White Castle

I'm from Cali and the only way I can get a White Castle burger is from the supermarket, from the frozen food aisle. But since we're in Chicago, my family and i decided to try a White Castle burger FRESH made from the grill. We ordered different types of burgers, fries, chicken rings, and shakes. I had the original burger, which it taste like the frozen ones (that's a disappointment), I also had the grilled chicken breast burger, it was too dry, i sampled the bacon burger from my sis and it tasted okay, I also had the chicken rings and that was my favorite out of all I've had tried. The vanilla shake was pretty good too. My brother's gf tried their sweet potato fries and she didn't enjoyed it because it wasn't sweet at all. Besides the food, the service was good. We got our order fast and easy. I'll probably go back there again when I'm in town again.......only for their chicken rings!

Well, it actually happened! I was transported back to my teens when I walked into this beloved American institution that is otherwise known as The Porcelain Palace. The one that I frequented in my teens is located at 95th & South Cicero Ave. in Oak Lawn, IL, where I, fueled by adolescent peer pressure and the reckless bravery that four warm tall boy Old Styles or Mad Dog 20/20 rendered, dared to routinely order "sliders", or "gut grenades", or "hurl burgers". Upon my doing so, my buddies and I would cackle at the boxy, middle-aged, hair-netted burger matrons' expressions of disbelief, which now older, I would much more accurately read as their fair and reasonable disbelief that yet "another drunk punk, who thinks that he's the next Don Rickles would find what he just did was funny. ::: Does his mother know what a no good hoodlum putz she's raising? :::" Answer: Thanks be to God my sainted mother never caught me ... or, maybe she never let on that she knew what my buddies and I were up to on our Friday night ventures.

Gurnee's 'modern' White Castle is much larger, is constructed with remarkably less stainless steel and tile, and features many more colors beyond the traditional white and blue. The most striking change is customer-friendly waist-high counter tops in place of the old shoulder-high variety. Wonderful! The burger matrons are so much more friendly these days, too! (Then again, I did politely order "White Castle burgers, please", and offered my "Thank you" when I retrieved my order. My buddies would be sooo disappointed.)

My sliders tasted as I remembered. Well, to be completely honest, I could only guess that they did, since I was sober this time. However, I can share with absolute certainty that my burgers tasted the same after I ate them ... again, and again, and again, as my middle-aged digestive system repeatedly recycled their flavor for the next several hours. Beyond digestive distress, my visit did yield a rather harsh lesson: Like White Castle has over the past few decades, I too have endured drastic changes. (But unlike White Castle I am not as colorful?) Anyway, I issue four stars, because I definitely am a fan regardless of what my gut may have to say about it, and in spite of what it did to me.

The food is fun and pretty good. The small sandwiches are cool if you can't make up your mind and want two sliders, and two chicken ring sandwiches, or 2 fish, one slider and one chicken patty sandwich. They have Coke Zero which is a plus for me. The drive thru experience was pretty bad. The order taker asked me if I wanted jalapenos with my fruit punch, and then the food order was completely  wrong when we got to the window, too. She was very nice, but perhaps not a skilled multi-tasker. Dine-In and you will leave, a happy customer.