Carl's Jr

Carl's Jr.
1745 S Victoria Ave, Ventura, CA


Today we venture to our local Carl's Jr to try their new Memphis BBQ Burger.  The ad's look so good (what Carl Jr's ad's don't?) and since it seemed like a burger that we would enjoy - this is where we ended up for lunch today.

The Memphis BBQ Burger is described as having a charbroiled all-beef burger, pulled pork, bbq sauce, crispy onion strings on a sesame seed bun.   Here's the photo from their website:

Looks pretty good to me!


Now they always show a Six Dollar Burger version of their promotions, so I ordered a Six Dollar version of the Memphis BBQ Burger.   Here's what mine looked like:

Notice the similarities?   Maybe it was the lighting or the lack of a quality camera.   After all, I did use my cell phone camera to take the picture..  I never assume fast food will come out the way it's pictured.  I've watched TV shows that show how they prep the food for the camera.  

Looks aside, this burger turned out pretty good.  Despite what you might be thinking, "Where's the pork?" I'd have to say I think it had just the right amount of pork on it.  I really enjoy the taste of the beef in Carl's Jr's $6 burger and I thought that if there was any more pork on there then it would take away from the burger.  If you want pork, go somewhere and get a pulled pork sandwich.  I'm here for a burger.    I also like the BBQ sauce and the amount.  Again, it wasn't overwhelming, but it sure was flavorful.  It added a nice sweetness to it..   

Also on this trip, I decided I was in the mood for chili cheese fries.  The menu describes them as natural cut french fries smothered in chili and shredded melted jack and cheddar cheese.   Here's what they say they should look like:  


Lookin' pretty good again....   


I know I said looks aren't everything when eating at a fast food restaurant, but these looked pitiful compared to the advertisement:






Now, Carl's Jr's fries have never been all that great, but they've been decent enough not to avoid them.  These fries were wimpy and couldn't hold up to the chili and cheese.  The chili didn't have any kick to it at all.  I don't even know if I'd describe the beef as seasoned.  It was just plain.   The only nod they get is using actual shredded cheese and not cheese sauce.  I like shredded much better.   Although when I got mine the cheese was already all melted into one glob.   

Overall - I liked the Memphis BBQ Burger..  I wouldn't get the chili cheese fries again.

Procento's Pizzeria

Procento's Pizzeria
105 Franklin St
Galena, IL

You're not gonna believe this... But we opted to try another pizza while on our Chicago trip..  This time it was something on their menu that caught our eye.   A double decker pizza...   We ordered Procento's Double Decker Special.   It's described on their menu as two thin crust pizza's layered on top of one another and brought together by hand rolling the crust of the top and bottom together.  This one was topped with sausage, mushroom, green pepper and chopped tomatoes.

On the surface this pizza looked pretty good.   Procento's advertises that they are the home to the buttery crust.  Indeed the ends of the crust were buttery however they didn't do much for the consistency of the dough.  The crust was crisp on the outside and soft and doughy on the inside.  It just wasn't easy to chew threw two layers of pizza dough.  With sausage being the only meat on this pizza I would have expected more of it.  The pieces of sausage that I did have had a decent flavor however it was only sparsely scattered across the pizza.

Overall this was a pretty plain tasting pizza.   In my opinion it's a novelty pizza and certainly not my favorite.  I wouldn't order it again, it just wasn't that tasty.

Campeche

Campeche
230 North Commerce Street
Galena, Illinois 61036


As I mentioned in a previous post, it really is hard to get good authentic Mexican food the farther away from California that we get.   However, after being away from home for a week we still get cravings and we give in and see what the locals come up with.   That brings us to Campeche.

After checking out the menu, we decide on the Nachos Supremas.  The menu describes them as their original nachos topped with lettuce, tomato, guacamole and sour creme.   Served with your choice of beef, chicken or chorizo.

We go for the beef nachos and above is a picture of what we received.  I wasn't real impressed with the presentation but then again, we're not here for that.  We want good tasting food..

First of all, the chips were soggy.   Nothing like limp, soggy chips for your nachos.  I like places that have decent chips that stand up to the toppings so you don't have to use a fork to eat them.   I like nachos where I can grab a chip covered in the toppings and the toppings don't fall off.   The ground beef was simple, seemed to be seasoned with a premixed taco seasoning mix.   It was good, but not great.   I'll tell you what was really good here was the side of pico de gallo.   It really packed a punch and had a lot of flavors working well together.  They also served jalapenos on the side and they were pretty generous with the amount too.   Adding the jalapenos to the nachos made it pleasantly spicy...

If I were to judge the restaurant by the nachos alone, I probably wouldn't come back.   I might give them another chance if I was in the area only because their menu seems pretty expansive and has some pretty good sounding items on it.

Union Dairy

Union Dairy

126 E Douglas St
Freeport, IL 61032

(815) 232-7099


Our adventures on this day had us stop at Union Dairy for their wide variety of burgers.  From my research on the internet the actual name of the business is Alber's Ice Cream Parlor, however they are in the historical Union Dairy building, and they left the Union Dairy sign on the building.

Their menu consists of over 15 different burger varieties.    Raging from a Hawaiian Burger to a Taco Burger, a Pizza Burger and then some of the more normal types such as a Western Burger, a Chili Cheese Burger and then of course just a plan hamburger or cheeseburger.

On the day we visited we noticed they had recently added a Popper Burger.   It was described as their standard burger topped with creme cheese filled jalapeño poppers and their home made spicy sauce.  They also use their spicy sauce on their Heated Debate Burger.  

First bite into this burger made my mouth sweat!   It was spicy!   in a good way..  The jalapeños tasted fresh not frozen.   The cream cheese helped cool it down a little bit, not much.  My mouth was on fire for a while!  The dense bun they serve the burger on was perfect as you need a little breading to take the sting away from your mouth.   The homemade potato chips were rather flavorless.   Actually, they tasted like the oil in their fryer hasn't been changed in a while.

I really enjoyed this burger and if in the area again, I would come back to try some of their other creations.