French Fry Diary 613: Birthday Goodies

I have a pretty important landmark birthday coming up later this week, and I wanted to talk about freebies, specifically birthday freebies from fast food and chain restaurants. For the sake of the blog here, I'm on an awful lot of email lists for these restaurants so of course I'm on their birthday list as well. I should add that there's a substantial lack of the favorite fried food for free.

Denny's is the granddaddy of these bad boys with their free Grand Slam breakfast on your birthday. You get two eggs, two pancakes, two sausage links, two slices of bacon - but no breakfast potatoes or hash browns. Sad. IHoP goes one better with a free breakfast that might just include hash browns.

Friendly's will give you a three scoop sundae, Dairy Queen does a Blizzard, Chili's a brownie sundae, and Cold Stone Creamery, Baskin-Robbins, Rita's Water Ice, and Ben and Jerry's all have ice cream in a cone or cup. Also in the cold club are Smashburger and Zinburger with milkshakes, and P.F. Chang and Outback both get you free dessert.

Sonic, Charlie Brown's, Red Lobster, Famous Dave's, Moe's Southwest Grill, Qdoba, and Fuddruckers play it safe and mysterious by saying you're just get a free gift. Maybe it's a watch? Hmmm… all I wanted was fries… Don Pablo's goes right for the wallet with the lazy birthday tact of a gift card.

Red Robin rules with not just a free burger, but also a side of those bottomless fries. Houlihan's gets you a free entrée, Johnny Rockets a free burger, and my friends at Cool Dog Café are good for a free hot dog. Hmmm… I'm thinking Cool Dog for lunch maybe and then Red Robin for dinner…

Best and Worst Onion Rings

This will be the last one on this slant, I promise. Recently the Huffington Post did a survey of appetizers in chain restaurants looking for the best and worst in various appetizers. We've seen potato skins and French fries so far, this time, we have onion rings.

Yeah, that's right. The Huffington Post did this. Again. Just when I think I'm wasting my time talking about French fries all the time, an almost legitimate news source proves me wrong by going even more trivial. Talk about niche!

What bothers me most about the survey this time is that they have their facts wrong. They list T.G.I.Fridays and Applebee's as not having onion rings. That second one is odd because I have an Applebee's review in queue that includes onion rings. Friday's has onion rings, and although it's been a while since I've been there, I'm pretty sure Planet Hollywood does too. Research research! Chili's are definitely up there, as are Red Lobster's, but Cheesecake Factory's rings didn't look like that the last time I was there.

Anyway, if you're interested in the Huff Post's findings and opinions, the full article is here. Enjoy.

Best and Worst French Fries

The Huffington Post is currently doing a survey of appetizers in chain restaurants. The other day I covered here them looking for the best and worst in potato skins. Now they have reached the good stuff, the favorite fried food - the best and worst of French fries.

And yeah, that's right. The Huffington Post did this. Just when I think I'm wasting my time talking about French fries all the time, an almost legitimate news source proves me wrong by going even more trivial.

I really don't agree with their findings. Of course in any fry competition between the chain restaurants, it's a matter of lesser of the evils. They are essentially all lousy natural cuts except for a couple batter styles. No big shakes if you ask me.

Their goodness or badness depends completely on the foods that complement them, or what there is to dip the fries in. On that basis, I would go for Red Lobster as best. Huff puts them in fourth place. I guess they have never tried the peach bourbon bbq sauce…

Anyway, if you're interested in the Huff Post's findings and opinions, the full article is here. Enjoy.

The Best and Worst Potato Skins

Recently the Huffington Post did a survey of appetizers in chain restaurants looking for the best and worst in potato skins.

Yeah, that's right. The Huffington Post did this. Just when I think I'm wasting my time talking about French fries all the time, an almost legitimate news source proves me wrong by going even more trivial.

Now I'm not a real big potato skins fan, chiefly because the point is to scrape the potato part out (that's the part I like) and put other stuff in. Me, I'd rather have a baked potato, ya know?

Anyway, if you're interested in the Huff Post's findings and opinions, the full article is here. Enjoy.

French Fry Diary 158: Chili's

It's been years since I had gone into a Chili's but The Bride and I were lured in recently by their two-entrees-plus-an-appetizer-for-twenty-dollars promotion. The ad was playing, and still is, non-stop on television, and the food just looked too good. Never say that these kinds of promotions don't work, because now Chili's is a regular dinner destination.

For our appetizers, on the recent visits we have gotten both the Texas Cheese Fries with Chili, and the Crispy Onion String & Jalapeno Stack. The former is an order of Chili's standard Homestyle Fries but topped with cheese, chili, jalapenos, onions and best of all, bacon. Not my style, but not bad, and bacon always makes things better. The latter are some terrific onion straws with a small handful of batter-fried jalapenos thrown in. The few jalapenos are easily identifiable for those (like myself) who aren't fans and the onion straws truly rock. Recommended.

For my entrée I have always gotten some form of the Chili's Chicken Crispers. These are larger than usual chicken tenders with just enough crunch and just enough tender (for me anyhow) and served with a killer smooth barbeque sauce. For my sides I usually get the juiciest sweet corn on the cob I've had in a while, and of course, the fries.

Chili's Homestyle Fries are very crispy natural cuts sprinkled with salt and pepper. Crispy on the outside but they are still hot and soft inside. These are fantastic fries in their subtlety. You won't stop eating them, and the barbeque sauce goes even better with the fries than with the chicken crispers. And best of all, because the portions were so big, I took them home, and all reheated well when baked in the oven.

To top off the meal, Chili's has these one dollar wonders called Sweet Shots. These are shot glasses filled with all the goodies to make any of the following flavors - key lime pie, red velvet cake, warm cinnamon bun, and warm double chocolate fudge brownie. Wow, ultimate dessert.