FastFoodSnob.com

Price: $0.89

Availability: participating Bells

Location: 3511 W. Devon Ave., Chicago, IL 60659 (map); phone: (773) 588-9712

Rating: 3 out of 5 - acceptable

New menu items can obviously be hit-or-miss affairs, but Taco Bell’s additions have been surprisingly more pleasant than they seem to have any right to be. And while the Triple Layer Nachos didn’t stick to their Value Menu pricing as well as their Cheesy Double Beef sibling at my particular location (they’re listed at 79 cents online, though the web site does warn that prices and items may vary), the meatless combination of “nacho chips, covered in simmering red sauce, hearty beans and nacho cheese sauce” remained quite palatable — and under a dollar (even with tax).

(more…)

Price: $0.99; paid - $0.00

Promotion: Subway Get Smart sweepstakes, instant-win game

Location: 6843 N. Lincoln Ave., Lincolnwood, IL 60712 (map); phone: (847) 329-8134

Rating: 3 out of 5 - acceptable

I like entering online contests, but some sweepstakes are clearly more giving than others. I was lucky to win more bags of these Flat Earth Baked Veggie Crisps from Frito-Lay than I knew what to do with (thanks, CAG), and the winning e-mails just began to form daily in my inbox like the evening dew. It had been a while since I’d stepped foot in a local Subway sandwich shop, but I knew I was in for trouble when the person working there had never seen my winning redemption e-mail before. Fortunately, the deeper inspections, personal-information taking, and management consultations would come after this initial trip, freeing me to enjoy some free veggie crisps after a brief and relatively pleasant round of counter confusion.

(more…)

Price: $1.89; paid - $0.89

Promotion: coupon for a free Frutista with any purchase

Location: 3511 W. Devon Ave., Chicago, IL 60659 (map); phone: (773) 588-9712

Rating: 4 out of 5 - good

It can sometimes be hard to find a good (frozen, virgin) strawberry daiquiri at higher-end sit-down restaurants, and that certainly is the case at fast-food places, too. What I would settle for, however, is a reasonably priced fruity slush — which might be considered as less thick, but more easily drinkable than a smoothie. Taco Bell seems to have answered my prayers with the Frutista Freeze, a permanent addition to its lineup, now available in Strawberry and Mango Strawberry. Both versions are topped with real strawberries (which I suppose makes up for the fact that there’s “natural fruit flavors,” but no actual “fruit juice,” inside).

(more…)

Price: $0.89

Availability: participating Bells

Location: 3511 W. Devon Ave., Chicago, IL 60659 (map); phone: (773) 588-9712

Rating: 3 out of 5 - acceptable

It’s interesting that when I finally got around to reviewing something from Taco Bell, there’s a new salmonella scare surrounding raw tomatoes that’s got chains around the country pulling fresh tomatoes off their menus. Taco Bell is, of course, not immune to the dangers of bad marketing (nor unfeeling as to its customers’ health), so it was fortuitous that I already wanted to check out a menu item that included no diced tomatoes whatsoever. (The additional Fire Sauce I sprinkled on later presumably uses fully cooked tomatoes in its formula.)

(more…)

Price: $3.49

Location: 6321 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL 60659 (map); phone: (773) 588-8282

Rating: 4 out of 5 - good

After the blander Southern Style Chicken from McDonald’s last week, going to Popeyes seemed the right thing to do to satisfy my hunger on a late afternoon. I wasn’t going for the standard assortment of fried chicken, however, as I had another chicken sandwich in mind, this time the Chicken Deluxe… done up spicy like. (Of course, you could order this filet mild, but you’re not getting the full Popeyes experience if you go that route.)

(more…)