Game changer
Wawa now offers burgers and fries. Here’s what we thought
Wawa wants you think outside the hoagie roll.
The much-loved convenience store chain — subject to a playful rivalry with equally popular Sheetz — is making a run at dinner with a new menu lineup, led by burgers and fries.
While it may seem like a left turn for the chain, Wawa has been offering burgers and fries at two test locations near Philadelphia for the past few months and they’ve been wildly successful. Now all 920 Wawa locations will offer burgers and fries starting at 4 p.m., ushering in a push for more dinnertime selections that will roll out over the next few months.
Convenience stores have stepped up their game over the past few years to compete with restaurants, going beyond chips, slushies and hot dogs. Big convenience chains now offer not only gas for your car, snacks for the road and air for your tires but also create-your-own sandwiches, lattes and ice cream.
The popularity of dining at convenience stores is showing no signs of relenting, especially as many of these stores have been able to quickly adapt to the pandemic, offering easy-to-use online ordering and curbside pickup.
On to the burgers and fries: I asked Jennifer Wolf, a spokeswoman for Wawa, to tell more. The burger is a one-third-pound Angus patty and they use vegetable oil for the fries.
Part of Wawa’s broad appeal is that you can customize almost anything you order using a self-serve, touch-screen. You can bring a family of four into a Wawa, and your vegetarian daughter, your meat-eating husband and your picky oldest daughter all get what they want on their orders with ease. (Been there, done that.)
Just like with its hoagies, sandwiches and other dishes, you can also customize your burger and fries order.
I went to the Wawa on Lehigh Street in Allentown to give the meal a try.
It’s a well-done burger on a simple brioche bun so you don’t have a choice on meat temperature. But you can choose your cheese, toppings such as pickles, lettuce or tomato, an assortment of condiments and added bacon. Mine had pepper jack cheese, pickles, tomato and caramelized onions. The fries are seasoned. Cost: $5.99.
My order came quickly, along with the hoagies we got, so there was no additional wait time.
When I returned home, I unpacked the food. The burger came in a clam-shell container and the fries in a paper pouch.
My initial reaction was that in my 10-minute drive back from Wawa the food had become lukewarm. I like hot food to be hot so
I did have to give it a quick zap in the microwave. The fries had good seasoning and flavor but just weren’t crispy. Maybe had I put them in the oven for a bit they would have revived, but that defeats the purpose of a convenience meal.
The burger was surprisingly good. Now, it’s not in the same category as a burger from your favorite local sit-down restaurant, but it’s definitely much better than anything you’d get at most fast-food restaurants.
The ratio of burger-to-bun was perfect and I liked the toppings I chose. The burger itself, although well-done, still was juicy.
Overall: Burger was surprisingly good while the fries need a little work.