Las Vegas Food #2: In-N-Out Burger

This post is going to be controversial. I'm going to talk about my first visit to an In-N-Out Hamburgers. I'm going to say I wasn't impressed with everyone's much hyped burger chain...

I decided I had to try the In-N-Out Burger I spotted along the Las Vegas Strip. I've been hearing about the wondrous food miracles that In-N-Out does with their burgers for years. With all that hype, I'm sure I was setting myself up for disappointment. I know In-N-Out is known for their secret menu, but I figured I'd order some of their published menu standards since it was my first visit.

I ordered the Double-Double (left). The person I ate there with had a Cheeseburger (right) with only meat and cheese (super picky eater). Fries came as a side for both. My Double-Double had two beef patties, cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato, and sauce. It was adequate. It tasted like a mediocre fast food burger to me, above the monstrosity level of Burger King, but about even with a McDonald's burger. The Double-Double wasn't the worst thing I've had, but not something I'll be craving from Florida for years to come. Don't get me started on the fries though. They were bad. They were soggy, had no character of their own and desperately demanded to be drenched in condiments to make them somewhat okay.

Since my visit to In-N-Out, I've discussed my thoughts with fans of the restaurant. I've been told I would have enjoyed it so much more if I had ordered off the secret menu. In my mindset though, my first experience with the restaurant should be with the regular menu. If I was that impressed, I'd go rushing back to try the secret menu items. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. In-N-Out, you did not live up to your legendary hype...

Chicken Waffle Grill Food Truck in Orlando, FL

I had lunch from a food truck which was new to me called Chicken Waffle Grill. They were parked outside a hotel near the airport where I was attending a convention. My first time trying chicken and waffles was also from an Orlando food truck called Melissa's Chicken and Waffles, which I don't think is around anymore. I'm glad there's another chicken & waffle food truck around to fill the void.

I had the Mac & Cheese Waffle. The waffle was topped with fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, lettuce, potato chips, and a slightly spicy sauce. Fries and syrup were served on the side. As unhealthy as this might sound, overall it was actually really tasty and all the flavors worked together well.

My big complaint was with the plastic silverware that the truck supplied. It was really flimsy and I went through three plastic forks snapping in half as I was trying to eat my lunch. Otherwise, I enjoyed my waffle!

The Daily Poutine at Disney Springs in Orlando, FL

The Daily Poutine is one of the newish restaurants which opened in the new section of Disney Springs. They are fast food with some nearby outdoor seating. I was a big fan of trying the different versions of poutine when I was in Quebec last year, so I was excited to try some Floridian theme park poutine.

I am not a poutine expert, but I wonder how many of the menu items here would be considered true poutine by connoisseurs of the food? When does a variation of the dish become something else? Looking at something like the restaurant's Latin Poutine where potato fries are replaced with yucca and there isn't gravy or cheese curds, would this still be considered poutine?

I have visited The Daily Poutine twice. The first time I was with someone who had never tried poutine, so we split the Classic. This consisted of french fries, beef gravy, and cheddar cheese curds. It didn't live up to some of the poutines I sampled while in Quebec, but I suppose was good enough for a theme park version of the dish. I've heard that the way to tell if you're having high quality poutine is if the cheese curds make a squeaky noise as you bite into them. The cheese curds here did not squeak...

The second time I dined at The Daily Poutine was when I was intrigued by their All-Day Breakfast Poutine. I'm not sure if this is a daily special or a temporary menu item, but it was advertised on signs sitting on the counter. It was described as fried potato puffs, sausage gravy, and cheddar curds topped with a fried egg. Again, this was veering away from what I think of poutine with tater tots instead of fries and white sausage gravy instead of brown gravy. Regardless, this breakfast poutine was actually really tasty. The gravy had a lot more flavor compared to what I normally think of when it comes to white gravy. I've been liking foods topped with fried eggs lately, so that topping made me like the poutine more.

The Disney version of poutine didn't quite make me feel like I was eating true French-Canadian junk food, but the food was decent enough. Definitely better than normal french fries topped with ketchup...

Diva Dawg Food Truck in New Orleans, LA

One of my last food experiences in New Orleans happened at a food truck. They were called Diva Dawg and specialized in hot dogs, fries, and shakes.

The first thing on their menu is what caught my attention. They had a Mardi Gras Beignet Dawg. From the way it was described, it was similar to a corn dog, fried in beignet batter and topped with powdered sugar. I decided I had too many beignets on this trip already and wasn't in the mood for a hot dog so I ordered the Homemade Etouffee Fries.

I had a list of stereotypical New Orleans food items that I wanted to try while in the city. Crawfish etouffee was on this list, and these fries crossed etouffee off the list. The fries were widely cut, topped with the etouffee. It was messy to eat, but it was also delicious. There were plenty of crawfish tails over the fries and the creamy roux from the etouffee made a wonderful sauce for the fries.

Diva Dawg provided me the opportunity to almost complete my food list in New Orleans. The only food I was unable to find was Crawfish Pie. Apparently Crawfish Pie is a food item that's not very common in New Orleans...

Crown Colony House at Busch Gardens Tampa

I was at Busch Gardens Tampa and ate lunch at a restaurant called Crown Colony House. This restaurant is located in the Egypt section of the park and overlooks the animals in the Edge of Africa section. The Crown Colony House is a cafeteria style fast food restaurant.

I noticed this sign while waiting in line for food. I found this a bit amusing. Busch Gardens is really trying their best to make deep fried food sound healthy. With ZERO grams of trans fat, low saturated fat, Omega 3 fatty acids, and a good source of monounsaturated fat, how could deep fried food be bad for you? Let's eat it every day!

Since the oil used in deep frying has all of those pros with apparently no cons, why not indulge? I had their combo with came with deep fried chicken tenders, deep fried french fries, and a slice of pepperoni pizza (not deep fried but not good for you regardless).

This was typical theme park food. The pizza was mass produced. The chicken was mediocre, as were the fries. At least I was getting lots of my Omega 3 fatty acids though! I always heard fish was a good source of Omega 3s. Why bother when you can get the same stuff from deep fried foods? Thanks for the education Busch Gardens!

Burger 21 in Orlando, FL

I had dinner one night at a restaurant called Burger 21 near Millenia Mall in Orlando. This is a chain with a few locations in the Orlando area. I started out the meal by sharing an order of Half & Half Fries. This was a basket of half regular fries and half sweet potato fries. The fries by themselves were okay. Nothing exceptional, but the fun part was dipping them in all of the sauces that were available at their sauce bar. My favorites were the Chipotle Mayo, Cajun Mayo, and totally unexpectedly, the Toasted Marshmallow.

I saw they had seafood burgers on the menu and that caught my attention. Seafood burgers seem to be a bit more unusual than then normal alternatives to beef burgers (turkey, veggie, etc). I decided to try the Spicy Thai Shrimp Burger. This is how the menu described the burger: Lightly-fried shrimp burger, lettuce, tomato, Sriracha aïoli, hot chili slaw, pure Sriracha, toasted sesame bun. The way the menu described the burger made it sound good, but the reality was very bland. The shrimp burger patty itself was deep fried on the outside. The interior of the patty appeared almost completely homogeneous and I had trouble telling what was shrimp and what was breading/filler. All that sriracha and hot chili slaw that topped the burger seemed to lack the normal spiciness of sriracha. The entire sandwich was very indistinct and flavorless. The sauce bar came to the rescue to add some taste to the burger...

The person I ate here with ordered a plain cheeseburger and wasn't all too happy either. He ordered it medium-well, but it was served very pink. Apparently this was a theme because I noticed a couple more people sending their food undercooked food back.

Overall, Burger 21 seemed to have potential but they didn't do a very good job to meet that potential. Fries and a sauce bar shouldn't be better than your burgers if burger is in your name. This area has other places around that serve much better burgers/sandwiches. I don't think I'll be rushing back to Burger 21...

Celebration Town Tavern

I was on the touristy section of 192 and decided to head to Celebration for dinner. On this visit to the planned, disnified community, I ate at the Celebration Town Tavern. They seemed to specialize in seafood, so I ordered the Blackened Pacific Mahi Sandwich. The fish had a nice spicy flavor to it, but I found it to be sort of boring for a sandwich. The sandwich needed something else going on, something more than the meat and bread. At the very least, the standard sandwich vegetables would have been nice. The sandwich came served with fries and baked beans. I liked the beans, but the fries were kind of soggy, as if they were sitting out for a bit too long. Overall, the food from Celebration Town Tavern was pretty average. Nothing horrible, but it's definitely not going to have me rushing back any time soon. A little on the expensive side too...

5 & Diner in Orlando, FL

I ate at 5 & Diner in Orlando, FL late one evening. The restaurant was going for the classic diner look and was pretty successful at achieving it. It wasn't quite at the level of the Greek diners up North with the huge menus featuring somewhat ethnic food that never close, but was one of the better diners that I've seen in the Orlando area. Rather than being open 24 hours, 5 & Diner closed at ten PM and featured mostly pretty standard American food on the menu. At the time I didn't realize it, but apparently 5 & Diner is a franchise based on their website.

I ordered the California Chicken Sandwich. After a very long wait, the sandwich finally was served. It consisted of a chicken breast, swiss cheese, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, tomato, onions, and guacamole on a sesame roll. Fries were served on the side. I had no complaints about the sandwich, it was really big and tasted good!

 A word of warning though about 5 & Diner. Check your ketchup before putting it on your food. At the next table, I overheard the restaurant customers complaining to the waitress that ants came out of the ketchup bottle onto the food. 5 & Diner then proceeded to replace their food and check all of the ketchup and mustard bottles on the tables. From what I could tell, the ants were isolated to the one bottle, but be careful...

Lottawatta Lodge at Blizzard Beach

I don't like water parks all that much. For the most part, they consist of waiting far too long on narrow, shadeless staircases, all leading up to a ride experience that provides an adrenaline rush lasting only a few seconds. And in regards to the content of this blog, I've found that water parks also have horrible food in most cases.

With that said, I ended up going along to Blizzard Beach at Walt Disney World for someone's birthday. Once at the park, we went around the park’s lazy river a few times and rode several of the slides on Blizzard Beach’s purple and red slopes. All of the slides I went on were fun and most had a pretty short wait. Soon, everyone started getting hungry so we ate at the biggest restaurant in Blizzard Beach called the Lottawatta Lodge.

I had a Chicken wrap with French fries. Disney food is generally good, and I liked this wrap. It wasn't the greatest thing in the world, but when compared to the much worse foods that I’ve had at water parks in the past, it wasn't that bad. It was filled with grilled chicken, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. The fries were good, but I made them even better by doing the British thing and poured several packages of malt vinegar all over them.

 Burgers and fruit salads were also purchased here, none of which I tried.

I still don’t like water parks all that much. I’d much rather spend money on other types of theme park experiences rather than water slides, but I did have a good time at Blizzard Beach. As far as water parks go, you can’t beat Blizzard Beach with it’s whole ski resort theme. And the whole day, not one person understood my joke that you have to be careful at these water parks so you don’t get sick from ingesting dihydrogen monoxide. Figures…

Kook Sports Bar

I was doing something at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel just outside of Downtown Disney. It was dinner time, so I ate food from Kook Sports Bar inside of the hotel. I really don't like sports bars all that much, with the TVs all over, and food that's generally not all that good. The only other option inside of the hotel was a restaurant called The Outback (not connected to the steakhouse chain) which charged far too much for what I saw on the menu. Kook Sports Bar also was really overpriced, but was far less than the Outback. Going by the location, the high price has to be somewhat expected.


I ordered the Blackened Grouper Sandwich. The waitress told me it was the best thing on the menu, but it tasted average to me. Nothing was wrong with the sandwich, but it was nothing special either, and definitely not worth the $14.95 price tag. It consisted of a piece of blackened grouper on a sesame bun with lettuce, onions, and tomatoes. Fries, ketchup, and tarter sauce came on the side.

Besides from the high prices, I had no major complaints about the food, but there was nothing special about the place that would get me to return to Kook Sports Bar any time soon. They will do fine without me with all of the Disney tourists...

B.B. King's Blues Club at Pointe Orlando

B.B. King's Blues Club is one of the newer restaurants in the Pointe Orlando Mall on International Drive in Orlando, FL. When someone mentioned that they wanted to give the restaurant a try, I pulled out a coupon book that I recently acquired and found this:

We made our way into the touristy section of Orlando and reached the mall, and then followed the signs and paintings of Blues musicians into the restaurant.



When we walked in, the restaurant was mostly empty at about 5:45 on a Saturday night. I ordered a Catfish Po Boy as well as the free fried pickle appetizer. Not long after ordering, a band started playing up on stage.

The pickles were soon served, and the portion was enormous. If I were to estimate, they probably used at least three average sized cucumbers to make all of these fried pickles. This was my first experience eating fried pickles, and I don't know what to think of them. I love pickles, but deep frying them is just weird. They tasted okay, but I'll take normal un-fried pickles over these any day. I suppose the weirdness of deep fried pickles is probably similar to deep fried pizza.

My Catfish Po Boy followed not long after the pickles. The sandwich consisted of fried catfish, lettuce, tomato, tar tar sauce (how they spelled it), and French fries. It all tasted okay, but was nothing all that great. Overall, the entire meal consisted of way too much fried food. Everything was fried, starting with the appetizer to the sandwich. I'm not used to eating like that.

While paying, there was some issues with the check, and nobody seemed to be able to explain the problem, so make sure you look twice on what you're paying while eating here.

On a trip that took me to Memphis, TN a few years ago, I encountered another B.B. King's Blues Club (I didn't eat there). At that location, they had someone outside of the restaurant who was probably the dining equivalent of a sideshow barker. The Orlando location could probably use someone like this to lure in customers. Although the restaurant started to fill up later on, it still didn't seem like enough people. Perhaps it's better crowd later on in the night.

Krystal in Lake Mary, FL

When a visiting relative was craving a White Castle Hamburger, we decided to try Krystal. The only White Castle in Lake Mary, FL that I knew of is seen in the picture below, but that house isn't serving hamburgers, so Krystal the next closest thing.

I ordered a combo that came with a chicken sandwich (known as Chiks), fries, and a soda. After about a ten minute wait in the fast food restaurant (we were the only customers), the food finally came, and I was surprised to see that my combo actually came with three chicken sandwiches. That's more fried chicken than anyone should be eating in one sitting. One sandwich and the fries would have been enough fried food for me. The sandwiches weren't horrible, but they were kind of salty. They reminded me of the sandwiches from the Chick-fil-A next door.


The final verdict with the miniature hamburgers was that Krystal doesn't come close to the awesomeness that is White Castle (although I can't say personally. I've never tried a White Castle).

Pulled Pork From Skyland Resort

I ate lunch at the Skyland Resort Restaurant in Shenandoah National Park along Skyline Drive in Virginia. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich, served with cole slaw and French fries. The sandwich was good, and the restaurant had a wonderful view. The only thing that wasn't good was the flies that kept on buzzing all over the restaurant...

Bagel Tree Breakfast...

I ate breakfast at the Bagel Tree in Boca Raton, Florida. I had an egg and cheese sandwich on an everything bagel with a side of home fries. The home fries were very good. The bagel wasn't as good. On a bagel that should have everything, it hardly had anything on it...

Key Biscayne Cuban Food...

I ate at the Lighthouse Cafe in the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne south of Miami. The restaurant specialized in Cuban food. I ordered a grilled snapper sandwich, served with fries. I traded half of my sandwich to try half of a Cuban sandwich since it was a Cuban restaurant. My snapper was very tasty. The Cuban sandwich tasted okay, but the pork was very fatty. So much that you had to spit parts out...

The restaurant looked like they specialized in the much more expensive seafood meals rather than sandwiches. They were serving things like entire fish that were cut into designs and fried. Take a look at the seafood case. Whole fish and Florida Lobsters...

The restaurant had a nice view of the Cape Florida Lighthouse and the Atlantic...