Monday, December 9, 2013

The competing taste of American and Lafayette Coney Islands in Detroit

 
 



Friday, November 29th I decided to go downtown and try the two competing Coney Islands. There is American Coney and Lafayette Coney. The two Coney Islands sit right next to each other. I ventured into Lafayette first. I decided to try the original Coney at each place. Lafayette has a small area to sit in and often the servers have to move to the side so the patrons can slide on by. The server took the order pretty much as soon as I was seated. It took approximately 1 minute to receive two Coney dogs and an order of fries. So if quick is what you want, you can not go wrong with a 1 minute wait time. There is no reason to even try picking the dog up because it will never make it to your mouth without losing half of the goodies from the top. I only had a fork and had a hard time breaking through the skin of the dog in the beginning. It tasted about like I expect  a Coney to taste like. It was good. It was cheap and it was quick.
Next, I went to American Coney Island. The seating is more spacious and I didn't feel as closed in as I did next door. I ordered the same Coney with an order of chili fries. The wait time wasn't as quick as Lafayette, but was still under 5 minutes. Again, I tasted the dog and it was pretty much what I expected...it tasted like a Coney. This time I had a knife so I was able to eat with a little more ease. The skin was almost exactly the same as next door. The chili tasted slightly different to my liking. Just like next door....good, cheap and quick.
If I was asked to choose a favorite I would go with American. Though the flavor is good at either place, I prefer having more space and I did like the chili a little better than at Lafayette. However, I would go back to either.