Petro’s Chili & Chips
Rating: Kiddy | Casual | Foodie
Location
Petro’s Chili & Chips is a small drive-through and eat-in restaurant chain that is all over the country. The one I went to was in Oak Ridge, Tenessee. During Covid (when I visited), Petro’s closed the eat-in part of the restaurant and only served through the drive-through. Petro’s has a small menu, but their “claim-to-fame” is the “Petro.” The Petro is a bowl with a base of noodles or Frito chips, a layer of chili, and toppings of your choice.
Mac n’ Cheese
The mac n’ cheese purchase was totally unexpected because I went for the Petro. Normally, The mac n’ cheese at Petro’s is sold as a kid’s meal option. If you ask, you can get a small-sized portion of just the mac n’ cheese as a side for $3.99. For $3.99, you don’t get much. Nearly four dollars is a lot of money for what they gave me. Moving onto the taste, the mac n’ cheese wasn’t all that good, but I understand given that the restaurant focuses on chili and chip bowls. The mac n’ cheese seemed to just be boiled noodles that were then sprinkled with cheese then cooked (possibly in a microwave) to melt the cheese and no mixing. It was very oily and greasy. The cheese was very stringy and there wasn’t very much cheese sticking to the noodles. If I were to have made it myself (with just shredded cheese and noodles) I probably would have done something a little similar; however, I would have made the cheese more creamy so that it coats and sticks to the noodles rather than stringy cheese as a “topping.”
Overall
Overall, the mac n’ cheese wasn’t that good. As I said before, I completely understand this because Petro’s doesn’t focus on mac n’ cheese. After all, I came for the Petro and left with a mac n’ cheese as well. Mac n’ cheese is too irresistible to not get when you see it. The mac n’ cheese tasted like plain noodles with melted cheese shreds on top, and there was barely a gooey cheese coating the noodles.