French Fry Diary 642: LongHorn Steakhouse

We've been here before. It might not seem like it, but we have. The deep fried breaded onion snack followed by beef is a gig we've done before, both at the Outback and the questionably named Texas Roadhouse. Even the Lone Star Steakhouse, sadly no longer in our immediate area, used to do that.

It makes me wonder if all three are the same restaurant, but no, each onion is trademarked. So each restaurant is just a competitive twin. Are those onion things really that good? Yes, decadent, but good.

My buddy and podcast partner Ray and I had been making an accidental tour of steakhouses lately, so the LongHorn Steakhouse seemed as good a place to go next as any. I was a bit tentative as the Cherry Hill location has gotten some bad word of mouth. I decided we should see for ourselves.

That is of course, once we got there. Ray set his GPS to the Lone Star Steakhouse, which as I mentioned is nowhere to be found around here. It took a while for us to meet, obviously. While the parking lot was full, the dining room was not. Not sure if that's good or bad.

The menu, supposedly brand new at the time, was huge, and thick as a textbook. The decor was very wooden and old school. There were some cowboy and western motifs, but the big attraction (or at least what my eyes went to) was the huge chandelier made of antlers. Don't know if they're real, but wow.

We got the Texas Tonion, trademark, but it doesn't need the trademark. It really doesn't need it. It's nothing like its counterparts, it's just a long plate of just meh onion petals. For the price, a little over seven bucks, comparative to the Bloomin' Onion, I feel ripped off. An order of onion petals, and only okay onion petals for that matter, is not worth the price of the exotic wheel of deep fried death and goodness I expected. I was not happy.

My chopped steak came with thinner longer onion straws. They were better than the steak. The fries were natural cut regular cuts, only warm but okay. The baked potato was very hot and very good. There's not much else to say about the food. The service was okay. There was nothing though that I would come back for, even though Ray said the LongHorn near him was better. That's too far though. And I'm still a little steamed about that Texas Tonion...

French Fry Diary 364: Select 7 Panko Breaded Onion Petals

I had a long day, I was hungry, and it was late so my options were few. So when I approached the 7-Eleven, like an oasis in the desert, I knew I would be stopping for a snack. I got a hot dog. It's easier to ignore how long they've been there and what they might be made of at that hour. And Cool Dog, the first stop for dogs, wasn't open.

I was still hungry and was aisle by aisle shopping the 7-Eleven, and I found these - the Select 7 Panko Breaded Onion Petals. 7-Eleven or not, I snatched them up. I have recently been on a Panko drive so I had to have them.

Once home I found they could be cooked three ways - microwave, baked, or deep fry. Deep frying is a lot of work, and anyone who's had supposedly crunchy food microwaved knows it rarely works, so that was out too. Baking it was. For the record, I gave them a few more minutes in the oven than they suggested. And the Aussie Sauce will be saved for The Bride and her salads. It is just salad dressing, is it not? I myself prefer barbecue sauce for my fried onion treats.

Baked they are quite crunchy and tasty, with more of a hint of Panko than the ShopRite Panko Onion Rings promised. And the portion provided by the small box is enormous. Despite the 7-Eleven store brand, these are very good. I like them a lot. I look forward to trying them deep fried, and maybe even microwaved.

French Fry Diary 328: Outback 2011

Recently my buddy Ray and I were going to have a guys night out at the movies, and wanted to have some dinner beforehand. It wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. Our last resort after trying Applebee's, the Library II, and even McDonald's was finally the Outback Steakhouse.

How I've reviewed the Outback before and wasn't really all that thrilled. This time however, I found a meal I was quite happy with. But first, a few words about the Outback's signature appetizer item, the Bloomin' Onion.

The Bloomin' Onion is a wonder of culinary science. It's a one pound onion cut to bloom open, breaded and deep fried. Beautifully crispy, and the breading has that spicy extra kick most Outback food has. The kick is very hot, you will sweat, so have a beverage nearby. Being the catastrophically picky eater I am, I usually pass on the mayonnaise horseradish sauce, but other folks tell me it's good. This time it was a little underdone, but Ray and I still demolished it. Hands down, the Bloomin' Onion is still the main reason to come to the Outback.

The meal I found was the Chicken on the Barbie that comes with a delicious barbeque sauce, that was also very good on the Aussie fries. I'm not that much of a fan of the regular natural cut fries, but this barbeque sauce made them so much better. Good meal, good friend, and good customer service… unlike Applebee's…

French Fry Diary 250: Arby's

I've already talked about my unpleasant experience with the onion rings at Arby's but I haven't actually reviewed the place yet. Arby's has changed quite a bit in the last few years when it comes to the favorite fried food. They used to have very good natural cuts, and as noted previously, terrific Onion Petals, but no longer. No Onion Petals, and the lack of a burger product are why I usually don't come to Arby's. And I'm really not a big roast beef guy.

Arby's started back in 1964, as old as I am, in Ohio. The RB in the name stands for Raffel Brothers, the founders, not roast beef, as most folks think. They are known for their roast beef sandwiches however, and their big cowboy hat logo and their 'horsey sauce.' They're part of the Wendy's company and they serve Pepsi products, and at the beginning, they served potato chips, not fries. They haven't been very successful in my area, however, as many of the restaurants that have opened, haven't stayed open more than five to ten years. Just sayin'.

Usually when I would come to Arby's I would get one of the chicken sandwiches, which is sometimes a pain in the neck to get the folks behind the counter to understand the concept of plain. "Just the chicken, and the bun," and still they get confused. Their shakes are pretty good too. They used to have shake it up chicken nuggets with bbq sauce that were great but no longer. And I would get the aforementioned Onion Petals quite often but they don't have them any more either.

What they do have, and have had for some time are Curly Fries. I believe these are among the first fast food franchise curly fries. They are natural cut and well seasoned. They are very good when hot, but this order, gotten on a Sunday afternoon at the nearly empty Arby's in Oaklyn, were barely warm. The cuts are very nice, lots of corkscrews. I like the corkscrews. I still wish they had the old natural cut fries too - it was nice to have a choice, or to have both.

They also have something called Loaded Potato Bites. Little triangles of potato product stuffed with sour cream, cheese, chives and God only knows what else - these were so not my thing. I did not like them. Sometimes they also have Potato Cakes, sort of a poor man's McDonald's Hash Brown, but not for breakfast. I'll review them on another trip I guess, as this one was not good so far.

Not a pleasant experience this stop, guys. Arby's, please bring back the natural cut regular cut fries and the Onion Petals.

French Fry Diary 199: Arby's Bait and Switch Onion Rings

What was advertised...

The new thing at Arby's is their Steakhouse Onion Rings. Now those last three words bring to mind a certain image - big thick panko battered onion rings, the kind that come next to, or on top of a big thick juicy steak. First and foremost I think of the ones that come with your steak at The Pub.

Luckily, so as to avoid confusion with the fantasy onion rings one's mind might conjure, Arby's new Steakhouse Onion Rings are accompanied by ads throughout the restaurant so you know what they look like. And they look darned good, perfectly shaped and tasty.

What we got... 

We got our order and left, as we were in a hurry to meet friends at our place, so it was a quick dinner on the go - real fast food. When we got home, I was in for quite a shock. I don't know what happened to my "Steakhouse Onion Rings" but I got crappy onion rings instead, and they certainly weren't anything like what was pictured at the restaurant. These were greasy, flimsy, falling apart, and not at all tasty. And five onion rings at $1.99, so not worth it…

Not cool, Arby's, so not cool. If you want to do something to make up for this fiasco, bring back your regular cut French fries or those delicious onion petals instead...