REVIEW: Wendy’s Pretzel Baconator

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Over ten years ago, I was driving back to Tallahassee with my boyfriend, and we decided to stop and grab a bite. Wendy’s had just introduced a new burger with a pretzel bun, and I wanted to try it. I remember it being fine. The bun was a little tough, making biting through it hard. A decade later, that boyfriend is now my husband, and we, once again, shared a pretzel bun burger from Wendy’s.

Wendy’s has released various burgers and chicken sandwiches with the pretzel bun, but this is the first time pulling its wildly popular monster menu item, the Baconator, into the mix. Since its introduction in 2007, the Baconator has remained an in-demand item. For me, it shines in its simplicity. With so few ingredients (beef, cheese, bacon, mayo, and ketchup), the burger has to stand on its own and not hide behind special sauces or wild toppings.

In fact, there has only been one official variation of the Baconator (Spicy Baconator) in its 16 years of being on the menu. Before you grill me in the comments, I personally do not consider the Son of Baconator or Breakfast Baconator variations of THE Baconator. I consider them to be more in the “spin-offs of TV shows you know are spin-offs, but stand on their own,” like Frasier and Mork & Mindy. Also, some people list the Big Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger as part of the Baconator Universe, but it doesn’t seem to be canonically accepted by Wendy’s.

The Pretzel Baconator simply swaps the standard bun for a pretzel one. As mentioned before, the bun was extremely tough when I tried it a decade ago. I would bite into it, and it was like bread taffy. Initially, I hesitated about trying the Pretzel Baconator, but it’s been a decade, and a lot can change.

The bun was soft but held firm. I was able to get a whole bite of burger without issue. The intense flavors of the savory beef and salty bacon, followed by the sweetness of the ketchup and tangy mayo, dominated the bite. I took a sip of Sprite to cleanse the palate and dove in for my second try. Again, the bun offered a great textural addition, but the pretzel flavor was non-existent. The familiar yeasty flavor was there when trying just the bun, but it was extremely subtle. What it lacked in taste, it made up for it with its structural integrity, as it did hold up to the sloppy fillings better than the standard bun.

If you want a strong pretzel flavor to accompany your Baconator, you will be disappointed. It’s still a solid menu item, and dare I say, the firmer bun serves the burger better than its standard bun. I enjoyed it, but it just doesn’t deliver the pretzel taste in the way I expected.

Purchased Price: $9.29
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 1050 calories, 71 grams of fat, 27 grams of saturated fat, 155 milligrams of cholesterol, 1630 milligrams of sodium, 43 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 6 grams of sugar, and 61 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Arby’s Big Cheesy Bacon Burger

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My post-race routine is fairly simple: shower, stretch, and stuff a burger in my face. I recently completed a half marathon and, due to a series of events after that race, I had to postpone the burger part of my routine. Two weeks later, I was craving the thing I never got. Right on cue, Arby’s sent an email advertising its new Big Cheesy Bacon Burger.

It’s one of the two limited edition burgers currently being offered at Arby’s. The Deluxe Wagyu Steakhouse Burger is the base version (a wagyu blended beef patty, burger sauce, American cheese, tomatoes, red onions, lettuce, and garlic & dill pickles on a toasted brioche bun) with the Big Cheesy Bacon Burger having all the same ingredients but with the addition of Swiss cheese and bacon.

It had some heft when I pulled it out of the bag, but didn’t seem very big. Like a mattress in a box, after I took it out of its wrapper, it seemed to expand. Size-wise, it was reasonably comparable to what I’ve gotten from Red Robin. Taking a peek under the bun, I was surprised at the produce’s freshness. I wasn’t expecting rotten tomatoes or anything, but the two vibrant red tomato slices took me off guard. I’m used to fast food tomatoes looking half the time like someone took a red Sharpie to styrofoam.

Even though it looked good, I was ready to find out if it tasted good. In my first bite, I got a bit of every component. All I could think as I took my time taking it all in was, “Wow, this is a really balanced burger.”

Too often, when fast food sandwiches have a laundry list of toppings, they become a mess of competing flavors. In this case, everything was working together to create something extremely delicious. The balance of the sweet burger sauce, hickory bacon, juicy tomatoes, crisp pickles, salty cheeses, and savory meat created a flavor that I could only describe as the most perfect “burger” flavor.

The meat on its own was a bit dry, but the dryness wasn’t noticeable when eaten with the other components. Multiple times (I assume for legal reasons), Arby’s reminds us that the patty is 51% American Wagyu and 49% ground beef. I can’t speak on the American Wagyu being anything special, but the meat quality was above any other fast food offering I’ve had.

Overall, I was extremely satisfied with Arby’s Big Cheesy Bacon Burger. It was delicious and filling and exceeded my expectations from a fast food restaurant. The high quality of the ingredients is what made it stand out. It’s only around for a limited time, so if you’re thinking about trying it, I’d go sooner rather than later.

Purchased Price: $7.99
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 824 calories, 51 grams of fat, 21 grams of saturated fat, 118 milligrams of cholesterol, 2085 milligrams of sodium, 46 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 15 grams of sugar, and 48 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Popeyes TRUFF Chicken Sandwich

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TRUFF has been around since 2017, but I only became aware of the brand in 2022 when it collaborated with Taco Bell to feature its hot sauce. While researching, I was surprised to learn how many different products it had infused with the infamous fungus. Hot sauce was where it started, but now there’s a variety of products, including oil, pasta sauce, salt, and mayo.

Popeyes’ Spicy TRUFF Chicken Sandwich takes the original chicken sandwich and swaps the standard mayo with Spicy TRUFF Mayo. It’s a rich, creamy base that gets its spicy flavor from red jalapeños and earthiness from the black winter truffles. You can also add a side of the Spicy TRUFF Mayo to your order if you want to try it without committing to having it on your sandwich.

Truffles and I have a mixed relationship. I appreciate the savory, deep, and earthy flavor they can bring to food. When paired and balanced right, the meal can be very enjoyable. However, when low-quality truffle oil is haphazardly added to something simply to make it sound fancy, it usually results in an inedible dish. I approached this limited time item with a healthy amount of skepticism but also a genuine hope it would surprise me.

The smell of the truffles was extremely bold as I took the sandwich out of the package. While not unbearable or nauseating, it was not pleasant. It reminded me of mushrooms in the back of the fridge one day away from becoming inedible. Interestingly, my husband didn’t mind the smell. (Holly Fact: Truffles are similar to cilantro in that a genetic component is most likely the cause of how you smell/taste them). Moving past the smell, I tried a bit of the sauce on its own first.

The creaminess of the mayo and the slight spice of the red jalapeño were the first flavors I tasted. The truffle came creeping up at the end, bringing the umami finish. The mayo didn’t really stand out in a positive or negative way after taking a bite of the sandwich. It was just sort of there, occasionally adding a slightly spicy tang or earth layer to the iconic sandwich with each bite. It was a bit disappointing to have the sauce feel so secondary to the flavor profile. The crunchy, juicy chicken breast, pickles, and soft brioche bun are still as good as they’ve always been.

Popeyes’ Spicy TRUFF Chicken Sandwich is an interesting dabble into “fancy” for the chain, but it didn’t move the needle for me. The fungus-based condiment is certain to have its fans and haters, but for me, I fall in the middle. The sandwich did the heavy lifting of making the sauce palatable when it should have been the other way around, having the sauce elevate the sandwich.

Purchased Price: $5.99 (sandwich only)
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 670 calories, 38 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 95 milligrams of cholesterol, 1560 milligrams of sodium, 50 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, and 28 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Taco Bell Wild Strawberry Creme Delight Freeze

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I have been deep in the pumpkin spice trenches since mid-August and usually try to take a “fall flavors” break around the end of September. It’s easy to burn out quickly by Thanksgiving and want nothing to do with anything pumpkin spiced or cinnamon apple. When I got the push notification from Taco Bell about its new Wild Strawberry Creme Delight Freeze, it was serendipitous.

Over the years, I’ve had varying degrees of enjoyment with the different frozen offerings from Taco Bell. Some I’ve enjoyed (Baja Blast Freeze) and others reminded me of kids’ medications (Blue Raspberry Freeze). My first, unmixed, sip of this gave me a mouthful of Wild Strawberry that took me back to my ear infection days. The Wild Strawberry flavor had a strong artificialness that isn’t unpleasant, but certainly isn’t something found in nature. I decided to wait until I got home to try the drink again.

During the short three minute drive home, all of the vanilla creamer had sunk to the bottom of the cup. I took that as a chance to try it on its own and feel like the descriptor of “vanilla creamer” does it a grave injustice. I was expecting an International Delight-type product, but instead it was more akin to the sweet cream from Starbucks. After a hearty swirl to blend the two flavors, I took another sip.

With everything blended together, the drink was absolutely delicious. The sweet vanilla cream softened the strawberry flavor in a truly enjoyable way. The blending in of the cream also solved a problem I tend to have with slush drinks: it never got icy from uneven syrup sips. It did require me to keep swirling to keep it well blending, but thanks to an iced mocha habit I have a good swirl system.

The sweet, frosty blend of strawberry and cream felt like that random day in September when the weather shifts to summer one last time. It was a nice treat and break from the fall flavors.

Purchased Price: $3.29
Size: Regular (16 oz)
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 200 calories, 1 gram of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 45 milligrams of sodium, 50 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 48 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Wendy’s Queso Fries

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Every 3-4 months, I try to dig through our freezer to ensure nothing gets lost to the dread “back of the freezer.” These ventures sometimes yield gems of forgotten food, but more often than not, it’s random stuff past me thought future me would want. Wendy’s newest offering, Queso Fries, feels like someone in its research & development team found a container labeled “QUESO-2017” in the back of the freezer and decided to bring it back to restaurants.

In 2017, Wendy’s released Bacon Queso Fries as a companion side to its Bacon Queso Burger. Six years later, we now have Queso Fries as a companion to the chain’s Loaded Nacho Cheeseburger. The fast food side is a simple item with three ingredients: fries, shredded cheddar cheese, and poblano queso.

As a fan of the Baconator Fries, I had extremely high hopes. Unfortunately, they started out “pretty good,” but by the end of eating them, they were a solid “eh.” The first bite was a perfect little bit of everything: crispy fries, gooey queso, and slightly melted shredded cheese. Thanks to the mild but flavorful poblano peppers, the queso had a balanced spiciness.

The topping is a blend of various cheeses (American, cheddar, Monterey jack) that offer that savory cheese flavor without being too strong. The shredded cheddar was virtually lost to the other flavors and textures. Wendy’s fries offer a good starch base, but I would have liked to have had something else to give more texture (maybe the crunchy strips on Wendy’s Loaded Nacho Cheeseburger?). But I enjoyed my initial few bites of the fries.

However, time doesn’t stand still for any food item, and within five minutes, the queso had cooled into a thick, paste-like texture. Normally, I don’t have many issues with food texture, but something about the globbiness of the cheesy topping made me extremely uninterested in finishing the item. It had such a good flavor that this metamorphosis into cold goo was a bummer. Thankfully, my husband had no issue with the oobleck queso, so he finished the fries.

Wendy’s isn’t afraid to bring flavorful items to its menu, and I appreciate that. The Queso Fries are flavorful without being overly spicy. While they were initially quite good, they cooled down into a textural nightmare item I couldn’t finish. If you try them, just make sure to have someone around who will eat the rest when the cheese sauce turns to gak.

Purchased Price: $3.49
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 390 calories, 20 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 25 milligrams of cholesterol, 940 milligrams of sodium, 43 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 1 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein.

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