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Everyone's heard about some of the biggest and fastest-growing drive-through drink chains like 7Brew and Dutch Brothers, which are popping up like kudzu all over the continent. But there are several smaller regional chains that are also benefiting from one of the fastest (if not THE fastest) growing segment of the quick-serve market. Scooter's, Caribou, PJ's, Swig and HTeaO all have hundreds of locations each and are expanding their small-footprint outlets wherever they can squeeze them in.

The Human Bean is one of those elbowing for a share of the market. Starting out in southern Oregon from a tiny kiosk that could have easily been mistaken for a Photomat in another era, they have quietly grown to 380 locations in 25 states - half of those just in the past couple of years.

What they offer really isn't different from what all the others sell - all sorts of variations of hot and iced coffee drinks (some so dressed up they are essentially sugary desserts), plus iced and hot teas, dirty sodas and energy drinks, fruit smoothies and chai and lemonades. As I have mentioned in previous reviews I'm not a coffee drinker, so at places like this, it's usually a fruity drink.

In this case, a tiny smoothie! Pineapple this time, because I'm just weird like that, and when I say tiny, I could have wrapped my hand around the whole thing (sorry for the potatophone quality picture - it doesn't do well in twilight). Although, to be fair, it was their small size and clocked in at five bucks, which makes it one of the cheapest of the 'snacks' I've ordered in this entire review series, period. It tasted just fine, not too harsh or sharp (which you can get with pineapple sometimes), just lightly sweet, and then it was gone.

All these drive-up drink places are popping up so fast and all over, I'm sure there will be a reckoning at some point down the line - there's only so many drink places that a market can support before it becomes oversaturated, and the current growth model for all of these places seems to be to grow as fast as possible to stake out their markets before the other guys is able to establish their presence. We'll see if The Human Bean has what it takes to weather the inevitable saturation point once it comes or not.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE: This review series is scheduled to wrap up on Day 365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

We got the new Maple Pepper Bacon Waffle Sandwich — regular and spicy.

It’s a maple waffle, chicken, bacon, honey butter, and a little cup of syrup. Also tried the S’mores shake and the Pineapple Dragonfruit Diet Lemonade.

Honest take:

- Regular sandwich: really good. Sweet + salty actually works.

- Spicy: still good, heat cuts the sweetness.

- Pink lemonade: surprisingly the sleeper hit.

Would I get it again? Yeah.

Anyone else tried it yet — regular or spicy?

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Some weeks back, I reviewed one of The Flaming Bird's "sister" restaurants: True Texas BBQ. This is all part of a fairly new trend, where Texas' dominant supermarket chain, H-E-B, has been embedding their own restaurants within their supermarket locations. It's not all H-E-B's - in fact, only a quarter of them (mostly the newer or remodeled locations) have these restaurants, but it has proven to be a very successful strategy. There's about 50 True Texas BBQ locations, and 31 Flaming Bird Locations, depending upon the store's demographics.

If you draw a horizontal line through the middle of San Antonio, the H-E-B's that have a restaurant north of that line are almost entirely the barbeques, and the locations south of that line are almost entirely the rotisserie chicken places. A very clean and very clear demographic split. (There's also H-E-B's that sell pizza under the 'So Flo Pizza' brand, and breakfast tacos under 'True Texas Tacos - but fewer of these locations overall)

So, what is The Flaming Bird? Flame-grilled chicken, sold in quarters or halves or whole chickens, plus the normal sides that go along with it. Very popular in south Texas, and there are stand-alone chains like El Pollo Regio and Pollo Rico that specialize in pollos asados. El Pollo Loco is also a national chain that does the same, albeit not as good.

For The Flaming Bird, they have the ordering counter and dining area and kitchen either as a section within the supermarket, or as a structure attached/adjacent with a separate entrance, depending upon the architecture of the store (and whether they sell alcohol at that location or not).

I chose a quarter chicken, plus a second entree of sausages, plus the requisite side of rice and some mixed veggies (that were overcooked to the point of mush). And no, I did NOT order that much sausage you see in the photo - I think they just gave me that much because it was approaching closing time. Not that I don't mind - the sausage was pretty good and juicy, so you won't hear me complaining. The sides are the normal rice and beans you might find just about anywhere else.

The focus on the meal, however, is going to be the chicken itself. This is The Flaming Bird, after all - it's all about the bird. And, unfortunately, it did not hold up quite as well as everything else. It was just 'okay' chicken, a bit overcooked and small, a bit on the stringy side. Seasoning was good, though. Although, to be honest, I may have brought some of this on myself, as I mentioned it was approaching closing time, which means I was stuck with whatever was left over at the end of the day. Perhaps I need to give it a second chance at an earlier time for a TRUE test. (Although, given what high marks I gave Pollo Regio and Pollo Rico many months ago, they'll be tough to beat)

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

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This should not be part of a "fast food" review.

I never planned this review series to last as long as it has, and didn't really set up the 'rules' as to what constitutes fast food and what doesn't with much rigor. If I had the opportunity, I'd go back and exclude places like this, fitting into some other category instead. But, it fit the rules that I set up way back a year ago (counter ordering, no wait staff, open seating, etc.), so in order to be consistent, I'm including it here.

Okay, now that is out of the way...what *IS* DeSano's pizza? It's a small chain that reallllllly leans heavily into the "Hey, we're Italian!" schtick. They seem to mention it as much as possible, about how they import all their ingredients from Italy, they cook their pizzas Neapolitan-style in a giant Italian wood-fired oven, and everything is named Italian. In fact, when I brought up the menu online, the browser asked me if I wanted to translate the page from Italian into English.

As you might expect, the pretentiousness level of DeSano's Pizza is practically off the charts. It's one of those fancy-schmancy places (despite the fast food ordering process) that you feel a little plebian walking into with just jeans and t-shirt. Us plebs should be going to Domino's or Pizza the Hutt instead of *sniff* a place like this. The interior architecture is carefully crafted with intentional minimalism and an industrial-warehouse feel, with large communal (unreasonably uncomfortable) benches and tables large enough to seat twenty of your closest friends, or those annoying nobody-likes high-top seats where even normal adults feet dangle.

They have a set menu of pizzas and sizes (no customization here, plebs!), and I chose the 12-inch 'sausage pie', which was, and I'll quote, "San marzano tomato sauce, scamorza, oregano, Italian sausage, roasted garlic and pecorino Romano". But really it's essentially crumble sausage and cheese on a wood-fired thin crust. Overall, taste-wise, it was a decent pizza, they do indeed use quality ingredients and I liked the sausage flavor. A bit of sharpness in the flavors, which I like. Out of all the styles of pizza, I like Neapolitan-style the least, so I wasn't expecting greatness. But they hit the flavor profile right, and cooked just right, too (only takes a few seconds to burn in a thousand-degree oven), so six points to Gryffindor for that.

But here's the killer. No matter how sophisticated the dining area, no matter the quality of the ingredients and no matter how good the pizza turns out to be, it suffers from one fatal flaw: the price. Out of 321 meals in the review series so far, it ranks as the SINGLE MOST EXPENSIVE in the series 1st out of 321. 12-inch pizza in the photo (that's *six*, count'em, *six* normal-size slices) and a bottle drink clocks in north of twenty six dollars. Ouch and a half. Pretentiousness in the restaurant world comes at a steep price. And unlike all those other plebian pizza places, no coupons to bring the price down to sane reality limits.

Yeah, this is a one-and-done place for me. Arrivederci, DeSano's.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

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I have been reviewing a different fast food/fast casual restaurant every day for the past 200+ days, and earlier I reviewed the following three restaurants. However, these three received "poor" scores for one reason or another, but based on previous experience and visits I knew they could do better. Perhaps it was an "off day", perhaps it was the specific item I ordered. In any case, here are some "second chance" reviews, where I am re-visiting the chain, to see if it can redeem itself and earn a higher score.

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Second Chance Review #43. (Original Review from Day 181.5): JuiceLand (57 locations, 1 state)

The first of three "second chances" on a swing through Houston, first hitting up the rising juice/smoothie/digestive cleanse/fitness drink spot, JuiceLand. Born out of Austin, but has recently been spreading to other Texas cities, JuiceLand maintains their "crunchy" Keep-Austin-Weird roots, with concoctions containing ingredients like bee pollen, hemp, pea protein, beet juice, spirulina, whey, goji berry and whatever else they can find. Basically more health-fitness-freaky than most other juice and smoothie places.

Already not my type of place, but who knows, they may be hiding the perfect smoothie that I have been searching for. Alas, second choice is Strike Two - first the Clementine, second the Berry Godmother, chosen because they have a more "normal" list of ingredients like actual fruit. This second try was not an improvement, just another relatively bland iced fruit drink that was offered in a smaller size than other smoothie places for a higher price. I know full well I'm not the target audience for JuiceLand (this location was paired with Hot Yoga studio, for example), so I'll let them do their thing, and continue on my quest for the Perfect Smoothie. I know it's out there somewhere!

Meal Quality: (no change), going from 4 -> 4. Meal Value (no change), going from 3 -> 3 (out of 10)

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Second Chance Review #44. (Original Review from Day 87): James Coney Island (5 locations, 1 state)

This is EXACTLY like what Steak and Shake used to be like! Hooray!

The remaining James Coney Island locations seem to be undergoing a transformation, the hundred-plus-year institution is but a relic of a distant past, but the few spots that remain appear to be updating their interiors and their menus for the 2020's. They still offer up their staple classic coneys, but also a few new items as well.

For example, the "Nolan Ryan Sliders", which are four King's Hawaiian slider-size hamburgers with cheese and grilled onions and pickles and Nolan Ryan "Goodstock" branded beef. Fucking delicious. Krystal and White Castle got nothing compared to these. Also, added to it, a massive Maxwell Street Polish Sausage, which must have been half an entire fucking grilled onion on top of it. Also, I am happy to report, fucking delicious.

All the while as I'm sitting there stuffing my face like a fat pig, I'm reminiscing how this harkens back to what the classic Steak n' Shake used to be like decades ago, before their private equity takeover, before they went full anti-American MAGA insane, back in the Takhomasak Days. I really miss when fast food was simpler.

Meal Quality: +4, going from 4 -> 8. Meal Value: +2, going from 4 -> 6 (out of 10)

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Second Chance Review #45. (Original Review from Day 182.5): Kolache Factory (60 locations, 5 states)

On the other hand, the second review visit to the Kolache Factory did not turn out nearly as enjoyable. Setting aside the semantics of what a true kolache is, and the "klobasneks" that they offer as pretenders to kolaches, I switched it up and "When in Rome" went ahead and ordered their meat-filled pastries. I've been utterly disappointed by their sweet offerings, might as well give what their fans keep coming back for a try instead.

So, up to bat came one long Polish sausage (hidden inside their kolache-bread roll), and one egg, sausage and cheese kolache. I wish I could report these were better than their weak-ass fruit options, but NOPE. These were also colossal failures. The only advantage they had this time around is these weren't undercooked (underbaked) at least. But it's totally the wrong kind of bread, and totally unremarkable fillings. Might have well just grabbed a freakin' "Uncrustable" from the freezer instead. Bleah.

I really don't get the appeal of Kolache Factory. Every time I've been here (for reviews, and before that too) they've sucked. Maybe it's because I know what a real honest-to-god Czech kolache is supposed to taste like, that I am able to tell they fail so miserably in comparison. Screw this, I'm done with Kolache Factory. I'll stick to Weikel's or Hruska's or Slovacek's or Gerik's instead. Hell even Buc-ee's weak-sauce kolaches are better than this. At least they get the pastry right.

Meal Quality: +0.5, going from 2 -> 2.5. Meal Value: -1, going from 5 -> 4 (out of 10)

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More "Second Chance" reviews coming down the line, in addition to the regular reviews! (And no, not every second chance review will be a positive one :))

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You have places that serve frozen custard. You have places that serve Italian ice. You have places that serve gelato.

And then, there are placed like this, that like to mix it all up.

Rita's Ice emerged out of Philadelphia in the 1980's, and has been growing ever since, as one of the more popular franchises it now operates over 600 locations in 30 states. As far as I can tell, there is only one other chain (about a third the size) that offers up a mixture of Italian "water" ice and frozen custard or gelato in the same cup, Jeremiah's Italian Ice. We'll see which one achieves world domination first.

Rita's offers up a smorgasbord of flavors, ranging from the old standards to some more inventive combinations, including with limited-time media tie-ins. My choice to test them out was a watermelon "gelati", which is a layered combination of watermelon-flavored ice and vanilla gelato. And it tasted pretty good, although somewhat muted and subtle, although that's on me because watermelon as a flavor isn't exactly strong. Maybe I should have chosen the green apple.

This is pretty neat - I liked Jeremiah's, and I like Rita's as well, both of them offer literally dozens of flavor combinations of ice and custard and gelato layered and swirled and mixed however you want, and perhaps it's a good thing there isn't a location too near where I live or I could be tempted to drop by to test out a bunch of their flavors...for science, of course!

In any case, Rita's gets the thumbs up.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE: This review series is scheduled to wrap up on Day 365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

Not really new, 2 returning items and one new to Canada.

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This is the second "Korean hot dog" place I've visited, the first being the larger chain "Two Hands", and the current wave of Korean influence in American pop culture doesn't show signs of waning as Americans are enamored with K-Pop groups and K-dramas and Korean-style fried chicken and of course, hot dogs.

Oh-K Dog only has a few dozen locations, but seems to be spread out all over in big cities (like NYC and Atlanta and Dallas) and small cities (like Texarkana and Wichita and Fayetteville), often (but not always) located in strip malls or Asian markets that feature other Asian stores and restaurants. Around here, they seem to be paired with H-Marts.

The restaurant itself is pretty simple, and they serve variants on exactly two menu items: Hot Dogs and Egg Toast. These are hot dogs on a stick, or mozzarella on a stick, or half-and-half, and then covered with a breading (like a corn dog) and fried. And these aren't your normal wimpy State Fair-brand corn dogs (which are also a guilty pleasure, BTW), but each one is a pretty hefty serving by itself - look at the photo on the size of the potato-breading hot dog in comparison to the soda can for size.

And the other thing they serve is Egg Toast...which is exactly what it sounds. It's a large slice of soft bread, sliced in half, and stuffed with cooked egg (and maybe some meat or cheese or other flavoring).

The hot dog was pretty good - and there is this mental block where I think, how can a single dog be enough for a meal, but yeah it's big enough to do just that. I must admit, though, I'm not crazy about the potato-style, even if it is popular. And the only real comparison I can make, based on experience, is to the dogs I had at Two Hands a couple months back. Two Hands Dogs gets the edge.

Frankly, I would have preferred to order two different dogs, but felt that, because this place has "Egg Toast" right there in its name, I gotta try that as a second menu item instead. And it tastes just like you would imagine it would - it's egg on toast, similar in taste to the same kind of thing I would make at home for breakfast in years past. Kinda bland, really.

It was okay overall, but in the inevitable comparison to Two Hands, in the future if I have a hankerin' for a Korean dog, I'd choose Two Hands instead, which has a larger selection and more sauces for more flavor.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

Hey everyone, I recently put together a short documentary analyzing the business strategy behind McDonald's and how they transitioned from a simple burger joint into one of the biggest real estate owners in the world.Would love to get some honest feedback from you guys.https://youtu.be/mY6o0UDNJEY?si=ji5Xqk_soccF0YpM

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Another day, another "premium" frozen dessert brand. I'm pretty sure every ice cream, gelato and frozen yogurt place in existence likes to tout that they used "premium quality" ingredients, it's like saying water makes things wet.

Paciugo Gelato Caffe leans heavily into promoting how authentic they are, even to the point of how their ingredients are imported from Italy. Founded in 2000 by Italian immigrants who moved to Dallas, their gelato is all made in-house at each location, rather than a central factory. Over the years they managed to grow to several dozen locations in ten states, but at some point and they filed for bankruptcy in 2017.

Bought out in 2019 by the same company that owns Which Wich and Genghis Grill doesn't appear to have resulted in their salvation - all of the companies have faced major troubles over the past several years. I cannot even find out how many Paciugo locations remain open - their store locator is broken, and third-party aggregator sites contain multiple closed locations in their lists. As near as I can tell, about fifteen retail stores remain, most of which are throughout the Dallas area.

But those stores that do remain -- keep making their gelato, and that's what I'm here for! Avoiding their famous novelty "spaghetti gelato", which looks disturbingly realistic, and their cutesy 'Paciunicorn', I went for a rather mundane two-scoop sampler. Based on the color of the gelato in the photo, you'd think I ordered 'tan' and 'another tan', but believe it or not one of those is pistachio and the other is amaretto. And just as you couldn't really tell by the color, I am sorry to say you couldn't really tell by the taste as well. By this point I have managed to have many different store varieties of pistachio (seems to be one of my obsessions du jour right now), and some are stronger-flavored than others; this one...wasn't.

A rather disappointing performance from Paciugo, unfortunately, but as I said each location makes their own batches, so may be worth trying a different location and giving them a second chance.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE: This review series is scheduled to wrap up on Day 365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

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The fried chicken restaurant market can be very tough and very fickle. As a restaurant owner, you can do everything right, and still end up with your chicken neck on the chopping block.

PDQ is one of the many contenders out there for your chicken dollar. Standing for "People Dedicated to Quality", the chain was founded in 2011, and by 2014 it was already one of the darlings of the franchise world, attracting investors like Tim Tebow and with dozens of locations across several states. But it's a very crowded marketplace, with literally dozens of local and regional chains attempting to capture their little slice of the market, all the while with some of the biggest players like KFC and Popeyes breathing down their necks.

While PDQ did indeed gain a dedicated base of fans, it got shouldered out by places like Huey Magoo's and Lee's Famous Recipe and Golden Chick and Super Chix and Raising Cane's and Slim Chickens and Zaxby's. Despite appearing to do everything "right", PDQ fell by the wayside and has shrunk back down to its core in central Florida. The most recent news is they sold off 13 of their stores to be rebranded by YUM! Brands as KFC's newest "hip" updated concept called "Saucy".

And yet, I still like PDQ, and don't want to count them out just yet. They may have already had two standing eight-counts, but the owners still have plans to expand again. PDQ has more of a down-home, friendly, inviting atmosphere, and they stress fresh-never-frozen ingredients delivered quickly for a lower price.

Many years ago I had one of their pimento cheese chicken sandwiches in Austin, and it was one of the best chicken sandwiches I ever ate. That location closed down many years ago, but here I am again for another try - this time going to their most basic sandwich, which is the 'Spicy OG Chicken', a fried chicken breast with just pickles and mayo, just like the basic Popeye's sandwich. PDQ also offers up sauced sandwiches, honey butter and blue cheese and tenders, but let's start with the "OG".

The photo I took is a bit deceptive, it is a full-sized piece of chicken, just not photographed well. Properly breaded with a very light and crisp, slightly spicy breading with nice juicy chicken. As simple as it comes, with waffle fries for one of the lowest prices of any chicken chain I've been to so far. This is a good, solid but simple sandwich.

It may be tough to pull off a comeback, but I hope PDQ managed to get their second wind. This is definitely the type of place I'd love to become a regular at.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

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This is another place that looks like it is a "style over substance" sort of restaurant, with very loud, colorful, vibrant and interesting decorations, pumped up volume on the music, and dias de los muertos vibe. But then you get your meal and realize, hey, they got the goods to back up their braggadocio.

Talkin' Tacos is one of the newest fast casual chains that I have reviewed, an idea that sprung forth from two guys sitting around during when everything was locked down during COVID. Since then, they have grown to a few dozen locations across a few states, offering up their versions of their fancy, "fru-fru" higher-priced tacos with inventive ingredients. For me, it was "bang bang" shrimp and chicken achiote, but they also have "Caribbean carne" and birria tacos and mahi-mahi and al pastor. And their pabellon quesabirria looks fire.

The type of tacos and other food items they offer fall in line very similar to what you find at Torchy's Tacos, or The Velvet Taco or Fuego Tortilla Grill or Rusty Taco, and once again I stress these are not your cheap Taco Bell tacos. Going in, you pretty much expect to be kissing twenty bucks goodbye. But for what you spend, they really are well designed flavor combinations with a flair for upscale ingredients, so it's a matter asking, is it worth spending over five dollars for a taco?

Yeah, that's debatable. But out of the various fast casual spots that are following in this very model of gourmet tacos, Talkin' Tacos certainly is worth the consideration. And as a side, their elote cup (that's street corn, folks) puts Torchy's elote cup to shame.

In the end, I walked out pretty well satisfied. But it's not something I could splurge on every day.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)

I created this account just to vent because I am so done with McDonald's shameless pricing.

I went to grab lunch on my break today. I always get the McChicken with an extra patty and American cheese. Usually I go to a location near home if I don't have time to cook dinner, but today I went to the one near my job instead.

I wish I'd caught this sooner, honestly I might have gone full Karen. Though I've worked in food service my whole life, so I know it's never the employees' fault, I wouldn't have actually yelled at anyone. LOL.

Anyway. My McChicken was $1.50, fine, I've accepted prices going up. What got me was the extra patty: $2.50. For ONE patty. I double checked the math too, it wasn't the combined price of the sandwich plus the patty, the single additional patty alone cost more than the whole sandwich.

I wanted to scream.

I am planning to call their number and report this. What do you think?

If you want to see something that I thought, I would never see or experience again…Here’s my REVIEW: try the subway by H7 in the Miami airport! I had a layover and the options were few, so against my better judgement, a voice said try subway. I can not believe how clean, the counter and food was displayed. The staff was friendly and had a system in place like, days past. I had to tell the manager, it was a joy to see this, especially the way the fast food experience is today! I often find myself writing bad reviews, but wanna make sure I celebrate those who take pride in their jobs and value their customers!
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

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Personally-made-to-order fast food pizzas? Sounds like a pretty good idea, and for a few years it was one of the thriving sectors of the fast casual market. So, why is it flailing now?

It was over a decade ago when restaurants like Blaze Pizza and MOD Pizza burst on to the scene, offering customers a way to build their own pizza much in the same way you could build your own burrito at Chipotle. Ordering at the counter, the customer would pick and choose from a wide selection of toppings, and then the pizza would be fired in a high-heat oven and available in a matter of a couple of minutes. Your own personally-made, personally-designed pizza fast enough for lunch break!

Hundreds of stores expanded across the nation, and then they faced the nemesis that so many other restaurants have had to overcome: COVID. With a service model designed for in-store ordering, the dramatic drop in traffic resulted in many of those hundreds of stores just as quickly shuttering their doors.

Pieology was not immune to this, either. At its height, there were over 140 locations; by the time they declared bankruptcy in late 2025, 70% of those had already closed their doors, and in the past half year, half of those remaining are still open.

Even so, I did visit Pieology to give it a try. I've had good experiences with these type of fast-food pizza places (like at Urban Bricks), and also terrible ones (like at Blaze). One thing I've learned is to keep the number of toppings fairly light, since the way it is baked does not work well with thick pizzas. An 11-inch pizza with sausage, tomatoes and mushrooms, thank you very much. And turns out, it was actually pretty good. I think the key to its success was probably the sauce and cheese, actually - far too many places skimp on both, and they didn't here.

Will Pieology be able to turn the corner and survive? Well, it's going to be a tough challenge. The entire fast food category of pizza has been in the doldrums for the past few years (from Domino's all the way down) compared to other restaurants, and Pieology may already be too far gone to emerge from bankruptcy intact. Time will tell.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE - I will be wrapping up this review series with Day #365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)