Review: BK Chef’s Choice Burger from Burger King

Posted October 24th, 2011 | 6:05pm by Chefprotoss

Just like a lot of GrubGrade readers, I’m not that big a fan of Burger King. The Whopper is okay if you’re lucky enough to get fresh produce, but other than that, I can’t really think of anything decent on the menu. A couple of months ago Ryan posted a news story about Burger King testing a new burger in certain markets. Yesterday during the Redskins game I saw a commercial for the BK Chef’s Choice Burger and sure enough within minutes Ryan had a post about the nationwide roll out.

I decided to check it out for two reasons; the first is that I want to know what the hell “grill sauce” is, and the second is so that I can type this next sentence… Will Chefprotoss choose the Chef’s Choice? Alright, that was pretty lame. Nevermind my love of awful puns and let’s review this horribly named sandwich. The BK Chef’s Choice Burger is described by Burger King like this:

A flame-broiled 5.5 oz burger patty, made with USDA certified ground chuck seasoned with salt and pepper, a thick slice American cheese, Naturally-smoked thick cut bacon, Fresh cut romaine lettuce, red onions and ripe tomatoes, our original grill sauce on an artisan bun.

Let’s start off with the good aspects of this burger… the bun looks nothing like the promo picture, but is vastly greater than the regular Whopper bun. The GrubGrade community has been calling for a potato roll at any fast food joint for some time, and it would seem that BK has delivered. It tastes like your basic potato roll, but since the only info BK gives about it is the useless word “artisan”, I can’t be certain. The “grill sauce” was interesting. It tasted like mayo with a touch of steak sauce, black pepper and no joke, beef jerky. It was surprisingly tangy and delicious. I never would have thought to combine beef and mayo to sauce a burger, but it works.

Now for the bad… the “ground chuck” was used to make what looks, felt and tasted like sub par meatloaf or salisbury steak. It was dry and ground super fine. The burger patty was almost to gyro meat consistency. It didn’t taste beefy or even like it had been flame broiled. The beef was much closer to a veggie patty than a Whopper patty. I hope the pictures give a good idea of the consistency of the beef.

The produce is better, but still the weakest in the business. While the tomatoes were alright, the red onion and lettuce suffered being past their prime. The edges of the lettuce were starting to wilt and brown and the onion was limp. What puzzles me is that the burger was released yesterday, and somehow the produce was old already.

Oh, and before I forget the bacon and American cheese were just there. Not great and not bad, just more stuff to pile on to justify the price. $4.99 for a burger is fine with me as long as it at least attempts to kick some kind of ass. The Chef’s Choice, however, was lackluster. Three bucks would be a better, especially considering the lack of quality ingredients. The Chef’s Choice wasn’t terrible, but a Whopper with “grill sauce” would have been way better. The chef who chose this burger needs to find another line of work. I hope it isn’t fast food marketing.