I was looking for a quick bite to eat for lunch today and decided to stop in at the PDQ up the road from my office. I've heard quite a few good things from this chain fast food restaurant in the year/year and a half since its been built so I decided to finally give it a try.
First off lets talk about the chain PDQ. PDQ stands for People Dedicated to Quality and markets itself as a "fast casual restaurant specializing in fresh hand-battered chicken tenders, made-to-order sandwiches, daily cut fries, hand-spun milkshakes and fresh salads." The roots of the restaurant take place in Tampa, Florida and the co-owner is one of the co-founders of Outback Steakhouse. Now lets move on to the food/experience.
I did not have much time for lunch so I opted to go through the drive through. PDQ does not have the traditional fast food ordering system where you look at a menu and order what you want through a speaker system. Instead they have a menu for you to figure out what you want to eat, then you pull up to a window where an employee will take your order and make sure everything is right with your order. I personally think this is a pretty neat system. It gives you the feeling that they actually care about you and getting your order right, and customer service like that will bring people back to that particular restaurant over a place that doesn't have a good customer service feeling.
First off lets talk about the chain PDQ. PDQ stands for People Dedicated to Quality and markets itself as a "fast casual restaurant specializing in fresh hand-battered chicken tenders, made-to-order sandwiches, daily cut fries, hand-spun milkshakes and fresh salads." The roots of the restaurant take place in Tampa, Florida and the co-owner is one of the co-founders of Outback Steakhouse. Now lets move on to the food/experience.
I did not have much time for lunch so I opted to go through the drive through. PDQ does not have the traditional fast food ordering system where you look at a menu and order what you want through a speaker system. Instead they have a menu for you to figure out what you want to eat, then you pull up to a window where an employee will take your order and make sure everything is right with your order. I personally think this is a pretty neat system. It gives you the feeling that they actually care about you and getting your order right, and customer service like that will bring people back to that particular restaurant over a place that doesn't have a good customer service feeling.
PDQ claims that their fries are freshly cut each day. They were very tasty, but not crisp at all. However this could be from them sitting in the bag for the ride back to work. Regardless they had some seasoning on them and had that 'homemade' fries taste.
They serve their sandwiches in these cute little boxes :)
I went with the Spicy Buffalo Tenders Sandwich. It was full of flavor but not really spicy. However I can eat the spiciest of foods so very rarely are things like this spicy to me. The chicken was crispy and made of white meat. I would definitely get this sandwich again.
Overall I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with my trip to PDQ. The food customer service was good, the food was tasty, and it didn't have the fast food feel to it that something like a McDonald's would have. However I would put PDQ in the same category of a Chick fil A and Zaxby's. Both of which I would probably go to before I went to a PDQ, however PDQ costs a few dollars less than each of those two. I recommend you try this for yourself if you're in the area and looking for a tasty and inexpensive chicken sandwich.
Conclusion: Good fast food chicken and not the usual fast food taste/atmosphere. If you're looking for a chicken sandwich meal under 8 bucks then this is a place you should try.
Conclusion: Good fast food chicken and not the usual fast food taste/atmosphere. If you're looking for a chicken sandwich meal under 8 bucks then this is a place you should try.
Rating:
Taste - 7/10
Freshness - 7/10
Price - $/$$$$$
Taste - 7/10
Freshness - 7/10
Price - $/$$$$$