As a kid, I had more than my fair share of Happy Stars and Western Bacon Cheeseburgers at Carl’s Jr. restaurants so I was somewhat surprised that we actually haven’t talked about Carl’s here on Cheap Eats yet.

I think part of the problem is that while they are definitely pushing their 99 cent items nowadays in order to compete with Burger King and McDonald’s, Carl’s Junior has always seemed more of a “high end” burger fast food place to me. In fact, my mom would always take us there when we were at the mall back in the day, because they just seemed to have “healthier” options. Like Fried Zucchini and numerous Chicken Club sandwiches. These, of course, weren’t exactly the cheapest things on the menu. I must say that I rarely got sick from eating burgers at Carl’s Junior, while McDonald’s was Russian Stomach Roulette.

Fast forward to today, and they’re right up there offering cheaper items with the best of them. I haven’t been to the fast food joint in awhile (they closed down the nearest one to my house) but I am continually getting Carl’s Junior coupons in the mail trying to get me to eat their Six Dollar Burger. You’re usually left sitting there wondering which fry cook was drunk this time in the kitchen.

Unlike the Six Million Dollar Man, the Six Dollar burger doesn’t look like a million bucks in person. Oh sure, you see the commercials of them dropping one of these bad boys from a height of a foot or so and it sure seems to plop down well, fat and juicy and full of goodies. In real life, not only does the 6 dollar burger cost like $4.00 alone (which in my opinion is not cheap enough to make a big deal about the $2 you save) but usually comes looking like a hurricane hit an In-n-Out burger joint.

There’s no semblance to the nice, expensive looking burgers in their commercials. Then again, when has a burger in person ever looked like the one from a commercial? I do applaud them in their adventurous choice of materials to make these so-called restaurant burgers. The Portabello Mushroom burger was at least interesting. Now they’re offering up a “Jalapeno Burger” (sorry, I’m to lazy to grab the tilde “N”).

Continue reading “Carl’s Junior Coupons” …

Apparently, it is not enough to just enjoy a Chili Dog every so often anymore. No sir… all the big diet kids are switching to the high flying, high risk,Chili Dog Diet at Wienerschnitzel.

First, the gory details about Wienerschnitzel in case you don’t know about them:

Wienerschnitzel was started with the opening of a single hot dog stand in 1961. Today, we’re the World’s Largest Hot Dog Chain with over 300 restaurants in ten states and Guam. Besides our signature chili dog, we’re also loved for our delicious corn dogs, chili cheese fries and chili cheeseburgers….

As recent commercials would have you believe, Atkins is out and Chili is in. The one I saw features a Wienerschniztel customer saying something like “Hey, I’m not hungry anymore because I enjoyed a chili dog for breakfast, a chili dog for lunch and then a sensible dinner of two corn dogs and a side of chili cheese fries. I am NOT hungry!” What he neglects to mention is that he’s not hungry because he can no longer hold down any solid food and is spending his teatime on the toilet contemplating the aftereffects of too much chili.

But seriously, I like chili as much as the next person. Chili Fries at The Hat are a transcendental experience. Well, it used to be anyhow. I’m not going to get into an argument over whether chili needs to have real meat in it or whether it can’t have beans in it (Texans, stop giving me that eye). I’m here to actually tell you that you can get a Free Chili Dog by signing up for their “Schnitz Fan Club”.

Have I signed up already? Not yet, primarily because you’ve gotta enter a bunch of personal info and my email box is already filled w/ offers for “hot dog enhancement”. Hehe, that was a good one. But hey, in return for signing up you get that free chili dog (valued at what, a dollar?) and access to special Schnitz “download and clips”.

I don’t know what downloads and clips entails, but if it’s anything to do with a naked hot dog with legs running amuck in downtown Los Angeles, I think I may pass just this once.

Price: Free
Available at: Weinerscnitzel “Schnitz” Fan Club
Cheap Eats Score: 7/10

Well, well, well. If it isn’t All You Can Eat Pancake time at International House of Pancakes (that’s IHOP for people who like abbreviations. I sure do.) I actually saw this on another blog, but since I just visited IHOP a little while back I thought I’d revisit this breakfast place.

Here are the gory details:

Our award-winning buttermilk pancakes are served with your choice of breakfast favorites – eggs, bacon, pork sausage and hash browns. During this special offer, we will keep the pancakes coming until you say stop.

All You Can Eat Pancakes are available for a limited time only at participating IHOP locations.

I think it costs $4.99 which seems to be a decent deal if you really, really like pancakes. The last time I was there I got some meat-centric (bacon and sausage) meal that came with toast and eggs so I didn’t get to try their pancakes.

[Edit: I just went to IHOP the other day and they seem to have 3 different all you can eat pancake deals, for $5.99, $6.99 and $7.99 which come with different extras depending on the price.]

If I remember correctly from the last time I had them, they’re not the worst in the world, but nothing to drive more than a couple of miles for. And according to their site there are over 1200 IHOPs throughout the U.S. and Canada, so chances are good there’s one in driving distance of you.

One thing I like about IHOP is that the waitresses are actually FRIENDLY. At least at the one we frequent. I don’t know how they can stay so chipper refilling all those truck-driver and late-night partier’s coffee cups. They must have a stress relief ball pinned to the inside pocket of their aprons or something.

Speaking of coffee… that is one area where I’ve got to give them a real big Cheap Eats raspberry. As with most diners, they always ask if you want coffee with your meal. I always figured they’re just being nice. But anyhow, you may want to watch out if you innocently say yes. Because they serve up the coffee (decent tasting, by the way) in a pitcher and let you fill up your own cups. I think it is all you can drink, but they don’t charge by the cup, at least I don’t think so.

I mean, we just said “Yeah, coffee for two please” and when the bill came it was like $3.50 for coffee! Whatever happened to fifteen cents a cup… and even if not, I thought refills were free. I was pretty shocked. I mean that is almost as much as the price of the All You Can Eat Pancakes!

So instead of all you can eat pancakes, I’d like to see them offer all you can drink coffee that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. And because of that, I’m going to have to lower my score on them a goodly amount…

Price: $4.99
Available at: IHOP
Cheap Eats Score: 5/10

Ah yes, Domino’s Pizza. The other day I was super lazy and decided to order some food for dinner to be delivered. This is generally not a good idea for Cheap Eats as it’s cheaper to make your own food and plus you are generally expected to tip the driver some extra moola for the convenience.

The only delivered food I usually make an exception for is Pizza. One of the reasons is that unless you have an extremely large stomach capacity (or a bunch of people with extremely large stomach capacities are at your house), a single pizza can be dinner, then lunch and then sometimes dinner again.

When you divide the cost among all the meals, it comes out much cheaper. Anyhow, for pizza delivery, I usually choose among the two biggies around here which are Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut.

I haven’t ordered from Pizza Hut in a long time, but the difference between their standard pizza and Domino’s (I know you can get both deep dish and thin crust for both companies, with varying results) is that I feel Pizza Hut is a bit greasier with thicker crust that is sometimes almost “cake-like”. Domino’s is more of a standard flat pizza with crunchier crust, at least from my experience.

One of my fondest memories of Domino’s Pizza is the “Dorm Pizza Sneak”. What is this? For those who’ve lived in dorms you probably know about the unwritten rule that any large quantity of hot food is automatically subject to community “sharing” by all members on that particular floor. Occasionally, this sharing can extend to R.A.’s and members of OTHER floors as well. You may not appeal this decision as well.

The end result is that you only get one slice of pizza for your $10. Suck ass. So we used to try and sneak the pizza into our rooms. This was accomplished by exiting the elevator, looking both ways, and then making a mad dash to the designated “pizza room” with the pizza tucked under your arm like a football.

The only problem was this is Pizza Topping Slippage. This happened often, because the Domino’s Pizza near my campus was not known for their crust to topping adhesion properties. So tipping the pizza sideways and then running with it like a football was pretty disastrous for the pie; all the toppings and much of the cheese slid off into on corner of the box! Still, it beat having to share the mess with everyone.

Continue reading “Dominos Pizza Coupons” …

I decided to sort of experiment with writing slightly (very slightly) shorter posts every so often for Cheap Eats… the reason being is that it’s easier to write more frequently if I don’t need to write a novel every time we review something. Well, this will probably please some readers who are tired of long winded paragraphs favored here, so anyhow…

What do we have here… hmm, looks like a Jack Cash Card from Jack In The Box. It’s a sort of fast food credit card that you can fill up with cash and then spend willy nilly on 99 cent tacos and chicken sandwiches. And interestingly enough, it actually Spends Like Real Money™. You’ve probably heard of the card, since they’ve been saturating the airwaves with commercials for it for the past couple months.

Regarding the commercials: interestingly, I feel somewhat in the same position as their clown faced president because I haven’t actually gotten a Jack Cash Card yet. I was hoping that they’d think I’m someone famous (perhaps Jet Li) and give me a free one. But we all know that doesn’t work. You saw how Mr. Jack himself wasn’t able to get away with it in the Jack In The Box commercial.

Well, I’ve been meaning to get one but have been staying away from. So why would you want one anyway for Cheap Eats? Well, it won’t get you into Spago’s, but for one it’s mighty convenient. Hunting for spare change in between the car seat cushions while at the drivethrough is something you do a lot for Cheap Eats… the card can eliminate that. Just keep the card in the car and pay with it. I think they’ll even fill it up for you at the drive through when the balance gets low.

I guess the kicker for me was that For A Limited Time (yes, it sound like a sales pitch) you can get Two Free Tacos when you get a card and fill it up with 10 bucks. These are the soggy but strangely satisfying, meat-toothpaste filled tacos that they sell for 99 cents a pair normally. That’s pretty good, since you’re probably going to fill it up with around that amount anyhow.

I think the Jack Cash Card is a pretty decent idea if you eat at JITB frequently, nearly as good an idea as their introduction of Snowman Ball and Reindeer Ball…

Price: $10.00 card gets 2 Free Tacos
Found at: Jack In The Box
Cheap Eats Score: 7/10

If you watch any of the cable or DTV sports stations, you’ve no doubt seen a billion of the same commercials replayed over and over by now. For sports, I guess they are really marketing to the correct demographic because the commercials never seem to change. I’m extremely tired of the farking “Hemi” commercials by now, but for fast food commercials I’m semi-willing to let them pepper me with those for a bit because they can be funny and we’re always interested in cheap fast food.

Anywho, the current Del Taco commercial featuring those Four for $4 combos seems to have wormed its way into my brain, because the other day I decided to try one out. It’s a good thing that the Del Taco near me is difficult to get to; it’s on the opposite direction of a busy street so I’ve got to make an effort to get there (same with Jack-In-The-Balpha, by the way). Otherwise, I might eat there too often.

I’ve got a lot of good memories from eating at Del Taco in the 70s. I think we used to get the red or green chili burritos quite a bit, as well as the tacos. We pretty much switched off between Del Taco and Taco Bell equally. McDonalds and other hamburger joints didn’t get as much patronage from us.

So, I already knew that 25 percent of this combo would pretty much be a waste. Getting a soda as part of a combo meal is near the top of the Cheap Eats no-nos, especially if you’re taking out. Still, the way the portrayed the meals on TV, they made it sound like the average 6 foot tall 200 pound guy could get full on one of these. I’m a five foot 4 120 pound weakling and I could tell that this meal wasn’t enough just from taking it out of the bag.

The size of the burritos at Del Taco have certainly shrunk over the years. I couldn’t believe that they were calling this was a Del Beef Burrito. I think my mistake was getting the Del Beef Burrito and Taco combo. There are two other four dollar combos that I know of, including one that has a Big Fat Chicken Taco and Chicken Soft Taco and one featuring a Spicy Chicken Burrito and Chicken Soft Taco. Those seem more promising. It’s just that I ate all this poultry recently for Thanksgiving!

One other thing. In the commercial, they also mention that you can a free movie rental if you “up-size” the meal… this might be a good deal for some but I haven’t rented a movie from Blockbuster or any other place for years. I’d rather see more food in the combo meal than a stupid movie rental.

Continue reading “Del Taco Four Dollar Combo Meals” …

As promised earlier, I’m finally getting around to reviewing local area eateries near where I live. As you can imagine, besides reviewing fast food places and “quick sit down” places there aren’t too many chances to review actually restaurants since I try not to eat out too often. That is Cheap Eats Rule #1: avoid eating out when you can!

But anyhow, the other day I happened to be in Pasadena (for the Pasadena City College flea market) and decided to try out an old favorite of mine: Zankou Chicken. You might have heard of this Southern California fave without even knowing it, since Beck sings about it in his song “Debra” (off of the Midnight Vultures CD. Hey, if it’s good enough for Beck…

The first Zankou Chicken was actually opened in Beirut, Lebanon (1962). The owners, the Iskenerian family, then moved to L.A. and opened up the first American Zankou in Hollywood. In the early 90′s, they branched out into heavily Middle-Eastern influenced Glendale, CA and eventually spread to Pasadena, Anaheim, West L.A. and Van Nuys and will be opening in Burbank soon.

There are a lot of strong opinions about Zankou Chicken on either side of the “like-it, hate-it” camps. Some people say it’s the best roast chicken they’ve had while others say they have had better elsewhere, and for cheaper. They have a pretty famous strong garlic paste sauce that has always been a hit. Besides the classic rotisserie chicken you can also get plates which include the garbanzo bean and tahini based hommus (or hummus), pita bread, chopped tomato and these crazy purple-pink marinated turnip pieces.

Some of the more unconventional items on the menu are Shawerma (Marinated beef from a spit), Tarna (Marinated spiced chicken from a spit), Falafels (Fried mixture of Garbanzo, Fava beans, and split peas), and Mutabbal (Eggplant mixed with garlic and sesame)

I’ve always been somewhat split down the middle about the restaurant. I’ve certainly had better tasting Falafel wraps and Shawerma plates elsewhere, but the roast chicken was always really good. Crispy skin and not dry, even for the 1/4 white meat plate. I think the kicker that kept me coming back was the price, which was fairly cheap. The good quality Roasted Chicken Wrap with garlic paste for about $2 was excellent.

But this past time I went, I saw that nearly all the prices have been raised. A chicken wrap is now $3.29 and a 1/4 dark meat chicken plate is now $4.98. This is no longer Cheap Eats. They got a new glitzy looking menu lightboard, but I would have rather had the old boring menu if it meant cheaper prices. In some part, the price hike was overdue. I just can’t get used to inflation.

But I expected that the quality of the food would at least remain the same. Instead, the order of roasted chicken had crisp skin, but it was so salty that I almost had to discard it. And the crispy skin is almost the main reason I used to get it! The meat was just OK, but I had gotten the dark plate. I heard some people who got the white meat chicken plate complaining about it being dry. The chicken wraps were about the same, but it’s no longer very economical to get two of them which is what I used to often do. My wallet didn’t have the heart to divulge any more money to try and see how the Falafel fared.

Continue reading “Zankou Chicken” …