Jack in the Box: Meh.

I don't generally like to review chain establishments since everyone's been to one of 'em, but I heard tell the line to get in Jack in the Box, 8950 S. US31, was outrageously long the day it opened, with new restaurant-starved Southsiders dying for a taste of the famous West-Coast based chain's wares. We went a week later, but the place is still buzzing with customers and they still need an off-duty Sheriff Deputy to direct traffic at the drive-thru....   We got there at about 10:00 AM on a Sunday, so we ordered a Sausage & Egg Biscuit combo, which included Hash Brown Sticks and coffee, as well as a smorgasbord of other stuff,  including a Sirloin Burger, some Jalepeno Poppers, and two tacos.

The sausage on the biscuit was totally foreign to my Southern sensibilities:  it was thin, pale, and not very well seasoned.  It was, in a compound word, flesh-colored: I was put in mind of a veggie patty or maybe something from Motel Hell or Soylent Green.  It did, however, taste a little like sausage, although Allen Purnell would laugh if he tried it-- he and the Tennessee Pride and Jimmy Dean folks have nothing to worry about from Jack. The Hash Brown Sticks were singularly uninteresting and the Kona coffee was just okay (weak in comparison to White Castle, the standard by which I judge all restaurant coffees), but the Jalapeno Poppers were very good, better than most other fast-food places', including Arby's. The tacos weren't bad but they were as un-Mexican as can be, with a weird if not unpalatable sort of corn/burger taste.

The best part of the meal by far was the Sirloin Burger, although at $4.59 I'm not sure it's worth the expense.  It had a big, square patty that had a definite charbroiled taste, kind of like Dairy Queen's Brazier Burger or Mickey D's Angus Burger (both of which are, I think, less expensive).  It really kind of put me in mind of Burger Chef's old Super Chef, which, for you youngsters, was the big-meat sandwich of a now-extinct burger chain that existed just after the Paleozoic Era, popular at the same time as the Brontosaurus Burgers available at the drive-in on The Flintstones.  All in all, though, I could eat there and at Jack in the Box again, although I'm not sure why.....