Fast Food Review WITH VIDEO! AMC Theatres' Chicken Tenders and 7-11 Game Day Beer

I received a request last week, via Twitter, to review Red Baron frozen pizza. Thought about it for a while, realizing that my reviews do at times expand on conventional notions of fast food, i.e. Dave & Busters or Mountain Dew in a bottle. And I do think it’s useful to be flexible. The entire point of fast food, however, is that it requires no preparation from you. You order, the food comes fully ready quickly, thanks to assembly-line style tactics. Done. If I have to microwave something by myself, rather than getting some other minimum-wage dude to do it for me, then it isn’t fast food. Your definition may vary; if someone out there wants to start doing TV Dinner reviews, be my guest.

Movie theater food, however, most definitely falls under the fast food philosophy, especially since speed is often of the essence. Many were the days, back when I worked at an actual newspaper and/or didn’t have a car, that I would arrive at an evening press screening without having eaten dinner. Generally, this would mean my options were popcorn, candy, or (maybe) hot dogs. And I didn’t like hot dogs for many years. So even though almost nobody, ever, is going to be a full-time newspaper film critic ever again, I do like to see more dinner-like options appearing at theaters – and not just upscale places like the Landmark, but plain ol’ AMC.

More snack options are also helpful for the now-common Thursday midnight screenings of new releases. When I did my time in Orange County, I’d head straight to The Block after work, drink $3 light beers all evening, then hit up the AMC at midnight. Often I would want a hot dog afterwards. Now I can have chicken too.

But how good can movie theater chicken be? Let’s begin by saying I’ve had much worse at more “legitimate” eateries.

These tenders are breaded, fried, and frozen; then re-heated in AMC’s ovens, which are not unlike Subway’s toaster ovens. This results in them being served piping hot, and occasionally garnished with unidentified bits of blackened burning. Sound gross? Nahh, it adds character. Makes it feel genuinely oven-fresh, in a weird way.

It took forever to get mine, and then the guy told me, “I gave you two extra because of the long wait.” Nice of you to say it that way, but as a customer, I can see everything that goes on at the concession stand. I know full well that I got two extra because the first guy to take them out of the oven burned his hand and, in the process, dropped all but two on the floor. So I got those two plus a new full order. That makes seven total; five is the normal order. You can get barbecue sauce, honey mustard, or ranch, plus of course the usual condiments laid out for hot dogs.

The packaging works well for keeping them hot, too – wrapped in paper, then put in a cardboard container, the poultry pieces stayed well above room temperature the whole time. As for the actual tenderness of the tenders, I’ll add that I wish AMC got everything this right (Dear AMC: PLEASE do a better job of instructing your employees to CLOSE THE AUDITORIUM DOORS once the movie starts. Seriously. Y’all SUCK ASS at this simple task). Think Wendy’s chicken nuggets, but bigger. AMC chicken is closer to real chicken than AMC “Bullshit Imax” screens are to proper IMAX.

So thumbs up on the chicken. The way popcorn prices are going, it might even be a better deal.

In unrelated events, I also tried the new 7-11 brand of beer, known as Game Day. I shot video of the experience. Hope you enjoy it:

 

More LYT Fast Food Reviews may be found at this link