Critic's Review
Krystal sponsored the BurgerBattle and frankly I'd never heard of it before, and given that I was in Hamburger mode from the event, I decided to check them out. Its in a bad part of town; Sunrise and Powerline to be exact; where white guys in BMWs are looked at with suspicion. But in the daylight it seemed safe enough.
Krystal is thought by some to be the "White Castle of the South". If you're from NY you know what White Castle is. Folklore dictates that White Castle has the greatest tasting hamburgers of all time. Those of us with a more realistic perspective know that the only reason it has that reputation is that no-one has ever tasted White Castle when they weren't totally inebriated. Like White Castle, Krystal is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So the same model may possibly apply.
I've never been to Krystal before, and I'm never going again, so I got the sampler so I could try a bit of everything. The sampler is a pretty good deal, you get a Krystal with cheese (the mini-burger/slider), a chix (the mini-chicken sandwich), a chili cheese pup (mini hot dog), small fries, a corn dog and a small drink; all for $7.
The chili cheese pup is actually pretty good; the chicken is heavily breaded and spicy but pretty good tasting as well. And the Krystals, well they're pretty close to those steamed, slippery buggers I remember from White Castle. As for the fries; they're not worth the calories.
Now its important to note that I am one of those who never had White Castle sober (and I am today) so a direct comparison may not be fair. Plus its been 8 or more years since I've had White Castle. But I could see how this stuff would be something you could wolf down at 4am after "many" beers. Save the corn dog (NYers don't do the corn dog thing), this stuff isn't terrible. Its junk, I mean its not anything that any health-conscious person not doing a review would put into their body, but as fast food goes its ok. They do need to get the fish sandwich. Because as we old White Castlers know; the fish sandwich is money.
This food is just fine for late night munchies. And I'm not sure they're trying to go for much more than that.