French Fry Diary 495: AMC Marlton 8

Over on my pop culture blog, Welcome to Hell, I've talked about the new AMC Marlton 8 movie theater and the cool revamp they've done. Besides the wonderful new seating, the food is different too. Much like the hated AMC Loews in Cherry Hill, they have added French fries to their menu.

Along with chicken tenders, hot dogs, mozzarella sticks, pizza and chicken sliders, they now have curly fries. Notably they also have self-serve Icee machines, and two amazing Coca-Cola Freestyle machines, as well as the usual theater fare like popcorn and candy, plus some frozen treats too.

Very similar, as I said, to Loews, these are very crunchy (as in overdone for the most part) natural cut curly fries. The expensive for its size order we got seemed to be more pieces, scraps, and leftovers rather than a new order with big curls and spirals. Unlike Loews, they were hot at least. I was impressed with the big Autofry machine just feet from the counter so you can watch the magic - although honestly there's not much to see.

All in all, not bad but not good either. This may have been a bad night. Everything else about this theater screams quality and customer service, so I'm willing to think this may have been a fluke. That said, Autofry-ed curly fries can only be so good.

French Fry Diary 134: Loews AMC Cinema, Cherry Hill NJ

I hate the Loews AMC Cinema in Cherry Hill. I hate them. I have talked about this more than once on my Welcome to Hell pop culture blog. But unfortunately, sometimes, it's the only place to go to see a certain film, or a film in IMAX or digital 3-D or both. In those times I relent, grumble and take my place in line at the most hated of all movie theaters.

If it's any consolation, it's a movie theater that serves the favorite fried food, so why not kill two birds with one grumbling stone. I got two orders of fries, one with cheese, one without, a regular Icee and a small Coke. That was a twenty-dollar bill. Not counting the movie tickets, or even candy or even a hot dog - that was twenty right there. Then there was the size of the drinks. The counterperson insisted they were small. My jaw is still on the floor, but for the price that Coke better be damned big.

The fries came in cups with plastic forks (which were useless in the dark). The wait time for these fries was about ten minutes, which was weird because they tasted like they were only under a heat lamp for a while instead of fresh from a fryer. One can't see where they come from so there's no way to know which it is.

These natural cut curly fries are either overdone or underdone, and no in between, and fairly greasy. The cheese had an extra spicy kick that was nice at first but became a nasty aftertaste. And they got cold rather quickly. This was not a good fry experience and it got worse.

It's a good thing these Loews fries are meant to be eaten in the dark. After about twenty minutes into the feature I bit into a crunchy thing that was neither potato nor edible. I quickly spit it inconspicuously into a napkin. Good thing it was dark. I did not want to see what it was. Just glad I didn't eat it. That's it for me and fries at Loews. Not recommended.