Why did the chicken breast fillet cross the road? To get the f*ck away from Wendy’s employees who would most certainly cook it into a salty, leathery hunk of dreck. Wendy’s just rolled out two fresh berry-oriented seasonal menu items for summer: the Berry Almond Chicken Salad and Strawberry Shortcake…

Popular chain restaurants may have their faults, but they also have their benefits — consistency primary among them. It’s comforting for customers to know that they can count on uniform, no-surprise dishes at certain chains. And I definitely have my consistent favorites. Here’s a list of my top five full-service…

Red Robin’s new spinoff concept, Red Robin’s Burger Works, is a smaller, less-dramatic-and-more-metallic version of the original, meant for smaller urban spaces. It has less hustle and bustle than the original stores, and also much less less square footage, but the company put a handful of its most successful burgers…

It was love at first bite for me and Red Robin Gourmet Burgers. And even though as a teen working at a Red Robin in Albuquerque I was stuffed inside a giant “Red” bird suit and force to hand out free onion-ring coupons at the movie theater across the street,…

People have a love/hate relationship with frozen dinners. They hate the calories, the fat, the sodium and the bloated, gassy abdominal episodes that often follow eating them. But they love the convenience, the price, the fast preparation and, perhaps most of all, the delicious flavors of cognitive dissonance. At the…

Mrs. Fields Famous Brands, which owns both the Mrs. Fields cookie chain and TCBY Yogurt, has relocated its corporate headquarters from Salt Lake City to Broomfield. Mrs. Fields — and yes, there really is a Mrs. (Debbie) Fields, who opened her first chocolate chip cookie store in 1977 — has…

It’s hard to find a good cheese sandwich these days. Sure, plenty of delis, sub shops and even some fast-food chains are serving up sammies like they just became stylish, but few make a really superior cheese sandwich. The exception to this rule? Which Wich?, a diminutive sub chain out…

Taco Bell is going upscale? When I heard this, I thought it was a joke — and the Demolition Man lines were coming hard and fast. Still, it’s true: Taco Bell has officially announced that it’s taking on fast-casual Mexican food chains like our own Chipotle with the July 5…

We’ve all had the unique pleasure of visiting a date’s domicile and opening the refrigerator door for the first time. This can be a very telling moment. I’ve been treated to sights in men’s iceboxes that no human being should ever witness, and as if I didn’t have enough good…

Qdoba Mexican Grill, which got its start in Colorado in 1995, has a present for its hometown fans: an unlimited $6 entrée coupon. The coupon reads: “Buy any entree for only $6 — use as many times as you’d like between now and July 8th.”…

If New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on sugary drinks is enacted, it will give the health department the authority to slap fines on restaurants, movie theaters, food carts and sandwich shops that try to sell sodas larger than 16 ounces. Bad idea? Maybe on the surface –…

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is the second-largest chicken-focused fast-food restaurant chain in the U.S. — and I have no idea why. Its fried chicken is moist, flavorful and has a warm, spicy bite. Its side dishes, while mass-produced, are actually good for what they are. And unlike its major competitor, Popeyes…

Ever have a hankering for a dozen chocolate-iced Bismarks and an iced latte from Dunkin’ Donuts — and then realize that because you live in Denver, you can’t have them? Watching the occasional Dunkin’ Donuts advertisement on the telly just rubs sprinkles in the stummy wound. Right now, there are…

Starting July 1, California will enforce a ban on foie gras — delicious, delicious, fatty goose/duck liver — and while PETA is thrilled, chefs are pissed. Why the ban on these tasty liver-lobes? Gavage, or forced tube-feeding off the animals, is seen as cruel and inhumane. But neither side in…

Cake batter fried in oil, then smeared with sugar icing. Sometimes I wonder how the human race managed to survive the advent of doughnuts, and then the materialization of chains like Krispy Kreme. Krispy’s has been very, very successful at tapping into the fat-and-sugar lust that people inherited from their…

Many things in the food industry are not at all what they appear to be. Things like healthy green salads covered in cheese, bacon bits, croutons and ranch dressing; the servers at T.G.I. Friday’s who aren’t always thrilled beyond measure to see your asses plopped in their sections; and those…

So what has America’s favorite fast-food fried chicken chain been up to lately? Just the usual stuff, like releasing restaurant founder Colonel Harland Sanders’ autobiography that was “found” last year, hiring Top Chef alum Edward Lee to pimp it out using Facebook and YouTube, destroying Indonesian rainforests, and continuing to…

Is the delicacy a “donut” or “doughnut”? The latter spelling is as old as the pastries themselves, while the truncated “donut” spelling seems to lack a certain maturity. But spelled either way, the ‘nuts are delicious. Today, June 1, is National Doughnut Day, an American holiday started by the Salvation…

Some restaurants sure did seem better when I was a kid. Chuck E. Cheese was a magical wonderland of singing animals and perfect pizza; the ball pit at McDonald’s was spotlessly clean — and Ronald McDonald was always smiling down upon me benignly as I ate my cheeseburger that looked…

There’s a whole lot of spring “cavorting” going on at Ugly Goat Milk Company’s farm. And that means plenty of milk, butter, cheese and good times for both the animals and humans…

Subway has not only survived the recent economic downturn, but thrived during it — launching 1,200 new stores this year. According to the New York Times, franchisees are falling all over themselves to find potential locations, and today Subway has close to 37,000 restaurants in a hundred countries. Why has…