Just The Specials: Wendy’s Partners With Netflix For ‘Wednesday Meal Of Misfortune’
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
Just The Specials is a series where I try limited releases, holiday offerings, and special meal items from across the food world and then report back on what I have found. In this installment, we are digging into Wendy’s “Meal of Misfortune,” a meal themed after Netflix’s Wednesday series. The meal comes with a small “Cursed & Crispy” fry, a small “Raven’s Blood” Frosty, a ten-count of spicy or regular chicken nuggets, and two of four “Dips of Dread,” the centerpiece of this offering wrapped in fairly well-executed themed packaging.
The nuggets, both spicy and original, are the normal recipe, but they do come in this stripped packaging, which I dig. The grey and black is a nice shift from the usual red and, while still themed, it does give off the “Wendy’s vibes”
The back of the nugget package lists out the “Dips of Dread,” though I’m not quite sure how exactly this color code applies to the sauces. Asking some of the other writers in the bullpen, they seem to indicate it’s because the color of the sauces is slightly coordinated to the color of the sauce in some subtle way.
The reason I’m unsure if the sauce color matches the flavor is that while the meal comes with two packs of sauce, and I ordered an additional two packs of sauce, I still ended up with four of the exact same flavor. What was in the mystery pack above had the consistency of runny glue, was the color of black shoe polish, and tasted like what I can only assume bear mace tastes like.
As someone who enjoys spicy foods and foods with complex flavor profiles, I hate giving this kind of feedback, but there is no other way to put it. Whatever the black sauce was, I’m assuming with my limited ability to base it on other sauces in this collection, as the “This Will Sting” sauce stings not because it is spicy. It sure is, but it stings because it is so one-note, and the texture is awful from start to finish. Runny glue is the only thing I can compare it to, and as someone who did not eat glue, that is a statement based on vibes alone.
The “Cursed & Crispy” fries are just the normal fare from Wendy’s. Nothing bad, as I quite enjoy the way they do their fries.
The “Raven’s Blood” Frosty is a very weird taste experience that gave me indigestion almost immediately. It’s supposed to be a black cherry flavor swirled into the Frosty, but it ends up tasting very strongly of cough syrup, and mixed with the traditional Frosty flavoring, it’s a miss for me in the flavor department.
I enjoy the effort Wendy’s put into this. There was a lot of pre-promotion and build-up. I think, aside from making it easier to get the sauces and a flavor mix-in for the Frosty, the only thing that could have made this better would have been the addition of some kind of toy or collectible like they did with the “Boo! bags” in October of last year. A small Wednesday-themed Frosty toy would have been an easy lift from their end and would have really sent this whole thing to the next level.
Until next time, I would try this once if you are so inclined, but once is about all the effort I am willing to put in.
