Back in January, AT&T announced their DSL subscribers would be able to use AT&T WiFi hotspots for free, such as the ones that have at McDonald’s. There was never any announcement of a timeframe for subscribers to be able to take advantage of this offer. With the introduction of the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich at McDonald’s, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Ha ha, kill…bird…get it?

I wanted to try the new sandwich as well as the AT&T WiFi. I found a list of WiFi locations at AT&T’s website. Turned out the McDonald’s I frequent offers AT&T WiFi. With the Eee along for the ride, I sat in my car and connected to the attwifi network. I wanted to make sure this whole deal would work before bringing in my laptop. I’d look like a doofus if I was eating and staring at a word processing screen.

As soon as I opened my browser, I was greeted with a McDonald’s WiFi page. There was some stuff about Wayport on it, which is the company that handles WiFi network stuff for McDonald’s. I was concerned that I connected to the wrong AP because there were both AT&T and Wayport APs at this restaurant. At the bottom of the screen was something about connecting via one of Wayport’s “roaming partners.” There was a long drop-down list but it included AT&T WiFi. I picked that and was sent to an AT&T site to enter my DSL username and password. I did that and boom, I was able to begin browsing online. I closed my Eee (went into sleep or standby mode) and went inside.

I ordered what was the #8 combo at this restaurant. The Southern Style Chicken Sandwich combo. I was gonna get two of the sandwiches and a small order of fries, but the sandwich cost $2.99 alone. The combo seemed like it would fulfill my appetite better. From what I had seen online, the sandwich looked small. Unfortunately, it is as small as it looks. Pretty much the size of their fish sandwich, but the chicken is smaller than the fish filet. Bun was about the same size as the fish’s bun. But the chicken is way smaller than the bun. This new chicken sandwich has been called a Chik-Fil-A clone. I haven’t had Chik-Fil-A in about 15 years because us Chicagoans are being deprived of the best chicken around. I’d have to go up to Kenosha, Wisconsin to find the nearest Chik-Fil-A. I remember the Chik-Fil-A sandwich being bigger, though it might have just seemed big because I was a kid the last time I had one.

The McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich is just a breaded fried chicken breast on a bun with a couple of pickles. No sauce or mayo, but not that I minded it. The flavor was good, the chicken was moist, but it wasn’t as good as the Chik-Fil-A sandwich I remember. I recall the Chik-Fil-A having a sweet but weakly spicy taste to the breading. I really do wish the sandwich was bigger. Bigger circumference bun, bigger piece of chicken. I want the chicken to be the size of what you get in Popeye’s sandwich or Burger King’s excellent Tendercrisp. I wouldn’t pay $2.99 for this sandwich because it seemed to be barely bigger than Wendy’s 99-cent sandwich. It definitely tasted better than Wendy’s, but not $2 better. So my verdict is that McDo’s new chicken sandwich tastes alright, but it is rather weak in terms of value. This was the same beef I had with their chicken snack wrap things (beef-chicken wording intentional). They only put one piece of chicken in when I think they should put in two pieces so you get more chicken flavor.

The WiFi worked fine. The Eee woke up quickly from its brief snooze. I browsed USA Today as I ate, careful not to get grease or salt on the keys. Right hand for eating, left hand for computing. A speed test showed I was getting around 1320kbps down and 320kbps up. Identical to the speeds I get here at home.

So I learned two things. I can now use AT&T WiFi for free wherever it is offered, and McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich is just OK. Check out another review of the chicken sandwich from a fellow WordPress writer. I agree with his analysis.