Burger Friday: Impossible Whopper offers “a burger-like experience” at Burger King, not much else

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The Impossible Whopper with cheese from Burger King on S. Wayside

Photo: Alison Cook / Staff

I tried my first Impossible burger four summers ago, which was made with the plant-based meat substitute developed by Impossible Foods.

It didn’t go well.

Back in 2017, Impossible Foods had cleverly teamed up with top American chefs like David Chang and Chris Shepherd from Houston to bring their product to the public – and social media influencers who attended free tastings with a touch of glamor. (That was not me.)

I came to the table at Shepherd’s Hay Merchant Gastropub with cash, curiosity, and an open mind. I thought the Impossible Patty was structurally difficult to work with, the taste vague. I wondered how the product and its marketing might evolve over time and if it would resonate with a wider public.

In 2019 Impossible Burger started to go mainstream. Burger King tested Impossible Whoppers in St. Louis and announced a nationwide rollout by the end of the year. McDonald’s has presented a plant-based burger from competing manufacturer Beyond Meat.

Impossible burger products are now in supermarkets, and my local 24-hour Burger King advertises its Impossible Whopper on prominent signs. They are wrapped in special aqua-green paper packaging to underline the idea that consuming them is beneficial to the planet – compared to beef production, anyway.

I thought it was time to try again – and for control purposes, compare the Impossible Whopper to the original Whopper it is based on. This is how the experiment went.

Burger King

2411 S. Wegrand. open 24hrs.

PRICE: $ 6.19 for the Impossible Whopper; $ 4.99 for the regular Whopper. Cheese added 60 cents to both sandwiches.

ORDER: Drive through, order online, order to eat at the counter.

ARCHITECTURE: I say this to the Whopper twins: They look pretty.

Salad stuff is upstairs, and the stack assumes a toasted sesame bun for both burgers. The quarter-inch patty begins, followed by sliced ​​American cheese, dill pickles, raw onion pieces, ketchup ribbons, some tomato slices, and a copious amount of mayonnaise. Coarsely chopped iceberg lettuce lurks right under the pretty sesame top bun.

The main difference is that the Impossible Patty has a straight edge as it is cut from a cylindrical roll. The original Whopper Patty has irregular sides.

QUALITY: Here I have to be ahead of the regular Whopper, both in terms of taste and texture. The beef itself isn’t much, but my patty had a distinct hint of barbecue smoke and a murmur of umami. The pie crumbled under pressure.

The Impossible Patty was more flexible, even a little bouncy. Burger King seems to grill it very, very thoroughly, so it didn’t have the pink hue or “bleeding” effect that got so much attention when the chefs first introduced the product. I confess, I failed to recognize the umami taste Impossible Foods developed with soybean root and yeast extract to make the product’s soy and potato proteins more like beef.

So luscious were the slippery / slippery spices and side dishes on both burgers that the lack of meatiness hardly played a role. The Impossible Patty worked adequately as a placeholder in what I would call less of a “burger” than “a burger-like experience”.

I wouldn’t call the Impossible Burger healthier either. There’s tons of fat no matter which burger package you choose, thanks to all of these condiments; and the calorie comparison is 740 for the Standard Whopper with Cheese and 710 for the Impossible Whopper with Cheese. So every virtuous kick that can be won is derived purely from the standpoint of helping the environment.

SLIME RATING: Completely spice-based for both burgers.

LETTER DEGREE: C minus for the whopper with cheese; D plus for the Impossible Whopper with cheese. I would eat it in a pinch – which is an improvement on my first experience, which I found disgusting.

VALUE: Completely average. You may get annoyed by the fact that you can get better, stronger, and juicier burgers for the same price – or even less – elsewhere, but it’s fast food, Jack. The comfort and speed are the point.

BONUS POINTS: The fries and chocolate shake aren’t exactly adorable, but I don’t hate them, and that’s something. Plus, the young people who work in the neighborhood at my location are cheerful, polite, and quick.

LOCAL COLOR: Not much, although I enjoy walking the customers in and out of the next door Panaderia El Bolillo while I wait. Some savvy folks are idle in the BK parking lot while a family member rushes for bolillos, flour tortillas, and pastries because the parking situation in El Bolillo can be tense. I always try to guess how big the bag they come back with is. And I’m always wrong

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  • Alison Cook

    Alison Cook – two-time winner of the James Beard Award for restaurant criticism and winner of the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award – has been reviewing restaurants and researching the dining scene for the Houston Chronicle since 2002.

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