The Tuesday Taste: Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwiches

 

 

 

So I'll set my eyes 

to the wind

But it won't be easy

to leave it all again

I'm just arriving

down here on the scene

Yeah there's a stranger

living in me

 

Another Tuesday, another Taste! What an up and down week it has been here at ol' HQ, and alas the very baddest day happened to be the 24 hour period I set out to try these chicken sandwiches. Better times will be described below! Until then... yeah this ain't gonna be a ringing endorsement of Wendy's.

 

Actually... scratch that. I do think Wendy's, overall, is fairly decent. And the singular strength of both these sandwiches is the exact thing you simply have to get right: the chicken. Take this for example:

 

 

This is the Classic Chicken Sandwich from Church's Chicken, which I picked up on my way home Sunday night from work. I've reviewed Church's before, and (spoiler if you didn't click on that link) thought they were quite tasty. This sandwich though... yikes. It reminded me of those frozen breaded chicken patties you'll buy in bulk and leave forgotten in the freezer for six months... that minced chicken texture with little flavour beyond the un-naturalness of the frozen crunchy breading (and a constant sickeningly unnatural crunch). Meanwhile, only wilted shredded lettuce and a stale bun was here to support it... geezus. I know Church's makes a better chicken sandwich than this, and so I will review their better options some day and most definitely from a location that isn't the Queen's Quay one. Sadly, this was f*ing bland and horrible.

 

My Wendy's experience wasn't much better, although that had to do with the surroundings more than anything. First off... I'm just goddamn exhausted. My biggest ambition to do Wendy's this week was because it's a short ride from my house and I wanted a break from constantly having to travel all over goddamn Toronto everyday. Well... Monday decided to be an asshole and blast me with a brutal west wind for my entire ride. Seriously... a bad wind in your face will make what's usually a light 5 kilometre ride feel like 15 km, and a 15 where you feel like you've been pushing hard because a family member's life is on the line if you're late. -1/10 is my review on that.

I arrived outside the Lakeshore-Leslie Wendy's, happy to finally be able to stop this futile approach against the elements. Except... a couple of handicapped fellas directly cut me off, getting off a bus in front of the bike locks. Had to stand and wait for a couple minutes... whatever. They went inside the Wendy's before I could... and... yeah. 

Despite being next in line, I was waiting behind these guys for another five minutes before anyone could take my order. Both of them seemed to be regulars (one of the staff recognized them, possibly) and yet each had multiple questions/gripes about the menu and prices. Just my luck. They weren't total jerks either... well aside from the one in a scooter telling a young staff member "You should be smiling! Always smiling!". She works at a Wendy's, dude. I love both my service jobs and still I'll smile when I goddamn want to.              

All this aggravation of wind and waiting in line aside, I finally had my food and set out to sit nearby to sample it. Except... then the wasps decided to swarm me. If you've met up with me in later summer months, you know bees tend to freak me out. To the point of severe anxiety if I'm by myself (go attack my friend instead! They're less afraid! I'm an asshole, I know). A few were buzzing around me immediately once I sat down, plus the wind was still disrupting my ability to even take a picture. When one actually landed on my fucking leg, I screamed loud enough for Bud Stage to hear me and quickly moved a block south. Except... they followed me! I couldn't even eat these stupid sandwiches. Had to move again, screaming more. What a relaxing afternoon off.

Eventually... now in an absolutely horrible mindset... I tasted these two chicken sandwiches. They were both of the breaded spicy variety from Wendy's (another mistake, I wanted one to be regular so to compare): their Original Spicy Chicken sandwich and their Asiago Ranch. 

One was significantly better than the other, although I didn't really enjoy either one a whole lot. Blame the conditions? I had fond memories of the Wendy's usual spicy chicken sandwich in my younger days, but this was extremely lacking. The chicken itself is actually quite nice... not aggressively spicy (more one that sits on your tongue instead of all over your mouth) and the flavour seeps into the entire breast. Also, the texture has that stringy, firm, juicy feel of real chicken (not the frozen fare you save for half-assed family gatherings). I would've just eaten this by itself, without the bun or frills, and in many ways it felt like I did... because there is nothing else to this sandwich, which is a problem when your patty is as flat as this.

 

 

The bun is as generically produced as they come... floppy and hardly any taste to it. The lettuce? Soft and lacking any friendly crunch... and the mayo? Gross. It's warm and thin, dripping all over this sad creation. There's a tomato but who cares. Decent/good fried chicken wrapped in a terrible tasteless package. Boo.

 

 

The Asiago Ranch one was an improvement, only in how it at least has more surrounding flavour to give it some distinction. I'm not familiar with Asiago cheese, but this definitely reminded me of a Swiss-type cheese... bit more of a chewy texture and a stale smell with a similar taste that departs quickly. (not a criticism, even though I don't like Swiss Cheese all that much). Interesting on a fried chicken sandwich. 

Meanwhile, I'm also not really a fan of ranch sauce and here is no exception. However, in this case it at least was far more interesting than the oozing warm mayo all over my simpler chicken sandwich. Plus, adding bacon to anything (and here, nicely soft bacon) will make any sandwich better. The bun on this one seemed better also, like it had better firmness (odd since this sandwich doesn't even cost a dollar more than the other one). If not for the aggressive ranch-ness of the affair, this would be a solid win. Alas... I was in an awful mood and the whole adventure was regrettable. Sorry! 

-

Overall... my recommendation is don't venture out to eat fast food against horrible wind, get stuck in line (twice) behind slow people or get attacked by bees. Wendy's is fine.  

 

Burnt Ends --  Here's where my bad vibes depart, unlike those stupid bees. I checked out Rorschach Brewery's pizza a few weeks back and decided to write some words about it. Food or not, I highly recommend checking them out sometime if you find yourself on the weird street that is Eastern Avenue. Them and Black Lab Brewing... although they don't make pizza (as far as I know).

 

The Concert -- By special request, I have to talk a little about the Spoon-Metric-Interpol concert this past Friday. What else can I say, beyond... just an incredible show shared with incredible people, both my dear friends (the legendary Secret Streets) and my co-workers doing me many a solid. 

Spoon was incredible (duh) and for a band touring a new record they weirdly didn't play a whole lot from it. Hell, they threw in a super deep cut, Metal Detektor off of A Series of Sneaks, the second record. Just a damn great rock band, giving it their all. Interpol was good too, really a great night-time vibe for when the sun is going down. I don't know them as well, so I wasn't singing along to every song heh heh. Then Metric... they sounded pretty good, but I was preoccupied at this particular junction of the evening. Apparently they performed "Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl", which would've been great if I'd been there paying attention. Still... a legendary night! What else can I say. My only regret is forgetting to buy a Spoon shirt! I was even at the merch table and everything, except the line was too long at the time...

 

Tuesday Tune -- Despite just writing a couple hundred words about one of the very greatest concerts and overall fun nights I've ever had, I'm throwing a curveball here. Instead, you get something from the band that produced one of the greatest concerts I've ever worked, which happened just this Sunday. Was fortunate enough to be stationed very close to the stage, and with a co-worker who was likewise a fan (he told me a story of driving to Cleveland to see them... freaking Cleveland!). Yep, it's been a wild week. This band is simply awesome, and their atmosphere translates to a live show spectacularly well... so enjoy this live performance from them.

 

 

 

That's it for me! This has to be one of the stranger reviews I've written... an underwhelming product, tasted on a bad day, yet overall the vibes of the week were heavenly. Damn I'm tired though... and the concert season still has many legs left. But, The Taste will persist! As will I. Until next time, stay safe, keep cool, embrace the summer before it's gone but, do so without spilling that mustard.