What To Order At Sheetz (And What To Absolutely Avoid)

I'm no stranger to gas station food. I spent a year traveling the U.S. in a camper van, so I've had plenty of snacks and even a few meals at convenience stores and truck stops. Most of them have been regretful experiences, but Sheetz has always been a safe bet. The made-to-order menu is loaded with surprisingly satisfying snacks, sandwiches, and drinks, all made fresh while you wait in the café-style dining area.

So I jumped at the opportunity to sample a massive selection of dishes at my local Sheetz store. I tried a couple of familiar favorites and a lot of things I had never tried before, including some brand-new menu items. And even with my high expectations going into this taste test, I was shocked to realize that even the worst dishes I tried weren't that bad, and some were unbelievably delicious. Based on my taste testing, here are the dishes you should order at Sheetz and which ones you should avoid.

Convenience store pizza is held in much higher regard than it used to be, especially with some celebrity chefs revealing their favorite pizza chains to be places like Casey's. Having tried both, I'd argue that the Pizza Flatz at Sheetz is at least as good as Casey's, and possibly even better.

The flatbread crust was pillowy and foldable but firm enough to hold up to the marinara and cheese without going soggy and floppy. It reminded me a bit of naan, which was a nice surprise. It was loaded with gooey provolone and mozzarella cheeses, which stretched for miles, and a generous (but not overwhelming) smear of sauce that was, though obviously not homemade, flavorful and well-seasoned.

I stuck with a plain cheese pizza to avoid accidentally covering up any shortcomings with extra toppings, and it held up all on its own. But there are plenty of classic toppings like pepperoni and sausage, plus wild combos like Philly steak, buffalo chicken, and even a breakfast pizza with scrambled eggs, sausage, and nacho cheese, so I'm sure this won't be my last time trying it.

I truly wasn't prepared to like the Shnuggetz as much as I did. They arrived a very dark golden brown, and based on my past experience with gas station chicken, I was expecting them to be tough and chewy. But they were actually phenomenal. The Shnuggetz at Sheetz are delicious on their own — super juicy and tender, and the breading was fantastically crisp. They're not whole chicken meat, unfortunately (it was very clearly some kind of mechanically separated chicken), but it reminded me a lot of Wendy's chicken nuggets, with better breading.

The price of the Shnuggetz is a little high (depending on your location, about a dollar more for a four-piece pack of Shnuggetz compared to Wendy's chicken nuggets), but I could see myself satisfying a nugget craving at Sheetz while getting gas on a road trip, especially if I had hungry kids with me and didn't want to make an extra stop. It's definitely a better value than the usual gas station snacks we get, at least, and I can feel good about feeding them real food instead of a bag of Cheetos.

I've had some disappointing chicken sandwiches in my life at fast food and sit-down restaurants alike, so I certainly wasn't expecting much from a gas station chicken sandwich. But the Made-To-Order Homestyle Chicken Sandwich at Sheetz was better than I could have imagined. The chicken was tender and moist, with a crispy breading that was unbelievably satisfying to bite into. The cheddar was a little under-melted, and the bun was a little over-toasted, but the chicken itself more than made up for that.

The only real downside is the price. The sandwich alone is $5, but adding cheese and bacon brought it to nearly $7, and I didn't even notice the bacon as I was eating it. Even $5 seems a little steep for a plain chicken sandwich, especially from a convenience store. But other fast food chicken sandwiches are in the same ballpark, too; one from Wendy's costs over $6 before adding bacon and cheese, and the Sheetz version was at least as good as that, so it's not quite the stretch it seems at first glance.

There wasn't anything significantly wrong with the Sheetz Made-To-Order Burger, but there wasn't anything particularly right about it, either. I ordered it dressed plainly, with American cheese, ketchup, and mayonnaise, mainly to please the palate of the junior taste tester who was helping me finish off these dishes, which allowed me to focus on the burger patty itself.

And the burger was ... fine. The bun was dry and slightly over-toasted, but it was certainly better than any gas station burger I've ever tasted, and the flavor and texture bore a very strong resemblance to the patties in Burger King burgers. Personally, that's my least favorite fast food burger, so I wasn't thrilled with it, but I have to admit that it wasn't objectively bad in any way.

But the plain Sheetz burger is just shy of $5, and cheese adds another 59 cents, while the cost of a Whopper isn't too far. So if you like Burger King but happen to be at Sheetz and don't want to make another stop, then go for it. But there are definitely tastier options to choose from.

If you're the type of person who says, "I could make an entire meal out of appetizers," the Sheetz appetizer samplers are right up your alley. The Classic Sampler includes three regular Appz to choose from: the Wisconsin Cheese Bitez, Mac N' Cheese Bitez, mozzarella sticks, jalapeño poppers, Boneless Bitez, and Onion Petalz. I got the Cheese Bitez, Mac N' Cheese Bitez, and jalapeño poppers and was pretty happy with everything but the poppers. The Cheese Bitez had a nice squeak to them, and the Mac N' Cheese Bitez were rich and flavorful. The poppers, however, were a disappointment. The menu shows cheese stuffed into half a pepper, but the real thing was a mush of yellow cheese and chopped jalapeños. The flavors were there, but the texture was all wrong.

With the Premium Sampler, your first app must be from their list of Premium Appz (Cheesy Bacon Tater Bombz, Cheesy Bacon Broccoli Bitez, Hotzarella Sticks, Fried Pork Stickerz, and Shwingz), but your other two selections may be regular or premium. You'll get the most bang for your buck by loading up on the premium Appz, so I went with the Broccoli Bitez, Shwingz, and Pork Stickerz. The Pork Stickerz had a great texture and flavor that was very similar to Chinese takeout, and the Shwingz, though unsauced, were juicy, crunchy, and very tasty. The Broccoli Bitez were just kind of weird, though. They seemed to get the same chopped-up treatment as the jalapeño poppers and were bland overall. So, while the samplers are a win, I recommend choosing what you include in your sampler carefully. Some Appz are worthwhile, but some are just a letdown.

Like most of the items on the "avoid" side of the Sheetz menu, the bratwurst wasn't bad at all — it simply wasn't that great. The brat itself was fine, although, to be frank (pun intended), it wasn't as good as the ones I buy from Aldi to cook at home, and I get an entire pack of those for less than the price of one bratwurst with fixings from Sheetz. I figured the value must be in the toppings, so I loaded up my brat at the touch screen, mimicking a Chicago-style hot dog as closely as I could with yellow mustard, relish, diced onions, tomatoes, and banana peppers. And that's where things got a little weird.

I opened my brat and checked it over to make sure everything was there, noticing that the relish was missing. I double-checked my receipt to be sure I ordered it, and there it was, in big, bold type: "relish packet," which I found in the bottom of the bag. It's such a minor gripe, I know, but it just doesn't make sense. Why does the relish come in a packet when the mustard doesn't? And if it comes in a packet, why do I have to order it as a topping instead of just grabbing it from a condiment bin? After paying nearly $4 for it, I could feel myself transforming into Tom Haverford from Parks and Rec, internally screaming, "Drizzle it on for me! I'm not your maid!"

The Loaded Baked Potato Platter, with sour cream, shredded cheese, and bacon, was easily my favorite item I tried on the Sheetz menu. It's the newest addition to the Loaded Platterz menu, which includes other options, like the Buffalo Banger, Firehouse, and Philly Cheeze. It was also the first that I've tried, so I was a little bit skeptical of the $9 price tag at first, but it was well worth it.

Like all the other Loaded Platterz, you have a choice between regular Fryz, curly Fryz, or potato Totz. I went with the Totz because I'm way too picky about fries, but tots can be a bummer if they're poorly prepared, too, so it still wasn't going to be an easy A. And yet, the Loaded Baked Potato Totz passed with flying colors.

The mountain of Totz came with just the right amount of toppings — enough to get a little bit of everything in almost every bite, but not so many that the Totz were swimming in them — and the Totz themselves were perfect. They were hot, crispy, and, best of all, well-seasoned, so the couple that were left behind after I had finished off the toppings were delicious on their own. The whole dish was so good that I can't wait to go back and try the other Loaded Platterz, and that's something I've never been able to say about anything I got from a convenience store.

I love coffee drinks, but I'm pretty particular about them, too, as I like them rich and super sweet with just a hint of coffee. That's something a lot of gas station convenience stores that serve craft coffee do surprisingly well, so I really thought I was going to love the Sh'morez Iced Latte, but it ended up being the biggest disappointment on this whole list.

Things were clearly wrong almost immediately. There was virtually no ice in my drink, and it was just barely cooler than room temperature. The marshmallow cold foam was a deflated mess, and the graham cracker crumbs got soggy immediately and clung to the lid. The overall s'mores flavor was so absent that I thought the smear on the lid was caramel syrup, completely forgetting what flavor it was supposed to be.

The Ghirardelli dark chocolate was the only saving grace of the whole drink. But since the fattiest milk you can get in a Sheetz drink is 2%, it had the texture of store-bought chocolate milk and not much more flavor, either.

About a year ago, I moved from a city with a boba shop on every corner to a small town without a single one, so it would be a wild understatement to say that I was excited to see the Strawberry Refresher with mango popping bubbles on the Sheetz drink menu. And I'll admit, it's definitely not the real thing, but it scratches that itch in a spectacularly refreshing way.

You can get this refreshment with either still or sparkling water. I went with sparkling water, and it was everything I hoped it would be: just the right level of sweetness and plenty of fizz, and the mango bubbles were bright and juicy. My only complaint is that the bubbles just barely fit through the opening of the cold drink lids, and none of the straws I found in the store were big enough, either, so I was left with a mountain of bubbles at the bottom of my cup and had to pop the top off and eat them by the mouthful. Actually, now that I think of it, that's not much of a complaint. It's a win all around.

The strawberry and mango combo is the only drink listed on the Refresherz menu that already comes with popping bubbles, but you can add mango, blue raspberry, or cherry bubbles to any of the other Refresherz beverages for a $1.99 upcharge. The regular-size Strawberry Refresher with Mango Bubbles is $3, but I got it for $1.99 with the Homestyle Chicken Sandwich, making this what might just be my new favorite road trip meal.

I chose a wide range of items spanning the full Sheetz menu, including appetizers, entrées, and drinks, using a couple of familiar favorites as a baseline by which to compare dishes I've never tried before. I tasted them all piping hot and fresh from the counter to ensure I tasted every last item at its best quality and judged them on several criteria, including flavor (of course), texture, and value for the money. The items I recommend ordering were chosen because they performed well across all three criteria and are items that I am likely to order again, while each of the menu items I recommend avoiding failed in at least one area.