Jack in the Box – review

On the way to the winery we stopped for a nice sophisticated fast food lunch at Jack in the Box. Another large fast food chain that we have seen mostly around the south west of the country.

The restaurant:

A normal fast food joint, nothing special, didn't stand out as bad, but then again I can't think of any real positive remarks. I guess the colour scheme of red and blue isn't quite as stale as the McDonald's beige. The service was ok, she didn't seem particularly interested in her job, but I got my food quickly enough.

Presentation:

A burger in grease proof paper with curly fries in a cardboard sleeve on a tray. Again, nothing really that bad, but nothing to make Jack stand out from the rest.

The Sandwich:

I had a bacon cheese burger in a sourdough bun, cant remember the name they gave it, but that's what it was. It had a decent sized burger, two slices of bacon, fresh tomato slices and lashings of ketchup. I went for this burger in particular because of the sourdough bun, because I want to find a burger joint that does a decent bun that's really up to the job of enclosing the burger. This was really not what I was expecting. Each side of the bun was essentially a thick slice of sourdough bread but then fried on both sides like fried bread at a greasy spoon. I guess that it did a fairly good job of holding up to the grease from the meat and the water from the tomatoes, as the fried “skin” repels the liquids, but it still was not quite what I'm looking for in a bun. It was too light to really add to the burger in any way so I couldn't tell that it even was sourdough, also frying a burger bun really is not a great idea, burgers tend to be too greasy anyway. The salad was overall an unconvincing effort. Tomatoes add a nice taste but I'm not so sure about the amount of water they introduce to the sandwich. The fried bread kept the bun from going too soggy but the tomatoes mad each bite too watery to be properly satisfying. The sandwich as a whole was weighted too much on the meat side as it had no lettuce, also the lack of salad made the sandwich lack that bite that is truly needed for a great burger.

Concluding thoughts:

Everything about the place was OK, run of the mill, nothing to make it stand out from the rest. The burger again was inoffensive, not bad but just lacked anything to make it stand out.

In one word:

Average