Japanese Style Egg Salad Sandwich from 7-Eleven

Japanese Style Egg Salad Sandwich from 7-Eleven
Location
: 980 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.7-eleven.ca/

The egg salad sandwich at 7-Eleven in Japan has become somewhat legendary over the years, so now that it’s landed in Canada, it comes with a whole lot of hype.  The first time I attempted to buy one, it was sold out, and I overheard someone else in the store asking about it.

Japanese Style Egg Salad Sandwich from 7-Eleven

It’s a very simple sandwich; the package it comes in lists the ingredients as just “shokupan bread, eggs, mayonnaise (Kewpie), mustard, salt.”

I can’t claim to be an expert on the real deal in Japan — I’ve had it a couple of times, but generally speaking, if I’m looking for a quick bite in a Japanese 7-Eleven, I’m grabbing an onigiri — but it’s clear even to me that this just isn’t the same.

Japanese Style Egg Salad Sandwich from 7-Eleven

The egg salad itself is actually quite pleasant — it’s eggy and rich, and is somewhere in the ballpark of the Japanese version.  They’re a bit too stingy with it, however, with a lot of the sandwich having very little of the stuff.

Japanese Style Egg Salad Sandwich from 7-Eleven

The real deal-breaker here is the bread.  It’s dense, and not even remotely comparable to the pillowy ultra-fluffiness of the real deal version.

It’s so dense that it makes the thin amount of egg salad feel like an even worse problem than it is, with an unyielding texture that thoroughly overpowers the egg.

Japanese Style Egg Salad Sandwich from 7-Eleven

Overall, it’s a perfectly fine convenience store egg salad sandwich (especially for the current promotional price of five bucks), but if you’re hoping for a taste of Japan at home… not so much.

Hockey Hero Burger at McDonald’s

Hocky Hero Burger at McDonald's
Location
30 Courtneypark Drive East, Mississauga
Websitehttps://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I might have gotten a bit too excited about the Hockey Hero Burger.  It’s basically the Super Hero Burger, a tie-in with Batman Forever from 1995 that, for reasons I cannot particularly explain, has really stuck with me for all these years.

We all think about that burger regularly, right?  I’m just going to assume that we all do.

Hocky Hero Burger at McDonald's

Here’s how McDonald’s describes this one: “The Hockey Hero Burger® is back on the ice after a long break, with a fresh take. Made with three juicy 100% Canadian beef patties, shredded lettuce, crispy hickory-smoked bacon, processed cheese and mayo-style sauce on a toasted homestyle bun – one bite and you’ll know why it’s called the Hockey Hero Burger.”

It’s… fine?  I guess?

Hocky Hero Burger at McDonald's

One of the things I like about McDonald’s is that, generally speaking, they tacitly acknowledge that their burger patties aren’t very good by drowning them in sauce.

This one, on the other hand, has a teeny-tiny bit of mayo and… nothing else, which means that those burger patties are front and centre.

Speaking of which: there are three patties here, and the bun isn’t wide enough to properly spread them out, so you wind up with a triple layer of patties in most bites.  That’s just too much McDonald’s beef.

Hocky Hero Burger at McDonald's

It’s basically just a bunch of beef and a little bit of cheese and mayo.  There’s also the bacon and lettuce, but neither adds all that much.

Oddly, my burger also had the little onions they put on the Big Mac, but that’s not in the description, so I’m guessing it was a mistake.

It all adds up to something that’s not unpleasant to eat, but is just aggressively boring (outside of the shape, and outside of the sweet ’90s nostalgia).

Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich from KFC

Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich from KFC
Location
4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Websitehttps://www.kfc.ca/

I was actually kind of shocked to see that chili crunch is now mainstream enough to pop up at a giant fast food chain like KFC — but then I guess it’s been on its way up for a few years now (here’s an article from 2022 about how chili crisp “took over America”).

KFC’s got several items with the stuff, including a sandwich, Loaded Chili Crunch Tenders, a chili crunch Snacker Wrap, and chili crunch fries.

Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich from KFC

I went with the Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich: “Meet your new spicy obsession – the Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich. KFC’s juicy, crunchy, signature tripled-breaded chicken fillet is layered with spicy chili crunch oil, creamy chili crunch mayo, crispy onions, and pickles— all sandwiched between a toasted potato bun.​”

I’m a fan of chili crunch, so I sort of figured this would be good, and yeah, it is.  For one thing, unlike my last experience at KFC, the sandwich was hot, fresh, and made with some level of care.  This seems like it should be the bare minimum, but here we are.

Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich from KFC

But even aside from that, this is a tasty sandwich — the chili crunch they’re using is a bit tangier than the norm, but it works.  Combined with the heat and the garlicky punch, it’s a great topping for a fried chicken sandwich.  The mayo also has some of that flavour, which is nice.

Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich from KFC

The level of spice is pretty decent, too — it’s certainly not the spiciest thing you’ll ever eat, but it’s got a nice kick.  It’s a level of heat that would have been unheard of from a fast food chain a few years ago, but fast food places have been upping the spice recently.

I’m not sure if the crispy onions add all that much, and the sandwich is maybe a bit too salty, but otherwise I really enjoyed this.

Frank’s RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald’s

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's
Location
1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke 
Websitehttps://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I recently tried the Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy and found it to be pretty disappointing. It just didn’t particularly taste like Frank’s RedHot, which is odd, considering it’s right there in the name of the sandwich.

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's

I figured I’d have a bit more luck with the Frank’s RedHot Hot Honey dipping sauce.  Surely a Frank’s RedHot sauce would taste like Frank’s RedHot?

Yeah, about that.

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's

Here’s how McDonald’s describes it: “A dipping sauce with the sweet taste of honey and the heat of Frank’s RedHot® to treat your McNuggets® to a flavour they’ve never experienced before.”

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's

The problem here is that the sauce doesn’t really taste like honey or Frank’s RedHot.  It’s just a mildly spicy sweet goo.  I can’t find the ingredients online, but I’d be shocked if it wasn’t mostly corn syrup with a teeny-tiny bit of honey so they can legally put honey in its name.  As for the Frank’s RedHot, the vinegary flavour of the hot sauce is almost completely wiped out by its intense sweetness.

If you like a very (very very) sweet dipping sauce, you might enjoy this — but I can’t say I did.

Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy at McDonald’s

Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy at McDonald's
Location
1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke 
Websitehttps://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

If you put “Frank’s RedHot” in the name of your sandwich, I’m going to expect a lot of Frank’s RedHot.  I don’t think that’s unreasonable?

McDonald’s actually has a few new items in their Frank’s RedHot x McDonald’s menu: you can get the distinctive red hot sauce on a McCrispy, a McVeggie, several different McMuffins, or in a hot honey dipping sauce.

Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy at McDonald's

I went with the Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy: “We cranked up the flavour on the McCrispy with the added kick of Frank’s RedHot®. We took our McCrispy chicken sandwich, made with tender and juicy 100% Canadian-raised seasoned chicken, and topped it with shredded lettuce, mayo-style sauce and Frank’s RedHot® Original Thick Sauce. Served on a potato bun.”

Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy at McDonald's

It’s… fine?  I guess?  As I said, I was kinda (not unreasonably?) expecting this to taste strongly of Frank’s RedHot, and it absolutely did not.  If you’re going to name this sandwich after one of the condiments, it should be called the Mayo Original McCrispy, because it was absolutely dripping with the stuff.

Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy at McDonald's

The Frank’s Red Hot, on the other hand?  I got a couple of bites with a decent amount (you can see it on one side of the sandwich in the photo), which were reasonably satisfying.  Otherwise, it may as well have not been there.  Which left me with a plain old McCrispy with a vaguely dry piece of chicken.  I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t particularly like it, either.