Burger King

Update Review, February 2026

Fries. Value Size. $3.99/250 Crowns.

The last time I had fries from Burger King, it was 2013, and they were crinkle cut fries, and I didn't care for them.  I was curious to see how they'd changed over the years, as I knew they reverted back to regular non-crinkle fries at some point.

The fries were actually not bad.  Fairly hot and fresh.  Nicely salted.  Perfectly crispy, that part in particular really impressed me.  A thicker style than McDonald's, and I preferred that.  They tasted less ... fast food than McDonald's.  I think I mean less generic oil taste to them, more strong potato taste.  I certainly preferred them to McDonald's.  I did have 1-2 that seemed underdone, a bit raw, but otherwise, these were truly not bad for fast food style fries.  If I was craving, or for some reason needing to eat fast food, I'd get them again.  A random thought I kept having is that they'd go great with chili (I think they must have reminded me of Wendy's in some way, where I always got a small chili with cheese and biggie fries from the $1 menu, or perhaps of ski lodge fries and chili).  3.5/5.

Burger King. Cheeseburger. $3.99/200 crowns.

"A flame-grilled beef patty with crunchy pickles, yellow mustard, and ketchup on a toasted sesame seed bun."

I recently learned that the cheeseburger is basically the same as the Whopper Jr. (what I always got ... when I went to BK as a kid).  Same patty, same everything, but the Whopper adds the lettuce/tomato/onion.  Given that I never care for their tomatoes, and had my own lettuce and onion easily on hand, I felt no need to "splurge" for a Whopper Jr, particularly because the cheeseburger was so much cheaper (and the Whopper doesn't include cheese by default).  The regular Whopper *is* different, a bigger patty and all, but the Jr?  Same-same.

Anyway, it came with the regular extremely lackluster Burger King bun, yes, sesame seed, yes, sorta toasted inside, but these never taste particularly good to me, and I swear I had actually clicked the "low carb" button to just get it as a salad bowl, but, alas, I got the bun.  Eh.

Cheeseburger: Contents.
(+light mayo: Free!).

My burger came with the expected allocation of 2 pickles, a little bit of mustard and ketchup sorta just a squirt of each in the middle, and my addition of mayo (the only free modification allowed).  Anything "fancier", like lettuce/onions/tomatoes would have been extra, so I omitted, as it isn't like BK is known for these things.

The ketchup/mustard/mayo is certainly not fancy by any means, but it really does have classic fast food burger nostalgia for me, and I find that trio to work quite well.  The pickles delighted me in much the same way - one bite of one of these, particularly with a little ketchup/mustard/mayo on it because they are adjacent in the sandwich construction, and classic fast food burger vibes are so strong.  No, they aren't my great aunt's "famous" pickles, they aren't even good grocery store pickles, but they are fast food pickles, and I kinda adored them and wanted more.  Highlight of my burger.

The cheese was a single thin slice, American, as is their standard (I could opt to upgrade to swiss, but, nah).  Again, not fancy, but, it works in this setting.  I did kinda want double cheese though, it felt a bit meager.

And finally, of course, the burger patty.  Thin.  Fully cooked.  Firm.  Not particularly beefy.  It is what it is, no more, no less.  It wasn't worse or better than any other BK or McD's patty to me.  Certainly best with the cheese and condiments.  Not really my style of burger, I'd prefer thicker, juicier, mid-rare, charred on the outside, and well, higher quality beef, but, again, it met expectations, and was fine for what it was.

I'll give this a low 3/5 because it truly was an absolutely fine burger of this style, no surprises whatsoever.

Update Review, March 2025

It turns out, I've been missing out at Burger King.

Now, I haven't actually been to Burger King *that* many times in my life (my family and field hockey team were always McDonald's bound when fast food was in order, my high school friends and I were team Wendy's, and, well, I pretty much stopped eating fast food other than out of novelty for freebies or in other countries since actually growing up), so I suppose it makes sense that I had never tried some hits on the menu (no, not burgers or fries), but I was still a bit surprised that folks don't mention some of these things more!  (and, as I went through my love affair with the Hershey Sundae Pie, and proclaimed its goodness to everyone around, none of THEM had ever had it either ...).

Anyway, without further ado, I had some random BK rewards points (er, crowns) to spend, and decided to have fun with them.  Spoiler: zomg, the sundae pie!

Onion Rings (Value Size).
$4.09 / 250 Crowns.

"Golden brown, hot, and crispy."

Behold, my first Burger King onion rings.  If you are unfamiliar with these, just a warning: they are really quite different from most people's expectations of onion rings (including mine, but I had done my research so I knew what I was getting in to).  For example, um, they don't have an actual slice of onion inside the ring form.

Yes, onion rings can come in different shapes, sizes, and styles in general.  They can be crumb coated like these, or beer battered, or Japanese tempura. They can be seasoned or not. They can be thin, they can be just strings, they can be thick and juicy inside.  They can be petite, have a large girth, or be a mix.  The batter can fall off too easily, the onions can be overly slimy inside, etc, etc.  I personally prefer beer battered or tempura, thick, and assorted sizes.  These are crumbed, small, and all about the same size.  And yes, again, they don't have an actual onion slice inside.

The crumb coated style and petite size already makes them a bit 'eh' to me, but they had some good qualities.  They were very well seasoned (high salt level!), and remarkably crispy.  I got my order fresh from the fryer, and they were piping hot inside too.  Well drained, not too greasy nor oily.  For all these reasons, I did like them.

But then there is the whole glaring issue: the lack of onion inside the ring!  They taste vaguely onion-y, but really its just more a savory fried crispy crumb ring.  Which is good, much in the way that Funyuns can be good, but, when I think of an onion ring, I want more than just vaguely onion-y savory fried things.  I applaud Burger King for having onion rings in the first place, as they aren't very common at generic fast food restaurants, but ... you kinda gotta just think of these as fried savory crumb rings.  As fast food fried side items go, I'd give them a high ***+, but if I was judging as onion rings, they'd only get a **.  They really are so crispy and I did enjoy them, all the caveats aside.

Best dipped in bbq or honey mustard.

(And if you are curious, the ingredients list for these is amusing.  Of course, they do not actually contain actual onions, you will not see "onion" listed as an ingredient.  Only minced onion.  And that is the 5th ingredient, behind #1 corn meal, #2 vegetable oil, #3 salt, and #4 rice flour.  MSG, whey, buttermilk powder, and a whole lots of chemicals round them out.)

Soft Serve Cup.
$2.79 / 250 Crowns.

"Cool, creamy, and velvety soft serve."

It had been a while since I last had Burger King's frozen soft serve confection, which, you will note, is not called "ice cream" on the menu, and is not described that way either.  Like most fast food soft serve, it is not, in fact, ice cream, as it contains too little milk fat.  Soft serve frozen dairy delight it is.

The soft serve can come in a cup or cone.  One small size only, thus, I got two.  No toppings available.  McDonald's definitely has the edge in that they at least have sauces to put on top of a sundae, or obviously mix-ins for McFlurries.  Burger King has none of that.  Just soft serve.

But the soft serve really is decent.  The most remarkable aspect to me is just how creamy it is, and how perfectly it melts.  Kinda exactly my mental model for how soft serve should melt, including the rate at which it should do so.  The flavor is sweet but not cloying.  Vaguely vanilla-ish maybe?  

I wouldn't go out of my way for this soft serve, but if I had a craving for a cone on a hot day, or wanted a soft serve pairing with a dessert, it would do just fine.  ***.

Hershey Sundae Pie.
$3.69 / 400 Crowns.

I've heard about this pie for years.  People on the internet rave about it.  Strangely, no one I've ever been around in person has ever mentioned it.  I certainly hadn't ever sought it out.  Until now.  

The pie comes packaged in a cardboard box, and in this case, even labelled with the date it had been pulled from the freezer.  They take no care to make this look homemade or special in any way.

But that's ok.  Because once you have this, you'll know it is special.

Hershey Sundae Pie. $3.69.

"Say hello to our HERSHEY’S®? Sundae Pie. One part crunchy chocolate crust and one part chocolate crème filling, garnished with a delicious topping of fudge drizzle and real HERSHEY’S® Chocolate Chips."

"A crunchy chocolate crust filled with chocolate crème filling and garnished with real HERSHEY’S® Chocolate Chips."

OMG, OMG, OMG.

One bite is all it took to break into extreme joy.  This this was good.  Really, really, really good.

I don't even know where to start.  Every element was glorious.  Amazingly sweet, crispy, chocolate crumble crust.  Definitely not a throwaway component, and I loved the texture it added.  Light as air milk chocolate mousse and sweetened whipped marshmallow-like fluff (er, "crème filling").  Although it looks like the marshmallowy one was only along the back crust, it actually was under the chocolate filling, and vice versa (under the marshmallow one was chocolate crème).  Then the decoration, a chocolate drizzle that hardened a bit like magic shell, and a few little chocolate chips, both added a stronger, darker chocolate component and more texture.  Did I wish there were more chips?  Well, sure, mine literally had just 5 (!), but still, a minor quibble. 

Glory.  I loved every bite of it.  Definitely not something you share, and the light nature of it makes it extremely easy to devour and not feel weighed down.  I can't wait to get another!  ****+.

Update Review, October 2023

It had been a while since I last had a burger from Burger King or McDonald's, but when I wound up with a free Whopper loaded on my account, I of course had to go claim my freebie.  I went with zero expectation of actually liking it, armed with my own drinks and side dishes (because, I was there for the free thing after all!), and ended up leaving very pleasingly satisfied.  I won't be rushing back to get a fast food burger anytime soon, but, I liked it considerably more than I expected.

Whopper (low carb). $7.69.

"America's Favorite Burger, The Whopper Sandwich is a ¼ lb of flame-grilled beef with juicy tomatoes, crisp lettuce, creamy mayonnaise, ketchup, crunchy pickles, and sliced white onions on a toasted sesame seed bun."

I never care for Burger King's buns, so I ordered mine bunless, or, "low carb" they call it.  Note that you cannot order online or in the app with no bun, it isn't in the customization options, but if you order in person, they don't blink an eye, and the receipt comes out saying "low carb", so, clearly this is an easy and moderately common thing.  I wish they'd add to the app.  

I did not ask for no ketchup/mustard/mayo, and those are generally slathered on in the regular sandwich version so I expected them too, but alas, mine came bare.  Luckily I realized it before I was out the door, and went back to ask for some, and was given packets of all three.

My low carb burger came in an amusingly large platter this time.  It was fairly attractively presented, with the pickles and onions atop the burger patty, and lettuce and tomato on the side.  5 pickles, 3 onion rings, 2 slices of tomato, plus a pile of shredded lettuce.  I wonder if these are the same standard portions used when constructing into a burger?  The toppings are not really enough to make a salad of it, so if you are intending to enjoy this as a burger atop a salad, bring more base mixed greens.

I actually brought my own large slices of green leaf lettuce to make lettuce wraps (and sauteed mushrooms and fresh heirloom tomato slices to put in with the burger, and a small salad and cole slaw to have as sides).  I assembled my wraps, added condiments, and dug in.  I was immediately pleased.  The burger patty wasn't anything special, certainly not a big fat juicy medium wagyu burger, but it wasn't too tough, and was reasonably well seasoned.  It went oh-so-well with the pickles, onions, and condiments.  Really, it is all the bits together that combine to give a very classic burger taste.  

The onions were crisp and harsh, but, that works here.  The pickles lightly acidic and juicy.  The ketchup and mustard as generic as can be.  Put that together?  Such a familiar taste.  The lettuce was pretty boring pieces of iceberg, but they were fresh enough, and not browning.   The tomato was actually fine, not too mealy.

Overall, with my additions as burger lettuce wraps, I truly enjoyed this.  Would I pay $7.69 for it?  No.  But, it was satisfying and free, and totally worth the venture to BK.  ***.

Update Review, April 2022

A year ago, I became a fan of Burger King.  Yup, it took me 40 years to really truly love Burger King (besides the crowns, of course).  I genuinely enjoy their Impossible Whopper, which I've reviewed several times before (below).  Honestly, **** burger.

But this time, I headed to Burger King for something else.  Dessert.  Not just any dessert.  Ice cream.  Somehow, in all my soft serve eating, I had never had a cone from BK before.

Soft Serve Cone. $1.49 (or 250 crown points).

"We didn't invent soft serve, but with one taste of our cool, creamy, and velvety Vanilla Soft Serve, you'll think we perfected it. Served in a cone."

This was my first time having Burger King soft serve.  I didn't expect anything special, but, it was ridiculously warm out, totally ice cream weather, and I had some "crown points" burning a hole in my pocket.

So I splurged, redeeming 250 of them for a cone (a cup is also available), normally $1.49.  Only the one flavor is available, never actually listed as "vanilla" just as "soft serve".  No toppings are available.

It was, well, fast food soft serve?  About as I expected.  The consistency was good, in the fake ice cream kind of way, and it melted perfectly on the warm day.  It was not grainy nor icy. The flavor certainly wasn't vanilla, almost more like a white chocolate, just, sweet.  It didn't taste too artificial or plastic-like though.

The cone was the part that actually surprised me as it wasn't stale in any way.  Even decent ice cream shops can suffer from stale cones.

So overall, the consistency was good, the flavor was fine, and the cone not stale.  Would I pay $1.49 for it?  Well, given other options, probably not, but it wasn't bad, and once I added my own sprinkles it was much better.

***.

Update Review, February 2021

Well, I've become a Burger King fan.  I'm really, really into their Impossible Whopper, which I reviewed once before.  And now, I've hacked it even further.

Impossible Whopper. $7.29.
Extra Onion, Extra Cheese, Low Carb. ($0.50, $0.80).

"Features a flame-grilled patty made from plants topped with tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, ketchup, pickles, and onions."

I finally, finally, finally took my own advice.  I am not low carb, but I dislike Burger King buns.  I had started bringing my own iceberg wedge to do lettuce wraps, and always thought about asking for no bun.  

So, I did it.  "No bun," I said, and the cashier without hesitation said, "Ok, low carb."  They have a button on the register for it even.  I asked if that meant it would be a lettuce wrap or just no bun, but she didn't seem to know nor care.  The answer?  Basically just no bun.  Perhaps they threw a little extra lettuce in?  It also came packaged totally differently, in a square plastic container (what they use for side salads?).

I left in all the standard toppings (tomato, pickles, lettuce) but upgraded to extra onion ($0.50!) because I adore their onion.  As always, I adored the onion but its a bit hard to justify $0.50 for just 1 (maybe 2?) extra round of onion, as I think it usually comes with 3.  It is so harsh though and I just really like it with my burger.

The lettuce was standard shredded iceberg, which is not my lettuce of choice normally, but is entirely appropriate with a burger.

The pickles I don't normally care for, crinkle style, but I actually didn't mind them this time, the little bits of pickle really do complete the "burger" experience.  That said, these are certainly not pickles I like much at all.

The tomatoes I always plan to leave out, but I'm glad I left them in this time.  Yes, they were awful, two slices of not juicy, not even red, clearly out of season tomato, but again, its all about the burger "experience" and the juicy tomato is kinda key.

I also added cheese, because, well, cheeseburgers are delicious?  More on this soon.

I wondered what they'd do with the ketchup and mayo, which come standard on the burger, and are key elements for me.  I hoped that they'd just put them on the burger patty itself.  Looking in from the top gave no indicator though (where *was* that actual burger?).  Sadly, the answer was "leave out entirely", but I was able to ask for packets instead.

I actually really, really, really enjoyed my burger this way.  I brought additional large hunks of iceberg to make a wrap, and I'm glad I did, although really you could just make a pretty tasty cheeseburger salad bowl from this (and their base salad?).

It was crazy satisfying, gave me a legit burger experience, and was everything I wanted it to be.

****.

Impossible Whopper Patty & Cheese.

The Impossible Burger patty was hiding under the toppings in the bottom of the container.  It came with what my receipt said was "HEAVY CHEESE", 2 slices, but, when I asked, they told me this was the normal amount.  I would have thought 1 slice was normal?  And I asked for regular.

Anyway.  The cheese was ... um, entirely not melted.  Oh, I'll also note that my burger was ready before I even reached the pick up area, so, clearly it was already cooked and the cheese just set up on top.  I guess that is normal?  I generally forget to order the cheese, and generally go to McDonald's, where they do usually melt it on ...

The cheese was fine, artificially bright orange "American" cheese, which, you guessed it, I liked to help complete "the burger experience".  But ... I really wanted it melty, so I'd probably leave off in the future.

Impossible Burger Patty: Grill Marks.

At some point, the burger patty I guess was actually grilled, and you could see the grill marks clearly on it.

The patty however, yeah, lukewarm at best.

This didn't detract me from enjoying it, but clearly it would be better actually warm, and actually freshly cooked.

Impossible Burger Patty: Inside.

And here you can see what the inside of that patty looks like.  It really, really did look like beef.  It tasted like beef.  Honestly, more than the last one I ordered.  I ... can't say that I'd be surprised to learn that they just didn't care and gave me a real patty.

It wasn't thick, it wasn't juicy, but ... it tasted like beef, and it was exactly what I wanted at the time.  Slathered with way too much mayo, ketchup, and mustard (from packets since they didn't add on), with all the other "essential" toppings, I really loved it.

****.

Update Review, November 2020

Oh T-Mobile Tuesday.  How I love you so.  I love random freebies. Particularly, it turns out, while living in a more rural area, staying with my parents in New Hampshire for a while during COVID for fresh air, summer, and greatly reduced COVID rates, and, it turns out, a way higher number of places that actually show up as T-Mobile freebies.  Maybe I'm biased because I was just soo happy to see Dunkin' Donuts on there regularly (where I discovered a great new favorite donut, actually, review coming soon - but previous reviews of baked goods here, drinks here), and I usually miss out when it is the weekly feature, as alas, no Dunks in San Francisco.

Anyway, T-Mobile Tuesday featured a free Whopper from Burger King, and I could pick regular or Impossible.  I've had my share of free Whoppers from Burger King, always mostly out of amusement/getting my free things, but I really do love their lettuce/onion/mayo mix (I know, I know), and I was eager to try out this Impossible burger.  

Yes, I actually ... was excited to visit Burger King.  My mother warned me as I left the house that I was likely to be disappointed.  Thanks, Mom!

Impossible Whopper Experience.

My visit was via the drive-thru, as it was in the depth of COVID, and the dining room was closed, even for takeout.

My burger was hot, seemed freshly made, was ready as I approached window, toppings were applied well, and the patty? Definitely better than I expected.

I was actually very pleased with the experience.  I wouldn't seek out a Whopper ever in general anyway, but if I found myself wanting one for some reason, I'd certainly get this again.

Impossible Whopper. $6.39.  (Packaging)

"Features a flame-grilled patty made from plants topped with tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, ketchup, pickles, and onions. *For guests looking for a meat-free option, a non-broiler method of preparation is available upon request."

The Impossible Whopper comes in a standard wrapper, branded with the IMPOSSIBLE name.  The standard prep actually makes it not technically entirely meat-free, as they cook it on the same broilers are the beef burgers, which, outrages real vegetarians, I know.  No dedicated Impossible burger grills at BK.  You *can* ask to have it prepared fully meat-free, and I think they microwave it that way ... Since I am not a vegetarian, I didn't care, and wanted the better, broiler experience anyway.

The same toppings as regular Whoppers are applied unless you ask for changes: lettuce, tomato, mayo, ketchup, pickles, onions.  You can add cheese or bacon, or add extra of anything normally included (most for a fee), and remove anything, obviously.

I left everything as-is, except I added extra onions (because I love them!) and extra pickles (because free!).

Bun.

The bun is the same standard Whopper bun.  Quite large, soft and fluffy on top, grilled on the inside top bun, slathered with the mayo mix on top, nothing on the bottom, thinner bun.

I never care for these buns, they are fine, but very generic, and I'm not much of a bun girl in general, if not a brioche or something special, so I never use them.  I actually went prepared this time with an entire half of an iceberg lettuce, and used the outer leaves to make a lettuce wrap, which worked remarkably well.  So juicy, fresh, and helped cut all the heaviness of the burger, and, um, my favorite part, the mayo.

But yeah, standard Whopper bun.

Toppings: Regular tomato (2 slices), lettuce, mayo, ketchup
Extra: onion, pickles (5 slices).

For toppings, I left the regular ketchup and mayo, as I adore the mayo at Burger King (just something about it!) and they apply it quite generously.  And ketchup really does go great with beefy taste, so I left that, and did not add mustard (free to add, but, not standard).  I was quite pleased with the sauces, again, that mayo is just ... awesome, I really think it tastes soooo very good with their lettuce and onions.  And they really do smother it in it, literally, 160 calories of the burger is *just the mayo*, even with the standard order.

For once, I left the tomato, finally willing to at least try it.  The regular amount is two slices.  They actually weren't that scary, looked decent, and were a solid "fine", what you might expect from a fairly generic tomato.  Not pale, not mealy, so, at least not that.  But I wouldn't get them again.

I also left the lettuce at regular, although I do like their lettuce, just shredded iceberg, but adding more is an additional charge, and I brought an entire half an iceberg head with me anyway.  I did like it as always though.

I added extra pickles, which meant 5 slices, crinkle cut, because it was free, and I could give to someone at home (along with bun), to use for their own purposes.  I did try one, and can confirm, that yup, I just don't care for BK pickles.  Something about the taste.  I like McDonald's pickles though!

And lastly, the onion, extra, which meant quite a bit, all different sized rings.  I really like their onion, again, I know, nothing special, just white onion, but I love the crispness, harshness, and way it combines with lettuce and mayo.

So, pickles and tomatoes given away, but everything else, exactly as I was hoping, and I truly enjoyed the lettuce/onions/mayo in my burger-wrap.

***** onions/lettuce/mayo, **+ tomato, *pickles.

Impossible Burger Patty.

The Impossible Whopper is assembled just like a regular Whopper, the patty under all the veggies, ketchup squirted on top, nothing under it besides the bottom bun, which had no sauces.  It had classic, visible grill marks, and looked like any standard beef patty from a fast food restaurant - fairly thin, cooked well done, no pink really inside.

I tasted a bit of the patty, sans anything else, and was reasonably impressed.  It wasn't nearly as good as other Impossible Burgers I've had, thicker, juicer ones, but it wasn't dry, it didn't taste funky, and certainly didn't taste like a veggie burger.  The texture was pretty close to that of a standard *fast food* beef patty.

Once I combined it into my lettuce wrap with all the other traditional burger toppings, it worked very well.  I certainly liked it more than the Burger King regular beef patties.  It really did have the beefy taste, as much as any fast food burger, perhaps even slightly more.

I brought a chunk for my mom to try, and made her a perfect bite with all the toppings, and she was actually really impressed, and said she'd never know the difference.

Overall, I was impressed with what BK has pulled off.  I won't seek it out, but if I was getting a Whopper again, I'd certainly get the Impossible one.

The patty is 240 calories, 29 fewer than the beef burger, still has 14 grams of fat, and does pack in 19g protein.

*** (**** for fast food burger I guess?)

Update Review, June 2020

Yup, National Burger Day, 2020.  Burger King gave out free Whoppers.  Of course I stopped by.

I wanted to do my "salad sandwich" that I proposed to myself last time, with extra lettuce, extra onion, etc, but adding extra anything comes with a fee, and I didn't want that for freebie day! 

Whopper. Add mustard.
Free for National Burger Day.

So, regular Whopper it was, only mod was adding mustard, which I learned I *can* do, and had lamented not having last time.

My review is largely unchanged.  These things are pretty consistent.  Burger King does have that going for htem.

Bun nicely toasted inside, soft, but, just a really boring bun.  Its also huge!  My partner also commented "wow, a Whopper is way bigger than I remember!"  Beef patty was thin, cooked all the way, and tasted like ... processed beef, and wasn't great.  Ketchup and mustard just in the center, not tons, and not spread around.  I didn't have the horrible looking tomatoes, and gave him the pickles as he likes them more.

I did like the onion, crisp and harsh, and the iceberg (no brown in sight), and I do love their mayo.  It was extremely generously slathered with mayo, all along the top bun.

It was what it was.  No more, no less, a Whopper.  Nice for free, but I mostly just gave it away.

**+.

Update Review, January 2020

When I was growing up, McDonald's was always my fast food of choice, and the Quarter Pounder with Cheese, or sometimes Big Mac, was my burger.  I always felt sad when the field hockey bus pulled into a Burger King instead, as I just never liked it nearly as much.  I settled for a Whopper Jr. with Cheese, but always wished we had picked McDonald's (and McDonald's had better fries, and McFlurries ...).

As an adult, I have not sought out fast food burgers all that often, although I did go through some years of excessive burger eating, running a dining club that got burgers every single Monday night.  I started my blog after those years, but you can read about some of my burger adventures here.  Let's just say I ate a lot of burgers, and plenty of them were fast casual style.

I never went to Burger King though, except when I went to try the new Satisfries (not tasty!), or, uh, when I went to Burger King in Munich explicitly seeking out the waffle ice cream sundae (ok, really good!).  Until now.  I think it had easily been 20 years since my last BK burger.  I won't mind if it is another 20.

Packaging.

My Whopper took a few minutes to assemble, and was handed over without a word: "A Whopper", is all she said, not even saying my number.

Signature Whopper paper, decently well wrapped.

Whopper.

"Our WHOPPER® Sandwich is a ¼ lb* of savory flame-grilled beef topped with juicy tomatoes, fresh lettuce, creamy mayonnaise, ketchup, crunchy pickles, and sliced white onions on a soft sesame seed bun."

I opened it up to reveal the contents.  It looked pretty good, nothing falling out, nothing mushed ...

The bun was nicely toasted inside, soft, and seemed fresh enough.  A large, kinda oversized bun though, I realized that I always got a Whopper Jr. in the past, not a regular one.  It is, uh, kinda a Whopper?  Just comparing the buns, the Whopper bun is 230 calories, the Whopper Jr. is only 120, so it really is nearly half the size, at least, the bread component.  The regular burger uses the same bun as the Whopper Jr.

Whopper: Inside.

It is the insides I was interested in though of course.

The top bun was slathered in mayo, creamy, generic mayo, that I really did love.  It went great with the lettuce and onions.  The lettuce, torn shreds of iceberg, was ... moderately fresh.  Crisp, but I did see some brown bits.  The sliced white onions gave a hit of harshness and pop of flavor, and I appreciated them.

Pickles are always one of my favorite parts of a burger, but I wasn't really into the BK ones.  Wavy style, and fine, but, I really prefer McDonald's and Subway style.  I didn't try the pale looking tomato, two slices.

Ketchup was somewhere in the mix, it seemed to be between the pickles and tomatoes, and was not well distributed.  This was easy to fix with an additional ketchup packet.  I also forgot that a Whopper doesn't include any special sauce, nor any mustard, so the ketchup and mayo really is it.  I prefer a McDonald's Quarter Pounder for the mustard, but, I do love mayo ...

I also forgot that a Whopper doesn't come with cheese by default.  Oops.  I certainly would have wanted that.

And finally the patty.  "¼ lb* of savory flame-grilled beef " ... yeah, it was barely warm, it was not juicy in any way, but at least it wasn't tough, and did have lovely grill marks?  It was basically, as expected.  No worse, but certainly not a burger you get to taste and enjoy the beef.  Again, comparing to the Whopper Jr. what I always used to get, that patty is just 100 calories, vs the 240 calories here, so this patty is actually nearly 2.5 times bigger, and I could tell.  Although it was very thin, it was a large patty, in diameter.  I guess they named this thing for a reason!

Overall, it was exactly as I expected.  No better, no worse.  It has a place in the world, but it is certainly not anything I plan to seek out again ... at least for another 10-15 years when curiosity strikes?

**+.

Whopper #2.

I blame T-Mobile for this.  T-Mobile Tuesdays had free Whoppers.  How could I resist another freebie?

My review is largely the same.  Beef patty thin and not exactly a juicy quality burger, but it isn't *that* bad.  I still couldn't bring myself to try the tomatoes.  I really did love the generous mayo, the harsh onions, and the iceberg.  I can kinda imagine enjoying a "salad sandwich", a Whopper hold the patty, extra onions, extra lettuce, definitely add cheese ... uh ...  

**+.

Original Review, October 2013

Burger King has always had a larger selection of sides than McDonalds, but they've now taken another leap, and offer not one, not two, but THREE different types of fries: sweet potato, regular, and their latest offering, dubbed Satisfries ... the healthy, yet still satisfying, fries.  The marketing behind them is genius, boasting that they contain 40% less fat and 30% fewer calories.  I assumed that they were comparing against their own fries.  They aren't.  They are comparing against McDonalds!  The numbers aren't nearly as impressive when you compare against their own versions, but given that they use the same oil and fryers, I guess it is impressive.  They developed a coating that somehow magically absorbs less oil.  But, (spoiler alert!),  they didn't live up to their name.

Value Sized Satisfries.  $1.69.

My fries were hot and fresh.  I give them credit for that.

Unlike the standard fries, they are crinkle cut.  I've never really liked crinkle cut fries, and my family always ate tons of frozen crinkle cut fries when I was a kid.  These reminded me of those exactly, not just in look, but also in taste.  They tasted like cardboard.  The outside was crispy, but the inside was just mush.  It didn't resemble potato in any way.  Burger King claims the fries are cut from whole potatoes, but I'm pretty skeptical.  They weren't salted well either.

Definitely not a win.  *+.

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Goodie Girl

When she was a few years old, we found out my niece has a gluten allergy.  This was a first for the family, particularly one with a diet soooo based in gluten-full carbs and grandma (my mom) an avid baker.  My mother has embraced the challenge of finding her every available safe snack, breakfast item, baked good, brand of mac and cheese, etc, which is no simple feat in a small town in NH, and is slowy learning to bake with gluten-free flours too.

Her journeys into the gluten-free world have meant that I've of course gotten to try lots of snack foods that I'd never normally seek out, such as products from Goodie Girl, and entirely gluten-free and kosher brand.

Goodie Girl has a number of product lines, all packaged items, such as many styles of cookies and some breakfast bars.

Breakfast biscuits are available in just two flavors: blueberry or cinnamon brown sugar.  These are essentially the same as BelVita breakfast biscuits, which I've reviewed before, but, the gluten-free version obviously.  I found it amusing that they even take the same large oval shape.  Their other breakfast bar product line, softer breakfast bars, come in 4 varieties (blueberry and cinnamon brown sugar again, or strawberry or chocolate/banana/almond), again much like BelVita's soft baked line.  I tried only the biscuits.

Blueberry Breakfast Biscuits.

"Start your day with some blues! Goodie Girl Blueberry Breakfast Biscuits are sweet, crunchy morning snacks made with blueberries and whole grain gluten-free oats to help provide nutritious energy for your morning routine."

My package contained 3 of the biscuits.

Again, just like BelVita, they are crispy biscuits, akin to graham crackers almost but thicker, loaded with a bit more grains/oats to deem them breakfast worthy, and flavored. I found them very sweet after a few bites.  They are also pretty dry to just eat straight from the package, but they do soften nicely when you dunk them in coffee like biscotti, and I also like dunking them in yogurt.  The blueberry was minimal, but I did taste the little dried blueberries if I really tried.

So on their own, too sweet, too dry, but, dunked in coffee or tangy yogurt and they aren't bad if in the mood for a biscuit for breakfast (or perhaps a mid-morning coffee snack).  3/5.

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Black Jet Bakery

Update Review, 2026

I can't say I've ever been all that impressed with Blackjet Bakery items in the past, but when someone had a bunch of extra at my office, of course I still gave them a try.

Homemade Oreo. $3.75.

"Indulge in the perfect marriage of rich dark chocolate and smooth salted vanilla cream with our take on the timeless cookie."

I don't like Oreos.  I don't really think Blackjet is a good bakery.  So I certainly didn't take one of these.  But when I leaving, hours later, and there was still a tray of them ... I grabbed one, for "research".  And I hoped it would be a worthy experiment.

The cookie had a deep, not very sweet, cocoa flavor.  It was a soft but crisp cookie, not really the texture you think of for an Oreo. The cream filling was sweet, cloying style, as I guess it should be for an Oreo, but definitely far more creamy than a regular Oreo.  I didn't really taste the salt.

I didn't really care for this, and I'm not sure an Oreo lover would either, as the flavors and textures were pretty different. 2/5.

Sprinkledoodle. $4.

"Delightfully buttery sugar cookie rolled in rainbow sprinkles! So happy, fun and festive for any occasion."

I love sprinkles.  So even though this is a very simple sounding cookie, there is something about a sprinkle cookie that still excites me.

It was ... a very basic cookie.  Yes, it was soft, and it was large, and it was absolutely covered in sprinkles, but the actual flavor was no different from generic slice and bake sugar cookies.  Like you'd get at any bake sale.  Nothing really bakery quality quality about it, besides perhaps that it was evenly baked?  Eh.  2.5/5.

Update Review, 2024

I didn't seek out Black Jet Bakery, but, when someone in my office had extra cake to share, of course I went to try it, as its 10 years (!) since I last had their goods.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake.

"Moist devil's food cake layered with our old fashioned chocolate cream cheese frosting and topped with sprinkles."

I'll admit the variety of cake the person who ordered this picked wasn't really one I'd generally go for - devil's food.  Chocolate frosting in particular is rarely what I'm interested in, and I mostly only like chocolate cake when it is warm, and served with ice cream.

But still, cake.  And I wanted to try it.

It was about as I expected.  Deep, dark devil's food cake, which is fine, but not exciting to me.  It was reasonably moist and not dry.  Reasonable chocolate flavor.

And then the frosting. I like chocolate.  I like cream cheese frosting.  I like cheesecake.  I don't like chocolate cheesecake.  Turns out, the same is true for chocolate cream cheese frosting.  Something about the chocolate and cream cheese combo just doesn't do it for me.  There was plenty of this frosting, and it was true to both the cream cheese and chocolate flavors, both fairly pronounced, but, alas, not my favorite.

Overall, I think a fine cake, good ratios of frosting to cake, fresh enough, but, not one I really enjoyed. **.

Available as 8 inch for $50, 10 inch or 1/4 sheet for $100, or 1/2 sheet for $200.

Original Review, January 2015

I remember when Black Jet Bakery opened in the Ferry Building.  I was so excited to have another bakery close by. You know me and my love of baked goods!  Plus, they had all sorts of interesting sounding items, like "German Shepherds", aka, homemade Devil Dogs with german choc cake filling!  And homemade "Nuttah Buttahs"!  And of course, homemade pop tarts with a variety of fillings, and absolutely adorable mini pies.

I tried many items over the years, but didn't take notes, as it was before my food blogging days.  A few years ago, as I mentioned last week, I wanted both pumpkin and pecan pies for Thanksgiving, so I decided to purchase mini versions of each, and Black Jet was where I immediately went for one of them, since I'd been eyeing their mini pies for years, even though I was never all that impressed with anything else I'd tried there.

They have since closed their Ferry Building location, but have a shop in the Mission, and are available around town through Good Eggs.  But I don't see any reason to seek them out.

Lil Pumpkin Pie. $5.

"This little 3.5 inch beauty is quite the treat for 1 or 2.  Excellent crust to filling ratio, to boot."

The pumpkin filling was not particularly interesting, not very spiced, just kinda there.  The crust on the bottom and where the pumpkin filling touched it was ok, but otherwise it was pretty dry.  It was also buttery, but not in a good way. There was no real flavor to the crust.  Meh, meh, meh

If you want a tasty pie, get it from Flour & Co.

[ Not Pictured ]

• Cookies
• Chocolate Chip Cookie with Sea Salt: "Classic chocolate chip cookies filled with milk and dark chocolate and topped with Maldon Sea Salt Flakes."  Tasting notes: Meh. (wow, that memorable huh?  Sorry, this is literally all my notes say!)
• Sugar Cookie: Soft, but no flavor complexity, just buttery, meh [ Slight lemon flavor, moist, bad mouthfeel, too much butter]
• Boozy Oatmeal Raisin Cookie: Tum!  Nice and moist, good flavor in cookie itself.
• Cakes
• Sour Cream Coffee Cake: "Classic Sour Cream Coffee cake. Delicious for breakfast or as an afternoon snack with coffee!"  Tasting notes: Nothing special, not bad but not good.
• Bars
• Salty Nutty Brownie: Nice rich chocolate flavor, moist, pretty good.
• Lemon Square: Way too sweet.  Very lemony.  Not my thing at all.
• Brown Butter Blondie: Not good.  Really plain, very little chocolate, no nuts.

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Tommy Popcorn

Regular readers of my blog know that I have a thing for popcorn.  An obsession, an addiction, pick your word for it, but, yes, I have a label on my blog devoted to it, and yes, I eat it, in some form, sweet or savory, every day of my life.  I'm an avid snacker, and my vice of choice is nearly always popcorn.  I frequently do crazy things like freeze it, because I like it extra crispy that way.

Given this, it is safe to say that I'm basically always excited to get to try new popcorn, so when I heard from Tommy Popcorn about a new line of popcorn being produced in Los Angeles, of course I was eager to try a soon as it was available.

"Discover our bold, unconventional, and unapologetically flavorful handcrafted gourmet popcorn, born from a Brooklyn legend’s passion for storytelling and unforgettable taste."

The namesake of this popcorn is slightly confusing, as 1) a person named Tommy is not involved with the brand, and 2) the company is based in California, despite the Brooklyn branding.  But it is named after a real-ish person,  Tommaso “Tommy” Marino, a fictional 1950s Brooklyn filmmaker obsessed with popcorn, cinema and doing things his own way.  The branding is intended to capture the spirit of the 1950s, of doing things the handcrafted way, and telling a tale through creative media, in this case popcorn rather than film.

The popcorn is marketed as gourmet, and never uses HFCS, is popped in small batches, and comes in slightly unique flavors.  Their flavors all focus around caramel corn, taken in a variety of directions, from the simple "Iconic" base flavor to the fascinatinating sounding "Empire State" pizza flavored version.  I tried only one, but can't wait to get my hands on more (which you can do too, currently sold only directly from their website).

Golden Irish.

"Caramel Popcorn with the taste of genuine Irish Whiskey"

"Tommy makes popcorn the way New York City makes nights – bold, memorable, full of adventure. And Golden Irish is the kind of popcorn that tastes like sophistication the second it hits your lips. This whiskey flavored popcorn blends warm vanilla, a whisper of oak, and a buttery glaze that lingers like jazz on a record player. 

Think: velvet booths, old-school charm, tailored suits and a pour of something top-shelf. It’s smooth. It’s slow. It’s got depth. And just like Tommy? Refined, but never boring.

“A popcorn that tastes like old money.” – Tommy"

I took my first nibble and was very quickly impressed.  I eat a lot of popcorn, clearly, but this was noteworthy from the first bite.

The caramel flavor was extremely well balanced - it was buttery, it was sweet, but it never veered into cloying territory, even though the pieces were all well coated in topping.  Think of what you wish most ballpark or carnival caramel corn was, but never is.  Caramel corn for those with real palettes.  Or yes, exactly as they say, it tastes like sophistication.  In a world of flowery marketing prose, in this case, it measures up.

And then there is the Irish whiskey of it all.  It was subtle, easy to miss at first, but there was this little extra touch of complexity on the finish, that took my brain a moment to register as whiskey.  But the moment it did, I immediately knew exactly what drink I wanted to pair with it.

Unfortunately my little bag didn’t last long enough to pour said drink.  The 1 ounce bag size feels slightly like a tease, but is likely good for portion control, as I assure you, I’d stand no chance against a larger bag.  But I think it would pair oh-so-well.

Oh, and the popcorn itself?  Nice size kernels, fresh tasting, well coated.  I have no edit on this, besides that maaaaybe I’d prefer it a bit more boozy, but really, this was just shockingly good caramel corn, for adults.  4.5/5.

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Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream

As you probably realize by now, I eat a lot of ice cream.  At least once a day, as part of a dessert pairing after lunch or dinner.  I'm partial to local brands, but from time to time, I try nationwide grocery store brands that are more readily available, such as Jeni's.

"Our ice creams have a uniquely smooth texture and buttercream body, with bright flavor and clean finish. We’re here to set new standards for ice cream classics and to create our own. At Jeni’s, you’ll find flavors inspired by our curiosities—art, history, pop culture, and beyond—that simply don’t exist anywhere else."

Jeni's is a mass produced but premium brand, distributed nationwide through grocery stores, direct shipments, and their own scoop shops.  It seems to be generally well loved, particularly for some of their more unique flavors. They have a very extensive product line up, and introduce new flavors constantly, including many seasonal specials.  Yes, you can get vanilla, chocolate, cookies in cream, cookie dough, or other common flavors if you like, but, why would you pick those when their regular lineup includes options like Gooey Butter Cake, Sweet Cream Biscuits & Peach Jam, Boston Cream Pie, Powdered Jelly Donut, Maple Soaked Pancakes, etc, etc. They have some that sound amazing, some that sound ... curious, and many that are just slight upgrades on classic flavors (e.g. even the cookie dough flavor, "Double Dough" has a brown sugar custard base).

I've tried a few pints over the years, and generally found the flavors to sound better on paper than they were in practice.

Brown Butter Almond Brittle.

"Brown-butter-almond candy crushed into buttercream ice cream."

"Made with rich buttercream ice cream and golden pockets of handmade almond brittle, this sweet, salty, crunchy ice cream quickly became a menu mainstay."

This was the first Jeni's flavor I tried.  I was so excited, having heard so many accolades of Jeni's, and, um, I love almond brittle (if you've been the Ferry Building Farmer's Market in San Francisco, you likely know the "almond brittle people", and, seriously, it doesn't matter how often I have that stuff, I adore it).  I imagined something like that, paired with good quality ice cream.  It sounded glorious.

The brittle was well distributed throughout.  It was extremely sweet, had a bit of crunch.  But I didn't taste the "salty" element as described.  Bites that got a lot of brittle really were too sweet for me.

The base ice cream was ... kinda boring?  I didn't taste something that called out as "buttercream", just kinda plain, not even vanilla.  Vanilla at least, um, has vanilla flavor?  Looking at the ingredients, the base is just milk, cream, and sugar, so, yeah, plain.  It was nicely creamy, clearly a decent product, but, just boring.

This flavor really trended too sweet for me most of the time.  I love everything in it, but, I found myself never really wanting it, and it certainly didn't wow me.  Plain ice cream, decent brittle, but, nothing particularly special about it, and, just too sweet overall.

3/5.

Brambleberry Crisp.

"Oven-toasted oat streusel and a sweet-tart brambleberry jam layered throughout vanilla ice cream."

"Brambleberry Crisp is like a slice of fresh berry pie mixed with a scoop vanilla ice cream in every bite. Sweet vanilla ice cream made with high-quality vanilla from Madagascar. A regal purple jam swirl inspired by the blackberries and blackcurrants that grow wild all over the hillsides of the Appalachian foothills — the kinds of brambly berries Jeni would pick. And a brown sugar oat streusel crumble with just a kiss of cinnamon inspired by Jeni’s family recipe. It softens a little in the ice cream, just like on a real crisp."

Next up was Brambleberry Crisp.  I always add a scoop of ice cream to any fruit crisp/cobbler/crumble/pie, so this sounded like a great flavor to me, all integrated into one.  A complete dessert.  It looked great when I opened it, the visible mix-ins drawing me in.

And ... I thought it was ok, but I certainly wanted to like it more than I did in practice.  The base ice cream I again found fairly boring (although here it was at least vanilla).  It was reasonably creamy, but not really notable in any way.  Ho-hum.  

But of course, this flavor was about the jam and the streusel after all.  The jam was sweet, and fruity, and there was a nice swirl of it throughout.  But it didn't really draw me in for more.  It almost seemed too sweet.  The streusel was well distributed throughout, but I didn't taste the brown sugar, nor could I tell it was oat really, it mostly was just slightly soggy grit.

It was all "fine", but not a pint I found myself reaching for, given my fleet of other brands and flavors in my freezer.  Low 3/5.

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Ziggy's Pizza, Lebanon NH

Ziggy's Pizza is a small chain in New Hampshire, with a location in the town my parent's live in.  I had heard about it when it first opened, lauded for introducing a new style of pizza to the area (*not* the super cheesy, greasy, fairly awful "Village Pizza" ... yup, really).  But I certainly never sought it out, I'm not really a pizza girl (and, I'm not in town that often).

But summer of 2020, I went to stay with them for a couple months to enjoy fresh air, warm weather, and, "escape" from the COVID lockdown in San Francisco.  My family has a ritual: pizza night.  Every week.  Basically without fail.  Usually when I'm visiting, I can convince them to skip that week, or sometimes mom will make pizza, or more often, I choose to go visit a friend on pizza night.  It just isn't my thing, and they generally order from the closest place (yup, Village Pizza, or the even worse Mickey's - review coming soon!), and they complain about the quality every time.  After a few weeks of such orders, I proposed trying somewhere new, even if it was a bit further away.

I picked Ziggy's, since I remembered people praising it, and it seemed to have some staying power, in business for a few years, and with a location in Sunapee too.  (I couldn't convince them to get Ramunto's, which at least has decent garlic knots - and cinnamon sugar dessert knots! - as it is even further, sadly).  So Ziggy's it was.

This review is for takeout only, so I cannot comment on the dine-in experience.  

Ziggy's has a larger than average menu for a pizza joint, in addition to the pizzas (both hand tossed or chicago style, including tons of ridiculous custom creations), they have calzones, wings, burgers (with *many* custom creations), hot dogs, a decent sandwich lineup (ranging from BLTs to warm cheese steaks to meatball/chicken parm), classic pastas (meatball parm, chicken broccoli alfredo, a very well known mac and cheese made with local dairy cream), salads, and a very unique menu of starters.  Oh, and desserts.  There really were many things I'd like to try.

Update Review, June 2025

I don't intentionally seek out Ziggy's, but my parents order from there/dine in usually once a week, so, of course I encountered it when visiting.

Sweet Potato Fries.

My parents love Ziggy's sweet potato fries, so when they went out to get pizza one night, I asked them to bring me a few home to try.  I ... don't understand the hype, although yes, I realize I had them reheated later (in air fryer), but I regularly reheat fries and enjoy them more than this.

They were just pretty generic fries, fairly soft (even when air fried) and ... I know this sounds strange, but, they were too sweet potato tasting for me.   Like, really sweet.  And kinda mashed inside.  Some skin on.  Just not my style at all.  For me, 1.5/5, but my parents do love them, so clearly, I'm just one data point.

These are available as a side order for $4.99 / basket for $8.99.  My parents got the basket and I tried the leftovers, so the portion here is not representative of either of the sizes.  They come with honey mustard to dip as well.

Honey Mustard.

I was excited to try the honey mustard too.  This is described on the menu as "our honey mustard", which I think means it is housemade.

It was ... fine?  Definitely pretty sweet, and very creamy (likely mayo? based).  3/5.

Update review: I had it again a few months later.  Yes, it is a very sweet honey mustard, but I love how creamy it is.  I wouldn't want it as a salad dressing as it is just far too sweet, but it was good with sweet potato fries. 4/5.

Original Review, September 2020

First Time Ordering. Wonderful!

The first time we had Ziggy's, it was really quite good.  I am not a pizza person, and lamented that my family does pizza night so regularly, but this I was impressed by (granted, mostly by the non-pizza items), and I admit the Margarita pizza was good.  It inspired me to suggest ordering from there again, a few weeks later.

Second Time Ordering: MEH!

The next time though ... wow, quality difference.

Same pizza, this time over cooked and lacking flavor.  Missing a dressing I ordered.  Salad much smaller.  

Eh.  Some things were fine, don't get me wrong, but, the quality difference was striking.

Starters

The starters is where Ziggy's menu really called out to me.  If I was dining in, I'd be in a world of indecision, with fried pickles, sweet potato fries, rings, etc, etc, all with house made dipping sauces.  I still was able to find starters that would work for takeout, and gladly tried several.

Buns & Oil. $3.99.

"Basket of freshly baked buns served with a side of homemade garlic oil for dipping."

Perhaps the most boring appetizer available, but, sometimes, I like a good roll, and I love a good dipping sauce.

I'm so glad I ordered these.  I really liked these rolls, my favorite dish that we got.

The bread was soft, fluffy, slightly crisp, not too much flour on the outside.  And the garlic oil?  DELICIOUS.  A bit of herb, plenty of garlic, and seemed high quality.  Seriously, that oil.  I still think about it.

I kinda could not stop eating these, particularly with that oil.  Would get again in a heartbeat! 4/5.

Ziggy's Sticks. $4.99.

"12 inch freshly made dough brushed with garlic oil and Romano cheese. Baked up golden with a side of marinara."

The next time we ordered it took all my willpower not to just order the buns & oil again, as I had loved them so much last time.  But I was eyeing the "Ziggy's Sticks", their version of garlic bread sticks, also made with that signature garlic oil.  Available with or without mozzarella cheese on them as well, and served with a side of their (pesto) marinara.

We got without the mozzarella.  I ... was not pleased.

They make the sticks by taking a medium 16" pizza crust, but only stretching it to 12", so its thicker and puffier than the regular pizza.  But otherwise, it's the same pizza dough.  It was ... um ... just pizza crust, kinda overcooked.  Too crispy.  I missed the soft, puffy buns.

But the real reason it failed is the utter lack of garlic flavor.  We were excited for the garlic oil, and it was ... not detectable in any way.  Yes, it was slightly cheesy, at least most pieces, from the romano, but otherwise, this was just oily (it clearly had oil soaking into the top, it just sure didn't taste of garlic), and crispy, boring pizza crust.  And the dipping sauce had spilled in, because the lid melted. 1/5.

I liked the dipping sauce at least, but would never get the sticks again.

Pesto Marinara.

The pesto marinara though was quite good actually.  I'll give them that.

Nice tomato sauce, not too tangy, not too sweet, just, pretty good marinara.  It is what they use on the pizzas.  I really liked the cheesy, herby touch the pesto added as well.

Another good sauce at least. 3/5.

Soup & Salad

My parents always order a basic dinner salad when they get pizza, but Ziggy's does have a decent lineup of salads, some entree style.  All are available with your choice of ranch, blue cheese, house vinaigrette, thousand island, or maple mustard vinaigrette.  The dressings are all made in-house.

The soup lineup is even more interesting, they feature one kind of base soup, a chowder.  A cheesy chowder.  Available in two forms: the basic cheeseburger, or, the "Cowgirl", which is the same base cheeseburger based chowder, but with differing toppings (onion rings and bbq sauce for the Cowgirl, lettuce, tomato, ketchup for the regular).  I couldn't resist going for this ridiculousness (which you can also get over fries).

Basic Salad, Large. $6.99. House Vinaigrette and Mustard Vinaigrettes.

"Mixed greens, grape tomatoes, cucumber and red onion."

This was for my parents, as I had no interest in a generic salad from the pizza place, and had my own fresh greens from my sister's garden, along with her heirloom tomatoes, but I did try a few bites, and it was a decent salad, I was impressed, above average for a pizza place.  Everything seemed quite fresh.

I did try the mustard vinaigrette, and it was, well, mustard vinaigrette.  Very tangy.  I'm not one for vinaigrettes.  They do make all of their dressings (except the ceasar), in house.

Basic Salad. Large.  $6.99. Thousand Island.

The next time we ordered, same salad, the onions were white rather than red.  I really liked them, sweet white onions, for some reason, I just loved the flavor.  And stole them all to eat dunked in dressing.  #sorrynotdorry.

The salad was much smaller the second time it seemed, fewer cucumbers and tomatoes, and much less lettuce.

Marinated Mushrooms / House Made Thousand Island.

The salad lineup also has a salad, the "Merry Mushroom", that includes marinated mushrooms.  These sounded good to me, so I asked for a side of them, knowing my dad hates mushrooms, and I shouldn't put on the salad directly.

I liked them, just chunks of mushroom, in some kind of herbs and oil, but, they were tasty enough.  Nice to add in to my salad. 3/5.

I also opted to try the thousand island once I learned they make most dressings in-house.  I also ordered the ranch, but alas, we paid for it, but our order did not include it.  Wah.

It was fine thousand island, creamy, balanced well enough, although a touch on the sweet side. Not to much mayo or anything.  Decent.  It went great with my sister's heirloom tomatoes I had on hand. 3/5.

Cheeseburger Soup (toppings on the side). $4.99.

"A creamy chowder with chunks of beef and onion, topped with crisp lettuce, chopped tomato and a drizzle of ketchup."

I was craving red meat.  Ground beef.  Very clearly.  But I didn't quite want a burger.  But cheeseburger soup?  Chowder with cheeseburger?  Now that sounded fascinating!  I tried to order the Cowgirl version, but alas, they were out of it (which I guess means they just didn't have onion rings?).  Regular version it was.  It came with two more rolls (no dipping sauce).

When you dine in, this comes with "Ziggy's" written across it in ketchup, and garnished with the lettuce and tomato, but I asked for the toppings on the side.  And since I couldn't have the Cowgirl with the bbq sauce and onion rings, I also got a side of the bbq to try mixing in.

The toppings were fine: diced tomato, really, they were classic burger tomatoes, in that they were pretty generic, not quite ripe, etc.  The "crisp lettuce" though was just fine shreds, and not much.  Ketchup was, well, ketchup, and the bbq was fairly decent, tangy and sweet.

But this really was all about the cheeseburger soup, right?

Cheeseburger Chowder: Inside.

So, what was it.  Well, a cheese chowder base.  Very cheesy, basically like, uh, mac and cheese sauce?  It really reminded me of mac and cheese sauce.  But, with chunks of ground beef crumbled up inside.  It was pretty rich, and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, and it lacked seasoning.

I heated some up, and then got to garnishing.  I added the lettuce provided, plus some from the salad that I chopped up.  My chopped tomatoes.  My crispy fried onions and bacon bits.  Lots of pepper.  The toppings definitely enhanced it, but it was still fairly bland, besides the cheese nature.  I mixed in spoonfuls of ketchup and bbq, and those added more to it, but, yeah, its, uh, cheeseburger chowder.  

Dunking bread into it was good, I could imagine a bread bowl working well.  But I loved the oil too much to "waste" it dunking in here.

I think it would be good to use as a mac and cheese base though - if no one else in my family wanted it, I would have turned it into mac and cheese.  3/5.

Pizza

So, the main attraction, the pizza.  Most of their pizzas as standard hand-tossed style, but they do a legit sounding Chicago deep dish too - "A deep-dish pie stuffed with 6 cups of cheese sealed with a top crust and then covered with sweet and spicy Chicago sauce."  Yup.

My mom almost was going to order the Chicago style, at my urging as it was the one I'd really like to try, but, when she read the bit about it being stuffed with a full 6 cups of cheese, she got scared away.

Ziggy's also has an, um, impressive line up of curated pizzas.  While you can build your own, their speciality line up is ... well, fun to say the least.  Bbq cuicken, philly cheesesteak, greek, thai chicken, those are on there, but child's play compared to the Mandarin Beef and Broccoli pizza, the Mac and Cheese Pizza, the Lasagna Pie, um, the Crab Rangoon Pizza (yes, it has cream cheese, imitation crab, wonton crisps, sweet chili sauce ...).  Most of the crazy pizzas are available as calzones too.

My family though?  Not exactly adventurous.  

Margherita. Medium. (16"). $19.99.

"Garlic oil, tomato, fresh basil oil, Parmesan and mozzarella cheese."

This was my parent's order, as my mom really wanted something different (not regular saucy pizza, as they get pizza basically weekly).  She loves Ziggy's Margherita apparently.

I tried a small piece, and I see why.  It's all about the garlic oil and basil oil!  Really, excellent flavorful oils.  This was much like the rolls and dipping sauce, and, if I wanted cheesy pizza, well, I would actually have more. 3/5.

Margherita. Large. (24"). $25.99.

The next time they got it though ... it wasn't the same. They were not pleased.

The pizza was overdone, too crispy, and dry.  It ... didn't taste like garlic.  This pizza is all about that garlic!  My main said it had way too much cheese. 1/5.

Cheese Pizza. Small 12". (Normally $8.49, free with deal).

We also got a small cheese pizza, because they have an online deal for a free small cheese pizza if you order a medium or large specialty pizza.

I'm glad we did, as it was dramatically better than the margarita.

A classic cheese pizza, marinara sauce, cheese, but, it was good, the style I like. Thin crispy crust, good sauce level with sauce that was not too tangy nor too sweet, and plenty of greasy greasy cheese.

The kind of pizza I'm not normally in the mood for, but when I want a cheesy bomb, this is exactly the style I like. Low 3/5.

Dessert

The desserts are not made in-house, but are locally made.  Or so they said.  As a dessert-lover, I had to add on a dessert to each ord, particularly when I saw the lineup.  A slew of cakes (triple layer chocolate, chocolate mousse, carrot cake), cheesecakes (raspberry or cotton candy (!!!) the day I ordered), cookies, crispy treats, and, whoppie pies.  I kinda wanted them all.

I asked for recommendation and the guy taking our order said the triple chocolate layer cake was his favorite, followed by the chocolate mousse, and said the carrot cake was really good.  Really, he said, they were all good.  And were fresh.  Well, that did it.  I had to order something.  I almost got the cotton candy cheesecake out of curiosity, but really had just had cheesecake for two days in a row, so that didn't seem right.  If it wasn't night time, I would certainly have gotten chocolate mousse, or, a whoopee pie as they had a peanut butter filled one (but with chocolate cookies).  So many great options, and I almost ordered the chocolate based ones for the next day ...

I ordered the carrot cake.  However ... it did not come with our order, and my mom did not notice until she was home, and I asked about it.  Sadness.

The next time we ordered, I was certain to order it again.  I've since tried several others, but have become convinced of something.

These desserts are *not* all made locally.  The cotton candy cheesecake, and the "Grand Slam" pie most certainly come from Sysco.  Their names and uniqueness tipped me off.  Pretty sure most of the chocolate cakes do as well (e.g. the "Ultimate Chocolate Cake").  And yes, the carrot cake.  I do believe the whoopee pies might be made locally.

Gourmet Carrot Cake. $5.49.

"Three layers of moist carrot cake loaded with shredded carrots, pecan pieces, and crushed pineapple, filled and iced with real cream cheese frosting and topped with chopped pecans."

So, about that carrot cake.  Finally.  They told me that people love it, and come there for it explicitly.

It is a 3 layer cake, with nuts.  

It was highly, highly mediocre.  It was moist enough, and the shredded carrot and pineapple were pleasant.  Yay for crunch from pecans (also on the back frosted layer).  It did not have too much spicing.  But ... it really did not shine in any way.

And the frosting?  Didn't taste like cream cheese at all.

Overall, very, very, very generic, and not something I'd get again. Low 3/5, maybe 2.5/5.

The online menu listed a lower price, but I saw we were charged $5.49 per slice, which ... is kinda just crazy for a thin slice of the Sysco product.

Grand Slam Pie (Top). $5.49.

"A Chocolate cookie filled with custard, brownie pieces, peanuts, and chopped Snickers bars. More brownies, caramel, and both white and dark chocolate cover the top."

"Chocolate cookie crust filled with custard & brownies, topped with Snickers bars, more brownies, caramel & peanuts, and then drizzled with dark and white chocolate."

Um, yeah.  This is what tipped me off to the desserts being from Sysco.  A pie called "Grand Slam" and Snickers as an ingredient.  The "Grand Slam" it turns out all revolves around the Snicker's concepts: peanuts, chocolate, caramel.  The two descriptions I pulled from the Sysco site differ slightly, is the custard filled with peanuts and chopped Snickers or not?  Is it topped with Snickers and peanuts or not? Maybe the product changed at some point?

Also, um, how crazy did this sound?!  A chocolate cookie (crust).  Brownies (inside and on top).  Snickers (inside ... and on top?).  Caramel.  Chocolate sauce. Dark chocolate.  White chocolate.  Peanuts.  Custard.  It also had whipped cream.  WAT.

I approached this with slight fear, to be honest.  I assumed that at least some component would be tasty, but kinda doubted that they'd come together all that well.

It actually turned out to be pretty tasty, although, yes, there was a lot going on.

Starting at the top.

The whipped cream on top was fluffy, sweet, and tasty enough.  The chunks of brownie, perched on top and falling off the side were rich, thick, chocolately, smoist chunk of brownie, but ... I'm not really a brownie girl.  They were a bit lost in all the very sweet, very gooey caramel sauce drowning the whole thing. The caramel sauce poured over it was perhaps a bit too generous (ok, pretty sure Ziggy's added to that part). The chocolate elements on top were also fairly lost, just, sweet caramel it was.

Grand Slam Pie: Base.

Ok, moving to the base, the chocolate cookie crust. It was fine.  Not to hard, which I appreciated.  Intensely chocolately.

Above that was a layer I couldn't quite understand.  It looked like cookie dough ... but studded with. peanuts.  It almost even tasted like cookie dough.  The description really didn't help here, but it actually was pretty good.  Maybe it was supposed to be like the nougat in a Snickers? And the peanuts?  There were TONS of peanuts.  Very, very, very peanut forward.

Above that is the ... custard, not as thick as a cheesecake.  I liked the custard, it was smooth and creamy, and the peanuts in particular were really nice integrated into it.  I didn't find actual Snicker's bars inside my piece, but that was fine with me.

So add up a chocolate cookie crust, tons of peanuts, a creamy custard, way too much caramel, brownie bits, chocolate sauce, and some kind of cookie dough like layer ... and you get a complete overload.  Overload of sweet, overload of textures, overload of SNICKERS, ZOMG SNICKERS.  Why is this not called Snicker's Pie?

So overall, this really wasn't bad.  I quite enjoyed bites of creamy sweet custard, with crunchy nuts, and a *little* sweet caramel.  But it was an overload, and you definitely need to like Snicker's flavors.  And, well, not have a peanut allergy.  Higher 3/5.

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