Wendy’s – Page 2 – Michael Eats

French Onion Cheeseburger at Wendy’s

Published on April 1, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5250 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca

French onion soup is delicious. That’s just a fact. If you disagree with that statement — sorry to break it to you, but you have bad opinions about soup.

Cramming French onion soup flavours into a hamburger is such a foolproof idea that I’m shocked you don’t see it more often. That’s not to say that you never see it (I actually reviewed a French onion soup burger for my burger blog a few years ago), but I think this is the first time I’ve seen it at a fast food joint.

The burger, as per Wendy’s menu: “A quarter-pound of fresh, never-frozen Canadian beef, two slices of cheese, caramelized onions, crispy onions, and a seasoned mayo sauce. Your favourite fancy soup is now your favourite fancy burger.”

(Is French onion soup fancy? I feel like any dish whose primary appeal is gobs of melty cheese can’t be classified as “fancy,” but maybe I’m wrong.)

The burger doesn’t do a particularly great job of capturing the flavours of a bowl of French onion soup, mostly because the cheese is American rather than the traditional gruyere (or even something vaguely gruyere-like, which does exist in processed cheese form). On the other hand, it’s delicious, so who cares.

It’s a really, really good fast food cheeseburger; one of the best I’ve had in quite a while, in fact. Gooey American cheese and griddled onions are best friends on a burger, the crispy onions add some nice texture, and the seasoned mayo sauce adds a nice dose of creaminess and richness.

And the patty itself was reasonably juicy and had a decent (if very mild) beefy flavour. Of course, that’ll depend on the location you visit, but I feel like Wendy’s is the most consistent fast food chain in that regard. It’s good more often than it’s not.

Bacon Jalapeno Chicken Sandwich at Wendy’s

Published on July 2, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1520 Aimco Boulevard, Mississauga
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca/home

The Bacon Jalapeno Chicken Sandwich from Wendy’s has pretty much everything I like in a fast food sandwich; it’s got gooey cheese (with both a melty cheese slice and cheese sauce), bacon, jalapenos, crispy fried onions, pickled jalapeno slices, and a smoky japaleno sauce.

So yeah, it’s good. They’d have to work pretty hard to mess it up.

The worst part about this chicken sandwich is, funnily enough, the chicken. The sandwich features their Spicy Chicken patty, and they keep it in one of those warming drawers (AKA the fast food ruiner).

So it’s dry, of course. It’s also a little bit too salty, and thoroughly infused with a vaguely unpleasant processed flavour.

The toppings are so abundant, however, that it’s barely even an issue. I only had one or two bites that weren’t crammed with stuff.

You’ve got the richness from the cheeses, crispiness from the fried onions, zestiness from the sauce, a nice meaty bite from the bacon, and a good amount of acidity from the jalapenos to help cut through the sandwich’s richness. It’s quite tasty.

It also has a decent kick to it — it’s nothing too aggressive, but for something from a fast food joint, it’s not bad.

Bacon Maple Chicken Sandwich at Wendy’s

Published on November 22, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1569 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca/home

I actually quite like Wendy’s. I mean, it’s still a fast food chain, so it’s not great — but it’s one of the better ones.

Well, usually, at least.

The Bacon Maple Chicken Sandwich definitely isn’t their finest hour. It’s a fried chicken sandwich served on a croissant bun and topped with Swiss cheese, maple glaze, and bacon.

It’s super sweet and super dry, and I just did not enjoy eating it at all.

The “maple glaze” is basically just thick, sludgy maple syrup. It’s intensely sweet and far too overwhelming for a sandwich like this. The mildly spicy chicken patty (you can get spicy or original) helps to balance out the sweetness a little bit, but it’s not nearly enough to overcome the sugar overload.

Everything else is dry. The fried chicken patty is dry, the “croissant” bun is dry (and aside from the cosmetic, it has zero croissant-like properties), the completely unmelted cheese is dry — even the bacon is dry. I like crispy bacon as much as the next guy, but the glass-like strips in this sandwich were taking it a bit too far.

It really needed additional sauce to give it moisture, but adding more of the maple glaze would pretty much be instant diabetes. The whole thing is head-scratchingly misguided.

Smoky Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger at Wendy’s

Published on March 24, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Wendy’s is probably my favourite fast food burger joint (it’s neck-and-neck with A&W). But of course, being the best fast food burger chain isn’t exactly a tall mountain to climb. That’s why I was so shocked at how much I enjoyed the Smoky Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger at Wendy’s.

It’s topped with mushrooms, bacon, aioli, fried onion tanglers, and Asiago cheese. It’s easily the best fast food hamburger I’ve had in a long, long time.

It’s still a fast food burger, so the patty itself wasn’t particularly great — but it wasn’t too dry and it didn’t have any off flavours. For a big fast food chain, that’s about as good as it gets.

Burgers from a place like this tend to be more about the toppings than the burger itself, and that’s where this one really stood out. The Gouda was pleasantly sharp and creamy, the aioli was tasty, and the bacon was substantial enough to not get lost among the other flavours.

I’m normally not a huge fan of mushrooms on a burger, but these were well cooked and suited the burger well. But what really put this over the top were the fried onion tanglers. I assumed these were going to be the typical crispy fried onions that come out of a bag, but they were actually little onion rings that had clearly been freshly made. They were great.

At first I was thinking that the price was a bit much — it’s about $7.50 with tax for the burger alone — but then I ate it, and yeah. It’s worth the money. It was good. Not just good for fast food, but good, period.

I should note that the Wendy’s I went to was staffed entirely by adults who seemed to know what they were doing. It was obvious that all of the components were relatively fresh, and it was assembled with care. But it could have just as easily been thrown together by a bored teenager, so as is always the case with fast food, your mileage may vary.