Fast Food Frenzy 🍔🍟🥤

Burger King at One@Kent Ridge has finally reopened after their renovation with a larger kitchen, but slightly less seating space.

This was my first time trying the Tendergrill Chicken from Burger King and I really liked it. The chicken was tender and moist, with a lovely chargrilled flavour. There wasn’t a skewed skin-meat ratio, so this would probably fall under the healthier choice category. I love the mushroom Swiss pairing with the Tendergrill Chicken, and this will be a combination I’m sure to order again.

Unfortunately, Burger King seems to have changed their onion rings. They seem thicker than before, but weren’t quite crisp when we received them. They went limp pretty quickly by the time we settled down to eat back in our office.

A mini wok flavour brought to KFC, so we definitely had to try. They’re really generous with the amount of Nestum cereal, which is great because it’s so yummy! This turned out a whole lot better than I’d have expected from a fast food chain. While it’s not the same standard as what you’d get at a zhi char stall, KFC’s version is still pretty aromatic and quite crispy. Worth trying at least once, and a great option if you can’t get to a zhi char stall but still want some cereal chicken goodness.

The launch of this cone certainly made waves, and it’s the first time I’ve seen such a queue of more than 9 people at the dessert kiosk at 10pm.

I was excited to receive this pastel purple soft serve on a chocolate waffle cone, but my first taste of this dessert left me feeling like the spicy nugget pictured. Though there is some sweet potato flavour, it tastes artificial and off-putting. If it weren’t for the cone, I wouldn’t even have tried to finish the ice cream (because face it, that’s 90% of the reason why I order cone ice creams for!). I was very excited about the availability of chocolate waffle cones at McDonald’s, and I wish they’d make this a permanent addition to the menu so we could have a combination of their regular vanilla soft serve and chocolate waffle cone. I guess I can’t complain much since it’s only $2 - while I wouldn’t buy this again, I’d definitely get the vanilla soft serve chocolate waffle cone combination!

Go without any expectations because you can’t really taste the chendol flavour in the soft serve although there is a slight burnt/roasty taste. If you asked me to guess what flavour this was, I’d probably have said burnt caramel. Either way it was still pretty yummy, especially with the chocolate coating (+$0.20, Regular soft serve is only $1.20) because chocolate almost always makes ice cream better.

Proof that you can eat healthy at McDonald’s, although it is expensive to do so.

For $5.80 you can get a grilled chicken salad, or a grilled chicken wrap, both of which are light on calories. However, the salad portion is meagre and probably won’t keep you full for long as it comes with a mix of lettuce, shredded cabbage and carrots, one slice of tomato, 100g (?) of grilled skinless chicken and Kewpie sesame dressing. I do have to say that the chicken is delicious, tender and juicy though!

If you have the option of grabbing a salad at a salad eatery, go for that instead because you’re likely to get a far more filling and satisfying salad. That said, if your friends want to eat at McDonald’s and you’re trying to eat healthy, don’t say there’re no healthy choices at Macs. :)

Lesson of the day: Never let a hungry person do the ordering. My dining partner queued to order our food while I was searching for a table and he ended up ordering onion rings. He regretted that decision a while later but it was already too late.

The onion rings were served pretty quickly, but they weren’t hot. The portion is quite generous, however, the taste wasn’t fantastic. It might’ve tasted better if they were served hot, but as it was, they didn’t quite hit the spot and left an oily aftertaste. Wouldn’t recommend the onion rings as a side.

Had the twister fries ($3.70 on its own) as part of the Crispy Chicken Feast. I always look forward to having the twister fries make their rounds on the festive menu. Kind of wish macs would make this permanent as well as I don’t enjoy their regular fries much.

Seems like the twister fries have become less twister-ish over the years and there’s a larger proportion of short fries. While not as aesthetic or fun to chew on without the long curls, I do find the shorter bits more crunchy and flavourful. They do tend to get more easily burnt though, but I’m not complaining as long as twister fries stay on the menu.

Really wanted to have the McDonald’s Chocolate Pie ($1.80) before it disappeared from the menu again. Also judging by how popular it was previously, I made sure to head down to an outlet before it sold out.

At only $1.80 a pop, the chocolate pie is an affordable and yummy treat. Of course you can’t expect gourmet quality, but I’m satisfied enough with the chocolate lava in the pie which sparked joy in my choco-holic self. The chocolate filling is rich, lusciously thick and slightly bittersweet, which was just up my alley. I didn’t enjoy the pie crust much, as I’m not a fan of McDonald’s apple pies, but it served its purpose of being a vehicle to carry the molten lava goodness inside so I can’t complain. Honestly at $1.80 I think the chocolate pie is super worth it. I would even pay $1.80 just for the lava filling sans pie crust and use the chocolate as a dip 😂

Tried out the McDonald’s Crispy Chicken by ordering the Crispy Chicken Feast ($10.30) which comes with Twister Fries (yay!), Chocolate Pie (double yay!) and a drink.

The crispy chicken is served in a box and comes with two delectably golden brown fried chicken cutlets. To be honest we weren’t expecting much, but the chicken turned out to be super crisp. There was a satisfying crunch with every bite, made even more satisfying when your teeth sink into the juicy and succulent chicken flesh. The great thing was that the chicken wasn’t overly oily, in fact it actually doesn’t leave your fingers or tastebuds feeling greasy. It is indeed a little bit spicy, not much, but enough to give it some flavour. I dipped it with the garlic chilli for some extra flavour too and it was delicious! While I wouldn’t go out of my way just to get this, it’s a nice addition to the menu and worth popping by if it’s on the way to try.

Macs doesn’t necessarily have to be super unhealthy. I’ve known that cup corn was on the menu for quite a while but never ordered it as my heart and tongue were always drawn to the golden fried hashbrown. A little win for self-discipline today in that I chose to order cup corn (3oz). Yay! I love corn but I hate having it on the cob because all the fibres end up stuck between my teeth and are super annoying. This saves you all the trouble while allowing you to feel slightly better about your cheat day. While the cup corn does come with a separate pack of butter, you don’t actually have to add the butter to have a delicious side dish. The corn kernels are already sweet and slightly savoury, making them a delightful and light side to go along with the McGriddles (or any other wonderfully yummy but unhealthy macs breakfast sets). Must try to practice more self restraint from now on and opt for the cup corn instead of hashbrowns!

Second time ordering macs within a week and that’s already more than I’ve ordered macs in the past 6 months but McGriddles is worth it. Note that advance delivery orders have to be placed at least 120 minutes ahead of desired delivery time and that order cutoffs for macs breakfast are at 10.30am. I placed the order for 5 McGriddles at 10.15am and they arrived at 11.20am so it was pretty good timing for lunch.

Not photogenic or aesthetic at all after being smushed in the delivery bag but who cares. Definitely recommend the McGriddles with sausage and egg so the egg can undercut the saltiness of the sausage and balance out the sweetness of the McGriddle buns. After taking a good look at my whole McGriddle out of the wrapper, I feel like it has actually shrunk a fair bit since McGriddles was a regular item menu years ago but maybe that’s just nostalgia and rose-tinted lenses clouding my memory. It’s still got the same (unhealthy, but great) taste that I’ve remembered all these years.

On a side note, not sure if macs has outsourced their delivery team to a company or something. On this delivery and the one last week, we had mainland Chinese riders who delivered the orders and we didn’t have particularly good experiences both times. Last week, the rider was ok but he might have jostled the delivery bag because about half the hot milo beverage ended up being spilt inside the plastic bag. Our encounter today was much more unpleasant. Received a rude phone call from the rider at 11.20am demanding (in mandarin) “where are you?”. He didn’t even bother to state he’s from McDonald’s so I was a little confused and taken aback that a random chinese male would call and demand my whereabouts. Upon meeting the driver near the collection point, he chided me for not giving clear instructions on the collection point by pointing to the delivery chit. I had clearly stated “Roundabout at ground floor” in my delivery address but the driver had so kindly taken it upon himself to enter the nearest building, approach the security guard counter to drop off the delivery and blame me when they didn’t accept the delivery. Seriously, is that even my fault? Maybe I should have written roundabout in mandarin too. After walking back up to our office, we discovered that one of the drinks we had ordered (Ribena) was missing. I called up the McDonald’s delivery hotline and thank goodness Ivan who answered was super polite and helpful. He arranged for the packet drink to be delivered to us with no hassle within the hour. So thanks very much Ivan, but I can’t say the same to our snowflake rider from this morning.

Since McGriddles is back for a limited time, I couldn’t resist ordering it! This reminds me so much of my childhood when I used to frequent Macs more often. How I used to take McGriddles for granted. The McGriddles are just as good as I remembered even though it wasn’t piping hot (since it was delivered). The McGriddles buns are what makes this so special - a marriage between fluffy pancakes and a bun, with chunks of maple syrup to give it that lovely sweetness! Love that the cheese melted and coated the whole patty and egg. Not the healthiest breakfast of course, but definitely worth the calories. Hope it doesn’t sell out that fast cause I would love to order it again!