Rte 15

Anyone who has made the drive along I15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas has seen the signs for the "world famous" Mad Greek and Alien Jerky.

Well, after many years of passing by these places without stopping in, I finally gave in.

The Mad Greek - Not at all what I expected. This is really a burger joint with a few Greek items thrown on the menu, cheesy "Greek" decor, and not much else. Honestly, there were more burgers on the menu than Greek dishes. Now, that's not to say the food wasn't good. The Lamb Gyro was pretty good, and they put the tatziki on the side so you could add as much or as little as you wanted rather than smothering the thing with tatziki like a lot of places do. The Calamari was good, nice and lightly battered, and they gave you a lot of it, which made the prices a little more palatable. The rice was pretty good, and the pitas were a nice surprise, a little different than usual. Keep in mind that it cost me over $20 for an appetizer, a soda, and a gyro. Service was a bit iffy, but hey, it's a fancy McDonalds, I wasn't expecting all that much.

Alien Jerky - Wow. All that advertising for what? Maybe 5 variations of Jerky at $8 for 4oz. Talk about a rip off. I swear there were more t-shirts and hats and even pistachios than jerky. The jerky is nothing spectacular. It's not great, but it's not bad. I'd stick to Jack Links or maybe trying to make your own(I'm partial to the Good Eats method), either option would be cheaper and just as tasty. STAY AWAY from the pepperoni flavoured beef sticks. Blech. Blech. Blech. Buy the ones at Costco, you get a whole container for the same price and the quality is far better. The pepperoni flavoured beef sticks are pretty much red colored flavourless squashed together meat crumbs with some chile powder squeezed into plastic tubes. The taste is unappealing, the texture is unappealing, you get weird plastic red flakes on your hand from touching them. Don't waste your time with the Alien Jerky store (unless it's to use the bathroom), don't waste your money buying it, don't even waste the gas taking the exit off I15 for it.