REVIEW: Lay’s Stax – Korean BBQ

Rating: ©©©-1/4 chips  (notable)

We love Korean BBQ! Who doesn’t love Korean BBQ? Oh, you say you don’t love Korean BBQ!? Well, we say you are lying! Or, you’ve never had Korean BBQ!! Or, both! Or, possibly……never mind.  Doesn’t matter.  We love it, if you don’t somehow, so be it!  But, do us a favor, and don’t make these potato crisps the first Korean BBQ that you have ever tried!

Before delving into these New Korean BBQ flavored crisps from Lay’s Stax, we felt like we should get something off of our chests.  We are Pringles people!  Yes, those people.  And by Pringles people we don’t mean that we love them more than many other chips on the market, we just mean that between the two big dogs – Stax and Pringles – we are Team Pringles all the way!

Let’s try and put this into perspective for you.  Plain and simple, we prefer Pringles thinner, lighter, crispy (as opposed to crunchy), and more potato flavored crisps, when compared to the competition. We also like the feel and grip of their round cardboard canisters as opposed to the Stax sterile, plastic, oval canisters. Pringle’s seasoning placement selection, on the outer arc side of the potato crisp, as opposed to the Stax placement on the underbelly of the curved crisp, is once again our preference.  And lastly, but certainly not least, Pringles are the O.C. – the “Original Crisp”, and much can be said for the crisps that paved the way for all other canister stacked crisps!!

For those of you unfamiliar with Korean BBQ, we would say that it typically includes some variation or combination of the following ingredients: soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic, pepper, and onion; usually coating thinly sliced, sensational cuts of beef. The marinade/sauce provides a delicious combination of rich yet subtle, glazed flavor, while not completely overwhelming the grilled beef essence. The Korean BBQ that we are familiar with is traditionally cooked table side by the patrons, allowing the customer the ability to control the degree of done-ness, and to be interactive with their meal.

As for Lay’s Stax version of Korean BBQ, well, we guess they kind of, sort of, taste a little bit like the flavors of Korean BBQ. That being said, we are nearly certain that without initially seeing the flavor name plastered on the canister we would not have specifically pinpointed this flavor as Korean BBQ.  We definitely got notes of sweet onion, some garlic, a little pepper, but for some reason not very much soy or sesame; which seem like they would have been easy Korean flavor profiles to utilize…??  Of course, there was the MSG and whey ingredients, that always seem to represent the meat aspect of the seasoning, and they did the trick more or less.  So, in the end, these taste alright.  The promise of Korean BBQ was not executed extremely well, but we appreciate the original flavor attempt, and the seasoning was pretty good.

As always, these are our thoughts, along with the thoughts of another, and we would love to hear what you think.  Agree or disagree, let us know.

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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