Wendy's

Welcome, nourished reader, as I take you on the first in a series of gustatory treats. Yes, we’re going to a Wendy’s!

Now the Bay Area prides itself on its food, with lots of good local produce and a huge slice of hipster snobbery, but nothing defines the US more than the veritable bevy of fast food outlets which span from sea to shining sea. Helen has decided that we need to cede to the lures of the TV adverts, and try out these seemingly delicious, amazing value outlets. First in the list was Wendy’s.

Wendy’s are all over the place, although not so much in the Bay Area as it happens. So in fact our visit to a Wendy’s took place on the way to Sacramento, just outside a town called Dixon. The TV adverts for Wendy’s look amazing, but I’m afraid the reviews for this particular branch on Yelp didn’t have much to recommend the place: several people seemed to think this was the worst Wendy’s around, independent of whether Wendy’s itself is any good. That alone made it worth a visit!

Wendy’s primarily serves burgers, and is famous for those burgers being slightly more squared off than your normal round patty. This makes very little sense, unless you happen to be optimising for space on the grill, which I suspect they are. Wendy’s also have a current TV ad campaign where they claim that their fries are crispier and hotter than those at arch-rival McDonald’s; frankly, reader, a claim like that just has to be tested!

This particular Wendy's was only doing drive-thru, so drive-thru we did, but as we were on the road we had to park up and eat in the car. I went for The Baconator, which is some sort of double burger with bacon and what is often described as 'American Cheese', which is something yellow and molten and slimy, more or less. Helen had some kind of chicken burger thing. Let's face it, it didn't look great, it didn't smell great, and it didn't taste great.

On the plus side, neither of us were ill afterwards. Sometimes you have to celebrate the small wins. The fries were also reasonably crispy, but still nowhere near the best fries in the US (which are from Shake Shack, and they're the closest you're going to get to something like a British chip here, plus they're crinkled, so what's not to like?)

I often wonder what a Giles Coren or Grace Dent would make of something like Wendy's, but I have a feeling they've not invented the required vocabulary yet. If you're really stuck for somewhere to eat, then I guess Wendy's isn't too terrible, although it isn't even all that cheap. It's not even up to the standards of McDonald's, and isn't vaguely comparable to the premium burger chains like In 'n' Out, Five Guys or Shake Shack. Or even Gott's Roadkill.

Wendy's: 4.5 out of 10. Could be worse.