French Fry Diary 388: Long John Silver's 2012

Since seeing the latest television commercials for Long John Silver's, I had suspected that they had changed their fries. The ones in the ads were natural cuts as opposed to the lightly battered crispy shoestrings they used to have. New fries? So I had to try them.

So I went over to the Long John Silver's and Taco Bell combo that's the only place to get LJS in my area. It was lunch time but not really all that crowded, but yet my wait time was about fifteen minutes. It seemed as if the crew was more concerned with drive thru than the customers at the counter. The drive thru was moving at quite a clip while about a half a dozen of us waited inside.

I got my usual - the chicken and chips. The chicken planks, battered white chicken strips, we're as good as ever. There was the usual tasty deep fried crumbs at the bottom of the box, along with the prerequisite hush puppies. This time however the hush puppies were kinda greasy and had a different texture, but that wasn't the only thing that was different.

Long John Silver's did indeed have new fries, and bad ones, a definite step down in quality and uniqueness. They were natural cuts lightly peppered and barely warm. There's nothing wrong with natural cuts, but these were disappointing natural cuts, and a much smaller portion than previously.

This was not a pleasant visit to my local LJS. I'm not writing them off completely though. Thankfully I can still get chicken planks a la carte.

French Fry Diary 94: Long John Silver’s

Fish and chips is a longtime combination in the fry game and cashing in on that concept is Long John Silver’s. They are similar to what I remember Arthur Treacher’s and Gulliver’s to have been back in the day, pretty much except for the fries.

The Long John Silver’s I visited shares space with a Taco Bell, as they are both part of the Yum super-corporation that also includes KFC, Wing Street, A&W and Pizza Hut among others. Yep, the Pepsi super-conglomerate, honestly Coke would take these places a step up for me.

The place is mostly Taco Bell as they were there first however, and the dual logos of the LJS fish and the TB bell next to one another is a bit unsettling as neither quite look like what they’re supposed to look like. To me at least, the bell kinda looks like a dragon or a crocodile eying up that fish for dinner. Yeah, it's more disturbing than it is unsettling.

I ordered the chicken and chips, my usually order there which includes two chicken planks (always very good unless someone screws up and I get fish), a generous helping of shoestring French fries, two ‘hush puppies’ (basically tasty deep fried breaded balls of mystery stuff), and an assortment of crumbs. No, I have no idea what the crumbs thing is about.

The fries are traditional shoestrings and always crispy. You gotta eat ‘em while they’re hot because they don’t stay hot for long, and sadly they don’t really nuke that well. You can reheat them in the oven when you get home but it’s dicey getting them just right without burning them or making them too crisp. Unless you live close, there’s not much of a take out option because of this.

The fries seem to have an Invisicoat texture but they don’t. If anything they are very lightly battered with something similar to the mystery crumbs. Sometimes the quality varies, but most of the time these are very good and quite addictive. If hot, highly recommended.

More Fries on Twitter

Sternenfee: RT: @bhaddad: http://twitpic.com/epjsq - Riding by the track to pick up some frieS. THEY ARE THE PERFECT SNACK AFTER BANGING THE GOATS #RWRTF

A_Thoroughbred: How IS Popeyes going to run out of wings ? Thats like McDonald running out of french fries... UNEXCEPTABLE ! (LoL)

ritawyatt: Just leaving Chick-fil-a. Longest line ever, but it moved pretty fast.

sarahreigstad: Maxwells waffle fries are absoluetly my favorite waffle fry ever! Especially when they are steaming hot and dipped in the sour cream sauce.

Kiamotor20: Walkingto schoool is so weird! Im carrying cupcakes and it's so humid! I ironed my bangs and they look like curly fries now!

DGPRinc: Have you tried Zucchini Fries?: Have you tried Zucchini Fries? Click on pic for recipe from The Dish: http://bit.ly/pyVB7

nvrsummer01: there's some fries in my tummy, so yummy so yummy!

Haz9mg: Aww my bestfriend daniella drove all the way to my job jus to buy me some fries from checkers....ily...

d_chambers: @vaquero_menos cooking fried catfish outside plus homemade fries, hushpuppies and onion rings. The whole area smells so good!

getoutalive: chick fil a is in cahoots with the devil ;)

MalloryRayne: RT @stoner_stuff Sundays are good for smoking pot and eating french fries..

Ooooo-kay. That’s about all the time we have for today. Maybe we’ll do this again some time...