Denny's Worst Popular Menu Item Is Bogged Down By One Soggy Side

Few restaurants have cornered the market on breakfast quite like Denny's. Sure there's Waffle House and IHOP, but Denny's, as the consummate all-day sit down restaurant chain where you can get breakfast for a decent price, is unparalleled. At least the perception of it is, anyway. The execution doesn't always live up to the reputation. That's what Tasting Table's taste tester discovered with the All-American Slam and the limp strips of bacon that came along side it. 

Tasting Table ranked 10 of Denny's most popular menu items, and the All-American slam struck out dead last. That's not to say it was a terrible breakfast, it just didn't stand up as well as the others. The All-American Slam features scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage, bacon, hash brown potatoes, and toast. You can make a few customizations to the type of eggs, the meat, or even the style of potatoes if you want — but, if you get the bacon, don't expect it to be crispy. 

Our tester went with the traditional version of the All-American Slam and the eggs were fine, although the cheese was a little sparse, and the hash browns were crispy and tasty. It was the meat that came as a big letdown. The sausages were pretty small, which is unfortunate but forgivable. The real sin, however, was the bacon: limp, lifeless, and unappealing. If you ask our taste tester, soggy bacon has no excuse. 

With a breakfast as simple as eggs, bacon, potatoes, and toast, even a mediocre plate can still be acceptable. But you shouldn't have to settle for mediocre — and Tasting Table's taste tester wasn't the only one who found the All-American Slam missed the mark. On Reddit, one diner complained that their "Hash browns were under cooked and greasy." Worse, their All-American was served with broken pieces of sausage and bacon. This was only exacerbated by the fact that the All-American Slam is one of the chain's most expensive breakfasts, making it that much worse when it comes out wrong.

Eddy of Wichita By EB reviewed the All-American Slam at their local Denny's and said it "was possibly one of the worst breakfasts I've had in some time." Aside from the eggs, they felt everything was greasy and smelled off. They couldn't even finish the bacon. Other customers have complained about the food being overcooked, including burnt hash browns, and said that the bacon did not meet their expectations. For whatever reason, Denny's seems to have a lot of issues cooking bacon the way people want it done. Some people have even accused Denny's of microwaving it. 

One customer on Reddit claimed that "Denny's is always that one restaurant with the worst food," and that "the bacon is too soggy." In a separate Reddit post, another person said that the "bacon was so stale, dry and crunchy it had obviously been sitting out" and complained about being served room temperature. All in all, it looks like Denny's needs to refresh itself on the tips for cooking the best bacon.