Happy National Pretzel Day! – Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

Restaurant: Auntie Anne’s
Cuisine: Bakery/Desserts/Hot Dogs/American
Last visited: January 26, 2011
Location: Multiple – see here
Address: 2882 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, NV
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5 (for the original), 4 overall
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3
Overall: 4
Additional comments:

• Franchise
• 22+ years
• Specializes in pretzels
• American favourite
• Baked daily
• Hand rolled
• Fast food
• Vegan friendly options

**Recommendations: Original Pretzel

Happy National Pretzel Day! Yup! I didn’t even really know National Pretzel Day existed until I saw the Auntie Anne’s tweets on Twitter. I must say that I’m pretty excited, except for the fact that we don’t even have an Auntie Anne’s in Metro Vancouver. I probably won’t even get a pretzel today, but this is the least I can do to celebrate!

I actually really like Auntie Anne’s and if I’m shopping in the States it’s a great reliable snack I can always count on. I mean it’s kind of hard to resist when you walk by them in the food court and smell the buttery baked goodness of pretzels coming out of the oven. The pretzels are soft, made from hand cut dough, hand rolled and baked fresh upon order.

I mean how can you really go wrong? It’s baked bread fresh from the oven and brushed with butter and sprinkled with coarse salt! Delicious! They may not be authentic German pretzels, which is understood, but when they’re good, they’re good. On the other hand these pretzels are pretty pricey for their size, but it doesn’t stop them from being addicting.

2 pretzels + drink + 2 dips =$10.55

Besides the pretzels, I must give a big shout out to Auntie Anne’s customer service and whoever handles their social media. I’m not referring to the service at each franchise, which I find quite normal, but I’m referring to the customer service outside of that. These guys are on it! Like really on it!

When I first started Twitter (barely any followers) I tweeted something about eating a pretzel from Auntie Anne’s and it looking a little smaller than I remembered. It was just a random comment and it really wasn’t a big deal, and I didn’t expect anything at all. But almost immediately after, a representative from Auntie Anne’s messaged me regarding the comment and followed up with 3 other e-mails from upper management. Mind you, this is when I first started so I really think this is their standard routine. Anyways long story short they insisted on giving me a free pretzel on my next visit, which was totally unnecessary, but very much appreciated. I still haven’t used it to this date since we don’t have one in Metro Vancouver, but I’ll never forget their professionalism and kind gesture. This type of personal and attentive customer service from such a big company, for something so minor, is nothing but commendable.

On the table:
**Original Pretzel – 5/6

• The pretzel that built an empire $3.19
• Served without butter the pretzel only has about 1g of fat… but who eats it without butter? It really is better with butter! (Although that’s +5g fat)
• I personally like the original the best with the crispy salt crystals.
• It’s not the best looking, authentic or gourmet, but it’s simply delicious.
• The dough is hand cut, hand rolled and the pretzels are baked upon order.
• It’s incredibly soft, buttery and tender with a fluffy and light inside and a slightly crispier bottom. It’s stretchy, chewy and moist with great savoury flavour.

Light Cream Cheese Dip + $.79

Almond Pretzel – 3/6

• Raise a toast to this pretzel coated with toasted almond toffee crunch $3.19
• This only has 2g of fat without butter, but again, who doesn’t love butter? (+5g of fat)
• The store menu says “almond” without a description so I was expecting savoury, until I realized it was a candied almond so it was more like dessert.
• I really wish I knew, but even with the “almond toffee crunch” I still wanted to see some actual slivers of almonds and not just toffee crumbs.
• It’s good, but it just doesn’t taste like almonds and it’s more toffee for sure.
• Considering it’s the same price as the original and only 1 extra gram of fat than the original pretzel, I think it’s fair to say that there isn’t much almond.
• The crunchiness of the “almond toffee crunch” comes off as being nutty because of the texture, but there’s not really any almond flavour.
• It’s very well coated and it creates a crunchy crust so I did like the contrast with the soft and tender pretzel.
• It’s often recommended to eat with caramel dip, so of course I had to try it!

Caramel Dip + $0.79 – It tastes like caramelized condensed milk or melted Weather’s Originals. It went well with the pretzel, although the pretzel was sweet enough alone too.