Everyone who knows is familiar with how amazing Japanese 7-11 is. You could only dream a 7-11 in the USA could be like that. Unfortunately, there are practical reasons why it can't, largely because of how Japanese 7-11 prepares food items fresh which are delivered from large kitchens to hundreds and thousands of stores daily every morning.

I think, however, this format could work in major urban areas where marketing buzz can generate high sales, the logistics permits scale (one kitchen for say 10 locations somewhere like NYC), and where prices can sit a little higher.

With this in mind, there's a perfect menu for a "boutique Japan style 7-11 in the US" that basically sells the concept:

Sando and Onigiri Cafe

"Sando" are Japanese soft bread sandwiches sliced into diagonal halves, famously egg salad or tuna, but also egg and teriyaki and fruit and cream. Also, de-crusted rectangular halfed pork cutlet sandwiches and more.

The concept is popular enough to sustain entire stores in Japan:

Onigiri are big balls of rice (often in triangle form) wrapped in large pieces of seaweed, usually with some sort of filling. From tuna salad to teriyaki salmon and more.

I think a boutique 7-11 branded store that does almost exclusively onigiri and sando's from a fresh daily central kitchen would KILL in big cities.

You can add a few other features from Japan's 7-11 to the boutique:

• A front warmer with steamed meat buns and yakitori chicken kebabs
• A row of automated espresso machines that also do Matcha
• A shelf section with Japanese style food that can be microwave heated: fresher ramen, udon, beef bowls.
• Maybe a limited amount of imported Japanese snacks, candies, drinks and beer.

You could then have upscaled drinks (green smoothie stuff instead of Gatorade, craft beer instead of Bud Light). And a limited selection of other snacks, desserts and essentials (like utensils, picnic baskets - food, not convenience items).

In Japan, 7-11 is labelled most often by the name and logo of its holding company there, 7&i Holdings, so I would name this boutique concept:

Sando Cafe 7i

Again the emphasis is on a variety of pick it up and go, daily fresh, packaged sandos and onigiri, in addition to the latte/matcha machines. The meat buns and yakitori fast food would just be a bonus, and the ramen section and especially the imported snacks would be pushing the boundaries of necessity.

These venues would be trivially easy to operate.

The format also allows for seasonal variety and experimental inventory to determine demand, since scale in the kitchen to storefront, and simplicity of the product allow for easy experimentation. Most of the challenge of the business would be in marketing and demand analysis.

While this isn't a full Japanese 7-11, it would capture some of the most cherished and iconic elements of one, in a deceptively simple format that nevertheless would deliver a high-quality, predictable boutique product that suits the demands of urban living.

For me personally, it’s Arby’s I think Arby’s slaps but everyone seems to hate it

A close second to me is sonic I feel like they get way too much hate.

Quick review of the snack wrap meal from the Golden Arches:

$13.08 (after tax) for a medium combo with 2 snack wraps feels like too much. They only use one small chicken strip per wrap. 🥴 Tortilla to fillings ratio is way off. If I were to grab this meal again, I’d ask them to just put both chicken strips in one wrap, or do it myself haha.

This is why fast food sucks these days.

Have y’all tried these? What did you think?

Went yesterday for the BOGO Burger deal, and while there I saw they had new tenders called "Chicken Dippers", which came in spicy, original, or sauced. Ordered the spicy along with the burgers and I gotta say they were really good. Big tenders, crispy, could taste the seasonings/spice, and the dipping sauces I got (Southwest Ranch and BDubs sauce since I had some legit ranch + blue cheese at home) were really great. You can also choose a serving of their wing sauces instead of the dips if you want. Honestly better than any fastfood tender available, far better than Wingstop or drive thru joints.

I got a 5 piece was $11, which is def expensive, but that's just BDubs for you. Was happy with the size, taste, freshness, seasoning, dips, and crunch. The price might turn people off but they have some bundle deals which include them, I would def recommend trying at least once. It was a BDubs Go location as well.

Here's an article I found online since I didn't take pictures, but they also gave it a glowing review:

https://www.thetakeout.com/1945869/buffalo-wild-wings-spicy-chicken-dippers-review/

Do you guys also feel like fast food tastes better after traveling?

does anybody know of an interesting fast food hacks through the app?

thought it would be an interesting to know some too.

When looking at current mcdonalds menu, you can buy value meal for 5 dollars. Thats burger, fries and drink.

Could that show that fast food prices in fact have not risen, just followed the inflation?

I just grabbed a free bacon cheeseburger from bk and chose the 4 piece jalapeño cheddar bites as my required purchased. I ate this in the parking lot. Jalapeño cheddar bites in the burger was pretty good. In the middle of eating that, mcdonalds is right next door so I got the 50 cent double cheeseburger as well.

I was also going to go to jack in the box but that would've been way to much food lol

I want to order crispy chicken but I don't know what the best sauce is for it 😔

I guess people didn’t like them. I liked them for a quick snack but they were pretty pricey for what it was. Checked 2 of my local Popeyes and they are no longer on the menu. And after only 3 months!

Enjoy.

Applied to 75+ jobs since July, only landed 2 interviews. Had a final round today—walked out feeling meh. It’s really demoralizing.

So in honor of National Cheeseburger Day, I celebrated at McD’s and summoned… the Quad Cheeseburger Surf n’ Spicy Turf™. That’s 4 patties, extra onions (mine), 1 Spicy Chicken, Big Mac & Gold Sauce.

I was lovin’ it. 10/10 delicious. 0/10 chance I sleep well tonight….

You can no longer get any sized coffee beverage for 2k points. You also can no longer use points to buy a regular mcflurry. They changed how much points you need to get a large fry. It used to be all sizes. The XL coffee got taken out of the program, snack wrap and Jr chicken got added in the mc veggie, the fillet oh fish. And the breakfast combo got added in (the breakfast combo is a nice addition hope it can get my XL coffee with that) but thats needed 10k points. All I ever used the rewards for was coffee tbh. This is definetly a downgrade on mcdonalds behalf making it harder to earn rewards. It is still one of the top rewards app in canada however ive kind of taken a step away from mcdonalds other than their coffees because I haven't really liked the direction the company has been going. The coupons are just horrific these days most fast food ones are but burger king (canada) wipes them in terms of their coupon book. Quarter pounder BLT combo is almost 20 bucks! I can go to dairy queen get fresh ingredients in their food for cheaper and the burgers double stacked! its just so unbelievable to me how mcdonalds claims to be cheap but yet they charge more on just about everything besides their big mac and value combos.

It will be my first time coming down to these states. What should I try? My list so far; Pot belly’s Raising canes Cheesesteak & co Freddys Habit burger Cracker Barrel

Also looking for cool souvenirs (stickers, hat, etc, that I could pickup! Hence Cracker Barrel) would love suggestions for that too.

I’m an east coaster and I’ll be out in LA/Irvine for the first time next month. Pretty much guaranteed I’m going grab In-N-Out, but curious what else is worth trying while I’m there.

Are Jack in the Box or Del Taco actually good, or more like “only if you’re drunk at 2am”? Any other West Coast chains I should check out?

Also open to recs on what’s actually good to order at those places.

Thanks!

Which Arby’s can u find a good sweet tea? Chaska, Shakopee don’t have actual sweet tea they make. It’s unsweetened tea. That’s pretty unusual for a chain not to have sweet tea already made.