The Gauntlet reviews Wetzel’s Pretzels

By Nikayla Goddard, February 7 2020—

Following La Taqueria closing down in the back corner of MacHall in October, anticipation has been in the air for what vendor would be taking up the spot. Students’ Union vice-president operations and finance Omer Mansoor announced early December that Wetzel’s Pretzels would be moving in.

“We decided on Wetzel’s Pretzels because one of the biggest challenges with La Taqueria is that the tenant space is actually quite small,” said Mansoor. “It’s around 300 square feet, whereas the average tenant size is around 500 square feet in MacHall. It already restricts what kind of tenant can go in the space because of food prep requirements.”

The popular California-based franchise opened last week, and naturally, The Gauntlet had to see if it was worth the hype. With arms full of pretzels, lemonades and dipping sauces, we made our escape up to our office for a taste test. 

We tried the original salted pretzel, almond crunch pretzel bites, baked cheese pretzel, pepperoni twist pretzel, jalapeno cheese pretzel and cheesy dog bites, as well as their original lemonade and frozen dragonfruit lemonade and of course all of the dipping sauces. Here are the bite by bite criticisms, followed by our favourites at the end: 

Kristy: “I desperately want the jalapeno ones to be spicier. Like a few pieces of jalapeno around the outside does not a spicy pretzel make… I want the jalapenos to be inside the dough.” 

Troy: “Jalapeno needed more spice on them in my opinion. The dough was done really well, which is really the main thing you’re looking for in a pretzel.”

Tori: “Serrano peppers would amp up the spice level.” 

Gayathri: “Or even bell peppers could add another layer of heat. But the concept is really interesting. I like it.”

Kristy: “Earlier Cristina said as an Italian she doesn’t like their marinara sauce.” 

Nikayla: “Cheese dip is kinda disappointing.” 

Frankie: “Yeah, the cheese dip is just like… hot cheese whiz.” 

Tori: “The plain is the greasiest. It looks the shiniest.” 

Nikayla: “Yeah, it’s kinda just butter and salt.” 

Frankie: “The pizza bites were definitely quite greasy, but it’s because of the hot dogs. It’s just kind of unavoidable.” 

Tori: “For the cinnamon bites, there’s too much sugar and cinnamon on them. I’ve had them like two different times and they go a little too buck for my taste.” 

The verdicts on the favourites? 

Troy: “I like the almond crunch. Which is surprising, because I don’t usually like sweet foods over savoury.” 

Gayathri: “I think my favourite is the marinara sauce of the savoury sauces.” 

Kristy: “I would eat cheesy bites with jalapeno cheese sauce all day long.” 

Nikayla: “The jalapeno cheese sauce isn’t spicy; I like it better than the regular one. And I don’t like spice. It just actually has flavour to it.” 

Frankie: “Yeah, distracts you from how it’s just hot Cheez Whiz I think.” 

Nikayla: “Honestly, I think the plain salted is my favourite. You just can’t go wrong with it.”

Gayathri: “The caramel sauce is rich, but not too sugary.” 

Kristy: “I really like the dragonfruit lemonade. It’s a very subtle flavour. It’s not too sweet.”

Frankie: “It tastes like a white flavoured freezie.” 

Cole: “The cheese was my favourite. Pepperoni was pretty good, but you might as well order a pizza. And the cinnamon one was really tasty, though with the caramel might be a bit too much.” 

Gayathri: “The almond crunch with the caramel sauce killed it.”

Kristy: “The almond crunch ones are really good and go really well with the icing. It tastes more sugary than it looks. Mhmm, the almond crunch ones are fucking good.”

Nikayla: “I don’t know how I feel about the hot dogs. Like, they’re fine, but…”

Kristy: “The hot dogs are absolutely my favourite thing. I live for these.”

Nikayla: “But you’re a hot dog fan. I’m not a huge fan.”

Gayathri: “I’m not a huge pretzel fan, so doesn’t set me up well for this.”

Nikayla: “I love pretzels. I mean, you could probably tell by the way I was hounding over the table.” 

Tori: “I do love pretzels.”

Kristy: “I normally hate pretzels because I hate the hardness of them, but I like that these are soft.”

Tori: “See that’s what I like about pretzels — I like the crunchy outside, chewy inside.”

Troy: “I think them being fresh also helps.”