I will update that review with the new photo above, and others. It was one of my first reviews after starting the site, and those old images were taken with a cellphone.

By the way — Happy 4th of July to Everyone — God Bless America.

Is McDonald’s sandwich as good as the Chick-fil-A? The short answer is No, but the differences are less than expected. I’ve touched on each main aspect below.

Seasoning and Taste - The McDonald’s chicken breast tastes very much like the CFA. There is no doubt they spent a lot of time and effort studying the competition. If you close your eyes and take a single bite of the McDonald’s sandwich, you might think you’ve just sampled a Chick-fil-A. It has a good flavor, and it’s a close match.

Size Matters - On average, I’ve found the slab of chicken in the McDonald’s sandwich to be consistently smaller and less meaty. The Chick-fil-A breast is bigger.

Moist and Juicy - MickeyD’s chicken has a tendency to be a little dry when compared to the moist and juicy bird on the Chick-fil-A. I’m assuming that’s because it’s a frozen pre-breaded filet, as opposed to fresh chicken hand-breaded by CFA daily. Aside from this dryness, I found the filets are quality cuts of chicken, tasty and satisfying.

Breading - The McDonald’s breading has a similar appearance, but it doesn’t have nearly as many bumps and ridges. The irregularities in the CFA coating produce a nice range of textures from a thin and tender skin-like quality, to slightly chewy in the thicker spots. McDonald’s breading is more even and uniformly applied, which leads to each bite tasting and feeling exactly like the last one. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I enjoy the variety in the CFA crust. It feels more natural to me.

Buns - The buns are also very similar, but Chick-fil-A does a better job of buttering them. Sometimes my McDonald’s sandwiches had barely a drop on the top bun. And they don’t seem to be toasting them at all. The bun is light and fluffy, but would really benefit from a little toasty goodness. I’m not sure why they skipped that step.

Pickles - There’s not much difference here. Chick-fil-A’s pickles have crinkled ridges compared to McDonald’s plain straight-cut pickles. They both taste fine, and neither will disappoint. Some people remove the pickles, making it even less an issue.

Chicken, Bread and Pickles. With only three main ingredients, there’s nothing to hide behind. No cheese, sauce or layers of vegetables. It’s a simple sandwich, but those three ingredients have to be Spot-On to really make it work. Chick-fil-A has made that combination a legend in the fast food industry. McDonald’s effort to reproduce the formula is a success for the most part, but falls short of the original.

The Southern Style Chicken Sandwich from McDonald’s is better than I expected, and the overall taste and quality is solid, especially considering the massive scale on which they’re prepared. It’s not as good as the Chick-Fil-A, but it’s a BIG improvement over the McChicken sandwich. This item is certainly not going to lure away any fans of CFA, but it’s good enough to make some new fans of McDonald’s.

Price: $2.79 / Website: McDonalds.com

Fast Food Critic Score: B

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Nutrition Facts - McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich.

Calories - 400
Calories from Fat - 150
Total Fat - 17 grams
Carbs - 39 grams
Saturated Fat - 3 grams
Trans Fat - 0 grams
Cholesterol - 45 milligrams
Sodium - 1030 milligrams
Protein - 24 grams

Dunkin’ Donuts continues to expand their oven-toasted menu, with the addition of the new Southwest Chicken Flatbread Sandwich, which features grilled chicken, cheddar cheese, red and green peppers, onions, and a maple-chipotle sauce, pressed inside a warm toasty flatbread shell. DD’s oven-toasted menu launched earlier this year as the most significant change to their product lineup since the company launched espresso-based beverages back in 2003.

In order to introduce the new menu, Dunkin’ Donuts shops received an entirely new cooking platform. New cooking ovens, using patented technologies, deliver the “Oven-Toasted” result. In addition to the new Southwest Chicken, three other classic flavors are available: Turkey, Cheddar and Bacon - Ham and Swiss - Grilled Cheese.

Visit DunkinDonuts.com to find a location near you.

Customers fully dressed as a cow will be rewarded with a free Chick-fil-A Meal, which includes an entree of choice, a side item and a Dr Pepper (or another beverage of choice). And for those who are a little timid to wear spots from head to toe, Chick-fil-A will award a complimentary entree to customers partially dressed in cow attire, such as a cow-spotted scarf, purse, hat or other accessory.

The July 11 event marks Chick-fil-A’s fourth annual Cow Appreciation Day celebration. Last year’s event — and the resulting turnout — confirmed that Chick-fil-A has a strong following of customers willing to go to great lengths to show their appreciation for cows. Thousands of customers visited Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country dressed in cow-themed costumes, ranging from simple cow-spotted t-shirts to full cow suits complete with furry ears, cow bells and homemade sandwich boards with personalized renditions of Chick-fil-A’s “Eat Mor Chikin” Cow messages.

Source: CFA. Visit Chick-fil-A.com to find a location near you.

You knew I wasn’t going to stop with those awesome Cajun Fries, and it just so happens Popeye’s also serves terrific onion rings. They’re not a regular menu item, and not all stores have them. Count your blessings if your local restaurant is one that does. I prefer these crunchy rings of onions to those at Whataburger, and their every bit as good as the Sonic versions I’m very fond of. They are coated with a thick batter which flakes away and crumbles with each bite. It’s a tasty mixture, plus it has a little something extra — a trace of the mild cajun spices from their other foods.

The onions are cut thin to medium-thick, perfect in my opinion for sweet flavor without being overpowering. They’re firm and juicy inside, not slimy. Despite being frozen, I’d swear they taste as fresh and flavorful as Sonic’s made from scratch rings.

Sizes generally range from large to extra large. Popeye’s even numbers the rings in each order, 6-piece or 10-piece. I’m not accustomed to seeing onion rings counted and labeled in such a way, like chicken pieces, but that’s not a problem. These are clearly a high quality product, and cost more to produce than some other options available. Each circle of crunchy, sweet, spicy onion goodness has value and worth in this system. You have to respect that. They’re proud of their rings.

The Onion Rings from Popeye’s are fantastic. I’m happily surprised. A chicken place is not where I typically expect to find onion rings, much less such delicious ones. It’s rare to see a chain who does both Fries and Rings so well. Good work Popeye’s.

Price: $1.99 (6-piece) / Website: Popeyes.com

Fast Food Critic Score: A

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Nutrition Facts - Popeye’s Onion Rings.

The company has not published nutrition information for this item. Fast Food Critic makes a point to supply the nutrition facts with with each review, and will update this once the info is available.

KFC has potato wedges which are decent enough, but they are too thick and soft to be eaten like regular fries. Popeye’s wins this category hands down, but not just because their fries are more typical in size and shape. They win because their Cajun Battered variety of the classic potato side order is delicious and awesomely satisfying.

Perhaps the most flavorful non-curly fries on the fast food market. The potatoes are cut medium-thin, and the skins are left on. The batter is put on thick, and loaded with mild spices. A freshly cooked order has the perfect balance of crispy tasty coating outside with tender warm potato inside. They definitely come closer to french fry nirvana than anything I expected from a chicken place. Indeed — damn good fries!

Seasoned fries don’t always work too well with ketchup or sauces, but these do. The flavor is terrific on it’s own, and it doesn’t need anything else, but it’s not so strong that it prevents other flavors from joining in the fun. It’s spicy, but mild and subtle.

I attempted to find out what exact seasoning is used, but they won’t tell me. I’m sure there’s garlic, pepper and paprika, but that’s where my search hit the magic ingredient simply known as “spices”. They aren’t about to give away the secret recipe, and of course that’s to be expected. I must remind myself of the line which exists between good journalism and being a nosy pain in the rear. I’m just here to review food.

The Cajun Battered Fries from Popeye’s are excellent. They’re delicious alone, and they also get along nicely with ketchup and BBQ sauce. But once you eat the first one, it’s rare the others last long enough to worry about choosing a dipping partner.

Price: $1.69 / Website: Popeyes.com

Fast Food Critic Score: A

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Nutrition Facts - Popeye’s Cajun Battered Fries.

Calories - 310
Calories from Fat - N/A
Total Fat - 17 grams
Carbs - 35 grams
Saturated Fat - 7 grams
Trans Fat - 1.0 grams
Cholesterol - 7 milligrams
Sodium - 660 milligrams
Protein - 4 grams

Anyway… moving on. The sausage patties are OK, about on average with many of the fast food breakfast competition. The egg is good, but it’s not asking much to get a decent egg for breakfast. Then again, I thought the same thing about toast. The slice of American cheese sits between the egg and sausage, melting between them and creating a nice cheesy flavor with each bite. It also bonds them together.

The inside of this sandwich would greatly benefit from a properly toasted outside. As it stands, the bread is too soft, and feels like something that I just took out of a plastic supermarket package. Of course I would never use such thick bread in the first place unless it was toasted, and I really don’t think Sonic intends to either. It seems that some employees are just not paying attention, or they don’t know any better.

Imagine biting into a crisp, golden brown toasty bread. Perhaps like this picture of the sandwiches on Sonic’s website. That would be great. That’s how it should be.

After all, this is not a case of exaggerated food photography where the burgers look bigger, vegetables look fresher, and so on. It’s just toast. Come on!

Apparently, they do place the bread over (or thru) some type of heat before serving, so technically speaking it’s toasted, but I would like to refer Sonic and their employees to this page at Wikipedia which explains what toast is, and includes pictures of un-toasted VS toasted bread. Hopefully between that page, and the picture on Sonic’s own website, they can figure it out. Big, thick, plain un-toasted white bread is NOT very appetizing, and it overwhelms the flavors of the other ingredients. My “toast” would have been better with a Bic lighter held underneath it for a few seconds.

The Breakfast Toaster Sandwich from Sonic is not bad, however it suffers from the bread issue, and it’s overall taste is nothing above average. Most fast food places have a version of sausage, egg and cheese. Some use biscuits. Some use buns. Others wrap it up in a tortilla. I was excited about a Texas Toast version, and felt it had a chance to stand out. Unfortunately there was only 1 sandwich delivered to me with the bread toasted beyond the slightest little bit. As expected, it was better that way, and I’m sure it’s the way Sonic intends for the sandwich to be served. I think somebody at corporate needs to create a “Toast 101″ class and get it started ASAP.

Price: $2.19 / Website: SonicDriveIn.com

Fast Food Critic Score: C-

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Nutrition Facts - Sonic Breakfast Toaster, Sausage, Egg and Cheese.

Calories - 630
Calories from Fat - 350
Total Fat - 39 grams
Carbs - 46 grams
Saturated Fat - 13 grams
Trans Fat - 1.5 grams
Cholesterol - 340 milligrams
Sodium - 1380 milligrams
Protein - 23 grams

What’s new? The chicken. Imagine my delight as I witnessed a Wendy’s employee grab a whole grilled filet and then slice it right on the spot, and place it on the bed of lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. There is no more pre-cubed pieces of meat added ahead of time, resulting in cold chicken. Now it’s warm and freshly sliced.

They place the filet on top with the slices grouped together still forming the shape of the solid hunk they once were. There’s something about this presentation method that really appeals to me. I can see exactly how much chicken I’m getting, and can choose to mix it up, or leave it on the side. Plus, when you’re a burger and taco guy eating a salad, it makes you feel better to have that big pile of meat sitting there.

Warm versus Cold. The cold chicken from previous salads was not a problem. It was tasty and refreshing. I wouldn’t necessarily call the warm chicken better, just different. The salad takes on a new character when the temperatures combine. In a way similar to eating a hamburger or chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato, the contrast of warm meat and cold crisp veggies is a treat for the senses.

The regular menu Chicken Caesar continues the satisfying experience started by the Southwest version. The romaine lettuce is crisp and fresh. The tomatoes are plump and ripe, and the shredded Parmesan cheese is delicious. The warm chicken is moist and juicy, lightly seasoned with a mild natural flavor. It’s not as fancy as it’s limited time cousin, and lacks the spicy kick, but it’s still a mighty good salad.

As always, the dressing and croutons are served on the side, in individual packets. This keeps them fresh, and allows you to control the amount and manner in which they are distributed. The “Supreme Caesar” salad dressing comes from Marzetti. It’s natural and contains no preservatives. It’s good dressing, though not anything special. The croutons also come from the same company, and are quite tasty. I could eat the crunchy little garlic bread pieces as a stand-alone snack. Sometimes I do.

The Chicken Caesar Salad from Wendy’s is very good. The new serving and delivery method of the chicken is a nice change. I still prefer the bolder flavors and spicy kick of the Southwest version, but this is a solid alternative and worthy of my $5.

Price: $4.99 / Website: Wendys.com

Fast Food Critic Score: B+

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Nutrition Facts - Wendy’s Chicken Caesar Salad.

Calories - 490
Calories from Fat - 300
Total Fat - 33 grams
Carbs - 20 grams
Saturated Fat - 7 grams
Trans Fat - 0.5 grams
Cholesterol - 110 milligrams
Sodium - 1200 milligrams
Protein - 31 grams

The Loaded Potato Bites from Arby’s are too bland for my taste. After eating them on multiple occasions, that impression has not changed. When eating at Arby’s I will be sticking to their awesome seasoned curly fries as my potato side order of choice.

Price: $2.59 / Website: Arbys.com

Fast Food Critic Score: D

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Nutrition Facts - Arby’s Loaded Potato Bites, 5 piece.

Calories - 353
Calories from Fat - 199
Total Fat - 22 grams
Carbs - 27 grams
Saturated Fat - 7 grams
Trans Fat - 0.5 grams
Cholesterol - 13 milligrams
Sodium - 800 milligrams
Protein - 11 grams