Critic's Review
Dairy Queen has opened a location across from the ugly blue shopping center; a low-end alternative to Smashburger.
Dairy Queen owns the Orange Julius brand, and I wanted to see if I could jog my memory. They were a mall store when I was a kid, but my Mom rarely let me have one. Now that I have my own money, it's a different story.
This location is different that the outdoor one in Pompano; they call this a Grill and Chill. It's actually a lot more like Smashburger than you might think.
They have a $5 lunch deal, with a choice of 3 items, fries a drink and a mini-sundae. But I didn't really want fries, and I wanted an Orange Julius. A double cheeseburger was only like $3 and I'm on my cheat day, so I thought I'd try it.
They give you a number and you sit and wait. The booths are kind of nice; like at a really cheap restaurant. These are franchise operations now, so it's probably a kit that they put together themselves.
I thought the drink would come out first, but it didn't work out that way. Someone came over, put the burger and the drink on the table and left with my receipt and the tray.
My first thought was, "what's the difference between take out and eat in?". The burger doesn't even come in a cardboard boat. It looked a lot better in the picture; I opened it up to see what was inside.
There was a time when mustard on a burger would have been a deal-breaker, but I kind of like it now. This was your typical, tasteless fast food burger; the same as you get at McDonalds or Burger King. Salt, more ketchup. Nothing could save it. But there was a lot of cheese-food.
The "Orange Julius" was really a blended frozen drink, made with Orange Juice, ice cream and ice. It was very icey. The Original Orange Julius was smoother; more like OJ and milk frothed in a blender. So they bought the brand, but the original product it is not. Creamsicles are good, but it's not an Orange Julius.
Well, the news is that they're open. It's not the Dairy Queen I remember.