Snacks! Reviews/'reviews' welcome

Baguette Express - Chinese Chicken



Pros:

Student discount~!
That picture looks grand (though a swinging set of bollocks would probably be more appropriate).

Cons:

Very, very low-quality chicken ("chicken")
Flat bread, as in 'stale bread'.
Lettuce that tasted and smelt two hundred years out of date
Cheese that simply could not have come from any animal that produces milk
At least four times more butter than chicken

18%

That's right: everything about it is in the con list. "Fresh, healthy food", my hoop. As disgusting as my hoop, and will probably cause untold damages to - yes - my hoop.

I've never heard it called that before. It conjures up... quite an image.

...I am probably now feeling like you felt after you finished that baguette:

McDonald's Sweet Chilli Fiesta





After last week's snore fest of a burger (short review: Cheese, bacon, mayo and the same trilogy of veg they always include. 5/10) this was a welcome change, a tiny change to the usual basics you'd find in a McDonald's special burger with the bacon being maple flavoured was intriguing and crispy onions rather than rubbish regular onions are always a welcome addition. Then we have the Sweet Chilli sauce which is always a win in my book and the best vegetable to ever go hand in hand with meat, the pepper added something different.

A mixture of sweet and spicy flavours all together makes for a whole lot of flavour in one burger which was great although some point towards the middle of it I found rather unexpected kick that had to make me take a break and made me regret not getting a milkshake with the meal to cool myself down. As nice as Sweet Chilli sauce is though, there was far too much on the burger which made holding it a struggle with the bun slipping all over the show.

Pros:

Quite different to anything else on the menu.
A lovely mix between sweet and spicy.
Surprisingly filling.

Cons:

Messy.
Sticky.
The spice might catch you of guard.



8/10

Walkers Cheesy Beans on Toast



Pros:

It's Walkers: the usual great texture is there.
Curiously generous amount in the bag
A unique idea

Cons:

A strong, dull taste.
Very, very plain
Too odd a twist - what was wrong with Cheese & Onion?

57%

A bit disappointing. I couldn't quite put my finger on what the taste was, but I didn have to double-check the best before date. Decidedly 'hmm', with a bit of 'ehh' and '*sucks air through teeth' to boot.

I'm curious to know how a taste can be strong and dull. Is that like mild cheese, where you can't get te taste out of your mouth but it doesn't taste of anything?

Exactly like mild cheese. Some sort of flavour hits your tastebuds, but not a particularly memorable or evocative one.

Some of the Walkers flavours really are hit and miss, aren't they? Has anyone tried Walkers MAX Paprika recently? Apparently they are top notch. I really like the cheese and onion ones, though I think McCoys pips those overall.

Greggs Steak and Cheese Roll



Pros:

Stilton, the best of all non-Crumbler cheeses

Cons:

Nasty, even-cheaper-than-normal shredded beef
More expensive than a sausage roll, but for less...less isn't more
Waatery (two a's), tasteless gravy

47%

A dodgy twist on what Greggs are calling a "festive classic". The same floppy and salty nowtness that Guest so accurately, vividly and sexily discussed before.

Oh no, they sound amazing by the name. Just for comparison where would you rate a Steak Bake from Greggs?

Steak Bake would probably be rolling around the high 60s/low 70s. They're OK - cost, value and content are good, but taste, gravy and smell aren't good.

~

Phileas Fogg American Bubble Chip, Louisiana Sweet & Smokey BBQ



Pros:

Intense, sweet taste
Light, satisfying crunch that reminded me of Roysters
Reminded me of Roysters
Less than a quid a bag

Cons:

A slightly synthetic taste
'Phileas Fogg American Bubble Chip, Louisiana Sweet & Smokey BBQ & Air In The Bag'

83%

Phileas Fogg do good again. I wolfed them in a one-er, and suggest you do so too.

Phileas Fogg was English, not American. I'd deduct another five marks for literary inaccuracy myself.

Isn't it meant to be read as "american style bubble chips" ?? So it's saying the crisps are American not Phileas Fogg.

But would the Phileas Fogg of Verne's novels lend his name voluntarily to "American style bubble chips"? Would it even be appropriate? I think not!

It's a collection of crisis based on cuisines from around the world. I think the Phileus Fogg connection makes perfect sense.

The man's quite right. Carry on.

M&S "The Mixologist's Box"

I just picked up this rather nice-looking box of chocolates, of which there are six cocktail-aping varieties that I thought I'd give my thoughts on, one by one.

Chocolate 1/6: Hot Toddy



I started off with this one because I thought it'd be subpar, and sadly I was right. The hot toddy usually involves whiskey, which I don't like, but I couldn't even really taste the whiskey. No, all I could taste was cloves. And chocolate, and caramel, but still: cloves. Who likes cloves?

Verdict:

Five Guys Burger and Fries



I'd heard a lot of chat about Five Guys on the twittersphere so, when I was on my way to the train station and hankering for a Maccy D, I spotted this joint in Bristol and figured "hey, when in Rome."
I went in and it seemed like a pretty standard fast food joint with a nice American Diner feel to it. The woman at the counter seemed amused that I didn't know how to order, but talked me through it. You pick what toppings you want with your burger (I ordered the bacon cheeseburger, but had to ask for lettuce, tomato and ketchup). Then, that ludicrous £8 price tag doesn't even include the fries and drink, which I had to ask for separately. She forgot to charge me for the drink and good thing too; this place ain't cheap!

Eventually I was sat down and tucking into my sizeable portion of admittedly delicious cajun fries. Finally I come onto the burger. It's nice, don't get me wrong; two huge patties of beef, nice cheese, surprisingly crispy bacon. But it's nothing special; the beef tastes like a tesco finest burger I'd cook on my own barbecue and there wasn't anything especially unusual or fancy about the sauces and cheese. Maybe I ordered too conservatively?

Pros
Big ol' servings.
Tasty meat.
Prompt service.

Cons
All a bit up itself
Nowhere near worth the price you pay

Overall, five guys is a nice burger joint. It's just not as nice a burger joint as it likes to think.

7/10

Just had these beauts.  
.........................................................


The good: Beautiful flavor, nice and strong without coming off as articficial like a lot of junk food. Scratch that, all junk food.

The bad: only about ten to fifteen chips.

The ugly: The view of the bag when it's empty.

The score: 10 out of 10, don't get much better than this.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Steak Bake would probably be rolling around the high 60s/low 70s. They're OK - cost, value and content are good, but taste, gravy and smell aren't good.

~

Phileas Fogg American Bubble Chip, Louisiana Sweet & Smokey BBQ

Phileas Fogg do good again. I wolfed them in a one-er, and suggest you do so too.

Oh, these are good crisps. Restored my energy after many a night of commuting. They are the saltiest things on the planet though. Like, saltier than salt mines.

Lindt Milk Chocolate



Pros:

-It tastes godly
-It isn't cadbury's


Cons:

-It isn't bigger on the inside of the packaging


And before someone points out how I broke my new years resolution on the first day, it only truly applies to buying chocolate, not something I had in the fridge specifically for today.     So that's it, no more outside rare occasions.

I'll defend Cadbury's, but you can't knock a bit of Lindt. Top quality stuff.

Balladeer wrote:

I'll defend Cadbury's, but you can't knock a bit of Lindt.  Top quality stuff.

There was a phase of about three years when my parents, instead of the by-then-traditional Toblerone, bought Lindt Chocolate Balls Things (actual product title may differ). I found them to be awful: slightly too big to fit into the mouth in one go and only one of the four varieties tasted pleasant. A sad time.

I love those Lindt balls! They fit perfectly well into my mouth, and I like three out of four of the flavours. I can still eat the dark ones - they're just not as nice.

Every year I get lumped with Cadbury's chocolate for Christmas, I don't even like chocolate that much so I asked people not to get me Cadbury's.

Anyway, I've ended up with a few bar's of Lindt instead. Although the point was lost somewhere along the way, at least my chocolate is Lindt this year.

This year I discovered lindts white chocolate and strawberry balls and my goodness are they delicious. I don't even like strawberry chocolate but this one is amazing, like eating an actual strawberry covered in chocolate.