McDonald's (Tuttle Crossing)

Folks, the reigning Arches champion in the Dublin, Ohio area is still the 161 and Frantz location. However, I do believe the Tuttle Crossing franchise could give it a run for its money. I visit this one often as it's closer to work and the food is always pretty decent.

In the fairly recent past, I would regularly hit the drive-thru for an artery-clogging two double cheeseburgers (that's four patties) and a medium fry for a bargain $3. But I never exactly felt light on my feet after eating such fare, so I've decided to dial it back a bit. Yesterday I went with what is fast becoming my favorite meal: the #10 Crispy Chicken meal.

I'm not sure when the Crispy Chicken Sandwich got "revamped" to use marketing speak, but it's a quality mid-day treat. Past whole-breast chicken sandwiches always had an inordinate amount of gristle. However, none could be found on my Tuesday sandwich (or the previous example I had last week at the go-to location). This sandwich is quite tender, with a lightly-spiced crispy outer layer that seals in the juices nicely. It sits upon a premium honey-wheat roll, adorned with lettuce, tomato, and a generous dollup of mayo: exactly what I like in (on) a sandwich.

So the sandwich was top-flight, but I couldn't give the restaurant four stars because the fries were lukewarm. Now this is not usually a problem with this location, but I've got an obligation to our lard-loving readership to tell it like it is, and the fries weren't all that.

Otherwise, Tuttle is a nice location. The seating area seems small, but it's creatively configured to hold more people than you'd think, with plenty of nooks and crannies to give a little more privacy than the airplane-hangar arrangement common to most fast-food places. The two TVs in the joint were tuned to a daytime soap rather than the typical ESPN or CNN, which I thought strange, but not so much as to make me lose my mind and start eating at TGI Fridays or something.

You'll do well to avoid the drive-thru at peak hours, as I swear it starts to form a spiral around the building. I guess the mall shoppers are the laziest folks around, because there's never more than a few people in line if you actually walk inside. "I can wait here all day, so long as I don't have to get out of my bucket seat. And I'll take the salad... watching my figure"