By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com

Upon reader request, we spent three weeks stalking fast-food drive-by windows. Altogether, we visited outlets of 17 different restaurants, all but one a chain, and sampled 89 different menu items. We made a point of trying: all readers' poll winners, all subjects of major advertising campaigns, and anything recommended by restaurant staff. Three things surprised us: 1.) Many places lack drive-by service, including outlets of Subway, Jimmy John's, Quizno's, Long John Silver's, Tasty Taco, Chik-fil-A, Porky's and all pizza joints. 2.) We were short-changed four times, but never given too much change. 3.) Onion rings, a potentially great fast food, didn't make our list. Somebody should check out the Tastee Inn & Out in Sioux City for inspiration.

Des Moines' Best Drive-by Fast Foods

McDonald's sausage biscuit
This was the best breakfast offering because the biscuit tasted fresh and the meat patty was seared and flavorful. Even though no butter was available and the jelly was forgettable, the biscuit was far more edible than any of the invariably soggy croissants, muffins or waffle-like options we tried.

Grounds for Celebration coffee
In a year in which both McDonald's and Burger King spent multi-millions touting new upgraded coffees, Grounds for Celebration delivered by far the best java we found, but not the best service.

B-Bop's hamburger
This burger wins the Cityview readers' poll every year. It was our favorite hamburger, too, edging out Culver's on price, Wendy's on sear and Hardee's on restraint. Those four were quite superior to others we tried.

Coney Island's chili
Chili was the strongest category of all items we found. Wendy's and B-Bop's also offered better products than many sit-down restaurants that charge five times as much. But Coney Island's was unique, not lost in tomato paste, nor cut with kidney beans - just vibrant with meat and an herbal essence.

Coney Island's beef burger
This should be declared a civic treasure. It's slow food fast, a loose meat sandwich that takes half a day to make, is seasoned secretly and is delivered in a mess-reducing hot dog bun. It was less salty and more deeply spiced than any loose taco meat we found.

Coney Island's gyro
Pita sandwiches are suddenly fast-food darlings. Coney Island's gyro was the best such sandwich because it avoided excesses, delivering a subtle sauce of yogurt and herbs. Plus the meat was actually sliced off the rotisserie when ordered, and then grilled.

Coney Island's falafel
These were the closest thing to good "French fries" we found -- utterly crisp and crunchy on the outside with a soft, flavorful chick pea texture inside. Frozen fried potatoes all sacrificed the latter for the former. The worst coated the potatoes with flour while their interiors were tasteless mush. Others (Sonic, Taco John) were more like hash-brown balls.

Popeye's red beans & rice
This was the best side dish we found, with distinct flavors of sausage, beans and rice in roux gravy. The dirty rice and the jambalaya at Popeye's were also interesting, but these were actually better than those at any sit-down restaurant in town.

KFC's Original Recipe fried chicken
This beat Popeye's spicy chicken by a nose - because it was more restrained with the batter. Fried chicken on the bone is a strong suit of fast-food joints and vastly superior to any of the chicken nuggets or sandwiches we tried.

Taco John's refried beans
An expert reduction of pintos, these were as good as any in town. In the most inspirational improvisation of our safari, a server offered to top them with a freshly made pico de gallo instead of cheese!

Culver's frozen custard
Culver's knows who they are. Each time I asked what was good, I was told "butter burgers and frozen custard." They were right, too. The creamy, rich custard beat that of Custard's Last Stand, a good new place in West Glen, because Culver's melted slower. CV

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