Burger News

Youtube star and food critic takes on Texas' beloved Whataburger

Mikey Chen rants and raves about Whataburger in a new video.

Screenshot via Mikey Chen/Youtube

Youtube food reviewer and new Texas resident Mikey Chen's latest clip offers the video star's take on fast food institution Whataburger. The results are mixed at best.

Chen, who has over 5 million subscribers between his Strictly Dumpling (3.8 million) and Mikey Chen (1.4 million) channels, generally samples food from small, family-owned restaurants, particularly Asian cuisines. As such, he's generally affable. Slamming the food at a small Korean or Chinese restaurant would be more like bullying than providing viewers with valuable recommendations.

His passionate fanbase eagerly follows his advice. A recent article in Texas Monthly noted the beneficial effects an enthusiastic review had on a Filipino BBQ restaurant near Dallas. Conversely, CultureMap Dallas notes that Chen pulled no punches when he had a disappointing visit to popular barbecue restaurant Pecan Lodge.

In a video posted on September 5, Chen displayed that more pointed side of his personality as he sampled nearly every sandwich on the menu from a Whataburger location near his apartment in Allen. Visiting early on a Sunday morning, he also ordered breakfast items such as a cinnamon roll, pancakes, and a honey butter chicken biscuit. The 15-minute drive from restaurant to his home did the food no favors, and Chen minced no words in expressing his disappointment with most of what he sampled.

Below are the five sickest burns the video star dropped on his meal:

Looking at the unwrapped burgers, Chen quips: "Let's get to some of the burgers, which seriously look like they reverse Benjamin Button'ed themselves, just drastically aged. I really don't believe this was freshly made when I ordered it."
About his Honey BBQ Chicken Strip sandwich, he says, "It looks like the Crypt Keeper's lunch, it looks so dry." Later, he adds, "I think the sandwich has been taking fighting lessons from Wonder Woman, because it is tough."
A fried chicken sandwich similarly failed to impress. "This thing looks like it's been sitting out in the Texas sun for the last 20 years. There is zero moisture left in this chicken sandwich," he says. "What a horrible sandwich. This thing could live in Seattle for a year and not be any less dry."
The similarity between the logos of Whataburger and DC Comics comes up a few times in the clip, which is the background necessary for this bon mot: "That cinnamon roll tastes like Wonder Woman outsourced the baking to Aquaman. Aquaman lives in the ocean. He doesn't know how to bake."
McDonald's catches some shrapnel in an observation about Whataburger's relatively hefty portion: "This is what McDonald's used to be like, you know, before they asked 'do you believe in magic' and the trick was the burgers got smaller. This is a burger."

Thankfully, the experience ends on a positive note with a burger: Chen saves a classic Whataburger with cheese and jalapenos for the end of his tasting. After perking the burger up in a microwave, he raves about the classic combination: "This is 100 percent one of my favorite fast food burgers."

Maybe stay away from the chicken sandwiches, at least according to Chen.

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Wings News

New chicken wing joint sells 'em by the pound in Dallas' Deep Ellum

Wings By the Pound

A no-nonsense wing spot has debuted in Dallas' Deep Ellum: Called Wings By the Pound, it sells exactly that, at a shop at 2707 Main St., in the former home of the Slutty Vegan burger joint, which closed in 2024.

Wings by the Pound states proudly that it "isn't a combo joint" but is instead "a counter built on one idea — call your weight, watch it hit the scale, and take it off the scale." Then presumably you take it home, you eat it, end of story.

It presents itself as an alternative to typical wing spots which sell wings by the number. Numbers are complicated.

"We sell you weight. Pick wings or tenders, call your poundage from a half-pound to four, and we weigh it up in front of you," they say.

From there it's the standard wing-joint set of choices: wings or tenders, level of heat, sauces, and sides. "No combos, no guessing," they brag, although is there a lot of guessing with wings?

Here's some very specific numbers:

One pound of wings, which they approximate at 12 pieces, is $15.05. Two pounds, or 24 pieces, is $27.11.
One pound of tenders, which they approximate at 8 pieces, is $17.02. Two pounds, or 16 pieces, is $25.06.

They also sell french fries — crinkle cut — in choice of plain, cheese sauce, or "pound sauce" for $8 to $15. Pound sauce is their version of the prototypical secret sauce, which generally boils down to Russian-ish dressing, i.e., mayonnaise and ketchup with various add-ins, spicy and otherwise; the version at Wings By the Pound incorporates hot sauce.

There are wet sauces, including Thai, chipotle, hot honey, and garlic Parm; dry rubs, including suya (peanut) and jalapeño-lemon; and five dips: cheese sauce, ranch, bleu cheese, honey mustard, and pound sauce.

Some might recall that there was a Wings By the Pound concept that first debuted in 2020 at Trinity Groves, the restaurant incubator in West Dallas, but that closed in 2022.

This Wings By the Pound is a new concept from ArkDal Hospitality Group, headed by Cary Thompson, Royce Colley, and Mo Wells, which also operates Velour Restaurant in Victory Park.

The location in Deep Ellum has no seating on premise and functions as a take-out spot only. A spokesperson said that the location opened in mid-June.

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