#FastFoodFriday: Burger King Avocado Burgers Review: Beef Is Still King

Come, little one.

I shall tell ya the tale of the war of the fast food…

This is a legend throughout the ages! Who has the best burger? Is it McDonald’s, who managed to be the most named fast food chain, and having the most talked about burger in McSpicy? Is the Zinger burger really enough from KFC? Or is Burger King really the king?

It was a bloody war. Burger King and McDonald’s attempted assassinations on each other.

Burger King assimilated McDonald’s for cultural domination.

But Ronald McDonald’s, like the Joker, just doesn’t die. You thought you killed him, but it turns out he is still alive.

And before the war could end… It turns out In-N-Out came out of nowhere and won the war:

(When is In-N-Out coming?)

Enough Nonsense, Bring Me The Avocado Doo

Okay.

You’ll notice a size difference here. When introing the burgers, we said “I don’t know why it looks thicker but I don’t care because they’re the ones who sent us the images, so it’s not our fault #taichi101”

As it turns out, that’s because that’s exactly how the burger is supposed to be?! The chicken burger is smaller!

Reminder: they’re both S$7.40 each ala carte.

Here’s a closer look at the Avocado Whopper (beef):

And then at the Avocado Tendergrill Chicken:

What about the avocadoes? Will a fast food restaurant skimp on the avocadoes again? Will it be like the Avocado Banana which doesn’t have any hint of Avocado?

The cross-section of the Whopper (beef) is impressive, with the perfectly stacked ingredients. It’s almost an image of a balanced food pyramid. You can also see an even layer of avocadoes, which means every bite is equally balanced.

And then you have the chicken, which is not only smaller, it’s just crying in shame at this point. It doesn’t have the beauty of the beef burger. The burger being smaller also meant less avocadoes and tomatoes.

How Does The Size Make Sense?

Let’s start by using frozen meat prices from the supermarket to compare. Boneless chicken thigh goes for S$11.85 for 2 kg. Assuming BK gave 110g, that’s S$0.65.

Another brand of frozen minced beef is S$3.80 for 300g. For 110g (the weight of beef in a Whopper), that’s S$1.39.

And that doesn’t make sense.

Beef is more expensive. So why is the chicken burger smaller?

But maybe size doesn’t matter.

(that’s what she said)

Taste Test

Fat carries flavour. What this means, from a Gizmodo article, is “Fat affects how volatile compounds are released in our mouths and, ultimately, how the flavour gets perceived.”

Or to put it more simply, it makes anything taste better. It’s why full-fat anything is better than low-fat anything.

And what is avocado? It’s nature’s butter, full of goody fat. The catch? It doesn’t quite taste like anything by itself, but it’s all creamy goodness.

It’s why avocado milkshakes tend to not taste like avocadoes, but if you make those avocado milkshake without the avocado, they sort of taste less good. It’s because avocado, being fat, carries the flavour and make it better.

So does avocado make the Whopper better? Does it make the tendergrill better?

The short answer: yes.

But it doesn’t quite pack the avocado goodness that you might be expecting, like say, from guacemole, which just seems to be avocado elevated to another level. And I have to say it’s a bit disappointing they didn’t go the guace route, although the supple layering of avocado (for the beef only) is a work of art I didn’t expect to see from a fast food restaurant.

It’s a slight intensification of the flavours already present in the Whopper and Tendergrill, but it’s not an entirely new flavour that will win any fast food war.

It DID make me feel very healthy though (if I didn’t also eat a pack of onion rings). Now we also know where the avocadoes from the Avocado Banana ice cream went.

Also… I’d like to say that the Tendergrill is as good as the beef, but something doesn’t quite make sense here and the execution just isn’t as good for the chicken.

Rating for Avocado Whopper (beef): 4/5

Rating for Avocado Tendergrill Chicken: 3/5

I think it’s pretty clear Burger King likes beef more than chicken.