Is this what I was thinking?

Arby’s has always been kind of a fringe fast food chain.  You can find it all over the country, but it isn’t exactly on every corner.  Perhaps this is the reason it has taken me so long to review them.  Or perhaps the reason is because I once heard their meat begins its life as a liquid.  Whatever the case, a golden opportunity to chow down on some potentially formerly liquid meat presented itself at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Continue Reading»

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Make Way for Cafe Rio

June 28th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

The pearly gates of Utah.

I have a coworker who has a problem.  The problem is she is a vegetarian.  Gross, right?  But not by choice.  You see she is lacking the enzyme that breaks down meat in her body, so the simple act of eating meat makes her violently ill.  It’s really the only acceptable form of vegetarianism, yet there is one place she will always eat meat, stomach be damned.  That place is Cafe Rio.  It’s a seemingly generic Mexican place that I have driven past many times in Manhattan Beach and brushed off.  But little did I realize that Cafe Rio is huge in Utah.  Like real huge.  And it’s about to get even huger.  There are currently 40-something locations, but they are planning an expansion on the scale of 100 restaurants.  So when one opens across the street from you, remember you read about Cafe Rio on The Unvegan first.  With my coworker in mind, we finally stopped at Cafe Rio to what all the meat fuss was about. Continue Reading»

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Halo Burger: The In-N-Out of Flint

June 8th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

A sign of good times.

With two of my parents hailing from the once mighty city of Flint, Michigan, I spent much of my upbringing in Flint and hearing about the mighty Halo Burger.  My step-dad even celebrated his 60th at Halo Burger (although I was out of the country at the time).  Yet, until my return home to Michigan last weekend, I had never once set foot into one of these fabled local fast food joints.  But enter I finally did and was impressed by what I found. Continue Reading»

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Der Decent at Wienerschnitzel

May 24th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Just look at those colors.

Wienerschnitzel and the concept of a hot dog chain restaurant has always intrigued me.  Since I was a little kid, I have loved me some hot dogs, and finally I got the opportunity to check out Wienerschnitzel when the bright yellow and red a-frame restaurant in Valley Village called my name loud enough.  I had some strange expectations for this place, because it’s really hard to mess up a hot dog, but they can be messed up and it doesn’t matter what ingredients you toss on top if the dogs can’t hold their own. Continue Reading»

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Snacking at Astro Burger

May 23rd, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Yes, you are tasty. Thanks for asking.

Countless times I have driven through West Hollywood and passed Astro Burger.  In just about all of these situations, I have muttered to myself or to anyone in my car that I just need to try that place.  Finally, after one of my rare drinking nights in West Hollywood, I had a golden opportunity to see what was inside Astro Burger. Continue Reading»

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Pass Me Some Taro Pie

November 8th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

This is how McDonald's does taro.

To some, the thought of eating McDonald’s in a foreign country seems just plain wrong.  After all, when you’re in a different country, you should be experiencing their culture in all aspects, especially food.  And what’s more American than McDonald’s?  Yet, it’s hard to deny how much of this American fast food has become a part of other cultures.  In Japan and China, a big bucket of KFC is now a Christmas tradition and all over the world you can find Burger King, Subway, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut.  And these companies have not simply forced American food down people’s throats.  Instead, they have adapted, and few have adapted as well as McDonald’s.

Step into a McDonald’s outside the US and you will see foods you never knew existed.  In Canada, you can find Poutine, in Israel there are Kosher McDonalds’ that don’t offer cheese on their burgers.  In Japan, the Teriyaki McBurger is like a regular burger, but with a teriyaki twist.  These international options almost make McDonald’s a destination, rather than a place to avoid on vacation. Continue Reading»

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Fast Foodery at Ono Hawaiian BBQ

October 6th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Please don't lay on that cabbage.

Growing up, fast food either meant burgers or Taco Bell.  For the most part, this is still true, but more and more I find that not only has the quality of fast food improved, but so has the variety.  Chains like Yoshinoya and Jollibee are good examples of this, and recently I experienced another: Ono Hawaiian BBQ.  The menu has a lot of Asian-inspired dishes and some things that looked distinctly Hawaiian, but all in the setting of a fast food joint with fast food prices.  My eyes quickly found their $5.00 meal special, that included a choice of four different dishes, which were Lemon Chicken, Chicken Katsu, Kalbi Short Ribs and Hawaiian BBQ Beef. Continue Reading»

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Beer Me Some Breckenridge Agave Wheat

The taste of skiing?

Colorado is definitely a beer state, and not just because Coors comes from the Rocky Mountain State.  No, it is also home to New Belgium (of Fat Tire fame) and seemingly countless other micro and craft breweries.  While in Breckenridge for a ski weekend, I decided I had to at least try one of these, and because it turned out to be the only one available at dinner, my choice happened to come from the creatively named Breckenridge Brewery.  The brewery, by the way, is actually no longer in Breckenridge, having expanded and moved to Denver in 1992.

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The King of Fruit.

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