By Karl Wilder
There are two sacred cows in the Southern California fast food cannon. In and Out Burger and Del Taco.
When in this part of the world you will hear from multiple people…”Oh my God, you have not tried Animal Style yet (at In and Out), Oh My God, it is awesome, the best burger ever” with similar hyperbolic endorsements of Del Taco.
Let us begin with the best. Or at least the best of the worst.
Del Taco original burrito: I chose the original as this is what they are known for but they now have that GMO Beyond burger meat sub and other even less savory choices.
The burrito was tastyish, not great, but eatable.
Then the claim to fame taco. It was stuffed with enough cheese to make a toasted cheese sandwich with a meat like substance below. To say it was bad would be to elevate it to a status it does not deserve. It did not even have enough flavor to be bad, it was tasteless.
It has been 7 hours and 48 minutes since this consumption and I am still eating Maalox (that’s an antacid) as if it were candy.
In and Out….I got the ‘Animal Style’ as suggested and if you want a burger that tastes of plastic and sugar then Oh my God you must go there. The cheese was the orange plastic known as American, the sauce some sweet pink glob that was truly sickening, the bread sweet, the fries abhorrent. However my stomach survived without medical intervention but that was possibly as a result of the fact that I could only gag down 3 bites.
My suggestion: Oh My God…go elsewhere.
Expect to spend $10 or so on these “tasty treats”. Plus service and sales tax. Plus a drink. And in my case, the cost of the Maalox.
Branches are all over the place in Southern California. So no special location. And I am not willing to try any others – even if I should do in the interests of research.