Wendy's new hot 'n juicy cheeseburger

i saw the ads for the new Wendy's burger and didn't really care that much... have never been big on Wendy's burgers (i'm a BK girl at heart), so it's not anything that really would affect my world. but a very mixed review post in Serious Eats peaked my interest. saturday i had no time 2 grab lunch so figured the time is now.

now, i'm not a fan of raw onion on my burgers but needed to try this burger head on so i ordered it as-is. the burgers are supposed to have "new premium toppings", "juicier, thicker beef", and "buttered, toasted buns". here it is in all its glory:

at first bite, it was fresh. crisp (not wimpy) lettuce, nice tomato slab, some pickles, mayo, and (yuck) the raw red onion (the worst uncooked onion of them all), processedy american cheese. unlike a BK burger where you get hit with the delicious fake smoke seasoning, this patty doesn't have any flavor... it's just a meat springboard for the toppings. a few bites in, the flavor starts to remind me of McDonalds burgers. not that they are very alike in form, but if you know me you know that i cannot have a McD's burger without vomiting. that's the reminiscence. (side note: we did a lot of NY-->FL road trips when i was little in the family woody, during the McD's $.29 burger and $.39 cheeseburger sales of the 80s & early 90s. we'd buy a sack of about 20 burgers, enough to last us through several states at a clip. between the family time and the disgusting cheese/itty bitty onion shit taste, i would vomit from about the whole ride from VA to FL. anytime i've tried to touch one since, puke city.) what's happened with this burger is that the red onion has infiltrated all of the other toppings, and it's melding with the mildly offensive "buttered" bun.

i'm usually offput by buttered buns unless i'm at a place with great buns and real butter. otherwise, i really don't need the extra calories and it doesn't add anything. this was absolutely the case here. the american cheese (which i haven't been a fan of in general lately) is also throwing me over the edge... plasticy smelty bleck mixing with onion hell & fake butter. (yes, that is a burger shot taken while driving. i'm also wearing killer heels (on my way to Hurricane Club, next post!))

75% of the way into my burger, the McD's puke sensation was too overpowering and i had to throw it out. took me a good 5 minutes to recover and be in place where i can dive into my fries, though i ended up nauseous for a good 2 hours after that. compounded with guilt that my hour+ gym session was wasted on this wreck. lesson learned: never send a farmers daughter to do a king's job. 2 stars **. (it gets one star since it's not the burgers fault i despise red onion. still sucks tho.)