This one. Arby’s got put on my personal “boycott forever” list when they switched from regular, skin-on fries (which were delicious) to seasoned curly fries, which are just the deep-fried pubes of Satan. they’ve since re-introduced regular fries, but they’ve still lost me forever.
I still go to Arby’s sometimes but I liked the Homestyle fries much better than the curly fries. None of the local ones have brought back the Homestyle fries (AFAIK).
I lived in SoCal and Nevada for 2 (out of 4 1/2) decades. Before moving there, McDonald’s was a treat. In high school, we had an open campus (we could leave school grounds at lunch.) One day, a couple of friends and I walked past the McDonald’s to go Jerk with the Box. My first taste was “Damn, I’ve been missing this all this time.”
I still get an addict-like need for a Double Quarter-Pounder every couple of months and I’ll eat something from MickeyD’s a couple of times a month.
I’ll say this for Jack in the Crack though. The nearest one is about 80 miles from here. If we have to go more then 50 miles in that direction, we’ll plan on driving an extra 30 that way. Sourdough burger, yum. Ultimate Cheeseburger, damn. More choices on the menu, check.
I do agree that quality varies more store-to-store with JitB though.
I voted for Jack in the Box because I don’t like breakfast and I know that whatever time I go in there I’m not forced to order or eat it.
I went to McDonald’s Tuesday. I like the Big Mac better than the Jumbo Jack.
Oh, ugh. You couldn’t pay me to go to Jack in the Box (aka the JFK Memorial Dining Room). The last couple of times I was lured in there by the spouse, the burgers were…icky. Dry, tasteless, bad even by fast-food standards. The fries are bad, and I don’t usually have a shake so I can’t judge those.
On the other hand, I like McDonald’s, and don’t mind admitting it. I love the Quarter Pounder with Cheese (though even that isn’t as good as it used to be in the Good Old Days ™ when fast-food places weren’t afraid of grease. And McD’s fries are far and away the best fast-food fries around.
So yeah, not even a contest for me.
Even before I knew what a “foodie” was or even had particularly strong opinions about food, that was my one criterion for fries: a good fry should not require any condiment. It may be enhanced by one, but it should not call for one. McDonald’s fries always passed that test. BK did not. Wendy’s did not. (Although I have no idea what the current state of BK and Wendy’s fries are. That was back in 1992 when I was still in high school, and both BK and Wendy’s have messed around with their fries since then.) Five Guys also passes the test for me (although they have a very different flavor than McD’s.) In-N-Out does not (despite their superior burgers.)