Carl’s Jr.

Shop is closed for good. I hope they use the space to open another sushi place. I’d like to be alive when Sacramento has more sushi restaurants than people populating the city. I don’t know why I have such aspirations, but like Einstein once said, «dream big, eat bigger, and exterminate the ocean’s fish.»

We had a rag tag crew of 10 hungry men plus me who had just spent 5 hours setting up tents for Sac Pride on Capitol Mall and 6^th. Starving, dirty and tired, we took a break and ambled to the closest cheap eating establishment in the area: Carl’s Junior. I had not darkened the door of this crazy world in at least a decade.
Between being a gym rat and having a mild shopping problem, I go through the Downtown Plaza a lot. What strikes me now in hindsight is that I NEVER notice the Carl’s Jr. I think the amount of crazy, ghetto, filthy and bizarre has spun this piece of land into some other dimension. They also seem to manage to keep their crazies caged inside the Carl’s Jr… they don’t ever mingle with the other mall patrons (and I use the term «patron» lightly with these folks).
So, my crew and I walk in and the first thing I notice is that there is no bathroom for us to wash our grubby hands. With the amount of vagrants and riff-​raff that run through this place, I would say having no bathroom is probably good because it also means no place for downlow sexcapades, knifings and heroin injections.
Just to be sure, I ask one of the TWO security guards who work 8 hours a day just sitting at Carl’s Junior preventing fountain soda theft and keeping this Fast Food halfway house under control.
Before the security guard can even answer me, a wild-​eyed old man missing teeth and writing what I can only assume are brilliant ramblings in a notebook decides to chime in and tell me no, they don’t. This guy sat at the Carl’s Jr. the whole time we were there and I have a feeling is there everyday, in between pissing himself, picking up his SSI check and drinking charcoal filtered vodka… oh, and of course writing what I am sure is to be the next Finnegans Wake. If this guy has an iPhone (and let’s be honest, he might), he is definitely the FourSquare Mayor of Downtown Plaza Carl’s Jr.
I really felt like I was in another world. I decided while taking it all in that this place is truly the epicenter of Downtown crazy. I also decided that maybe the crazy old guy was on to something hanging out there because there was some damn fine people watching. This would be a great place to take a first date just as a litmus test for his or her ability to appreciate the absurd.
Oh, and the food! It was disgusting. Duh. I cut myself when I got home for eating it.

I’m not a fast food fan by any means, but if it has to be fast food I go to Carl’s Jr. for a burger. That said, this has got to be the worst Carl’s Jr. in town. I work nearby and stop by when I have a burger fix. I really dont know why because everytime I eat there I get disgusted. The patties are precooked and pulled from a bin, they are dry and tough. I agree with the other posters, this place is ghetto. All sorts of people who just loiter in the place. The staff and the building is dirty and it takes forever to get your order. I only go there for the fries now if that.

Since I work a couple blocks away I come here often. I come here especially often because I have coupons. Including a coupon that can be printed out for BOGO Six Dollar Burgers.
The other reviews are right that this place is ghetto and dirty. The service is also astonishingly slow. At any given time there will be 3 or 4 people just waiting for to go orders up front.
Anyway, today while I was standing around waiting for my Santa Fe Charbroiled Chicken Sandwich and Charbroiled Jalapeño sandwich I witnessed the dude making my sandwich wipe his nose a couple times with the back of his hand. Without gloves. That was tasty.
Onto some food reviews:
I love that Carl’s has Jalapeño everything because I’m a big fan of spicy stuff. Jalapeño Chicken, Jalapeño Burger, Jalapeño Six Dollar Burger, you can get jalapenos on everything so that’s a plus for me.
The burger patties at Carl’s are really quite good, even though I see they are pulled from a bin … They’re meaty and have good beef flavor; no thin pounded patties here. The downside is that this location often chars the patties so you get some black parts you got to pick off.
Today I had Charbroiled chicken sandwiches (I had a BOGO coupon). The chicken breasts were quite good, they weren’t dry at all and didn’t taste like heavily processed chicken. The sauce on the Santa Fe Sandwich was mayo based and tasty, but no doubt loaded with calories and fat.
I’ve also sampled the steak and egg breakfast burrito here, which was yummy, but seemed expensive at $ 3.19. It was filling and ended up not hungry until dinnertime. Burrito was less calories than I thought though, I just looked it up and it’s only 600 calories. The hash brown nuggets were great and the coffee was decent, but I’m not a regular coffee drinker.
If they would just get more people preparing food (hopefully with proper hygiene) I wouldn’t have to linger so long waiting for to go orders and maybe worth a half star bump.