The Snack Attack: White Castle Takes On Thanksgiving With Turkey Sliders, Seasonal Sides [TASTE TEST]

You don't have to wait until Nov. 24 to enjoy a hot Thanksgiving meal, all you have to do is drive to the nearest White Castle.

For a limited time, White Castle is serving up a special seasonal menu, complete with turkey sliders, fried green beans and sweet potato fries. The fast food restaurant says the menu was designed for those who want to enjoy the taste and flavors of the holiday season while on the go.

The Turkey Slider comes in three varieties -- topped with tangy bistro sauce, spicy Dusseldorf mustard or slow-cooked apple butter. You can order the fried green beans and sweet potato fries plain or loaded, respectively, with savory gravy and crispy onions, or with syrup, marshmallow creme and cinnamon praline pecans. Wash it all down with a seasonal Cranberry Spritzer with Sprite.

Tangy Bistro Turkey Slider

White Castle doesn't say exactly what is in its tangy bistro sauce, but the best way I can describe it is like mustard and ketchup were mixed together with mayonnaise. The sauce is smooth and creamy with just a little bit of zestiness, and tastes like it would complement poultry perfectly. Unfortunately, my slider only had a little dollop of the sauce, leaving most of the meat naked and lonely. And while the sauce did meld well with the turkey, a little bit of seasoning on the meat would have really made this slider a winner.

Spicy Dusseldorf Mustard Turkey Slider

This is the most classic tasting of the three turkey sliders, and the only one that I was able to eat completely. Although the turkey itself doesn't have much flavor, the mustard is sharp enough to cover up the meat's blandness. It's not spicy in the normal sense -- there isn't any heat -- but the actual taste of mustard is far more pungent than compared to regular yellow mustard, for example. I just wish there was another texture to this slider, maybe something crunchy.

Sweet Apple Butter Turkey Slider

Apple butter and turkey sounds like a weird combination for a good reason -- because it is! I saved this one for last because quite frankly, it sounded disgusting to me and I was trying to avoid it. Don't get me wrong, I like sweet and savory food combinations, but something just seemed off about this one. The apple butter itself actually tastes really sweet, but it doesn't have the tartness of apples or spiciness of cinnamon. And when paired with the turkey, the only thing I can say to describe it is just weird. Maybe it's because the turkey is bland and doesn't have any seasoning -- it's not even salty -- or maybe there wasn't enough of the sauce to coat the meat. Either way, the apple butter and turkey combination just doesn't work.

Loaded Sweet Potato Fries

My biggest problem with sweet potato fries is that they aren't sweet enough -- but that's not the case with this dish, which is covered with melted marshmallow and sweet syrup and topped with candied pecans. Think of it as a sweet potato casserole you can eat with your fingers. The potato itself is actually sweet, not just a stick of mush. The marshmallow creme, my favorite part, tastes like real melted marshmallows, not that synthetic fluff crap. And the praline pecans, they're so good it's almost like candy! I picked all of them off first and ate them immediately before digging in. The only complaint I have is that the fries could have been crisper -- with all of the toppings it's easy for this dish to go soggy quick.

Fried Green Beans

Up until the last second, I was going to order these things loaded with savory gravy and crispy fried onions. But I panicked because I kind of got creeped out by the white gravy (don't judge) and I didn't want it to ruin the entire thing, so I ordered just the fried beans sans gravy. And really, I'm not sure if the gravy would have helped these things. The breading wasn't seasoned and what little flavor was there was completely masked by the taste of oil. Some of the beans tasted fresh and crisp while others were bland and mushy, like canned beans. The crispy fried onions, like the ones your mom would sprinkle on top of a green bean casserole, were the tastiest thing about this dish.

Final Thoughts

The sweet potato fries are the best item on this seasonal menu, hands down. White Castle should even consider adding them as a permanent item, because they're THAT good. But when it comes down to it, the problem with the rest of the menu is it is lacking in flavor. The sliders -- while the sauce toppings were flavorful, the meat itself was extra bland. I couldn't taste any seasoning and honestly, even though White Castle says these sliders are made will all-natural, white meat Butterball turkey, it felt like I was eating spongy elementary school cafeteria food. And the fried green beans -- while I applaud the effort, they are a giant, bland failure. So, to recap, sweet potato fries: yes, yes, yes. Everything else: a big, fat nope.

The Snack Attack is a feature on CBSDetroit.com that centers around all things food. Know of a new snack we should attack? Send an email and we'll be sure to add it to the list.