Friday, December 16, 2011

"New French Fries" shootout: Wendy's vs. Burger King

Every once in a while, I decide that there needs to be a showdown between two similar competitors to determine which is better. I have been getting a lot of requests to do more fast food, but that is not what this website is about. That being said, below you will find definitive evidence of the changes made to Burger King and Wendy's fries and how they stack up.


I was watching football last Sunday when I got word of the new "steak fries" at Burger King. As I had been meaning to try the new Wendy's sea salt fries, there was no other option than to execute a french fry shootout.


At BK, I got a large order of fries, and a Whooper. The Whopper was actually for a friend, I was just holding it. No seriously. Also, did you know that you can order a Whopper with onion rings? You really can have it your way.




I then drove (immediately) down to Wendy's.




At Wendy's, I ordered a large fry, a large root beer and a W, which is basically Wendy's new burger, an answer to the Big Mac.




The W was okay. It was a decent fast food burger, as far as the big three are concerned, but I couldn't shake the buttered bun. Well actually, it was a butter-flavored bun. It overpowered the sandwich with its fake, movie-theater-style butteriness.


Now Wendy's new fries are supposed to be "natural" with sea salt, while BK is touting theirs as steak-fry style. While Burger King's had a better crunch, due to the mysterious exterior coating, Wendy's were limp. Wendy's at least some salt to them, while Burger King's had little to no salt. I don't know if that is part of the new initiative, but these are french fries. Maybe I needed to specify that "my way" was with salt. Neither french fry tasted like potatoes, but neither tasted like oil either. They were both bland and underwhelming.


It seems that, at least for now, the french fry king of the big three remains the golden arches. That being said, I got a single order of McDonald's fries the other day (simply for research purposes) and they also were a big let down. So if I had to choose between Burger King and Wendy's new fry gimmicks, I would probably go BK by a fry. I would ask for a pack of crappy iodized salt along with them though.


4 comments:

JO said...

yeah it's really a fucking shame what mcdonalds has turned into. kfc too. Good research with the fries, as much as I eschew chains, I always like the idea of fast food. I also was intrigued by the W.

Anonymous said...

Great research, man, and props for your service to the community. My wife and I tried the new BK fries today. We visited three local BKs with our 2-year old strapped in the back-seat and got nine free fries because it's a special promo day for free fries today. Bottom line is that you're right. The new "steak-style" BK fries weren't oily but they lacked flavor due to having little to no salt. And that's a statistically significant sample -- nine servings from three different BK restaurants. The Golden Arches still holds the title as best fries in our opinion.

Philly Phoodie said...

@Anonymous, nine servings? You are a beast! That's amazing!

@JO, I agree, and the W is worth a try, but I can't get over the buttery flavored bun.

Rick Tygger said...

I like Long John's with the bitten off ends smashed into the fryer crumbs. Now thats a good fast food french fry!