Fast Food

REVIEW: Panda Express Buldak Dynamite Sweet & Sour Chicken

Marvo / March 5, 2026 / Reviews / 7 Comments

When I pulled up to the Panda Express drive-thru window, the woman manning it didn’t say “hello.” Instead, she said something even better: “This is the best chicken dish ever.”

The dish she was referring to — and promptly handed to me — was the chain’s new Buldak Dynamite Sweet & Sour Chicken. I wanted to reply, “Um, have you heard about your Orange Chicken?” But I was too chicken to say it, and besides, she might have had a point. I hadn’t tried it yet. This new entrée could be Panda Express’ best chicken dish. So is it?

Not quite. But it’s up there.

Buldak, a popular Korean hot sauce brand, has recently been ramming its way onto store shelves like a bull through a red cape. You’ve probably seen the potato chips, frozen food, and — of course — the ramen noodles. I’d never tried it with anything before. But I do know that when Panda Express creates something sweet and savory, there’s a very good chance it’ll be worth eating.

Buldak Dynamite Sweet & Sour Chicken continues Panda Express’ trend — established with its Firecracker Chicken and Firecracker Shrimp — of pairing bell peppers and onions with dishes named after things that explode. The crispy chicken breast chunks are tossed in a Buldak hot sauce blend, and I was also handed a Buldak Original Hot Sauce packet on the side, for, I dunno, masochistic purposes.

So, how was my first experience with anything Buldak? It was Buldaaaang — delicious, but holy hell it’s spicy.

Most of the heat comes from the sauce the chicken is tossed in. From what I’ve read, this is supposed to be Panda’s spiciest dish ever, and I think that claim might be correct. There’s a strong sweetness and a bit of tanginess, too, but neither does much to temper the heat. Fluids were coming out of places where fluids usually come out when I eat really spicy food, and halfway through, the back of my mouth went slightly numb. I’m fairly certain my digestive system will complain in a few hours. This is definitely a dish that demands something cold and refreshing nearby. Yet despite all the burning, its flavor still made me want to eat more.

I thought twice about adding the extra Buldak sauce packet, not wanting to start hallucinating from the heat. But I’m glad I did because it added a savory, umami-rich chicken flavor — the kind you get from a chicken bouillon cube or chicken-flavored ramen packet — that elevated the dish to a level that made it even harder to stop eating despite the punishment. Interestingly, the extra sauce didn’t noticeably increase the heat, just the flavor.

As expected, the wok-tossed vegetables still had some snap, adding a fresh element that offered brief relief from the spice. The chicken’s coating loses most of its crispiness with all that sauce, but honestly, the heat will make you forget about that pretty quickly.

Panda Express’ Buldak Dynamite Sweet & Sour Chicken is a memorable dish — both for its unique, delicious flavor and for the very real physical consequences that follow. It hurts so good that I want to hurt again.

Purchased Price: $10.30
Size: Bowl
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (5.7 ounces) 400 calories, 3 grams of saturated fat, 44 grams of carbohydrates, and 17 grams of protein. Other nutrition numbers were not available on the Panda Express website.

Baskin-Robbins Banana Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Review

Marvo / March 4, 2026 / Reviews / 2 Comments

I have banana bias. So read this Baskin-Robbins Banana Dulce de Leche Ice Cream review with your BS detector on. BS stands for “banana skewed,” of course.

But maybe there is no banana bias in this review because I imagine banana custard and brown butter ice creams with crunchy toffee pieces and dulce de leche swirls would make just about any sweet tooth dance with excitement. If that sentence made your sweet teeth shimmy, then let me tell you that it is as delightful as it sounds. Even before trying it, I knew I’d love this flavor, and I doubled down on my prediction by ordering a double scoop instead of my usual single. Or maybe I have ESP.

Going into the scoop, it was a little disappointing that the banana custard ice cream made with banana puree had to share some space with a brown butter base. But it turned out pretty well for my banana-loving taste buds. While there were occasional spoonfuls in which the banana faded into the caramel-y background, most bites delivered the sweet, fruity flavor I was after. It’s not an in-your-face, overly artificial banana, and even though the sweet, buttery dulce de leche swirls, toffee pieces, and brown butter base outnumber it, it still stands out as the star of the scoop.

The dulce de leche swirls were gooey and sweet, though they tasted more like a mild caramel than a true milky dulce de leche. That said, the other sweet and buttery components in the scoop helped elevate the swirl’s flavor. The toffee pieces added a satisfying crunch, making the spoonfuls that included them a little more exciting with their textural contrast. The combination of components was extremely delightful and I so glad I got two scoops. I might have to get a few more before it goes away.

Baskin-Robbins’ Banana Dulce de Leche is easily one of my favorite scoops from the ice cream chain. But again, I go a little bananas when it comes to banana-flavored anything, so your taste buds may differ. However, if you’re also banana-skewed, then it will absolutely satisfy your banana-loving heart.

Purchased Price: $7.19
Size: Double scoop
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (4 oz scoop) 300 calories, 15 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 65 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 37 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 28 grams of sugar (includes 22 grams of added sugar), and 4 grams of protein.

Baskin-Robbins Fast Food Ice Cream

REVIEW: McDonald’s Big Arch (US)

Marvo / February 27, 2026 / Reviews / 23 Comments

After globetrotting through Canada and several European countries over the past few years, McDonald’s Big Arch has finally landed in the US for a limited time. Okay, there was a layover at the McDonald’s headquarters restaurant in Chicago last year. Either way, it has more passport stamps than me, and now it’s available to everyone across the country.

The highly anticipated burger features two quarter-pound beef patties, white cheddar, slivered onions, crispy onions, pickles, lettuce, and a Big Arch Sauce on a toasted sesame and poppy seed bun.

Just opening the box and seeing that bun made this feel like an elevated experience. I’m used to the standard sesame seed bun on most McDonald’s burgers, but the black poppy seeds gave it a premium feeling. They don’t add much flavor, but they make a strong first impression.

Think of the Big Arch as the Big Mac’s younger, but more sophisticated sibling — a Big Mac that went abroad, and came back to the States more refined, mature, and cultured, and clearly hit Planet Fitness three times a week while it was away. Its size alone makes the Big Mac look, well, less big. Though for all its refinement, it still has the bad habit of leaving toppings scattered across the bottom of the clamshell box, just like its older sibling.

As for the flavor, it’s Big Mac-ish, thanks to the familiar combination of beef, pickles, onions, lettuce, and cheese. The creamy, slightly sweet Big Arch Sauce reminds me of French dressing with the tang dialed back, and it works beautifully with the pickles and onions, much like Big Mac Sauce does. The crispy onions add a pleasant crunch and a mild onion bite, though I’d say the slivered onions do most of the heavy flavor lifting. The white cheddar is milder than the orange American slices in a Big Mac, but its cheesiness still comes through among all the other toppings. Although there’s a lot of beef, every ingredients shares a bit of the spotlight, making each bite well-balanced, and I can taste why this burger was a hit abroad.

While it tastes great, the Big Arch isn’t something I’d order regularly if it became a permanent menu item. At 1,020 calories and as the most expensive burger my local McDonald’s currently offers, it’s firmly in splurge territory. If it were brought back periodically, like the McRib, I’d order it every time it returns.

It’s also worth asking: does it actually need two patties? The photos in this review are from the second Big Arch I ordered, which I had to purchase because the first one I bought had only one patty. Even with just one, I walked away completely satisfied with the meatiness and the overall flavor. A single-patty version would bring both the price and the nutrition numbers down to something far less intimidating, and, just like the Quarter Pounder, McDonald’s could always offer a double-patty version for those who want more meat.

Either way, McDonald’s Big Arch is a delicious burger, and I’m glad I don’t need to pull out my passport to try one.

Purchased Price: $8.99*
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 1,020 calories, 65 grams of fat, 25 grams of saturated fat, 3 grams of trans fat, 175 milligrams of cholesterol, 1,760 milligrams of sodium, 59 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 15 grams of sugar (including 10 grams of added sugar), and 53 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

Fast Food McDonald's

REVIEW: Taco Bell Chicken Bacon Ranch Nacho Fries

Marvo / February 27, 2026 / Reviews / 2 Comments

At this point, I feel as if I don’t need to explain what Taco Bell’s Nacho Fries are, and how there’s always a loaded version of them that usually features standard Taco Bell ingredients that, in the past, may have been chosen by pulling out slips of paper from a flipped-over bell. In the present, I imagine the physical pulling has been replaced by an in-house AI chatbot called Gidget, after the chihuahua from the 90s Taco Bell commercials.

If Gidget does exist, its latest creation is the new Chicken Bacon Ranch Nacho Fries, featuring slow roasted chicken, pico de gallo, bacon, cheese, nacho cheese sauce, and avocado ranch sauce. There are also Chicken Bacon Ranch Street Chalupas, which include almost everything above minus the nacho cheese sauce, wrapped in toasted cheddar chalupa shells. However, when the Toasted Cheddar Street Chalupas debuted last year, I wrote that “if it ever comes back, I’m sure I won’t be sticking it and its bread-y flavor in my mouth again.” So I didn’t give them a try and stuck with the fries. Hey! That rhymes!

A quick search of this site confirms that chicken, bacon, and ranch are a common fast food combo, and the Nacho Fries are an excellent vessel for highlighting them, providing a slightly crispy, seasoned bed for those toppings to rest on. I was skeptical that the nacho cheese sauce could be paired with the avocado ranch, since one might cancel out the other. But the orange goop added a cheesier layer that complemented the creamy, slightly tangy avocado ranch rather than competing with it.

The biggest letdown was the chicken, but mainly because my order didn’t seem to have much of it. It looked less like a star of the menu item and more like it had been accidentally included in my order on its way to being added to another order. At least, there were enough bacon crumbles to make up for it. The pico de gallo was a welcome addition, bringing bright, acidic bursts with each forkful, and doing a nice job of cutting through the richness of the sauces.

Overall, Taco Bell’s Chicken Bacon Ranch Nacho Fries are as good as many of the previous loaded Nacho Fries iterations. There’s a lot of flavor, and the fries are a great carrier for all the sauces and toppings. But at the same time, there’s nothing about it that makes it a must-order, and if you happen to miss this limited-time offering, there’s no need to feel any amount of FOMO.

Besides, Gidget will have something new for us soon enough.

Purchased Price: $6.99 each
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 350 calories, 24 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 940 milligrams of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

Fast Food Taco Bell

REVIEW: Jack in the Box Oreo Matcha Shake

Marvo / February 26, 2026 / Reviews / Leave a Comment

While other fast food chains trot out minty green products for St. Patrick’s Day season, Jack in the Box is going green in a different way this year with its Oreo Matcha Shake. To be honest, I wish matcha were a more prevalent flavor in the fast food world and replaced mint as the unofficial St. Patrick’s Day flavor. We already have peppermint covered in the winter, so one less minty seasonal flavor seems like a perfectly reasonable ask.

The Oreo Matcha Shake is a vanilla shake blended with matcha tea and Oreo cookie crumbles, then topped with whipped cream and even more Oreo crumbles. It’s a little surprising to see a matcha shake from a major fast food chain, since matcha remains a rare sight outside of coffee chains. But then again, it’s not that surprising coming from Jack in the Box, a chain with a long history of thinking outside the Jack in the Box. Need I remind you of the ube shake?

As for its flavor, it delivers the familiar sweet and slightly bitter profile that matcha sweets are known for, though it’s more restrained than a matcha-flavored Kit Kat from Japan. Here it’s gentler, likely diluted a bit by the vanilla shake base. But that’s probably for the best, since a full-strength matcha blast through a straw might be a lot to ask of the average fast food customer, and this is approachable enough that even matcha newcomers might find themselves pleasantly surprised.

The Oreo crumbles were plentiful, as they tend to be in Jack’s Oreo shakes, and they provided welcome bits of texture with each sip. However, I can’t say they contributed much in the way of chocolate flavor. Throughout the entire shake, I could only detect matcha, which makes me wonder whether the slight bitterness of the Oreo crumbles simply gets absorbed into the matcha’s bitterness. It’s not a dealbreaker, but if you’re ordering this expecting a matcha-chocolate experience, you may want to temper those expectations.

If matcha matches your taste buds, the Jack in the Box Oreo Matcha Shake will make them very happy to have met. And if you’ve never tried matcha before, this is a pretty delicious place to start.

Purchased Price: $6.29*Size: Regular
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 780 calories. (No other nutritional information is available on the Jack in the Box website.)

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

Fast Food Jack in the Box

REVIEW: Panda Express Buldak Dynamite Sweet & Sour Chicken

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REVIEW: Jack in the Box Oreo Matcha Shake

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