I owe 7 blogs. Here's 1 on Cook Out

Sure, let me follow up my entry bragging about my low calorie diet with a gorging entry.

I'm in Myrtle Beach right now and loving life.  Got my wife, my son, and we are just chilling in a timeshare.

When I move north, I get a chance to see chain restaurants that are moving towards Florida before they arrive.  I got to try Firehouse Subs before a lot of my friends because of this and I think I spotted a new place that's heading our way.

Cook Out is, at its core, a hamburger joint with a shake specialty.  The taste, variety, and price set it apart though.

Price:  It's cheap.  A combo meal with two sides and a big drink cost $5.  Did I mention they consider things like corndogs and quesadillas as sides?  Actually, you can get a chicken quesadilla combo with two chicken quesadillas as side dishes. And that "big drink"?  It's a supersized soda or an ice cream float or a shake for a buck more.

Variety:  There's over 40 types of milkshakes.  There was probably 20 main dish type foods in the BBQ range.  The menu is very Sonic-like.

Taste:  Of course none of this matters if it isn't good.  It is.  I want to say that the fries and shakes taste like the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas (which fries in lard and uses heavy cream for shakes) but a more accessible comparison is Five Guys for the fries.

Kiri had a combo meal with a burger, a side of corn dog (for Hunter), a side of onion rings, and a cappuccino milkshake.

For my FIRST meal, I had the BBQ platter which was a scoop of chopped pork with Texas Pete hot sauce poured on top then two sides of fries and hushpuppies with a Heath toffee milkshake.

For my SECOND meal, I had a combo with a burger (done "western style" for 70 cents more with bacon, bbq sauce, and onion), another corn dog for Hunter, and I had to see what the "side" of a "bacon wrap" was.  It was a helping of bacon with a leave of lettuce, a little shredded cheese, and some mayo in a tortilla.  I opened the tortilla and put the insides on my burger.  I had a berry banana milkshake which was sublime.  It was like the missing link between milkshake and fruit smoothie.

All of this cost me under $20 and we cleaned our plates.

Cook Out's locations are mostly in South Carolina, but have spread to neighboring states.  The place was packed.  We'll be seeing them in North Florida soon and in Orlando soon after that.

Two additional notes on restaurants.

1.  We're getting a Red Robin in Orlando on I-drive.  I wouldn't care except that they have played Red Robin commercials in Orlando for years because we're the same market as Tampa where they have one.

2.  We ate at Paula Deen's Lady and Sons in Savannah while we were there.  Pretty amazing.  $15 gets you a small buffet of southern food.  It's the only time I've ever been done at a buffet after one plate.  So filling.  So delicious.  Ranked in my top 3 of all time for fried chicken, baked chicken, creamed corn, and bbq sauce (on the ribs).