Food Review: KFC’s Double Down

You remember the Double Down: the carb-free super-protein all-meat sandwich from KFC, bacon and cheese between two slabs of chicken, no bun.  (Okay, you’d need the grilled version rather than the breaded one to get close to carb-free.)  Lots of news coverage and controversy when it came out, including use of the phrase “suicide cuisine”.

But have you actually eaten one?  I have.  Visited a KFC in Centralia on a trip to Portland in July.  Sought it out specifically instead of other less-than-fine dining options.

The first bite was far more peppery than I expected, from the spices in the breading.

The next couple bites were very tasty, but I found the sandwich a bit unwieldy to eat while driving the car.  The slabs of chicken don’t compress like a bun does, so getting my mouth around it was a challenge.  (Insert NSFW comment here about me getting my mouth around big pieces of meat.)

By the time I was 2/3 done with the sandwich, though, I was over it.  Too much meat, or at least too much intensity of the meat.  I’ve found this before with other bigger-size fast food; when I got to the last couple bites of that Wendy’s Double, I was no longer thrilled with the sandwich and I more “finished” it than “ate” it.  (This probably means that I’m safe from overdoing it on fast food.)

End Result: the Double Down is a very tasty sandwich, but it is big and intense.  You would probably be better off splitting it between two people; both would enjoy it and both would enjoy it more.