Jack in the Box Sirloin Burger

Let’s face it; our nation has grown accustomed to the life of fast food. I think the latest figures that came out put roughly 99.8% of our country’s population in the "VERY overweight" category. Thank you! Drive through!

It’s a faced paced and vigorous world out there for the few of us that still have jobs. Wake up early, get the kids up, feed the animals, streak into the bathroom before a female occupies it for the entire morning, get dressed, change shirts at least twice due to unexpected spills, take kids to school, yell and scream at the guy who cut you off as you are headed to work. *Whew! And that all happens before 8 am. Before you know it lunch time is here. I think we all know that strenuous labor we so worked so proficiently on deserves an energy filled meal. Something to carry us through the rest of the afternoon, I mean after all, our companies are depending on us.

I, like most people I am sure, don’t always have the time to get the juicer out and feed the whirling animal like machine carrots, celery, a banana, and some paprika for a lunchtime meal before heading off to work for the day. The fact is, often times, I don’t have time for lunch at all. In a perfect world we would all have adequate time, resources, and budget to go home and relax while we prepared ourselves a nutritionally balanced meal containing fresh fruits and vegetables. My world, however, is far from perfect. When I do find time for a meal, if that’s what you want to call it, I often find myself staring at a drive-up speaker yelling at some high school kid with a headset. I just hope that my meal closely resembles what was relayed through what sounded like two soup cans connected by a piece of string. I don’t even bother saying no tomato, extra pickles and light mayonnaise anymore. Nope, you have better luck just saying what number you want and throwing the stuff you don’t like out the window at passing vehicles. You start to get picky or try an attempt to "have it your way" and that will piss a fast food employee right off. Want to get your food screwed with? Go ahead, start barking out special requests and see just how much special attention your order gets.

I have toured the fast food companies with the best of them. Truck drivers don’t have anything on me. I know how many chicken nuggets you can get or what the fillet o fish comes with. I know that the double whopper doesn’t have cheese unless you ask nicely, but the regular whopper does. I won’t even go into Wendy’s, as that was my first and still favorite place of employment. With all this consumption of fast food I still try to do my part to stay in shape. I make a valid attempt to chase anyone I can on foot rather than using the dog or the vehicle. I will often times even walk to the garbage instead of hurling the wrappers and empty fry containers across the office. I just don’t want to give anyone the impression Im fat and lazy. Do I eat badly? Yes, certainly so, but I will still look good when the cardiac arrest comes into play.

With that said, I had an experience I thought deserved some recognition. Tired of the same old food choices, I traveled a little further down the road and was tempted enough to stop at Jack in the Box. When I arrived at the menu I was a little shocked at some of their recent changes. First of all I noticed the delicious looking smoothies..mmmm, yummy! Ciabatta chicken and burgers, fish and chips, Asian salads, and of course the little jewel that caught my eye. The new Jack in the Box Sirloin Bacon and Cheese Burger! Whoa mamma! Deservingly this baby is numero uno on the ol' menu.

I pulled forward and was warmly greeted by Michelle, the young lady who was in charge of taking my order. After Michelle asked how I was doing, provided her sign and favorite type of music, I was ready to order. The sounds of the speaker were almost digital, crisp and understandable. I ordered the number one with all the fixin’s. Michelle then asked if I would like regular fries or curly, curly of course and for the beverage… a Dr. Pepper to top things off. Michelle then offered me some desert which took up another full section of the brilliantly lighted menu. I panicked and denied. She thanked me for my order and asked me to pull forward if my screen looked correct.

When I arrived at the window I swiped my own card. Michelle was a nice looking middle aged woman. Although probably part of the community work release program, she still had manners and was no longer in high school. I’m not sure if that was by her choosing or not. After receiving my food I quickly found a place to dive in.

The curly fries were hot and crisp, the seasoning just perfect. Although I hadn’t asked for it, I had been provided enough ranch sauce for twice the amount of fries I had. Unlike only getting one packet of boring ketchup at those other places. Now for the real surprise, the Sirloin Burger. When I removed this beast from the bag I was actually shocked at its container. A sturdy octagonal shaped (I think it had that many sides) heavy duty cardboard encompassed this meal of a burger. I would have had no issues with dropping this thing out the window at speeds up to sixty miles per hour and returning to find the burger inside unharmed. I have purchased limited edition Star Wars figures without this nice of a case. When I opened the case I saw that the burger itself was wrapped the same way those fancy restaurants do with a nice white absorbent wrapper covering about half the burger. This will come in handy for you cubicle workers, preventing a third shirt change for the day.

The Sirloin Burger comes with a bakery style bun. This is a delicious tasting bun in and of itself, truly a bakery style delight and big enough to hold the large amount of toppings and meat inside without worry. It also comes with peppercorn mayo, fresh red onion rings, fresh cold lettuce, juicy and ripe red tomatoes, pickle fillets, top grade bacon slices, real cheddar cheese, and of course the seasoned sirloin beef patty.

When I took a bite of this thing the seasoning and juices actually exploded in my mouth. Not quite as severe as pop-rocks with a Pepsi shooter, but darn close. This is by far the best tasting fast food burger I have ever tasted. I felt special with its fancy wrapper and will probably use the container as a coffee table when I get home. This thing blows those expensive burgers you can order from Chilies and Applebee’s way out of the water. Although it’s not as cheap as Matt’s two Big Mac deal, it really wasn’t priced too bad for what you get. After large sizing the meal and getting an entire plate full of curly fries and one gallon of soda, I was still under the seven dollar mark.

Jack in the Box assures that no child will be left behind, because nobody will be getting their fat ass off the couch after eating this thing. With the bacon and cheese, you are looking at about 1100 calories and roughly 70g total fat. WOW! What the heck, you really need to experience this thing at least once, just to say you did it.

If they would have offered this at two for four dollars, I would probably have given it my first five star rating. It is a little expensive, and likely to make you want to nap instead of head back to the office, so I will give it a solid three stars. Jack has done an excellent job in the fast food market.