I had a very disappointing experience at my local Burger King restaurant last night. To begin with, I placed a mobile order ahead of arrival because I was in a hurry and needed to save time. Instead of pulling into the drive-thru, placing my order, and then waiting in line for the food to be prepared, I thought ordering ahead would be the way to go so the food would be ready for pickup when I arrived.
Instead, I was asked to pull ahead to park and wait while they prepared my food. They didn’t even start the order until I arrived. I waited twelve minutes for them to bring it out. And when they finally delivered my order, it was missing three items so I had to wait an additional six minutes for them to get the rest of the food ready.
It was quite a disappointing experience as waiting eighteen total minutes is certainly not the definition of “fast food”, especially considering that I ordered ahead to save time in the first place. And for the record, it was not a huge order by any means. It was five sandwiches, five sides, and one drink.
But while I was sitting there cursing under my breath, I thought back to a specific time in the ’90s when we purposely waited for our food at Burger King, and did so willingly. It was 1992, and Burger King had rolled out a new concept called “BK Dinner Service”.
Burger King attempted something new and radical. They decided to try and get families in the door for dinner by offering “table service”. Between the hours of 4 pm and 8 pm, they had a special menu featuring what they called dinner baskets. You had several options for what you could have in your dinner basket, and those options included:
- Fried boneless chicken breast
- Fried shrimp
- Steak Sandwich
- Whopper
- Meatloaf sandwich that was available in select areas
You also had choices for your sides too as you could pick from fries or a baked potato, and choose either a salad or coleslaw.
In addition to the baskets, one of the key features was that you would order your food at the counter like normal, but instead of getting your food then and there, they would give you a number and you would head off to find a table. When your baskets were prepared, they’d bring your food out. And I’m a little ashamed to admit it, but the thing that probably made me want to go try this at the time was that they gave you a tray of popcorn to enjoy as an appetizer while you waited for your dinner baskets to arrive.
It seems like a stretch to expect a huge influx of customers to come rushing in for this promotion, and it must have been because I don’t remember this promotion lasting very long at all. I do however remember one individual being super hyped for it for some reason…me. As I sit here and type this, I can’t tell you why I was so excited about this concept, but I was all about wanting to experience it.
I managed to convince my folks to try it out just one time. I ordered the Whopper basket with fries and cole slaw. I have no memory of what my folks ordered, but they must not have been impressed with it all since we never went back for it a second time. Maybe it was the popcorn that lured me in. I don’t know but regardless, the whole thing obviously left a lasting impression on me since I remember it fondly enough to still recall what my dinner basket consisted of.
So while I sat waiting for my food last night, the thought of the BK Dinner Service did bring a little smile to my face and eased my tension just a little bit. It was back during these times in the ’90s that I was totally on board with their slogan…”I love this place”. Maybe we’ll get back to that feeling again some day.
Yeah, I have a lot of nostalgia for Burger King, but unfortunately, the BK of today just doesn’t really manage to capture it for a variety of reasons.
BK Broiler, I’m looking at you. Or I would be, if you hadn’t been absent for who knows how long.
But I remember this promotion. It seemed to last for a little bit, but that might just be in kid time for me, where everything takes forever. (Then again, we seem to be fairly close in age, so IDK there.)
Nevertheless, my parents seemed to enjoy it enough that I remember going several times. I loved getting the popcorn (and a BBQ sauce to dip it in sometimes, back when they didn’t charge you for it outside of a chicken tender purchase), and I think fried shrimp was my first get. I’m sure I tried the chicken breast and steak sandwich, too, though I don’t remember them as vividly. I just remember liking the stuff on the whole.
I don’t think ours ever got the meatloaf, and I’m not sure I’d have gotten it, depending on what was in it. But what ours DID have that I never see anyone talking about was, at the same time, a NEOGEO arcade machine with Viewpoint and Art of Fighting, and one of those games where you drop a quarter into a water tank and try to catch it on a little platform to win food prizes. I actually won a few times on that. I got kinda decent at it.
Then things started to go away. First, the dinner menu/waitservice. Then eventually the water thing when it broke, IIRC. And I think the NEOGEO (which had since gotten different games, but I don’t remember which ones) was last.
Sad. But good times, good memories… thanks for bringing them up!
Sorry your recent experience was so bad, though.