Not so fast food

Quick hamburger fast food in Annecy, FranceAhh, France. Did they start the Slow Food revolution? What a great idea Slow Food is: enjoy your food, cooked lovingly for taste rather than speed. The concept seems to have oozed partially into France’s fast food. Pictured is the only vegetarian burger option at Quick, which is France’s answer to McDonald’s. Given that many restaurants have no vegetarian option, I praise Quick for their non-meat alternative, albeit the usual goats cheese deal. This burger is meant to have tomato in it too. Can you see any? There’s one slice hidden at the back that my bites have yet to reach, but I digress.

Back to the Slow Food revolution. Quick seems to have chosen just the elements of the Slow Food revolution that work for it — namely slowness.

I was unfortunate enough to have to eat at Quick after a friend said he was craving a burger. We had to wait for both burgers, fat fries, and condiments. I’m not sure how packages of salt and sauce can be held up, or why mayo turned up when we didn’t request it, then had to wait again while our trusty server went on a mission to find the correct condiments. The wrong fries turned up but we were so hungry by the time the rest of our food came that we thanked the server and walked away.

Pictured is the burger I bothered waiting for. What a waste huh? Burnt on top with one tiny bit of tomato inside, no cheese flavour, but some sort of oil-based mayo making up for that loss, I didn’t get a bit further before giving up. At least if I splurge on dessert, I enjoy it. Here was the equivalent in fat and sugar without the enjoyment factor. And it was slow. And they burnt it and still served it. Fine, it’s fast food, but that’s my point: it’s not even fast. If I’m going to buy fast food, I want it fast because I’m going for the food hit rather than the taste. Just gimme my food!

So, I ate a few skinny fries, watched my friend down all his food — along with the burnt ‘tomato and cheese’ burger (talking marks because  those ingredients are alleged, and I’m still not convinced it should be called anything but the cardboard burger).

I went and bought a crepe instead.

About

I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.

10 Comments on “Not so fast food

  1. Sandie, my choice would be a bakery, but it wasn’t my choice that day – pity!
    misplacedperson, I can’t disagree. They had some cheesy bite things advertised that tasted like they’d gone off. Yuck!

  2. McDo will also do your meal in stages so that the chips are eaten before the fillet-o-fish arrives. these days you even have to ask for the condiments rather than them being self service. The burger arrives to your table only when your server can leave their till and other customers. Still, it is ‘fast’-ish.

  3. Oh dear 🙁 That was one burnt bun. I have to say that the Quick restaurants in Limoges that I’ve been to when visiting Benj at Uni are very good. The food’s been good and we didn’t have to wait long at all. There’s also a 2 for the price of 1 deal exclusively for students which has kept my son alive!
    Shame you had such a bad experience.

  4. Oh dear. It used to be that restaurants in UK were absolutely rubbish and you certainly couldn’t trust them to serve fish, steak or pies (unless you actually wanted food poisoning, fat or gristle). Then when we visited in 2005, the strangest thing had happened and food became really good! I guess France is just waiting for enough people to say “enough is enough” and demand better quality and service.

  5. Emm and Steph, I wonder if it’s just this corner of France that suffers, having tourism in the bag with pictureque surrounds and proximity to ski resorts.

  6. Ok, am scared that I will fall in the same fate whilst visiting annecy…..where should I veg out for lunch? Bakery or cafe for non tourists please !!!

  7. Mich, Annecy has all the usual bakeries dotted around near the pedestrianised mall. I love Chez Barnabe for a quick bite to eat. Or any of the creperies in the old town are great if you feel like eating in.