mel in the milkyway: Food Tour Party - Carl's Jr Queen Street

currently: listening to Tegan and Sara - 'Closer'

Carl's Jr. Making it's name in New Zealand. *

Anne-Marie: "Are you gonna blog about eating at Carl's Jr?"
Me: "Yes, yes I am." [May as well blog about something...]

This weekend, me and my friend/the AM in iammfashion, Anne-Marie, got to have a nice hangout in Auckland city. We went to our old university AUT, checked out the new fancy WG building, cried on the inside about missing the flash Communications building by a year, and then headed to Carl's Jr for lunch.

A couple of my friends love Carl's Jr. In Auckland, they've got two locations out west, two south, two east and one in the CBD. So, being a northern Aucklander I've yet to taste how "amazing" they were till Saturday.

Carl's Jr opened about a month ago in the Queen Street Metro, pretty much beside the Burger King I dedicated a good portion of my student loan to. The old building used to be a Whitcoulls book store, which I also spent many an hour reading their magazines for free. It felt a bit weird to walk into a familiar space to smell burgers and feel a bit greasy. Also, the layout there means you need to take long routes around the seats because it's not a nice even arrangement. The room is pretty much divided lengthways with a long stream of couches making it a pain to get directly to the counter. But it was a nice and relatively cleaning looking.

Waiting at our tables, which was a change.

Anne-Marie is a pro at Carl's Jr, which is great for a novice like me. First, you have to get a table, then you go order your food and it comes to your table. All a bit weird for me, since I'm used to fast foods that make you wait at the counter for your food. Not that there's much space to wait around at Queen Street Carl's. It's a good system though. You sit, you wait and you just make sure your number is displayed on the table so the waiters can see.

I had no clue what to order, so I just got the number one - Famous Star. Figured, hey if it's number 1 then that's their signature burger. I was kinda surprised when the lady asked me if I wanted to upside to a medium or large. How much was $8.80 gonna get me? I decided to keep it cheap as possible and stick with the regular order.

Took a bite out of the 'Famous Star' burger.

When the food arrived about 10 minutes later, the amount looked pretty decent - like a regular burger order from Burger King. And to really be honest, eating it tasted like eating a Whopper burger from BK. In the burger, there was one large tomato slice, a couple of onions, and I don't know what this "charbroiled" business is about but it wasn't that stunning to look at. It was all just a bit average. Plus, their special sauce was a bit like watered down chutney.

Chips, the only thing different from other fast foods.

Chips were different though. Instead of fried shoe strings like Maccas and BK, Carl's Jr had left the skin of the potatoes on theirs. Which was good - tasted different and all. But overall, it was all a bit av. Filling, but average.

Anne-Marie on the other hand had gotten a chicken and bacon burger that looked tiny, and she also complained about the lack of salsa bar that all Carl's Jrs were meant to have. I don't know what this salsa bar was, but I felt a bit ripped not having the chance to try one.

Overall - I really don't get the big deal. I guess it's cheaper than Burger King when you compare to a Whopper meal, and you don't get cheese in a Whopper unlike the Famous Star... It was alright. I won't go out of my way to eat there, but at least I know it's an option if I need cheap food to fill me.

*Btw - apologies for the lousy photo quality. I forgot my cameras, and my main cellphone was beeping on low battery. Fourth option camera choice from a 2.0px Nokia phone was left.

Food Party review:
Money friendliness - Reasonable for a standard meal.
Purchase fun - It was good to not wait for ages at the counter.
Deliciousness factor - Alright. It does the job of filling you up.