Tristan holding a Burger King bag in front of Burger King.
Burger King is among Canada's fast food titans, and is considered by many to be up there with the likes of McDonald's, A&W, and Tim Hortons.
But I, as a professional food & drink writer who specializes in the world of fast food, had actually never tried Burger King until recently — and I was missing out.
You might be asking, "Why have you never had Burger King, Tristan?" to which I would reply "Why do you care so much? Who are you?" After that, I would tell you that I grew up in a small town in B.C. that was exactly eight hours to Calgary and eight hours to Vancouver — so we were especially isolated.
We had a Tim Hortons, McDonald's, A&W, and two Subways, and that's it. For me, what others would consider iconic fast food was a rare thing to even see.
Eventually, I went to school in Vancouver and then came to Toronto, but throughout those years I never had the desire to pay the King a visit. To be fully honest, it looked like a worse McDonald's.
But as I went through life, when I mentioned it to people they would gasp and say, "You've never had Burger King?!," so I figured it was time to give it a go at the ripe old age of 26.
So, I hopped on my bike and headed down to my local Burger King to see what the deal was.
When I got there I ordered the most famous and iconic thing I could think of — a Whopper and fries. I opted not to get a drink because I figured that wouldn't really be a helpful thing to review.
Here's what I thought about my first Burger King experience.
The Fries
A container of Burger King fries.
Price: $3.99
Unfortunately, like all fast food fries, these deteriorated a bit by the time I finished my 15-minute bike ride home. However, I found that they were actually quite good.
If you've never had them, the fries from Burger King are thicker than the ones you'd get at most other fast food places, especially McDonald's.
While they weren't especially crispy by the time I got to them, they had a soft inside that was nice and comforting. I did notice, however, that they seemed a little unevenly salted or under-seasoned as a whole.
One of the joys in life is a nice, salty, crispy French fry and while these came close, they didn't 100% hit the mark like McDonald's or even A&W fries do.
But, they are by no means bad, and maybe if I ate them right when they were given to me I'd be singing a much different tune.
Score: 3/5
The Whopper
A Whopper.
Price: $7.99
The Whopper is among the most famous fast food burgers in the world, behind maybe only the Big Mac. It's famous for its flame-grilled flavour and its size.
According to the Burger King website, it's a burger with "100% flame-grilled beef," tomato, onion, lettuce, pickles, mayo and ketchup all on a sesame seed bun.
And I finally tried one.
The first thing I noticed about this burger was how good the patty tasted. Burger King boasts heavily about their flame-grilled meat and it really does a load of difference when it comes to the flavour of the patty.
I also was really taken aback by how fresh and crunchy all of the vegetables were. From the onion to the lettuce, everything is genuinely satisfying with each bite.
It tasted like a burger you'd have during a backyard BBQ.
However, it wasn't all roses and sunshine.
The worst thing about the Whopper was that it was absolutely slathered with mayo. Every bite seemed to have it dripping out all over my hand. There was so much mayo that I actually got a knife and scrapped it all off -- even then, there was still a fair amount that had made its way onto the rest of the condiments.
All in all the Whopper was a good burger, though, and I do feel like I have missed out on it for all of these years.
Score: 4/5
The Verdict
Now that I've finally had the chance to try Burger King, I can safely say that it was a good experience that I would be open to trying again.
That being said, if given the option between Burger King, McDonald's and A&W, I'd probably go for the latter two nine, if not ten, times out of ten.
If I'm ever on a road trip and a Burger King presents itself, I would definitely enjoy chowing down on a Whopper and fries again sometime soon.
Would it be in my ranking of the best fast-food burgers in Canada? That remains to be seen.
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