Zaxby's - Zorry, I tried to like it

An unusual thing happened last week. I work in the office of an apartment complex and one of my residents gave me a $10 gift certificate to Zaxby's as a token of her appreciation. So after retrieving packages from her door step and unplugging appliances feared to be left on while she was out of town, I was awarded with a free lunch. I don't usually eat at Zaxby's but I was excited about the gesture.

 Happily, I phoned a girlfriend and made a lunch date for the next day. Since I had a gift card, I decided to go all out - I ordered an appetizer and a meal. Since I am not a big fan of crinkled fries and that's the typical side with a sandwich there, I selected a Zalad for my meal. To make up for not ordering fries, I decided to get an unhealthy, fried Zappetizer.

Now, I haven't been a big fan of Zaxby's in the past and I don't have a really good reason for it. I love Chik-fila and the two restaurants have pretty much the same concept.  Almost everyone I know loves Zaxby's. I do like how they serve their meals on a real plate so you get a little more of a restaurant feel versus a fast food feel. Also, it's better for the environment (a very waspy thing to say, I realize). However, I've just never gotten into Zaxby's. So to give Zaxby's a fair chance of impressing me I decided to order the most fattening and therefore hopefully, the most tasty, Zappetizer - fried white cheddar cheese bites. (For those price conscious readers, the Zappetizer is about three and half dollars but if you want to save money order it as a side). I love cheese and white cheddar is possibly my favorite type of cheese. However, I was very disappointed with my fried cheese bites. They weren't hot enough so the cheese was too thick. Instead of piping hot, soft, luscious, melted cheese - I got chewy cheese of the consistency of string cheese. Think string cheese with bread crumbs on it. That's what I was eating. I was dipping it in as much marinara as possible to make it worthwhile.

Nonetheless, I ended up eating most of the cheese bites because I enjoyed them more than my Zalad. Again, in an attempt to give Zaxby's a fair chance of winning me over as a customer - I ordered fried chicken on my Zalad. I know fried chicken is what Zaxby's is known for as opposed to grilled chicken. So again - I'm trying to give Zaxby's a fair chance here. The place is about one block from the apartment complex where I work and live. Everyone else loves it. I want to like it, too! I want to be a fan but still, I found the Zalad to be bland and tasteless. The salads taste like they're stored in a freezer - like your eating vegetables that once had flavor, color and life but now are just boring and flavorless Also, I'm pretty sure the chicken was supposed to be tossed in a teriyaki sauce that was forgotten. To put it another way - the salad was indescribably bad. So in conclusion, I've tried to give Zaxby's a chance and understand what it is about the place that everyone else is crazy about but I'm zorry, I'm just not into it.