I'm sure many of you know that I'm something of a mac and cheese addict. As such, when I heard rumblings that a stand was serving buffalo chicken mac and cheese, I decided to go find it on Sunday.
I've commented on this a few other places around the site, but I've been a little surprised by the lack of promotion the Brewers have done this season for a handful of new and/or existing food options around Miller Park. The stand with the aforementioned mac and cheese is Food Network-branded and located on the loge level just to the third base side of the press box. As luck would have it, their bacon sloppy joe also caught my wife's eye.
Buffalo Chicken Mac And Cheese
Let's start with the mac and cheese. The presentation actually looks reasonably nice, if a little cafeteriaish: It's scooped and served in a round, flat bottom bowl like a double scoop of ice cream. The fact that it heaps over the bowl makes it a bit of a challenge to eat at your seat, though: I spent a fair amount of time eating one or two elbow macaronis at a time to avoid upsetting the balance and having them spill all over the floor under my seat. Some did anyway, but I tried.
When you name something "buffalo chicken," the fact that it's going to be spicy is probably implied and likely scares a few potential customers off. This mac and cheese, however, really wasn't very spicy at all. The strongest flavor in it comes from an occasional small chunk of blue cheese mixed in. That's not necessarily a problem, it's just not what I expected. The chicken was ok, but I don't recall coming across more than a few bites of it.
The mac and cheese costs $7, and really isn't much food (about 1 1/2-2 cups) for the money. I had this and a soda at the game Sunday and by the time we left I was hungry again.
Verdict: Worth trying once
I'd actually give a more positive review to the bacon sloppy joe, all told. It comes on a pretty large bun with Fritos, but on Sunday they ran out of Fritos so they asked if we'd mind substituting plain potato chips. I actually prefer it that way, so I'd appreciate that as a permanent option. This looks about like you'd expect a sloppy joe and chips to look. After seeing my wife bring it down to our seats, one of the people we were with promptly went and got one of his own.
Like the mac and cheese, this is a difficult meal to eat at the ballpark. As the name would imply, it's a sloppy sandwich and pieces of it are going to occasionally fall off. We didn't have any major spill issues with it, but it's certainly not something I'd eat in clothes I was scared to get dirty. I only had one bite of this but it was good: The bacon flavor wasn't as strong as I'd like but it tasted like a good sloppy joe. The fact that my wife finished the rest without offering me more is likely also a solid endorsement.
This is a reasonably big sandwich and comes with Fritos (unless they substitute something else) for $5.50, making it a much better deal than the mac and cheese. By the time we got home from the park Sunday I was starving, but my wife still wasn't hungry.
Verdict: A solid option
I'm planning on trying more new and/or new to me stuff around the ballpark this season, so if you've got something you'd like to see reviewed you should mention it in the comments.