Thoughts On: Wendy’s Breakfast

An abundance of thick, white, creamy sauce makes Wendy’s Breakfast a PUNGENT experience

For as long as I can remember, McDonald’s and Chick-Fil-A (as of recently given their expansion) have dominated the nationwide fast food breakfast game. Other great fast food breakfast spots are still regional, such as Bojangles, and other nationwide chains like Burger King and even the almighty Taco Bell need significant aid in the breakfast department. Wendy’s is marketing their new breakfast menu as “America’s New Favorite”, clearly gunning for the top spot of the breakfast pedestal. I have faith they can pull it off, and if they do, it’ll truly be a photo finish given that the entire fast food industry will crumble to its knees as the coronavirus slowly kills us all.

I very strategically planned my order so that I was able to hit on every aspect of the new menu by spending the least amount of money possible. What the hell does that mean? There’s three different kinds of meat, three different bread options, two different cheese options, etc. and, along with the seasoned fries, I got three sandwiches that incorporate every element at least once as to accurately review the whole experience, starting with…

Breakfast Baconator: Egg, Sausage, Bacon, American Cheese, Swiss Cheese Sauce, Bread

Eating a Breakfast Baconator will go something like this: You’ll be concerned about the yellowish-white shit smeared everywhere, take your first bite, be a little bit confused about the lack of flavor, and then become encompassed by a PUNGENT schmack of dairy. I love dairy so I was kind of vibing with the Swiss cheese sauce and twin slices of American, but I’ve never eaten a breakfast sandwich where the cheese is the dominant flavor. Upon closer inspection, I determined that the bacon had a nice crisp with a good flavor, but the sausage didn’t really taste like much of anything. That and the egg were getting drowned out, literally, by the cheese. It was pretty good overall though.

Sausage, Egg, and Swiss Croissant

With the exception of the bread being switched out with a croissant, which I’ll get to in a second, this was a paired down version of what I’d just ate. Here, I focused more on the egg, which I’m thankful is a “real” egg as opposed to that yellow foldable stuff. The sight of the over-hard yolk reminded me how much better food is if you just prepare it yourself, but was warming all the same. Unfortunately, the egg lacked a discernible egg flavor, probably because this little bitch had no seasoning on it. Wendy’s needs to throw some salt and pepper on the eggs they’re frying. This didn’t lend itself well to the sausage, whose strange lack of flavor was even more apparent here. Sausage is supposed to be robust and porky with some spice. There might’ve been the slightest hint of a red pepper flake, but if you fed it to me blindfolded I don’t think I could’ve told you it was meat. Even the Swiss cheese struggled to produce a rich flavor without the aid of the American. The croissant itself isn’t dissimilar to the bread, only less dense with little to no flakes or layers which is the hallmark of what a croissant should be. Overall, the sandwich was one note texturally, suffered from a lack of flavor, and was the worst of the three. Wouldn’t recommend.

Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit

The honey butter here is the added “umph” Wendy’s is hoping will attract people into their stores. It smells strong and my immediate thought was that it would be too sweet, too overpowering. I was wrong however, and despite tasting more like sugar butter than honey butter, it added a smooth sweetness to a good-ass chicken biscuit. The biscuit itself is that thick, stick to the roof of your mouth kind of biscuit, not the best but pretty good for a fast food burger joint. Biscuits as a whole are also just really tasty and will usually trump all other bread/bun/roll options. The chicken appeared and tasted like real chicken. It could’ve used some more flavor, a very common theme among Wendy’s Breakfast, but it was peppery, crispy, and sized large enough for an acceptable chicken to biscuit ratio. The item was overall smaller than I would’ve liked though. This was the best of the three sandwiches, but I’ll go ahead and say that Chick-Fil-A’s chicken biscuit still reigns supreme.

Seasoned Potatoes

The seasoned potatoes serve the function of being breakfast french fries and they’re better than the hash brown patties all other fast food places offer. The potato flavor is apparent, the seasoning was pepper forward, and every single wedge was crispy. As opposed to the hash brown alternative, these didn’t completely soak up grease either. What they need is a dipping sauce. Ketchup, in my mind, is too similar to the flavor profile of lunch. What would be amazing is if Wendy’s whipped up something specific for these, like a breakfast salsa or hot sauce concoction. Really good though.

Conclusion

Wendy’s breakfast game is strong overall, but I don’t think it topples the two national kings (or queens if you want to look at it like that). The biggest problem is the lack of flavor and seasoning across the board. The sausage especially is really struggling. However, Wendy’s does have a place in the breakfast game. Think of it this way: A Wendy’s Breakfast Baconator isn’t going to be better than an Egg McMuffin, but it will be better than a Chick-Fil-A Bacon, Egg, and Cheese biscuit. Likewise, the Wendy’s Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit won’t be better than a Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuit, but will be better than a McDonald’s chicken biscuit. So if you have a craving early in the morning for both an egg based sandwich and a chicken based sandwich . . .