Text 9817, 86 rader
Skriven 2014-02-12 22:55:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: fast food 193
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I hadn't eaten all the previous day, stranded in the house
by ice and my newfound huge discomfort at the slightest
whiff of cold, and I had an 11:00 flight, which meant that
my preferred places at National would not be open or would
be serving stuff I wouldn't want to eat. There is a Qdoba
by the B gates security, I had noticed, so I went on that
site to see if there was anything I could eat there at
breakfasttime. I determined that the chorizo burrito might
be edible.

When I arrived, there was a line of employees waiting for
their orders, so I took that as an encouragement and got
in the back. Behind, on the grill, they were making chicken
(I could smell this rather than see it) for the lunchtime
crowd to come, and it all seemed to be done fresh from
scratch, points in favor.

The menu, as with so many places these days, was in tiny
letters, mounted high up so I could barely make anything
out even standing on tiptoe and squinting (a bit of a
sight, I'm sure).

I knew what there was from the Web, though. Deciding to
be vaguely more healthy-minded than usual I ordered one
on a whole wheat tortilla. It's an assembly line thing -
starting with the tortilla, they start putting stuff in
according to your request, and it all gets folded up at
the cashier end, you pay, and voila.

They tried to put premade eggs and cheese in as well as
various vegetables (I stopped them from adding these
breakfasty and/or heinous ingredients, acceding to only
a few cubes of breakfast potato), then the requested
scoop of loose sausage. It looked a little skimpy and
empty, and the person inquired again if I wanted cheese,
to which I said maybe another scoop of chorizo, and so
it was. Also a bunch of the so-called fiery habanero sauce,
the hottest thing available, which turned out not to be
all that fiery.

It was probably 12-14 oz of food for $5.60, not an awful
deal nor an awesome one.

I saw root beer on the fountain and asked for one. The good
news is that the girl filled the thing, waited for the foam
to subside, filled it again, repeat. So I actually got a pint
of the stuff in the 16 oz cup. The bad news: I got charged
$2.20 for something that cost them maybe a nickel. But that's
how they make their money, which is well known.

The food. Not bad. The chorizo filling was unspicy and fully
needed the hot sauce; it was also exceedingly salty, and I
finished my pint of root beer before the burrito was much
more than half gone. The tortilla was horrible - tough and
chewy and doughy and soggy all at the same time, with no
discernible flavor. I ended up clearing bits of pasty goo
out from between my teeth for half an hour.

I was not fully surprised to find out that the Qdoba chain
is owned by Jack in the Box.

Total experience: D+, brought up to a C- by the airport setting.

=

Fuddrucker's again. This was the Dulles location, in a bank
of slightly forlorn outlets in the nearly deserted upper A
gates (formerly I believe the lower B gates). I needed a
protein fix so headed here instead of Five Guys, where the
burgers, though tasty, cannot be had any way but well and
anyway are much smaller. I got the half pounder, no cheese,
as rare as available, and a root beer (free refills). The
sandwich came on a big bun, the patty flat and thus done
medium. I took advantage of the toppings bar and got onion
rounds, tomato slices, pico de gallo (a mistake - too much
cilantro and extremely wet, making a fall-apart experience)
and a heaping spoon of sliced pickled jalapenos, most of
which I ate plain. The meat was not of the flavorfullest
and suffered a bit from having been cooked so long. Next
time back to Five Guys for its frankly overcooked but more
meaty meat.

Total experience: C-, brought up to a C by the airport setting.
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