Burger King

wow…
long wait time for a chicken slider (4) and med french fries…
AND they weren’t even that good!
The slides were all positioned horribly when I got them and falling out of the bun when I opened the box. The french fries were not good at all — UNDERcooked…
That is just sad. I’m not hard to please. I love my french fries…

I’m giving this Burger King five stars within the genre of Burger Kings, which is not to be confused with five stars that might be given to a restaurant of culinary greatness in the greater sense of things… You’ve been to Burger King before, you know what the food is like.
This Burger King is clean, competently staffed, and does a good job at delivering what one might hope for from a Burger King– fast food.

I had a good experience here except for an almost surreal fumbling of my order due to the now standard ineptitude of the minimum-​wage employee, to the point which laughter replaces annoyance. However, it is a brand-​spanking newly-​remodeled outlet with some cool features worth noting.
OK, so here I go with redeeming the survey ticket again. This outlet accepted the one I couldn’t use in Santa Monica. I walked in and explained to the young clerk, Glen, my predicament, and without question, he offered me a BK Veggie instead. I felt like I was in the right place. (Wait and see how they muffed it, though.) I also stressed that although the terms of redemption specify fries, I really didn’t want them and would rather have Cheezy Tots instead. He resisted, but then acquiesced.
I proceeded to fix myself an iced tea at their gleaming new-​style push-​button drink fountain, but was delayed in my gratification due to the lack of sugar packets available, as there are readily in the venerable BK I frequent in Montrose. I had to wait until my order was called to request them from behind the counter.
When the order was crisply called out for «Guest Number 229» by a very efficient courteous young gentleman of management caliber, I could immediately tell there was something amiss in my burger, mainly the patty! The order had been submitted for a Vegi-​Whopper instead! It was also made out to go, which is a pet peeve of mine as I had not been asked either way. I explained this to the crisp young man and he courteously and unquestioningly swapped it for a BK veggie and slapped my Cheezy Tots onto a tray.
I noticed then something about these Cheezy Tots that I’d never seen before. I guess when such items are ordered to go, they are now placed in a curiously-​designed cardboard cornucopia-​type thing with a slot in the top for a dipping sauce tub. It wasn’t as conducive to in-​house eatin’ as the old brick-​shaped clamshell design I am used to, but was a surmountable obstacle.
A second attempt at getting the order right was marred by the fact that the BK Veggie now lacked the cheese, pickles, onions, and extra mayo that I had specifically ordered. To expedite, I simply requested the onions and pickles to be served on the side, and a generous amount of both was layered into one of the those diminutive cups they give you if you want ice water for free. (It turns out I was never charged for the cheese, anyway, so at least we’re square there.)
OK, enough kvetching! Here are the cool things about this BK: For one, they have two widescreen LCD monitors mounted on either side of the dining room, one with closed-​captioned ESPN and the other CNN. I watched Al Gore chew Prez Bush a new one on Larry King Live! as I chewed my Cheezy Tots. For another, the Cheezy Tots!
Cheezy Tots are not unique to this store, but let me explain. When properly prepared, as this store DOES, they are light, crispy little orange fuzz balls that have the toasty granular texture of tater tot with the added advantage of a perfectly integrated liquid cheese center. I was crestfallen when BK savagely ripped these from the breakfast menu and am so thankful that they resurrected them for all day service! However, some BKs, (unfortunately, my local one in Montrose, q.v.) do not make these correctly. I don’t know what it is, but they come out burnt, chewy, and just not right. It seems like maybe they get freezer burn and then are further scorched by an inattentive frymaster. I don’t know. A real hit-​and –miss thing.