Hm… here’s yet another week where I’m taking the easy way out and using someone else’s pics instead of my own. In fact, I grabbed the above straight from a company’s press release. The company? Jack In The Balpha. Longtime readers will remember why we call them that.

Actually, there’s a legitimate excuse for not using my own pictures for this review of The Big Deal, their new “combo” meal. And this goes for pretty much a whole range of fast and prepared food. Usually, I only pick up fast food when I’m so hungry that I can’t wait to make something at home or go to a sit-down restaurant. As such, I don’t really feel like messing around with camera angles while the meatpaste in my 2 tacos for 99 cents is quickly congealing.

This is actually one of the reasons I haven’t really featured Subway on here yet - most of the time I’d just make a sandwich at home. Whenever I get Subway, it’s because I’m too hungry to wait. So the sandwich gets inhaled without the usual pretty photos being taken.

But back to The Big Deal. In theory, it fits in with Cheap Eats. Here’s what the press release says:

“Thanks to rising gas prices, penny pinching has become a necessity for many Americans. To help consumers fill up for less (their stomachs, not their gas tanks), Jack in the Box® restaurants offer The Big Deal, a combo meal that features a chicken sandwich, two beef tacos and a 20-ounce beverage for the bargain-basement price of … drum roll, please … $2.59!”

Sounded OK to me. I went through the drive-through. In my gas-guzzlin’ Toyota 4Runner. Before that, though, I looked all over the pre-drive-thru menu to try and find the “Big Deal” on the menu. Boy, they sure like to hide the deals and the 99 cent menu well. The rip-off Combo meals are prominently displayed, however. Hello, Marketing!

The reason I wanted to find it on the drive-thru menu is that I’d forgotten what they were called. I guess I’m just a bit self-conscious when it comes to ordering things. The drivethru makes me nervous. I get performance anxiety. I couldn’t remember if it was called “Great Deal”, “Good Deal”, “Meal Deal” or “Big Combo Deal”. Luckily, the kind drive-thru waitress knew what I was talking about when I said “I’d like one of your great deals.” Haha. She could have easily been an ass (sorry gals, I mean an ass-ette) and said something like “Well, all of our items are great deals.”

Anyhow, I got the food and ate it in the car. Here’s the thing: I’m used to the deep fried meat paste taco shells they sell (fun tongue twister - she sells swell taco shells by the seashore). And in fact, I often pick up 2 tacos for 99 cents when my garbage-food intake is feeling a little low. Interestingly, the quality seems to vary. They’re best when they’re fried crispy and almost burnt. This particular batch was excellent. Although, if you believe they look like the picture, I’ve got a lock of Britney Spears’ hair to sell you. They should also put the word “beef” in quotes in their ads. Maybe also put the word “taco” in quotes.

You also get to choose between a 99 cent cheeseburger and a 99 cent chicken sandwich. I’m actually familiar with the latter dollar item, so I got that. It’s just a breaded formed ‘n fried chicken patty on a bun with iceberg lettuce and 5 million billion gallons of mayo. It’s actually not too bad except for the mayo. If I’m not driving, I wipe it off. I guess I could ask for less mayo - but then it’s much too easy to camouflage disgruntled fast food worker loogies inside mayo. I’d rather not antagonize them.

If you’ve been keeping up with their 99 cent menu, you know you can ALWAYS get 2 tacos for 99 cents as well as the chicken sandwich or cheeseburger for 99 cents. So, we’re up to $1.98 - and all that’s left is the drink. And that drink is - just a soda. So breaking it down, Jack In The Box’s The Big Deal equals the opportunity to buy a soda for 61 cents. Is that a good deal? I don’t know - because when I buy dollar items I never get a drink. But it’s probably cheaper than if you were to buy it separately in addition to the 99 cent items.

What they should have done instead was offer ANY combination of 2 items off the dollar menu plus a drink. Or even just add more items to their dollar menu. Or offer a $4 for 5 dollar items special. Because otherwise the only thing different about the Big Deal is a 61 cent drink. Think of all the marketing dollars that went into getting you to pitch in 61 cents more for sugar water. But hey, I bought a Big Deal just from watching their commercials. So, wow, advertising Workzzz!11!

Price: $2.59
Found At: Jack In The Box
Cheap Eats Score: 4/10

Folks, this past Friday I went on a MISSION. The mission - bring back one of the elusive Angus Third Pounders from McDonald’s. These wily burgers are for now restricted to the environs of Southern California (to be exact: LA, Orange, Kern, Riverside, San Bernadino, San Diego and Ventura counties). I felt so privileged knowing I was going to be one of the first to try 1/3 pound of cow cooked McDonald’s style. Yeah.

(For those regular readers who are wondering if I’ve completely fallen off the apple cart, I’ve designated Friday’s as Anything Goes Day, which is the reason you’ll still see a lot of junk food reviewed here.)

So to be truthful - who cares, right? McDonald’s restaurants are everywhere here in the Southland and for the most part I try to avoid them whenever I can. Two reasons for that: McDonald’s hamburger meat tends to give me the runs for some reason (I’m certainly not “lovin’ it” when that happens), and there just happens to be an In-N-Out a few steps away from the McD’s I pass by frequently. Given the choice, it ain’t hard to go with a Double-Double Animal Style.

However, I wanted to report on it for the benefit of other Cheap Eaters out there who don’t live in SoCal. And more importantly, there is actually a current coupon for $1 off any Angus Third Pounders Sandwich or the Extra Value Meal , good until April 15.

Now, since the 1/3 pounders cost $3.99 normally, $1 off is a pretty good deal. I mean, you might pay that much for comparable sandwiches at other fast food places. And I wanted to try and see if the “Angus” hamburger was any different. And before you ask, I absolutely DESPISE Carl’s Jr.’s Six Dollar Hamburgers. I’ve tried them several times at many different locations and they are horrible. I actually have grown to despise Carl’s Jr. in general, but that’s another rant (and most likely an upcoming Hall of Shame entry).

I started off the day pretty excited - I’d been planning this “mission” since about 4 weeks ago but it was hard to get up the courage to actually walk through the golden arches.

Actually, my biggest fear was that they wouldn’t honor the coupon, which is a web-only printable thing. I’ve had the worst of luck with these coupons… there seems to be some sort of disconnect with the people who design them and the people who are training the serfs that are taking your order. (Side Note: When I say serfs, I’m not poking fun at the people working at fast food joints. I feel sorry for the folks who work in the trenches… remember that the next time they screw up your order, how draining it is to work at one of these places.)

It was high noon when I pulled up to McD’s, so I didn’t want to risk a traffic jam by trying the coupon in the drive-through. I walked up to the counter and said, “I have a coupon for a McAngus burger.” The girl looked at me kind of funny and said, “Oh you mean you want an Angus Third Pounder.” I’m still trying to figure out why they didn’t name it the “McAngus” burger, it’s just smoother than saying “Angus Third Pounder”. But anyhow, she took the coupon with surprisingly little fuss. The manager was called over to ask how the coupon was put into the computer, but after that I was set: a McDonald’s Mushroom and Swiss Angus Third Pounder was mine for $2.99.

Continue reading “Angus Third Pounder Coupon” …

If you know me by now, you know that falling off the wagon (or the apple cart, or whatever it’s called nowadays) is a regular thing here at Cheap Eats. All this concentration on healthy food left me feeling bummed and blue. So I decided to make an exception for at least one lunch for the week, where I get to eat basically anything.

And that way I won’t bore everyone’s socks off as well, writing pages on how delicious and cheap various vegetables can be. Hooray!

I hadn’t gone to Arby’s in a bit so I hit the drivethrough. The title of this post might be a little misleading - there IS no 4 for $5 Roast Beef sandwich coupon. Or at least if there is, you usually don’t need it. Though I think you might need the coupons for 3 for $5 Beef ‘n Cheddar sandwiches. The tricky thing is that Arby’s does EVERYTHING in their power to hide these specials on the drive-through menu and the menu inside the restaurant.

Of course, on the outside of the restaurant there is an enormous sign saying “4 for $5″. Catch all the suckers and then get them to shell out bucks for the more expensive alternative items. I don’t mean to be bagging on Arby’s only, since every other fast food restaurant does it too. It’s just good biz sense I guess. For instance, the 99 cent menu at the drive through for Jack in the Balpha is in the lower right hand corner where it’s difficult to see.

One time, I remember I asked my cashier to tell me “all of the specials” that they were currently running at Arby’s. I asked because I didn’t see any of the usual specials up on the menu. He looked at me like I was a deep fried frog stuffed full of goat cheese and parsnips. Yeah.

Continue reading “Arby’s 4 for $5 Coupons” …

“Hey Yoshinoya, Nice To Know Ya!” Such was the familiar greeting I often heard in college… because my last name happened to nearly coincide with this Beef Bowl chain’s name. I didn’t mind too much though, because I liked their food and still do.

Something that a lot of people (including me) are surprised about is that the Yoshinoya Beef Bowl chain is not endemic to the U.S. It’s actually straight from Japan and is quite respected over there (would you believe it was actually established back in 1899!) I was always under the impression that it was a “Panda Express” phenomenon - a sort of ethnic food “created” to please the western palate.

But actually, Yoshinoya is such a huge institution in Japan that when they were forced to stop selling their signature beef bowl product in 2004 due to “crazy cow” import restrictions, people lined up around the block to get a last taste of their favorite fast food. Recently, they’ve brought it back over there, but I think they only sell the Beef bowl one day of the week?

The first one in the U.S. was started up in Torrance, CA in 1979. I haven’t been to that one, but there happens to be another one pretty close to my house.

If you haven’t had their beef before, it can take some getting used to. Their main product is a thinly sliced, extremely fatty beef cooked in onions with sauce. They throw that on top of sticky rice and call it a Beef Bowl (Gyu-Don in Japan). They also sell other meals that have teriyaki chicken and cooked vegetables. I’ve also gotten their fried chicken wings which are decent. Below is a picture of a combo bowl that has beef, veggies and chicken on top of rice.

Continue reading “Yoshinoya Beef Bowl” …

This one has been kicking around in the Cheap Eats drafts for nearly 4 months now. It’s the El Pollo Loco Dollar Menu which was recommended by more than a few readers, including Cybele from CandyBlog. I’m pretty familiar with El Pollo Loco and in the past have frequented their chicken joints as much as three times a month.

El Pollo Loco is interesting in that although it probably qualifies as fast food (and there’s a drive-thru), I think of it more as a normal sit-down restaurant but with fast-food prices. Their flame-grilled chicken is a welcome change if you get tired of Church’s, Popeyes or KFC. They occasionally have pretty good deals on bulk family chicken - one current special that I like for parties is the 11 pieces of legs and thighs for $7.99.

A side note: I find their commercials with that smarmy guy a bit on the racially insensitive side… but I’ll not get into that now.

Anyhow, for some reason, I never ventured into Loco Dollar Land. Their lineup is a bit more interesting than the usual fast food joint 99 cent Jack In The Box menu. They’ve got a Taco al Carbon (Chicken Taco), BRC Burrito (Bean, Rice Cheese), Cheese Quesadilla, Chicken Taquito with Avocado Salsa, Loco Salad with Creamy Cilantro Dressing, Two Churros (dessert) and a choice of either a flame grilled Chicken Leg or Thigh (note: the pic I took from the site months back included the choice of thighs but the more recent pic does not. Too bad, because I felt that was one of the better value items.)

Continue reading “El Pollo Loco Dollar Menu” …

Whoops, I nearly forgot… today being July 11 it is 7-11 day all around the nation. Yes, time will indeed stop for you while you head out of the office at lunch to pick up yer free Slurpee drink. Just remember that the sizes they give away are the tiny ones, the 7.11 ounce slurpees. I’m going to be passing on this one although there is a 7-11 within walking distance (too much brain freeze lately), so let me know how it goes…

A quickie post for today regarding a culinary tidbit I saw on A Hamburger Today. Well, depending on your gastronomical fortitude, you may or may not be happy with me posting this news. The Original Tommy’s, whose hamburgers are a guilty pleasure of many an insomniacal Southlander, officially turns 60 years old today.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, they’re offering 60 Cent Burgers all day May 15, 2006, which happens to be today. Getting this news too late in the day? Never fear, the offer is good from noon until midnight today.

Actually, the offer is even more generous than just a standard hamburger for 60 cents. It is actually good for a cheeseburger topped with their heart-shuddering chili AND a soda.

The catch: the 60 cent deal is only good at one location:

Tommy’s at Beverly and Rampart
2575 W. Beverly Blvd.
(213) 389-9060

If you’re in the area, head over there now and get your chili burger fix for the next year or so. I can’t guarantee you’ll see me there, but please feel to eat one on my behalf. Tommy’s has been a favorite high school hamburger hangout since near forever…