What are your favorite fast food restaurant foods?

Pizza Hut get in my gut

My fave fast food nosh would be the stuff served at restaurants.

I don’t like fast food in general and avoid overly greasy stuff. I don’t like Burger King, Pizza Hutt, Wendy’s, Five Guys, Taco Bell, but there are a few items from a few places I really do like.

Dunkin Donuts
Hash browns

Starbucks
Iced Latte
Chicken Sausage Biscuit

McDonalds
Breakfast sandwiches
Iced Coffee

Cumberland Farms
Breakfast sandwiches
Iced Coffee

Chik Fil-A
Sausage, egg, cheese biscuit
Grilled chicken sandwich
Iced coffee

Boston Market
Roast chicken
Corn
String beans
Red bliss potatoes

Dominos
Roast chicken with bacon and tomatoes

Panera: Veggie type sammiches and broccoli cheese soup
Burger King: Impossible Whopper

The local kebap place.

In order for national chains:
McDonald’s
Boston Market
Arby’s
Wendy’s

I wind up at Panera because it’s one of the only fast foods in the town square where I live. I don’t love it, and I find it pricey.

I don’t think of Pizza Hut as fast food, has it changed to being able to buy ready made pizzas or slices? I do think of pizza places like Sbarro and others that you can buy by the slice as fast food, and I do like Sbarro and some of the others. I just had a to-go Stromboli from the food court at Nashville airport a week ago. It was good.

Oh, there is a salad place I love at Orlando airport. I don’t remember the name, but most of those salad places are the same. Pick your lettuce and 3 or 4 toppings and a dressing. It’s a ritual for me to eat there when in Orlando airport.

In FL I also like the chicken chop chop at Chicken Kitchen and also the chicken and rice at Pollo Tropical. In the Clearwater area we ate the Greek fast food quite a bit. Basically, gyros or a Greek salad.

Taco Bells protein bowl is good. (five bucks)

Springfield, MO is the home of cashew chicken so we have a thousand fast food chinese, which is my favorite. Usually pot stickers (8 for 2 bucks) or a childs cashew all white meat (five bucks.)

I think of Panera as a different category than the others. I’m really crazy about their tomato soup right now and a chunk of baguette with it is great.

I go to Dunkin’ Donuts every couple of weeks and get a donut or two and coffee. Right now my favorite is their jelly donut. We used to have a family ritual of starting out a car trip vacation with a stop at Dunkin for breakfast on the road.

The rest I don’t really bother with.

Culvers is the only Fast-Food stall I will patronize and I only go to the Worlds Largest Culvers. Butter burger sweet potato fries and a Mint Chip Shake is by far the best fast-food you can spill in your lap driving down the highway at 70 mph. Coffee is respectable. I will also say their North Atlantic Cod Dinner is the best fried fish I have ever had. Seriously! At certain time of the year they will serve Walleye which is simply not fair to compare to other chain fast-food fare.

Alas, those of us in the East are not served by In n Out -every now and then we are tantalized and teased by the possibility of In n Out moving past Texas, but not so far.

I will say that when I have eaten there (usually on business trips to California) the burgers have been excellent.

Note to @Vignette – we just had a couple of Culvers open in this area. I will have to try them.

@JLeslie I was at Pollo Tropical once,a couple years ago – it was OK although not great.

But they closed all the Atlanta-area Pollo Tropical stores about six months ago. Apparently not making enough money.

@elbanditoroso I agree not great. I do really like the chicken, but the rest of the menu is just ok. The biggest problem I find with that chain is some of the locations aren’t clean enough in my opinion. I find Boston Market way more consistent and clean if I’m craving chicken. Totally different sides though.

Many many years ago I read either in a text book or a magazine how McDonald’s was better and owned more market share, because of its consistency. They had standards so that all their locations, whether they were corporate or franchises, were the same experience for the customer. Burger King, the biggest competitor at the time of the article, was not consistent. One location might be nice, while others weren’t. BK pretty much fixed that, but I think it’s a good lesson that people want their fast food places to be consistent, and reasonably comfortable and clean. Not just the food consistent, that was t the problem cited in that article about BK, it was about everything else in the fast food experience.

Maybe now that so much is drive through it matters less, I don’t know.

If you are in Atlanta try Gus’ fried chicken. I heard they opened a location there. The sides aren’t very good, but the chicken is delicious! A little spicy.

I seldom go to a fast food place anymore. Since you listed Panera, I don’t like the Panera that we have; however, I do enjoy our Subway. They have several subs that I enjoy for minimal calories. I don’t eat there often, but do go there occasionally.

During nice weather, I help a friend with her booth at the flea market. It makes for a long day & the food there is horrible!!! So, I go through the drive thru at Bojangles & get me a Country Ham Biscuit. During warm weather that happens once a week. Now that winter is hitting us, I probably won’t have another until spring.

@LadyMarissa Subway is my second go-to choice of FF. I think their tuna sub with extra tomatoes is PDG

In & Out burger
Taco Bell
KFC
Top Dog
Kasper’s Hot Dog

Kroket.

I like Panera too but I agree it’s expensive. A bowl of soup is not really that large of a bowl and it’s more expensive than a diner would be.

At Panera, I like their Napa Almond Chicken salad sandwich.

When you do the “take 2” at Panera, it also comes to a lot of money, usually around 11 or 12 dollars, which to me, is a lot for half a sandwich and a small soup.

What I like about Panera is that their soda fountain has Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi. I wish more fast food places had Caffeine Free Diet. Five Guys and Burger King have the machine that has all the combinations, caffeine free Diet being one of the many sodas. Also Southwest Moe’s has it.

At Wendy’s, I like a chili and a baked potato (separate, not together).

At McD’s, I like a McDouble, hold the cheese, hold the onions, add extra pickles, lettuce and tomatoes. I also like the vanilla cone at McD’s.

To me, Five Guys has the best burger in my area. I’m not one to eat hamburgers a lot, but when I do, it’s either going to be the McD’s McDouble or a small Five Guys burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles and ketchuip. McD’s recently did something with their beef, where it tastes better than it used to. I think recently they were advertising that there are no preservatives or fillers or something in it now. I haven’t googled it, but I know it tastes better than it used to.

I hate Burger King but I am curious to try the Impossible Whopper from there.

Sometimes I’ll do some taco Supremes from Taco Bell and sometimes, a burrito or taco from Southwest Moe’s but not too often.

I usually don’t buy soda from fast food places, because I don’t want to spend $3 for a cup of soda.

@jca2 Our Five Guys sucks, everyone says theirs is delicious. :(

I LOVE Panera, especially the quiche, sooooo good.

@KNOWITALL @jca2 Five Guys about 3 minutes from my house. Wonderful burgers. But is their fries that set them apart.

@elbanditoroso Oh…they were a little spicy fries from what I recall. I haven’t been back it was so bad.

I still have to go with a sausage McMuffin and I’m still lovin’ it

In my view, most of the things at most of those places are pretty terrible excuses for food.

So my list would be of exceptions where I have tried and found something edible:

First though, I’m not sure why fast food chain joints have any appeal other than mental laziness, maybe a drive-through, and pre-knowledge of what kind of crud they have. I would prefer to try a non-chain place, which are run by actual people not world-devouring mega-corporations, and tend to have better and more interesting food.

But for the ubiquitous corporate selections, in my rough order of preference:

Pita Pit – our local ones are actually pretty good. They build your own design of pita wrap sandwich out of ingredients you can see.

Red Robin (not “fast” enough?) – has good milkshakes and decent fries and ok burgers that are kind of trying to be good (depends on the specific place, I think).

Fred Meyer and Safeway – their delis make actual sandwiches out of actual ingredients. They also have very cheap rolls and bagels, and of course actual food such as vegetables and fruits and juices and so on.

Panda Express

Panera – there are some ok things but I’ve found it annoying and overpriced for what it is

Starbucks – coffee is not great and food is expensive but they have some decent things – I’d tend to get a chai latte and/or a bagel, though there are some more expensive foods that are better but more overpriced.

Subway

KFC – fried chicken is ok it’s just not very healthy and overpriced

Taco Bell – the plain crunchy tacos are ok, and some of the simpler gordita-like things, but their “nacho” cheese is in some other things and I find that to be absolutely terrible

THIS IS ABOUT WHERE MY BAR IS – I USUALLY WOULD RATHER NOT EAT BELOW THIS

Chipotle – I used to like these when I first tried them, over 15 years ago, before i learned they were owned by McDonald’s and heard some horror stories. I haven’t been in a loong time, but I might try them before I’d resort to the ones below, if that was the only choice available.

Tim Horton’s – I’ve only tried a bit in Canada and it had some sort of edible things

Wendy’s – a salad can be edible, and maybe some other things but I would rather not eat

Little Caesar’s – Not great pizza but it’s only $5 for a whole pepperoni pizza. Ok if starving.

Pizza Hut – has some not very good pizza but it’s pizza and I’ve had worse

Crispie Kreeme – better than industrial donuts but cost more.

McD’s – egg muffin ok, fries greasy but ok, pies are “sugar-coated gut bombs” but so so.

Dunkin Donuts – I’ve almost never been – just a couple of times taken by someone else. They seem just like industrial donuts. I’d rather go to a Safeway and probably get a 59-cent cheese bagel instead.

Del Taco: Beyond taco, Beyond burrito, bean burrito, egg and cheese breakfast rollers, cheese quesadilla.

Taco Bell: bean burrito, veggie 7 layer burrito, cheese quesadilla, fiesta potato soft taco, fiesta potato breakfast burrito.

Carl’s Junior: Beyond burger

Burger King: Impossible burger

Most fast food places have no vegetarian options, or if they do, it is a stale packaged salad of iceberg lettuce, and mealy tomatoes. The few places that I mentioned above, have those vegetarian items that I listed, and they’re pretty tasty, but being a vegetarian makes it difficult to eat at most fast food places, so I usually don’t.

Maccas maccas maccas

@Zaku: I love local places but the problem, when traveling (and not knowing what’s what) is that you really don’t know what you’re getting. You might get a great meal and or a great price or you might get something gross, or a ripoff deal. With a chain, you know exactly what to expect, no surprises. For steak, we like Outback, which is not fast food but we like that anywhere in the country that we go, the prices are predictable and the quality is predictable.

I’m really big on googling reviews but sometimes we’re not reviewing before a meal.

I like to take my chances when travelling on “blue highway places” That’s part of the adventure, getting some local color and perhaps a great piece of pie!

There’s a great diner right off the interstate, in Newtown CT, called Blue Colony Diner. They have wonderful food and great prices, great homemade desserts, and they’re famous for their soup. Soup, salad and bread there will fill you up! If you’re ever in the area of CT not far from Danbury, check it out. It’s about 20 minutes from us.

^^ I think I’ve been there!

Nachos, Chalupas, from Taco Bell
Beef n cheddar from Arby’s
Chow mein and Honey walnut shrimp from Panda Express