Fast Food Friday: Are the Wendy's Ghost Pepper Fries As Spicy As Advertised?

In this semi-regular feature, The Big Lead staff will sample and review delicacies from fast food establishments, ballparks, or anywhere else that triggers thoughts and feelings.

At some recent date that I’m not gonna bother to look up, Wendy’s began serving ghost pepper fries. The dish consists of fries topped with jalapenos, a tangy sauce, shredded cheese, and cheese sauce. It’s basically like nachos but with fries, and costs $1.99. All in all, it was pretty good. It was spicy but not unrelentingly so, which is a good thing. One word of caution: Once you’ve picked around the outer edges, you’re faced with the dilemma of whether to use a fork or get your hands all messy. Eating them in a car would require a heroic effort.

The bigger issue with it is that it wasn’t a great complementary side with a burger (and I don’t think it would be with any sandwich), but it’s not substantial enough to be a meal on its own. It’s probably not something I’ll have cravings for that demands it be inside me before I can accomplish anything else (like Chipotle will do to me sometimes), which is good for me, but not necessarily for Wendy’s. Here’s what it looks like in real life, as opposed to being spruced up on TV:

Not that you especially care, but I live three blocks from Wendy’s and four from McDonald’s. Of the two, I used to strongly favor McDonald’s, which I think is a little bit of a contrarian opinion. There is a lot of variance between Wendy’s franchises whereas McDonald’s is more consistent, and has better fries (Wendy’s are too salty and tend to be soggy on occasion). I also almost always forget to ask Wendy’s not to put mayo on their burgers, which is partially my fault, but more theirs for veering away from ketchup and mustard.

Anyways, this changed a bit for me recently when the Wendy’s franchise by me underwent renovations. Where before it was dirty and slow and the fries were often cold, it’s now one of the nicer locations. Also, it has a freestyle soda machine, which means it’s Cherry Vanilla Diet Coke city. That factor alone has caused Wendy’s to emerge victorious in the cutthroat battle for my patronage in recent months. Furthermore, if I’m not in a burger mood, their spicy chicken sandwich is way better than the one at McDonald’s.

To return to the point of the Ghost Pepper Fries, I doubt I’ll ever eat them again, but didn’t regret trying them once.