From The Takeout

  • Late-Night Ice Cream Runs Might Get Banned In One Italian City

    Pizza and gelato are two can’t-miss food items to be had on a trip to Italy, but strolling in search of a midnight slice may soon become illegale for residents and tourists alike in Milan. CNN reports that officials in the city have announced plans to ban sales of takeaway food after midnight. Marco Granelli, Milan’s deputy mayor of security, posted to social media explaining that the ban is meant to protect the “tranquility” of residents and maintain a “balance between sociability and...

  • Taco Bell’s New Taco Tuesday Deal Is Actually Pretty Good

    Fast food has pretty much lost its reputation for being budget-friendly these days (good luck finding a value meal for under $10), so when we see deals, we pounce on them. Now that Taco Bell has the freedom to use the term “Taco Tuesday,” it’s taking that opportunity to run a promotional blitz, and it’s announced that it’ll be featuring a new meal deal on Tuesdays only, all for a cool $5. That’s nice on paper, but what does it actually get you? The new deal, called the Taco Discovery Box, nets...

  • Crumbl Finally Comes To Its Senses By Going Small

    I have a lot of gripes with Crumbl’s cookies, but one of them is regarding the company’s suggested serving size. Although it’s easy to assume that a cookie’s serving size would be a whole damn cookie, Crumbl suggests that a reasonable serving size is actually ¼ of one. Who the hell eats a quarter of a cookie? It’s likely meant to disguise just how rich and calorie-dense these things are — one of the cookies available this week, the Confetti Milkshake, clocks in at 920 calories. So Crumbl has...

  • McDonald's New Bacon Cajun Ranch McCrispy: A Salty Review Saved By The Sauce

    McDonald’s is releasing two limited-time versions of its McCrispy chicken sandwich nationwide on April 22: the Bacon Cajun Ranch McCrispy and the Bacon Cajun Ranch Deluxe McCrispy. The regular version features a crispy fried chicken breast with bacon, pickles, and a new Cajun ranch sauce, while the Deluxe is the same build but without the pickles, replacing them with lettuce and tomato. The location nearest me has already started offering them early, so as one of your intrepid taste-testers at...

  • Doritos Baja Fiery Mango Is A Collaboration We Didn't Need

    Doritos has teamed up with Mountain Dew to celebrate the 20th year of Baja Blast’s existence, and the two brands have collaborated to create a limited-time soda-inspired chip flavor called Baja Fiery Mango. No, it’s not exactly a Baja Blast-flavored Dorito, but rather one that’s adjacent to the wildly popular Mountain Dew variety. In an email announcement sent to The Takeout, the chips are described as “spice-packed and tangy,” but very little other information was offered in terms of its...

  • Red Lobster Might Try Bankruptcy To Stay Afloat

    Red Lobster has not been doing well in terms of its finances in recent years. Between some owners jumping ship and an endless shrimp deal that essentially drained Red Lobster instead of boosting it, the brand has faced some challenges. Now, in an effort to keep the business up and running, Bloomberg reports Red Lobster is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Per the publication’s anonymous sources, the seafood chain is considering this move to restructure its debt. The bankruptcy...

  • Review: Starbucks' New Spicy Lemonade Refreshers Left Us Feeling Confused

    Taking a 180 turn from the flowery drinks it introduced earlier in the month for spring, Starbucks has just released three new limited-time beverages with a spicy twist. The new Spicy Lemonade Refreshers contain a chili powder blend meant to create a sweet and spicy drink experience for customers. The new beverages include Spicy Dragonfruit, Spicy Pineapple, and Spicy Strawberry flavors. Each drink contains a three-pepper mix of ancho chili powder, cayenne pepper, and chili powder. Each...

  • Sorry TikTok, But These Flat Croissants Aren’t Anything New

    There’s yet another TikTok food trend floating around the internet these days, and it involves flattening a croissant until it looks like it’s been run over by a steamroller, before heating it on both sides until it’s crisp and crunchy. Though the technique takes away one of the more delightful aspects of a croissant, which is its delightful and delicate puffy layers, it amplifies the shattering textural qualities of each bite — and TikTok can’t seem to get enough of the idea. In fact, multiple...

  • Cup Noodles’ Everything Bagel With Cream Cheese Ramen Pulls Off The Impossible

    When Cup Noodles (owned by Nissin Foods) recently announced that it would be releasing a ramen flavor called Everything Bagel with Cream Cheese, I’m pretty sure I just dropped everything I was doing and stared out the window for a few minutes. I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised; Cup Noodles released a breakfast ramen with the flavors of maple syrup, pancakes, sausage, and egg last year, and that pancake ramen was actually good. So when the brand offered to send me a sample to try, I had...

  • Taco Bell's Agua Refrescas Prove The Brand Still Doesn't Understand Mexican Cuisine

    When Taco Bell announced its full lineup of planned menu items for 2024 back in February, the brand noted in a press release that it would be doing so with the intention of featuring “bold and intentionally Mexican-inspired flavors.” The Tex-Mex chain’s latest attempt to fulfill that goal is being tested out at a restaurant location in Southern California, per a recent announcement. For five weeks, Taco Bell will be selling its new Agua Refrescas at one of its restaurants in Irvine, California....

  • Review: Mike's Harder Cocktails Go A Little Too Hard

    If you’ve ever found yourself drinking a cool, refreshing lemonade and thinking “I wish this thing went harder,” then you’ll be happy to know Mike’s Hard Lemonade just added three new drinks to its Harder line, which contains more alcohol than the brand’s regular drinks. The Harder line already has a number of flavors, including Black Cherry, Pineapple Mandarin, Mango, and even a Half & Half flavor with tea and lemonade. However, these new releases are focused on familiar cocktails: the...

  • Review: Burger King's New Frozen Cotton Candy Drink Is (Thankfully) Not What We Expected

    As the winter weather lightens up, so do the drink offerings that surround us. In keeping with the airy vibes of spring, Burger King has debuted a limited-time Frozen Cotton Candy beverage it notes will “cool off” taste buds for spring. In a press release, Burger King describes the new beverage as having a “balance of blue raspberry and cotton candy flavor.” A medium-size Frozen Cotton Candy costs $2.39 in Chicago, and there’s a $1 upcharge for the cold foam topper the burger chain suggests...