What is the Burger King Maple Waffle Sandwich?

Burger King’s latest answer to the McGriddle – a breakfast sandwich with maple laced waffle cakes as buns.

How is it?

It’s almost there. I wanted this to be great, but it’s ultimately just good. Good is good, though, right? Good.

Here’s the thing about fast food breakfast – the bread element is the most crucial part. I’m sure you’re familiar with BK’s eggs and meat. I’ve always liked BK’s fluffy folded egg, and its sausage patties are fine if not indistinguishable from anyone else’s. They do their part.

The waffles are the big-ticket item here, but I think that might turn some people off of this sandwich.

I liked them, but they’re not without its flaws.

The waffles were a little too fried for my tastes, giving them an almost “funnel cakey” texture. I love that, but not sure I want it on a breakfast sandwich.

There are little maple spots speckled on the waffles, but they weren’t sweet enough. Again, it was alllllmost there. Getting subtle hints of sweetness was nice, but I was hoping for more.

Is there anything else you need to know?

I got the savory sausage because it’s the best option. Let’s be real. The thing is, Burger King probably should’ve gone with a maple sausage patty. This could have benefitted from more maple, and that would’ve been a good place to inject it.

Oh, and skip the cheese. It could just be me, but these savory/sweet breakfast sandwiches absolutely do not need a slice of cheese. In fact, I’d argue it knocks the sandwich down a peg as a whole.

Conclusion:

It ain’t great for ya, but you probably won’t be mad you ate this. It’s about 75% as good as a McGriddle. With a little tinkering, it could be a real star in the fast food breakfast world.

Purchased Price: $3.69
Size: N/A
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Sausage) 680 calories, 45 grams of fat, 15 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 205 milligrams of cholesterol, 1140 milligrams of sodium, 46 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 23 grams of protein.

I was a vegetarian in college.

I didn’t have any moral reasons for it, I just figured it was an easier way to lose weight and keep my vitals on the up and up. Plus, there was a vegetarian in my psychology class I was smitten with, and I reckoned that had to score me a couple of extra points.

Well, as was my torrid collegiate romance with Becky Schopenhauer, my dietary dalliance with vegetarianism was short-lived. One of the things people don’t tell you about going full veggie is just how expensive it is, and when a four-pack of MorningStar Farms veggie patties costs twice as much as two eight packs of Earl Campbell Hot Link sausages — and you’re a broke communications major — the economics become pretty obvious.

Yet all these years later, every now and then I still get a hankering for a good black bean burger. And while a lot of the more upscale burger joints have their own default veggie alternatives, finding soy patties at the larger fast food chains — your McDonald’s, your Wendy’s, your Steak n’ Shakes, etc. — is usually a lost cause.

Sure, a few chains have experimented with meatless options a la Beyond Meat, but nothing on the scale of Burger King with its newfangled Impossible Whopper, which, as the name suggests, is the fast food leviathan’s signature item, albeit with the all-beef patty eschewed for an Impossible Foods-branded faux burger.

Without getting too scientific here, the secret ingredient in the Impossible Whopper patty is this stuff called leghemoglobin, which is a genetically-modified soy derivative that supposedly provides consumers the most meat-like meatless taste on the market.

Sure, sure, all of this pre-publicity puffery is fine and dandy, but I’m here to give it to you straight. So, is the Burger King Impossible Whopper truly the revolutionary product it claims to be?

Well, not really, but that’s not to say it isn’t a decent fast food burger.

First things first, the patty itself is just too small. It’s maybe half the girth of the standard Whopper patty, and instead of being plump and juicy, this newfangled Impossible Whopper tastes more charred and salty. The patty itself, though, does have a pretty solid smoky flavor to it, and the mouthfeel of the product isn’t as chewy as you may expect. It doesn’t quite capture the “real” beef Whopper taste, but it gets closer to it than you’d think.

And that’s thanks, in no small part, to the rest of the sandwich. It’s pretty amazing how all of the accoutrements — the lettuce, mayonnaise, and tomatoes — gel together to provide an idiosyncratic Whopper taste, despite the lack of a “true” Whopper patty whatsoever. You might have some reservations about the Impossible Whopper, but holistically, it tastes remarkably like its object of emulation.

Despite all of the hoopla over this meatless menu item, it seems a little odd to me that so few have noted that, for years, Burger King has already been serving what is effectively a “veggie Whopper.”

The weird thing is, the overall product reminds me of Burger King’s previous meatless burger, which utilized a MorningStar Farms Garden Veggie patty. Whatever gustatory quirks may be there, it appears are sizzled out in BK’s grilling process — so ultimately, you wind up with an Impossible patty that tastes just a tad too crispy, and a little too generic, for its own good.

Still, it’s an altogether pleasing product that ought to make vegetarians on the prowl for something a tad more filling than a garden salad pretty happy, although I just can’t see it turning long-time, omnivorous Whopper-fanatics into staunch vegans anytime soon.

Regardless, I’m pulling for the Impossible Whopper to be successful, if only to inspire competing burger chains to try their hands at the pseudo-burger fad. I mean, let’s face it — who doesn’t want to live in a world where Arby’s releases its own vegan-friendly Meat Mountain Sandwich a couple of years down the road?

Purchased Price: $5.29
Size: N/A
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 630 calories; 34 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 1,080 milligrams of sodium, 58 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar and 25 grams of protein.