Just had my first Impossible Whopper at Burger King while reading this thread.
It was all but indistinguishable from a regular Whopper. It was perhaps a tiny bit drier and not quite as juicy, but I couldn’t tell it wasn’t BK’s regular ground beef patty even when nibbling a bit of plain not-meat.
With that said, I wasn’t thrilled with the $5.99 price tag, but did feel good about not eating meat for humanitarian/environmental reasons. I understand it’s about as unhealthy as a regular Whopper.
FWIW, I had actually planned to get a Whopper Junior with light mayo like I usually do, but decided to try the new Impossible Whopper when I saw it on the menu, and it apparently only comes in the full Whopper size.
I had an impossible Whopper yesterday too and loved it. Also tried the impossible sliders at White Castle last week and enjoyed them. They were a little thicker than I’d like them to have been, but they still tasted like White Castles.
I’ve had the WC Impossible sliders a few times. The newer ones are a bit closer to the classic sliders, but they taste more like actual hamburgers than White Castle sliders to me, if that makes any sense. They’re still a bit too thick and the cooking method doesn’t imbue them with the oniony steam the classic sliders do (or at least the ones I’ve had haven’t). They’re good, but they’re not sliders, IMHO.
When I was working for the newspapers in Bangkok, one of my managers was a strict Hindu from India. We were talking about vegetarian food made up to look like real meat dishes. He said he could not eat that, because just the fact that it looked like meat made him want to puke. I think many in India are like that. If so, I doubt Burger King will make many inroads into India.
“Salt” and “Gluten” are Sumerian and Latin (respectively) for “Delicious”.
I agree that the best benefits of these things will be environmental rather than personal health. As the tech develops I wonder how willing/able cattle ranchers would be to change their traditional enterprises over to farming soy. There’d still be demand for steaks tho. I can’t see an artificial steak being at all convincing.
BK’s already in India. So is McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, etc. Their menus are different, and although they don’t have beef, they offer both “veg” and “non-veg.”
The price scared me off from buying the BK one, but I’ve loved the half textured soy protein (but not labeled as such) burgers you can sometimes find at gas stations.
I had one last night. Idunno. I think more than anything I kind of got that BK grilled flavor nostalgia. As I said, I haven’t eaten red meat in five years or so, and it’s been even longer since I’ve had a burger at Burger King and I’ve never had a Whopper before.
It didn’t gross me out but it didn’t really do much for me either after the fact - probably mostly because it was friggin’ ice cold by the time I got it home.
St Louis has been one of the test markets. I have had them a couple times, a bit pricey. Good news: Impossible Whopper tastes just like a regular Whopper; bad news: Impossible Whopper tastes just like a regular Whopper.
I made Beyond Meat burgers at home a few days ago. This was the second time I’ve tried making them myself. Last time I made them on the grill, and I thought the results were just OK. This time I made them on a griddle with a bit of oil, and they were much better. They were nice and juicy, and the taste was excellent.
Yeah, I was never a big fan of BK, even when I ate meat. But as someone who’s trying to remain as meat-free as possible, it’s nice to have an option other than Taco Bell when travelling. The Impossible Whopper won’t be my first choice, but it’s nice to be able to eat a “burger” while out and about once in a while. There’s a local fast food burger joint that I used to love, and I’ve been lobbying them via email and facebook to add an Impossible Burger to their menu. Nothing yet.
Had one on a meal break of a 14 hour drive. We did drive through. I had an Impossible Whopper, number two son a regular one. I taste tested side by side with a side of fries and a Diet Coke.
Underwhelming. No it does not taste like a regular Whopper which actually tasted pretty good. Meh. A bit more meat-like than a Boca Burger but not by much. I’d rather have a veggie burger that isn’t trying to pose as meat but embraces its veggieness.
Really?!? I find that surprising. I haven’t had the Whopper version yet, but I’ve had others, and it’s orders of magnitude better than a Boca Burger and pretty darned close to just a generic hamburger. Maybe yours wasn’t prepared as well as the ones I’ve had (and the ones I’ve had did vary in their meatiness), but I found them to be pretty miraculous as to how closely they mimicked meat, and I am a consummate carnivore (well, yes, omnivore, but I eat way too much meat.) My brother who is a bit more discerning than me even commented that he never would have guessed it wasn’t a meat Whopper. Maybe if you have them side-by-side the difference is more obvious, but there is just no way it is only a little bit more meat-like than a Boca Burger. There is nothing meat-like about a Boca at all, unless they’ve improved in the last five years. Impossible is on the level of Beyond, which is also magnitudes better than Boca, and definitely “meat-like,” but it’s got a funky smell when cooking and doesn’t quite convince me.I’ll get around to tasting BK’s version soon enough, but I don’t trust my nearest BK to make it well, so I’ll go a little farther out for it.
I guess I’m in the minority here, but I find the Impossible burger to have a weird, unpleasant aftertaste that reminds of something industrial, like a petroleum product. I find it very off-putting, but the level of this aftertaste seems to depend on the cooking method: overcooking and/or burning seems to make it worse.
I had had several Impossible sliders from White Castle before trying two Impossible Whoppers on the day they debuted nationally. I think the sliders are better than the Impossible Whopper, inasmuch as the the proportion of bread and the type of condiments in the former seems to go with the “meat” better. Also, why didn’t Burger King have vegan mayo ready for the Impossible rollout? I think the mayo is key to Whopper’s flavor.
I’m probably also in the minority here in that my recent experience with White Castle has taught me that I really, really like their regular ol’ beef sliders. They are also IMO one of the best fast-food deals out there, and they fill you up without overcalorizing you.
Finally, I think I’m in the minority here in that I think the Boca Burger and Morningstar’s Grillers Prime (not vegan) and Meat Lovers (vegan) are really great! They are not really good as beef imitations, but they are good in their own way whereas the Impossible strikes me as being merely a beef imitation without its own virtues. Dr. Prager’s pea protein burger also is good.
I certainly think the plant-based protein trend is a good one, but my guess is that the Impossible burger will soon be overshadowed by market entrants that not only imitate what’s good about beef but provide flavor that is desirable in its own right.
Mrs. FtG had her first the other day at a “pub”. It was priced around the same as other dishes so no veggie penalty. She liked it except for one thing: the pink color. To her (and me) pink is off-putting.
I just had the Houlihan’s Impossible Burger at lunch yesterday. It wasn’t as salty as the last one I had there, which was good. I wonder if either Impossible or Houlihan’s changed the recipe a skosh or if I just wasn’t noticing it as much. In any case, it was a damn fine sandwich.
