Usually, I’m not one for eating healthy. Sure, I like a fresh spinach salad, or I’ll order fish instead of a juicy, tender piece of pork. Nine out of 10 times, though, I reach for the greasy burger. So when a friend told me about a burger from a healthy fast food place, I initially cringed.

Healthy. Fast food. I’ve only heard those three words spoken in the same sentence by that Jared guy in the Subway commercials. This is, however, what Evos strives to do: feed you a burger, fries and a milk shake without making you feel like you’ve eaten the entire dairy farm. We all know the feeling of eating a fast food value meal – you can feel it slogging through your stomach like a bowling ball.

Evos does not want to make you feel that way – ever again, if possible. Here is how they do it: no deep fat fryers for grench fries and no grill for burgers. By baking everything, you cut the fat. Cut the fat, and you cut out the bowling ball from your burger, fries and shake.

Fair enough, I say. Plenty of good food items have come out of ovens, like juicy rib roast. Off we went to feeling great and eating great too. That is until we walked in, approached the counter and began to browse the menu.

Suddenly my wallet didn’t feel so great. I gazed in worried despair at combo meals that included a sandwich, patented Airfries and a milk shake or fruit smoothie for $9. Ouch. This is going to hurt, I thought, but for this price I may be rewarded.

I was wrong. More so, I was disappointed. I ordered the burger with fries and their Mixed Berry smoothie as part of a packaged deal. My friend got the spicy chipotle turkey burger with fries and a cappuccino milkshake. We took it home and on our way out grabbed some ketchup, which Evos carries in 4 different kinds: garlic, mesquite, cayenne pepper and regular “Americana.”

At home we unwrapped our sandwiches, only to find our first disappointment – the meat itself. My burger was oval shaped and almost fit the size of the rather large bun, but reminded me of the processed patties I got in elementary school – a dull grey-brown color. I took a bite and found the burger juicy enough, though lacking flavor, but nothing a pinch of salt or some of that cayenne ketchup couldn’t fix.

The lettuce and tomato slice were ripe, and the bun was soft but little chewy. I found myself wanting to take off the beef patty and slap some salty bacon on with the bun. With the lettuce and tomato it would have made a killer BLT (maybe in the future, Evos?).

The turkey burger was more than disappointing, bordering on depressing. The patty was less than half the size of the bun. She bit air most of the time, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, because the meat was so dry it sucked the moisture from her mouth. The spicy chipotle mayo was no help as it was almost non-existent, far from spicy, and could never begin to fix the dried-out hunk of meat.

The Airfries were just bland. While not too dry, they had no salt and were somewhat stiff. I will admit, it was hard to tell they were not deep-fried. The different flavors of ketchup added a nice twist, with spicy, sweet and garlic providing a variety. My fruit smoothie was bland and watery. I was unable to distinguish any sort of berry flavor, but the cappuccino milkshake was creamy with just enough flavor to curb a coffee craving.

Evos is high-priced and doesn’t fit into my normal, richly flavored dining. However, if I found myself in need of shaving a few pounds – and a few bucks from my wallet – I would dine there again, but I’d be more cautious of what I ordered.

Just because the food is not treated with hormones doesn’t automatically translate to better quality. There are a lot of middlemen in between you and that cow that can foul up the whole deal.