I left work at 2:00 yesterday and I had yet to eat any lunch. On the way to the hotel, I spotted a Long John Silver’s / KFC. As it’s been years since I’ve eaten at a LJS and I really liked the food, I stopped. I vividly remembered what the fish and chicken tasted like and how much liked it, so I couldn’t wait to get my food. I ordered a “Fish and Chicken Plank Meal with added shrimp, and a medium Dr. Pepper.
When filled my soda cup, I found out that there was no ice at all in the building because all of their ice machines were broken. This was never mentioned to me when I ordered. Take note if you work at a fast food place, if you know you are out of ice, tell me this when I order a soda. Fountain soda with no ice, at least to me, taste horrible!!! I was fortunately heading back to the hotel where I had ice in the freezer.
I was back at my hotel room 5 minutes after getting my order and I started to eat. I tried the fried shrimp first and they were great! They tasted like they had come fresh out of the fryer a few minutes earlier. The temperate was just right as they were really hot, but not too hot to eat them in one bite each. The batter was a little saltier than I remembered, but it was the right saltiness that just helps enhance the other flavors! I had forgotten just how grand and addicting the batter was at LJS.
I hope everyone reading this has tasted the greatness of a tray of crumbs from LJS doused in malt vinegar. If you don’t know what I am talking about, I’ll explain. When LJS takes food out of the fryer and throws it into the bins of cooked food, brittle pieces of cooked batter will break off of the food. As they cannot really do anything else with these cooked crumbs, LJS has always given away trays of them for free if you request them. I know that I am failing to describe how good they taste. They are well worth the health-hazards (they are batter and grease) of eating them.
I moved on to the chicken only to have my meal head downhill. The chicken was barely hot and had a rubbery texture. It tasted nowhere near as good as the chicken I remembered. I am positive it had been sitting under a heat lamp for far too long, so I may go to a LJS again while I am close to one but eat in so I can take stale food back if needed. The chicken was always my favorite thing there, but it had to be freshly cooked!
The chicken was a disappointment, but since I was hungry still I moved on to the fish. The meal was redeemed at least some at this point. The fish was almost as good as I remember. It was hot and the batter was amazingly good. Like with the shrimp, it was a little more salty than I remembered, but not oversalted. The fish itself was flaky and tasted good (what little of it you could taste over the joyfully good batter).
Overall, the shrimp were amazing, the fish was really good, the chicken was very disappointing and having no ice was an annoyance. I have been retaught a big lesson though; for the battered food items at LJS to be great tasting, it all has to be HOT and FRESHLY COOKED! If you pick it up with your hand, it should be hot enough that you can only hold it for around 5 seconds. Time permitting, I may go back to LJS, but I’ll make sure all the food is fresh and hot before I walk out of the store.
Edit (June 29): I ate at Long John Silver’s again tonight for dinner. I had not eaten much all day and stayed at work until around 7, so I was starving. Anyways, I ordered the same thing as I got earlier in the article. This time though it was all great! Everything was hot and perfectly cooked! I just wish that I could get great food every time I go there!
