Friday, 27 November 2009

• White Castle

  
  

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  White Castle
  3505 Rice St.
  St. Paul MN, 55103
  651-290-0030
  http://www.whitecastle.com
  
  Price: $
  Ambiance: Casual
  Food: 0/5
  Service: 1/5
  Tummy Points: 0/5
  Notes: Hamburger $0.69,
  Mushy burgers with thin
  steamed beef

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  It's hard to imagine a world without fast food hamburger chains but believe it or not, it existed.  White Caste, founded in 1921, was the very first American hamburger fast food chain.  Every castle has a white exterior and resembles a castle harking back to the original restaurant.  The white caste was intended to give an impression to the public that the hamburger industry was clean.

  The founders of White Castle are also credited with the invention of the hamburger bun and assembly line cooking method.  White Castle has a novel way of cooking its frozen beef by steaming it over a bed of onions and covered by the bun.  Four holes are also found in each thin slice of beef to help the meat cook faster and not need to flip the meat.

  I wouldn't have heard of White Castle if it wasn't for the wildly popular comical movie, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.  Then I heard a number of people on TV and online rave about how they want White Castle.  I just couldn't resist and when I saw one, I had to try it for myself.

  

  White Castles are easy to spot with their white blocky design.

  

  Ordering over the glass makes it as unfriendly just short of a fenced cage.  The menu looks like something from the 1980's.  I must be eating at a White Castle by a poor area or school as there's a "No Water Without Purchase" sign.  Of course there is a sign on the washrooms stating they are only for paying customers.

  Their interior is dated with curvy plastic chairs and benches attached to the ground to prevent them from being moved around the small restaurant.  Many of the tables were littered with garbage with no staff caring to clear them off.  The garbage bins were also overfilled, almost spilling out.

  

  The burgers came out steaming warm with steamed onions and room temperature hard cheese.  The buns are steamed too as it's part of the beef cooking process.  This makes the whole sandwich a blob of soft mush when it goes into your mouth.  The beef is so thin and soft that I couldn't even taste beef.  Having holes in the beef patty definitely doesn't help with taste.  This was the most pathetic hamburger I have ever had.  It's amusing to see White Castle's web site show nice juicy brown beef in their burgers that would be impossible to create in their beef steam cooking process.

  

  Fries came out lukewarm.  It's very potatoy and needed ketchup to help it pass my taste buds.  Tasted like the fries I used to get at my community hockey rink.

   

  Chicken rings were thickly battered with little to no chicken inside.  They came out lukewarm as well and very tasteless.  I wish they spiced it up.  But, once again, ketchup saves the day.  These were over $2 and should definitely be skipped.

  I'm really not sure why anyone would even consider White Castle hamburgers good.  I find it hard to consider their meat beef.  To me, it resembles luncheon meat.  Their burgers are tasteless with little to no beef.  It's mainly steamed buns and steamed onions.  I wouldn't come back to any White Castle and would strongly discourage anyone from going.

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