Burgerville: Still perfect

We know Burgerville is perfect fast food.  We already said so, remember?      Well guess what?  Now they are even perfecter.

It had been some time since we visited our nearest Burgerville, which sadly, is about 60 miles away in Albany.  There are a few in Portland and the outlying areas, but it's really Washington that's the lucky one.  There are Burgervilles off just about every exit along I-5 from Vancouver to Olympia.

So when we were there today, we wondered if it was still as good as we remembered it.

Yep.  It's even better.

They've always served their drinks with compostable straws but now they come in compostable cups too.  They are serving fried asparagus spears - the nerve!  And there's a new coho salmon sandwich on the menu that's delicious.

But the real piece of perfection is the receipt.  Usually you take the receipt and shove it in your pocket, purse or in some crevice in your car and don't think twice about it.  But for some reason this time we did think twice about it.  We had a closer look and there they were.  Nutrition facts.

But it wasn't just the usual nutrition facts.  It was nutrition facts customized to your order.  So you could tell exactly how many calories, and how much fat, carbs and fiber were in the items you ordered.

For example, we usually ask for no mayo on our orders.  Hey, that knocks 100 calories off your meal.  What if you order mustard?  It'll cost you 20 calories.   And the salmon sandwich?  You knew it had a lot of calories with that lemon aioli on it.  You were right.  That sandwich is 500 calories.  But they are such yummy calories.

The so-called smart receipt is made possible by a company called Nutricate.  What a simple solution to a big problem - how to find out how many calories are in the food you eat in restaurants.

Even with the typical nutrition chart you receive at major restaurants - usually upon request only - there is a certain amount of guess work, particularly if you order something that's not exactly as it appears on the menu.  But the smart receipt takes care of that because it reflects exactly what you ordered.

So as before, the question remains, if Burgerville can do it, why can't the others?