I’ve been breakfast sandwich shy for the past few weeks since eating the ugly named BagelBelt with it’s equally ugly taste. But eventually I found the courage to visit my local Country Style Donut store (Ontario’s 2nd largest chain of coffee and donut stores) for their morning sandwich, “The SUNRISER”, a 5-layer egg ‘n cheese BLT.

It started out like a replay of the Belt disaster. A precooked egg hockey puck was plucked off the top of a teetering tower of patties along with a few strips of precooked bacon. Both appeared microwaved into submission. Instead of a bagel, this sandwich is held between a freshly toasted and lightly buttered English muffin. With the addition of a few ripped leaves of crispy lettuce and thinly sliced tomato, the sandwich was prepped and ready for the final ingredient, a slice of *real* medium cheddar cheese. I’d expected the standard processed plastic-textured cheese-product so this indicated things were looking better, and maybe headed for a positive review.

Indeed, I enjoyed it. The warm English muffin was good bread, the heated egg and bacon were better than expected, the cheddar was melted slightly, and it gave the sandwich a rich, quality taste. My biggest surprise was the satisfying mouth feel, the taste and texture of this sandwich. The egg was actually juicy! Bacon was nice and salty. Melting cheese mixed with crisp cold lettuce and moist tomato in each bite. Each ingredient tasted good, and together they combined to create something great.

This sandwich has given me the confidence to start reviewing food again knowing that fast-food can be done well. It’s a great breakfast for an affordable price.

Price: $3.29 / Website: CountryStyle.com

Fast Food Critic Score: A

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Nutrition Facts - Country Style Donut Store, Sunriser Sandwich.

Calories - 350
Calories from Fat - n/a
Total Fat - 20 gramsCarbs - 28 grams
Saturated Fat - 9 grams
Trans Fat - 0.3 grams
Cholesterol - 180 milligrams
Sodium - 630 milligrams
Protein - 14 grams

If McDonald’s ever made one of their breakfast sandwiches available all day long, I’d hope it would be the McGriddle. Breakfast isn’t something I’m able to purchase too often because of my crazy schedule at the radio station. Those rare times I make McDonald’s breakfast hours, I usually go for the Sausage, Egg, and Cheese version, and sometimes when I’m extra hungry I’ll have them toss some bacon on there for a small added charge. The bacon/sausage combo McGriddles is unbelievable.

However, for today’s review I’m sticking with the basic Sausage, Egg, and Cheese sandwich. Inside you’ve got a decent sized sausage patty, fried and folded egg, and a slice of melted American cheese. But the outside is what brings it all together and makes it special… instead of a bun or standard breakfast bread, the sandwich is held together by 2 delicious Griddle Cakes, with Maple Syrup and Brown Sugar baked right in. It’s pancakes without the mess. When the sandwich is done right, which in my experience has been most of the time, the pancakes are nice and moist and the syrup flavor is strong. I don’t consider the strong sweetness of the syrup a bad thing though, because it goes great with the sausage, which has a nice flavor of it’s own and just the right amount of spices. The folded egg and American cheese taste fine, about how you’d expect, but definitely take a backseat to the pancakes and sausage.

I’ve eaten a lot of these sandwiches, and there hasn’t been too many bad ones. The only exceptions I recall… when it just wasn’t hot enough. If the griddle cakes are not cooked thoroughly, the syrup isn’t able to spread out inside, preventing them from getting (and staying) nice and moist. The syrup flavor is still there, but it’s not seeping out of the pancake like it does when it’s toasty warm. That’s the only thing that’s ever been wrong, and it doesn’t happen often enough to warrant a drop in score.

The Sausage, Egg and Cheese McGriddles sandwich is awesome. I can’t say it beats the Enormous Omelette Sandwich from Burger King, but it’s now tied with it, as my 2 favorite fast-food breakfast sandwiches. At only $3.95 for the combo meal, including hash browns and coffee, this delicious item gets a review score of “A-” from me. Speaking of coffee, I finally tried McDonald’s “Premium” stuff and it wasn’t bad. Maybe if we add a “coffee” category here at FFC in the future, I’ll do a review.

Price: $3.95 (combo meal) / Website: McDonalds.com

Fast Food Critic Score: A-

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Nutrition Facts - McDonald’s Sausage, Egg and Cheese McGriddles.

Calories - 560
Calories from Fat - 290
Total Fat - 32 grams
Carbs - 48 grams
Saturated Fat - 12 grams
Trans Fat - 0 grams
Cholesterol - 265 milligrams
Sodium - 1360 milligrams
Protein - 20 grams

It’s breakfast time, so what are my options? Let’s see, a Sausage McGriddle from McDonalds? The Enormous Omelet Sandwich from Burger King? Seems as though most choices for a quick grab-and-go breakfast are completely greased-up and bad for you. Nutrition and fast-food breakfast go together like peanut butter on a pizza. So when I saw a commercial for the new Egg White Flatbread Sandwiches from Dunkin’ Donuts with low fat and under 300 calories each, I thought to myself… “Finally!”.

Fast Food Critic reported in July that Dunkin’ Donuts had released several flatbread sandwiches as ‘lunchtime’ menu items, and now they’ve decided to go the breakfast route. A smart move. They realize where their bread is being buttered, and that’s among the morning coffee and donut crowd. So I wasn’t really surprised to see them introduce these flatbread breakfasts. Yes, DD has carried breakfast sandwiches for a long while now, but they’re the standard egg/cheese, plus bacon/sausage on a croissant, sourdough toast or bagel. Now comes along something for the more health conscious, and part of the company’s expanding “DDSmart” menu lineup.

The Egg White flatbreads come in two choices, the Veggie and the Turkey Sausage. The cost is $2.99 each. In my personal opinion, I believe they are probably a dollar too much. There simply isn’t much going on to warrant a $2.99 purchase. There’s too much of the dry, tough flatbread. It’s a little overwhelming when compared to the actual egg filling portion. There needs to be less flatbread and a price drop… or they should increase the amount of egg and filling to merit the $2.99 price tag.

Veggie — I definitely prefer the Veggie Egg White Flatbread over the Turkey Sausage variety. The Veggie has a better flavor and you can tell it when take your first bite. This taste comes mostly from the green and red peppers. At only 290 calories and 9 grams of fat, it takes the guilt away from your morning breakfast. The Veggie version of this sandwich consists of egg whites, peppers, onions, mushrooms, and reduced-fat cheddar cheese on a multigrain flatbread. The Veggie version was not nearly as dry as the Turkey Sausage and it also had better, tastier cheese.

Turkey Sausage — The Turkey Sausage version is only 280 calories and 6 grams of fat. It’s made up of egg whites, turkey sausage, spinach, and reduced-fat mozzarella cheese on a multigrain flatbread. You can’t really taste much of anything but the egg with this one. There also isn’t any immediate recognition that what you are eating has turkey sausage in it, or spinach for that matter, or even cheese. And it’s too dry.

Neater and Healthier — These sandwiches are not messy and dripping with grease. As I mentioned before, they are not a breakfast you feel guilty about selecting. Both flatbread items are at least 25% reduced (in comparison to the sausage, egg, cheese on a croissant) in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar and sodium. With that, you of course lose the rich bold taste of butter, cheese and fried goodness… and replace it with something that many people would describe as being bland.

OK, so they’re not a home run, but I still enjoyed them. Honestly, I think just knowing they’re lower in fat and calories than almost everything else out there has boosted my impression. If it wasn’t for that fact, I’d be giving these sandwiches a lower score, but they go up a full letter grade for being healthier. If you’re looking for the tastiest most satisfying quick breakfast item… this is not it. However, if you’re looking for something more in the “guilt free” category, these should satisfy you, and for the moment they’re really the only game in town for a healthy fast-food breakfast sandwich.

Price: $2.99 / Website: DunkinDonuts.com

Fast Food Critic Score: C-

(Turkey Sausage)

Nutrition Facts - Dunkin’ Donuts Flatbread Sandwich, Turkey Sausage.

Calories - 280
Calories from Fat - 50
Total Fat - 6 grams
Carbs - 37 grams
Saturated Fat - 2.5 grams
Trans Fat - 0 grams
Cholesterol - 20 milligrams
Sodium - 820 milligrams
Protein - 19 grams

Price: $2.99 / Website: DunkinDonuts.com

Fast Food Critic Score: B-

(Veggie)

Nutrition Facts - Dunkin’ Donuts Flatbread Sandwich, Veggie.

Calories - 290
Calories from Fat - 80
Total Fat - 9 grams
Carbs - 39 grams
Saturated Fat - 4 grams
Trans Fat - 0 grams
Cholesterol - 20 milligrams
Sodium - 680 milligrams
Protein - 11 grams

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When you offer something called “Toaster Sandwiches” using extra thick sliced bread (aka: Texas Toast) it’s important you get the toasted part down. Otherwise you end up with big thick soggy bread, and it’s a turn-off. Over a period of 2 weeks, I’ve tried these breakfast sandwiches at four different Sonic locations, and all but one had the same disappointing result. Look folks, it’s not that good a sandwich to begin with, so when you can’t even toast the bread properly, it makes a big negative impact.

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