!!!UPDATE!!! – This entry is 4 years old! If you’re looking for a review of the fish sandwich Wendy’s introduced in 2008, read the new review.
Well, local Wendy’s are now serving fish sandwiches. I don’t know if this is just for the Lenten season. I hope not, because, while I don’t eat red meat and am trying to give up eating chicken, I am addicted to Wendy’s French Fries. <topical humor>I’m sorry, Freedom Fries.</topical humor> Anyway, Wendy’s also serves Dr Pepper, always have, unlike the schizophrenic McDonald’s in the area, which run about 3 to 1 against having it. What’s worse is that Taco Bell had just recently solidified it’s Pepsi-block of soda selection, meaning that instead of Dr Pepper, Taco Bell offers some crap called Wild Cherry Pepsi. Oh, the horror.
So Wendy’s is probably my favorite fast food. The Spicy Chicken Sandwich is probably the best chicken sandwich made on an assembly line somewhere in Peoria, period. But, as noted, I’m waffling on the chicken. I keep meaning to give it up, but that would mean that I would have to have a garden salad or a baked potato whenever I went to Wendy’s, just to get my French fries and Dr Pepper. A baked potato and French fries? Please. So, I’ve always had fantasies about the legendary Wendy’s Fish Sandwich. (I have a very mundane fantasy life.) I just knew Wendy’s would make it better than any other fast food chain.
Incidentally, it has recently come to my attention that I mispronounce “Wendy’s.” Apparently, I am unable to combine the simple phonetic combination of “when” and “dees.” I say, “wind” and “dees.” This has caused me much embarrassment and soul searching. I don’t even hear the difference when others say the two words. One, of course, means that conditions are brisk and breezy; the other is the best fast food chain in America, but it sounds the same to me.
So, one can imagine my excitement that the mythological Wendy’s Fish Sandwich finally arrived on our Long Island shores. I am deeply saddened to tell you that it sucks. Sucks balls nasty. Okay, not really balls nasty, but it ain’t good. The fish is the standard chopped up white fish that all American’s enjoy in our fish sticks, and, in fact, the breading is similar in constancy to a high school cafeteria’s Friday Selection. The similarities to high school food do not end there! The fish patty is soggy and limp (yet the coating is crispy when bitten into. Isn’t modern science amazing?), and the taste is bland and, well, really bland. They throw the obligatory single iceberg lettuce leaf that is a signature of all Wendy’s sandwiches, add a bit of tartar sauce, and put it on the always tasty, always moist, potato bread bun. The bun is the best part, but the tartar sauce wasn’t bad.
Sigh. So that still leaves the lowly McDonald’s Filet O’Fish as the best drive-thru fish sandwich out there. Checker’s is close, but they only offer it around Lent. Burger King just went through another test-market-liked-this-one-better change of their secondary menu items, which made their once huge, meaty BK Big Fish sandwich into an almost perfect clone of the Filet O’Fish, but the McDonald’s still remains champ because their tartar sauce has dried onion in the mix. Oh, Wendy’s, where did we go so wrong?
And yet, I will order it again, the next time I visit Wendy’s, in the naïve hope that my purchases will speak to the boys upstairs that there is a market for this type of thing. And I’ll probably ask ’em to throw a slice of cheese on it, too. Because, really, all I’m looking for is a sandwich to go along with my fries and drink.
4 replies on “Wendy's Fresh Catch”
Wow! You gotta lot of paragraphs out of that!
Back home in the Midwest, Arby’s used to serve this absolutely fabulous fish sandwich each year during Lent that by far beats the McDonald’s filet-o-fish. It was tasty, crisply breaded, and served on a nice firm bun with a real wedge of lemon on the side. Absolutely the best fish sandwich anywhere!
Unfortunately, it eventually vanished off the menu in my area a few years ago. When I moved to the east coast, I hoped that I would find it was still here (big, urban population, lots of extras to be had, you’d think!) But, alas, when I went into the nearest Arby’s on the first Friday in Lent, the cashier looked at me as if I was making an April Fool’s joke when I asked whether their Arby’s served the fantastic fish sandwiches during Lent.
In the meanwhile, I was thinking of trying the Wendy’s sandwich, but now I feel dissuaded by your commentary. Perhaps I’ll try the Checkers.
(No, I don’t obsess about food all the time. But if you’d had an Arby’s fish sandwich once upon a time, you’d still be seeking it out, too… ;-) )
What in the holy fuck is this “Lent” thing? My Wendy’s always has a fish sandwich, and it’s pretty good, regardless of “Lent,” or whatever the fuck you idiot ass nuggets believe in.
You seriously don’t know what Lent is? And you say “holy fuck”? I think yer joshing me, kid.