GrubGrade

KFC has launched their Ultimate Value Menu which consists of 12 items for under $2.00 each.  This Ultimate Value Menu includes the Kentucky Grilled Chicken Value Box for only $1.99.

Some of the offerings include:

For $1.99

• Kentucky Grilled Value Box – choice of either a Kentucky Grilled drumstick or thigh with Potato Wedges
• Snack Boxes (Popcorn Chicken with Potato Wedges or Three Hot Wings® with Potato Wedges), Snack Size Bowl or Honey BBQ Sandwich

For $1.49

• Side Salad or KFC® Toasted Wrap
• Little Bucket Parfait

For 99 cents

• Two Biscuit
• Two Apple Turnovers
• 3 count of Brownie Bites
• KFC Snacker Sandwich
• Mini Melt  (pulled chicken coated in Honey BBQ Sauce and mixed with a 3-cheese blend, and pressed in a tortilla wrap)

I went out at lunch the other day to try a new place to eat, only to find out that the place I had intended to go to isn’t there anymore.  I had a few choices surrounding me, but I settled on Wendy’s.  I wanted to get something new (to me), healthy and fresh, so I decided on one of their Garden Sensation Salads…the Mandarin Chicken Salad.

Mandarin Chicken Salad from Wendy's

Described by Wendy’s as:

A masterpiece of Asian tastes and textures thats sure to please.  With succulent mandarin oranges, crunchy sliced almonds and crispy noodles on fresh, crisp greens-all topped with a warm, sliced Grilled chicken fillet.  It’s unforgettable!

I don’t know if I would say that this salad is “unforgettable”, but it does stand out among the fast food salads I’ve had in the past.  (more…)

So I’m in California for the weekend and of course I had to stop by for some In-N-Out…my favorite fast food burger.  It was actually my first assignment and it was a tasty one.  I’ve been wanting to write this review for a while now.  It’s coming….but as you can probably guess, you won’t be surprised by the verdict.

As promised, I hit up Ike’s Place in San Francisco today.  I decided to be sly and call in my order and avoid the super long lines.  Well I called at 3pm and the guy on the other line says… “It’ll be ready at 5pm”…. yikes…2 hour wait.  I forged ahead and said “No problem, I’ll take the #85 Super Mario (All Beef Meatballs, Mozzarella Sticks, Marinara)”.  I took the 2 hour wait as an opportunity to check out a couple places I had planned on seeing.  I’ll give you my full impressions on my sandwich and Ike’s Place in an upcoming post.  Teaser:  Believe the Hype.

Hey everyone…I’m heading to the Bay Area for the weekend and of course I’ll be grubbing with the best of them.  I read about this sandwich shop in San Fran called Ike’s Place last month and I’m looking forward to giving it a try.  Oh and if you caught Man vs Food on Wednesday night, Adam Richman went to Ike’s and sampled #188, Doomsday.  Well I’m not going for the Doomsday because I’m not bringing a family of 4 to help me finish it.  I’m thinking maybe #85 Super Mario or perhaps #90 Get Over It…ooh or maybe #132 Change.  Whatever I end up choosing, I’ll be sure to take pictures and give you my impressions here on GrubGrade.  I’ll be tweeting over the weekend on my grubbing progress if you’re interested in following along… Twitter.com/GrubGrade.

Check out this menu… What do you think?  What would you get?

Pure 100% drinkable sugar! These things were awesome. They had great flavors with great names, Chucklin’ Cherry, Berry B. Wild, Grumpy Grape/Gallopin’ Grape, Silly Billy Strawberry, Rockin’ Red Puncher, Mean Green Puncher, Smarty Arty Orange, and Troppi Tropical Punch.

After watching my afternoon episodes of Out of This World and The Adventures of Pete & Pete, me and my brothers would gather for a little Don’t Wake Daddy or Mousetrap. We ran to the fridge in the garage (we had an extra two freezers and a fridge because there were so many of us) and each grab our favorite Squeezit. Mine was Berry B. Wild!

For some reason it was the bee’s knees to twist that plastic cap off….and then squeeze the sweet nectar into your mouth. The only problem is that I’d be finished with it in about as much time as it took me to pop the top….needless to say I ran back to grab another….and another…..and quite possibly another (matter of fact I’m surprised I don’t have Type 2 Diabetes).

Do you remember when they had the mystery flavor in the black bottles? What did you think the flavor was? Sadly these had to have gone the way of the Dodo bird. There is however an online petition to bring them back, I suggest you all go right now and fill it out.

What’s your favorite squeezable treat? Although not a treat per se, due to nostalgic factors, I’ve got to go with Aquafresh.

I’ve never been a big fan of Pizza Hut pizza so whenever I’m with a group that insists on ordering from there, I always have to figure out what else on the menu I could try.  I discovered a fondness for Pizza Hut P’Zones this way so maybe another gem was lurking.  I decided on a relatively new item on the menu that looked to be simple and promising.  I decided to put the Pizza Hut Pizza Rolls to the test.

Pizza Hut describes them like this:

Hot from the oven, our pizza rolls are jumbo-sized and stuffed with all-natural pepperoni and cheese. Get an order of 4 with ranch or marinara sauce.

An order of 4 Pizza Rolls will run you $5 and to me they seem a tad overpriced.  (more…)

Chipotle is pretty popular around here.  There is always a line, and I hate waiting in line when I’m hungry.  Now if you have an iPhone or iPod touch you don’t have to.  Chipotle has created an app where you can order you food and also pay for it all from your mobile device.  This is actually a relaunch of the application that came out in January but was plagued by glitches.  Everything is running smooth now.

You can enter the address of you favorite Chipotle or the app will find the location that is closest by.

Would you like a chicken burrito, veggie bowl or steak tacos?  The app gives you the same ordering options as you would have if you were in Chipotle.

Customize your burrito with all the usual Chipotle options.

Add any side items here.  Would you like extra cheese or just a little sour cream, list that on the special instructions page.  You can also save your order for future visits.

Finalize your order and pay all from the convenience of your iPhone or iPod Touch.  More and more of restaurants are developing these types of ordering apps and it looks to be the future of the take-out/delivery business.  The simplicity of the app makes is great, and the fact that it will keep you from waiting in line is also a big plus.  So if you have one of the Apple devices and are a Chipotle fan, I suggest you give this free download a try.  Just search “Chipotle Ordering” or “Chipotle Mexican Grill” from the iTunes store.

On Sunday I posted the Top 15 quick-serve burger restaurants based off of systemwide sales in a poll.  Just pick your favorite from the list of 15 and let’s see how it compares to how much money these places are making.

Bonus Points: Can you name what place this burger came from?

Not too scientific really but interesting nonetheless.  Also we of course have to factor in that these places serve more than just burgers.  Nationwide places like McDonald’s and Burger King will surely get votes just based off of exposure and number of restaurants alone.  Not shocking, they are #1 and #2 in systemwide sales based on 2008 numbers.  Let’s see the rest:

2008 Systemwide Sales ($Mil)

1. McDonald’s $30,025.00
2. Burger King $9,348.00
3. Wendy’s $8,013.40
4. Sonic $3,811.20
5. Jack in the Box $3,080.00
6. Dairy Queen $2,519.00
7. Hardee’s $1,680.00
8. Carl’s Jr. $1,405.00
9. Whataburger $1,173.00
10. Steak n Shake $ 700.00
11. Checkers/Rally’s $ 658.00
12. Culvers $ 643.50
13. White Castle $ 567.90
14. Krystal $ 428.80
15. In-N-Out Burger $ 420.00

Now on to your favorites.  Thanks to everyone who participated.  403 votes total.  Here are the results:

1. In-N-Out Burger 87 votes  21.59%
2. Wendy’s 62 votes  15.38%
3. Burger King 42 votes  10.42%
4. McDonald’s 33 votes  8.19%
5. Steak n Shake 31 votes  7.69%
6. Whataburger 28 votes  6.95%
7. Carl’s Jr. 22 votes  5.46%
8. Culvers 22 votes  5.46%
9. Hardee’s 14 votes  3.47%
10. White Castle 14 votes 3.47%
11. Sonic 12 votes  2.98%
12. Checkers/Rally’s 11 votes  2.73%
13. Jack in the Box 9 votes  2.23%
14. Dairy Queen 8 votes  1.99%
15. Krystal 8 votes 1.99%

So let’s discuss these results.  In-N-Out #15 in systemwide sales and #1 favorite (not too shocking, it’s my personal favorite and the Grub Battle Royal Winner).  I was surprised that Jack in the Box only received 9 votes and cracks the Top 5 in sales.  Also, Dairy Queen got 8 votes, take my Grandmaster Grub badge away because I’ve never had a burger from DQ.  I can understand Krystal being in the cellar…14th on sales and last in votes…I’ve never had it but I know it’s strictly a Southeast regional thing. Leave your comments and let us know your thoughts and how you voted.

There will be no snack review for this week. Why, you ask? Because when you have an unlimited college meal plan, spending money on snacks doesn’t always make a ton of sense. Take a gander:

That was dinner on Sunday night. Let’s recap:

• Toasted Turkey Sandwich with Tomato, Cucumbers, Banana Peppers, Sprouts, and Mustard on White Wonder Bread.
• Salad with Beets and Balsamic Vinegar.
• Green Apple
• Lays Potato Chips
• Slice of Watermelon and two slices of cantaloupe.
• Two pieces of honey glazed turkey
• Pulled chicken hard taco with salsa and cilantro.
• Every condiment you could ever want.

And that is only one of two unlimited dining halls we’ve got here. This ain’t your daddy’s meal plan either – let’s just say I’ve been hitting up the “Mongolian Grill” station quite a bit this past week.

Man my blood pressure is gonna suffer. Oh well.