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The Impossible Burger is the best veggie burger I've ever had. I was a vegetarian for 10 years, and have now been a pescatarian for 8 years. It has been 18 yea

The Impossible Burger is the best veggie burger I've ever had. I was a vegetarian for 10 years, and have now been a pescatarian for 8 years. It has been 18 years since I have had a proper cheeseburger, and since then I have had many thousands of veggie burgers. Cheeseburgers are probably my favorite food, and I haven't had one in 18 years. If someone told me that the world would end tomorrow, I would go out and eat a proper cheeseburger. I have some experience in this area, is what I'm trying to say. The flavor and texture is the closest to actual meat I've ever had. And that, then, is the key for a lot of people: they don't want a veggie burger that simulates meat. Which is fine! I do, and I imagine the market for close-to-meat veggie burgers is bigger than obviously-not-meat veggie burgers. Others in the thread have mentioned the Beyond Burger, which is also good. But the Impossible Burger, for me, is way better. I have had my Impossible Burgers at Bareburger. At home, I went with Morningstar Farm's Grillers Prime for a long time, but about a year ago they changed the recipe, and I did their black bean for a while. I have since discovered if I season the Griller's Prime while I'm frying it, it comes out much better.

spraak 8y ago
Why don't you think that fish is meat?
- scott_s 8y ago
  It is, if you define it that way. If my text bothers you because I did not consider fish to be meat, then just replace "meat" with "beef."
- treve 8y ago
  I feel there's a different way to ask this question and potentially get a better answer.
  - hanniabu 8y ago
    I don't think there's anything wrong with this question. What's a better way to ask?
    - treve 8y ago
      The OP never said fish wasnt meat, so it seems like it could be jab. I can't tell if it was, and I have no real stake in the argument, but when I read the question I felt it could be a bit too open to be interpreted as hostile.
- GuiA 8y ago
  This question could be posed better, but it does deserve an answer. "Meat" does not have a precise biological meaning; its meaning is largely cultural. Some people distinguish "red meat" and "white meat"; others understand meat as separate from poultry, and seafood (is fish seafood? same story). In fact, in some languages the word for "meat" is more specific to mammal meat - e.g. french, "viande" vs "volaille" - in others less so: in Japanese, 魚 (fish) is definitely not 肉 (meat) but you eat 牛肉 (cow-meat) and 鳥肉 (bird-meat). The vocabulary of cooking is full of these sort of things (legumes/vegetables/fruits/...is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? is a potato a vegetable?)
  - spraak 8y ago
    Aha, thank you for the etymological details!
- dang 8y ago
  "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith." "Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - hanniabu 8y ago
    Why was this posted? I don't think there's anything wrong with this question.
    - dang 8y ago
      Because it's a classic flamewar topic which leads away from the specifics of this story and towards generic hostilities; and because taking a stronger interpretation of the comment would have made the question unnecessary—i.e. scott_s is probably just as aware as the rest of us that fish are animals and their flesh is in that sense meat, and therefore he was probably just not using the word 'meat' in that sense. scott_s replied in an evenhanded way, but many (maybe most) commenters in his position would have taken the question as hostile and responded in kind.
  - spraak 8y ago
    How could I better ask the question? I'm genuinely confused since they poster talks about not eating "meat" but eats fish, which culturally for me (Buddhist and Hindu) are non-veg
    - alangpierce 8y ago
      I don't think the poster ever actually said that fish isn't meat, and I guess a lot of people are interpreting your question as a hostile challenge of the idea of pescatarianism (along the lines of "Why don't you think that cheeseburgers are murder?"). If you are struggling to understand pescatarianism as an idea, my perspective is that flexitarianism, pescatarianism, vegetarianism, and flexiveganism are all compromise diets that get some but not all environmental and ethical benefits of veganism. Different people have different levels of commitment and make different tradeoffs in their life choices. Whether that's "the only meat I eat is fish" or "I eat fish but not meat" is just a matter of definitions. In terms of the English word "meat", there is certainly some ambiguity. At least as I know the term, it feels like a stretch (but maybe technically correct) to count fish as meat. I've had people suggest sushi when I say that I'm vegetarian, unaware that vegetarians don't eat fish. If you google for the Food Pyramid, most diagrams call out meat and fish as different things. "Vegetarian" almost always doesn't allow fish, but "meat" just isn't a very precise word.
- adrianmonk 8y ago
  You're getting downvoted, but I don't think everyone realizes this can be a genuine point of confusion. "Meat", like many words, has multiple senses. One of them is the flesh of any animal. Another is the flesh of a mammal, which would exclude fish (and probably poultry). The second definition isn't used as often, but you will find it many dictionaries, and some people do use the word in that way and treat meat / poultry / fish as disjoint sets. For example, the classic book "Joy of Cooking" has chapters titled "Shellfish", "Fish", "Poultry and Wildfowl", "Meat" (pork, beef, lamb), and "Game". (Actually, I guess "Joy of Cooking" is being even more specific and taking "meat" to mean domesticated mammal flesh, because there are some mammals in the "Game" chapter.)
- jamesrcole 8y ago
  I don't know if they edited their comment or not, but it doesn't say anything like that.
- parasubvert 8y ago
  Not speaking for the OP, but Catholics don’t consider fish or seafood to be meat from a religious perspective when practicing abstinence every Friday (and Ash Wednesday) during Lent.
algesten 8y ago
what's your motivation for eating fish/vegetarian? it sounds like you really want meat and your current situation is a kind of sacrifice?
- scott_s 8y ago
  I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons; I trust it's not hard to imagine or look up what those reasons are. At the time, I felt strongly about this. Over the years, I discovered I felt less strongly about it, but it was a deeply ingrained habit by that point. I also discovered that even though I no longer carried a deep moral imperative to not eat meat, I still carried a deep personal connection to the person I was when I did carry that imperative. I eventually decided I didn't care about fish that much - but I decided that I would eventually eat fish again years before I finally did. Yes, it's a compromise of my original ethical judgement, but it's one I can live with.
  - flowardnut 8y ago
    I stay pesca for ease of diet. Even in nowhere, US you can walk into a diner and get a fish sandwich. "how often are you in nowhere, US?" and that's about how often I eat fish. To me it's just a less bad choice, which in my brain is still a net positive gain on the meal.
ikeboy 8y ago
I've had an impossible burger 1.0 and felt it was basically like a crappy but passable burger. Waiting for the 2.0 one to hit places near me. Which version are you talking about?
- scott_s 8y ago
  I don't know. I ordered them at Bareburgers in Westchester, NY in the past year: https://www.bareburger.com https://www.bareburger.com
  - astura 8y ago
    2.0 version was introduced at CES in January of this year. If it was before January it was the 1.0 version, if it was after January it might have been either.
    - spikels 8y ago
      The 2.0 version is available at some restaurants in SF. I haven’t got to try it yet but was told about it.
      - marzell 8y ago
        I have found the 2.0 versions of both Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat burgers to be a decent improvement over their original versions.
    - jvandonsel 8y ago
      Is the 2.0 version labeled as such? Or as "new and improved" ?
brandonmenc 8y ago
It's a good start, but it's so, so oily, even compared to a meat burger - and the oil seeps out all over the place. It's such a mess that I eat them with a fork. I'd rather eat something like a black bean burger, but I also eat meat so I'm not looking for my vegetable burgers replicate the experience.
- dmoy 8y ago
  Yeah I agree, it's good but it's very clearly not a burger. I'm also not vegetarian, just eat meat only once a week or so. (But then maybe I'd say the same thing about burger Kings beef burgers too haha)
- cheeze 8y ago
  IMO it all comes down to the place that cooks it. I've had oily ones and I've had ones that were very meat like.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  This is actually making it sound even more appealing to me. You can't beat a good greasy burger after a night out!
- functionstooge 8y ago
  It definitely depends on how it’s cooked. I’ve had quite a few of these and certain places tend to make them oily. I’ve found that to be the case when ordering a Beyond Meat patty as well from Carl’s Jr./Hardys even though they aren’t nearly as oily when I make them myself.
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MisterBastahrd 8y ago
Vegns often fail to understand how important texture is to meat eaters when it comes to replicating a meat product so that it will appeal to meat eaters. Additionally, a lot of vegns are also extremely health conscious, and so they tend to avoid a lot of unnecessary fat in their diet. A lot of chefs will say "fat is flavor," which is true, but what's also true is that fat conveys flavor. It sticks to surfaces in places that water doesn't and allows flavors to linger. It's why the Impossible and Beyond Burgers are succeeding: they haven't lost sight of what makes a burger, a burger.
- lifeisstillgood 8y ago
  (off topic) Is there any reason you seem to have replaced the a in vegan with an asterisk? It happened twice so I am guessing it was not a typo? I am just curious? Is it like x86 or something?
  - Max_Mustermann 8y ago
    The term seems to include both "vegetarian" and "vegan".
    - MisterBastahrd 8y ago
      This guy gets it.
  - astura 8y ago
    * is the wild card character so veg*n "matches" both "vegan" and "vegetarian." It's a short-hand way to say "vegetarian and/or vegan."
    - Dylan16807 8y ago
      It's not very obvious that it's supposed to stand for more than one letter. Is it less confusing to do this way than to say "vegetarian" since that includes vegans?
gowld 8y ago
It's an Impossible Burger, and left undersaid is that it's a fast-food burger. It's not an Impossible Steak or an Impossible Grill Burger. I just don't see the point, vs a high-protein high-fat patty made of bean or soy protein isolate that tastes good in it own non-fake-fast-good-meat-burger way. The only reason I am tempted to buy meat patties is that they are so much cheaper than Boca patties. An even-more-expensive patty that adds red liquid to simulate the look of heme is moving in the wrong direction.
- covercash 8y ago
  I ate lunch at a Founding Farmers (https://www.wearefoundingfarmers.com/about/story/ https://www.wearefoundingfarmers.com/about/story/) and we ordered a regular burger and an Impossible burger for the table. Everyone was not only surprised at how good the Impossible burger was, the majority actually preferred it.
  - Kyragem 8y ago
    I highly agree, it somehow just cooks better though and doesn't burn that easily.
- atombender 8y ago
  I disagree. Momofuku Nishi in New York sometimes (weekend brunch only, I believe; the rest of the time it's a boring fast food version) serves a high-end version of the Impossible Burger for lunch, and it's decidely not a fast-food burger. It's the best veggie burger I've had the pleasure of eating.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > It's an Impossible Burger, and left undersaid is that it's a fast-food burger. Since it's right up front in the headline that it's Burger King,I don't think the fast food part is “undersaid”. > I just don't see the point, vs a high-protein high-fat patty made of bean or soy protein isolate that tastes good in it own non-fake-fast-good-meat-burger way. If you don't see the point of fast food, you can, I hope, at least see that lots of people do. And since there are people going off meat for environmental or ethical reasons, providing them an open which is both attractive in taste to their current palette and fitting with their existing lifestyle but for the change they are deliberately making seems to have obvious value.
mratzloff 8y ago
As a vegetarian and former meat eater, I've had an "impossible taco" a couple of times. I don't want or crave meat, but they tasted very good. However, the texture totally weirded me out and both times I checked more than once to make sure they didn't accidentally serve me meat. I would wager a meat eater wouldn't know the difference if they were accidentally served these vegetarian tacos instead of beef.
- odyssey7 8y ago
  In a fast food environment, as a vegetarian, I don’t think I would order this unless there was an easy way for me to verify which burger I was eating.
  - deleted 8y ago
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  - docbrown 8y ago
    Also as a vegetarian, there is a clear difference in the earlier veggie patties that Burger King served—Morning Star possibly, not these—and that of a regular whopper meat patty.
  - Forbo 8y ago
    I still would. It still signals to the restaurant that I want the non-meat option. If they slip up, oh well, and at that point it would be more wasteful for me to throw the "real" burger out.
- patothon 8y ago
  I eat meat and occasionally eat impossible burgers to reduce my meat consumption, and you can definitely tell. Just not as good.
  - Schiphol 8y ago
    Another vegetarian here who cannot tell the difference. I guess not having had meat in a few years helps make the effect realistic.
samth 8y ago
Interesting. I really like the Beyond Burger (and their sausage) but the one time I had the Impossible Burger, it tasted like a pretty generic veggie burger. Maybe the restaurant ran out and substituted.
- joshschreuder 8y ago
  Yeah I tried the Impossible 1.0 a few weeks ago in Hong Kong, and the Beyond a few days ago in Melbourne and found the Beyond much nicer. With that said, there is a lot more to burgers than just the patties so it could just be differences between restaurants. I honestly think if the Beyond wasn't more expensive than a normal patty, I would probably order it all the time (and I am very much a meat eater) I'm keen to try the Impossible 2.0 and the Beyond sausages.
Not_a_pizza 8y ago
The irony is that most people have given up on Burger King because of the poor dietary selection. In the breakfast menu, there is almost nothing to eat that is not high cholesterol and/or fattening. If Burger King manages to leverage this new item effectively, they could assist in saving the lives of the same people that they are helping to make piss poor life choices with.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > The irony is that most people have given up on Burger King because of the poor dietary selection. [citation needed]
  - random878 8y ago
    It's quite clear the OP is speaking in an anecdotal manner. The use of [citation needed] is one of the most infuriating, passive-aggressive internet trends perpetrated by people who clearly don't understand the point of citations [1]. [1] citation not required
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > It's quite clear the OP is speaking in an anecdotal manner. No, it wasn't; OP made a universal claim (“most people” not “most people I know”), and a claim of irony which makes more sense with a real geerality. I actually assumed (and, in fact, still assume despite your interjection) that the not_a_pizza had some basis for making that general claim, and merely omitted it, perhaps because they assumed others were familiar with it.
      - scott_s 8y ago
        I agree, but there are less snarky ways to say that.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  The impossible burger isn't really noticably healthier than a beef burger. It still has roughly the same calories, saturated fats and so on. Anectodally, it does make you feel slightly less bloated, though.
doublepg23 8y ago
I also had an Impossible Burger at a Pittsburgh chain Burgatory [1], I was extremely impressed and wouldn't noticed it was a veggie burger if I hadn't ordered it. [1] https://burgatorybar.com/ https://burgatorybar.com/
Simon_says 8y ago
If it's been 18 years since you had a burger, I'm not sure you're the expert on what's closest to meat.
- scott_s 8y ago
  You have to consider the set of alternative available to the person. If you're considering people who do eat meat, and want something that is close-enough to meat as a substitute, then yes, I am not a good judge of that. But if you're considering people who do not eat meat, and want something that's as close as they can get of things that are not meat, then I think I am an expert since over the past 18 years I have had many different varieties of that thing.
- sillypuddy 8y ago
  Why is this getting downvoted?
  - Simon_says 8y ago
    Vegans are an opinionated bunch.
Wistar 8y ago
Addon: This youtube video posted by Burger King of "expletive-filled double-takes from actual diners informed that the Whoppers they just ate were made of plants..." https://youtu.be/N9FED3jkNTo https://youtu.be/N9FED3jkNTo ... was linked from this Politico piece: "Inside the Race to Build the Burger of the Future." https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/01/meat-politics-226342 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/01/meat-poli...
- rorykoehler 8y ago
  Isn't it illegal to sell people food that doesn't contain what is advertised?
  - Doxin 8y ago
    Presumably the video is either faked or (more charitably) the customers were asked if they would like to try this new recipe. No lying going on in that last case.
    - rorykoehler 8y ago
      Certainly viewed like it was made for /r/hailcorporate, complete with authentic f bombs and all.
jopsen 8y ago
If you really like cheeseburgers that much how about just eating fewer? :) Does it have to be an all or nothing experience?
- Jedi72 8y ago
  If you are vego for ethical reasons then yes, every time its bad.
  - dotancohen 8y ago
    Every time you press the accelerator pedal on your car you are spewing CO2 into the atmosphere. Every time is bad. That does not mean that we stop driving. We drive less.
    - andygates 8y ago
      That's not fundamentally ethical at scale, it's a systems problem. "Do the least damage" is the interim fix while the industry decarbonizes. Not eating cute critters is fundamentally ethical.
    - ohbleek 8y ago
      These kinds of comparisons just don’t work and they come off as being an odd sort of defensive reply. Not to mention it’s a false equivalence. In the end though it’s a personal choice that really doesn’t need to be criticized, whether it is based on preference or ethical beliefs.
- Emma_Goldman 8y ago
  If you consider it wrong to torture and kill animals for your pleasure, as many vegans and vegetarians do, then it's unlikely that you think that occasionally torturing and killing animals, and eating their dead bodies, is either moral or appetising.
cynoclast 8y ago
Would you eat cloned-from-cells meat?
ultrasounder 8y ago
This is awesome that you have managed to stay vegetarian for 10 years. I have heard the term Pescatarian before but didn't quiet understand it. Is that when you eat fish + veggies?
- saagarjha 8y ago
  Essentially, yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescetarianism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescetarianism
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gigatexal 8y ago
This is great news. I’m looking forward to trying it out. Thanks for your review.
cyrusmg 8y ago
> If someone told me that the world would end tomorrow, I would go out and eat a proper cheeseburger. Let me do you a favor: The world is going to end tomorrow!
henvic 8y ago
I had the Impossible Burger in a few places. About six months ago I had it in a vegan place near Cape Canaveral, and I was in disbelief it wasn't a meat burger. I asked the waiter twice. It's been 15+ years since I last ate meat (and even more, red meat), and I hate the taste. For anyone vegan or vegetarian who hates the taste of meat and is afraid to try it, I recommend giving a try even though it's supposed to taste like meat as it might feel different. I believe the preparation makes it very different because all other times (10+?) I had it (both 1.0 and 2.0), I enjoyed (specially at Umami Burger in Anaheim). The only reason I haven't had it more is that I don't live in the U.S., and I prefer the Portobello mushroom patty at Umami.

spraak 8y ago

Why don't you think that fish is meat?

scott_s 8y ago
It is, if you define it that way. If my text bothers you because I did not consider fish to be meat, then just replace "meat" with "beef."
treve 8y ago
I feel there's a different way to ask this question and potentially get a better answer.
- hanniabu 8y ago
  I don't think there's anything wrong with this question. What's a better way to ask?
  - treve 8y ago
    The OP never said fish wasnt meat, so it seems like it could be jab. I can't tell if it was, and I have no real stake in the argument, but when I read the question I felt it could be a bit too open to be interpreted as hostile.
GuiA 8y ago
This question could be posed better, but it does deserve an answer. "Meat" does not have a precise biological meaning; its meaning is largely cultural. Some people distinguish "red meat" and "white meat"; others understand meat as separate from poultry, and seafood (is fish seafood? same story). In fact, in some languages the word for "meat" is more specific to mammal meat - e.g. french, "viande" vs "volaille" - in others less so: in Japanese, 魚 (fish) is definitely not 肉 (meat) but you eat 牛肉 (cow-meat) and 鳥肉 (bird-meat). The vocabulary of cooking is full of these sort of things (legumes/vegetables/fruits/...is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? is a potato a vegetable?)
- spraak 8y ago
  Aha, thank you for the etymological details!
dang 8y ago
"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith." "Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- hanniabu 8y ago
  Why was this posted? I don't think there's anything wrong with this question.
  - dang 8y ago
    Because it's a classic flamewar topic which leads away from the specifics of this story and towards generic hostilities; and because taking a stronger interpretation of the comment would have made the question unnecessary—i.e. scott_s is probably just as aware as the rest of us that fish are animals and their flesh is in that sense meat, and therefore he was probably just not using the word 'meat' in that sense. scott_s replied in an evenhanded way, but many (maybe most) commenters in his position would have taken the question as hostile and responded in kind.
- spraak 8y ago
  How could I better ask the question? I'm genuinely confused since they poster talks about not eating "meat" but eats fish, which culturally for me (Buddhist and Hindu) are non-veg
  - alangpierce 8y ago
    I don't think the poster ever actually said that fish isn't meat, and I guess a lot of people are interpreting your question as a hostile challenge of the idea of pescatarianism (along the lines of "Why don't you think that cheeseburgers are murder?"). If you are struggling to understand pescatarianism as an idea, my perspective is that flexitarianism, pescatarianism, vegetarianism, and flexiveganism are all compromise diets that get some but not all environmental and ethical benefits of veganism. Different people have different levels of commitment and make different tradeoffs in their life choices. Whether that's "the only meat I eat is fish" or "I eat fish but not meat" is just a matter of definitions. In terms of the English word "meat", there is certainly some ambiguity. At least as I know the term, it feels like a stretch (but maybe technically correct) to count fish as meat. I've had people suggest sushi when I say that I'm vegetarian, unaware that vegetarians don't eat fish. If you google for the Food Pyramid, most diagrams call out meat and fish as different things. "Vegetarian" almost always doesn't allow fish, but "meat" just isn't a very precise word.
adrianmonk 8y ago
You're getting downvoted, but I don't think everyone realizes this can be a genuine point of confusion. "Meat", like many words, has multiple senses. One of them is the flesh of any animal. Another is the flesh of a mammal, which would exclude fish (and probably poultry). The second definition isn't used as often, but you will find it many dictionaries, and some people do use the word in that way and treat meat / poultry / fish as disjoint sets. For example, the classic book "Joy of Cooking" has chapters titled "Shellfish", "Fish", "Poultry and Wildfowl", "Meat" (pork, beef, lamb), and "Game". (Actually, I guess "Joy of Cooking" is being even more specific and taking "meat" to mean domesticated mammal flesh, because there are some mammals in the "Game" chapter.)
jamesrcole 8y ago
I don't know if they edited their comment or not, but it doesn't say anything like that.
parasubvert 8y ago
Not speaking for the OP, but Catholics don’t consider fish or seafood to be meat from a religious perspective when practicing abstinence every Friday (and Ash Wednesday) during Lent.

algesten 8y ago

what's your motivation for eating fish/vegetarian? it sounds like you really want meat and your current situation is a kind of sacrifice?

scott_s 8y ago
I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons; I trust it's not hard to imagine or look up what those reasons are. At the time, I felt strongly about this. Over the years, I discovered I felt less strongly about it, but it was a deeply ingrained habit by that point. I also discovered that even though I no longer carried a deep moral imperative to not eat meat, I still carried a deep personal connection to the person I was when I did carry that imperative. I eventually decided I didn't care about fish that much - but I decided that I would eventually eat fish again years before I finally did. Yes, it's a compromise of my original ethical judgement, but it's one I can live with.
- flowardnut 8y ago
  I stay pesca for ease of diet. Even in nowhere, US you can walk into a diner and get a fish sandwich. "how often are you in nowhere, US?" and that's about how often I eat fish. To me it's just a less bad choice, which in my brain is still a net positive gain on the meal.

ikeboy 8y ago

I've had an impossible burger 1.0 and felt it was basically like a crappy but passable burger. Waiting for the 2.0 one to hit places near me. Which version are you talking about?

scott_s 8y ago
I don't know. I ordered them at Bareburgers in Westchester, NY in the past year: https://www.bareburger.com https://www.bareburger.com
- astura 8y ago
  2.0 version was introduced at CES in January of this year. If it was before January it was the 1.0 version, if it was after January it might have been either.
  - spikels 8y ago
    The 2.0 version is available at some restaurants in SF. I haven’t got to try it yet but was told about it.
    - marzell 8y ago
      I have found the 2.0 versions of both Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat burgers to be a decent improvement over their original versions.
  - jvandonsel 8y ago
    Is the 2.0 version labeled as such? Or as "new and improved" ?

brandonmenc 8y ago

It's a good start, but it's so, so oily, even compared to a meat burger - and the oil seeps out all over the place. It's such a mess that I eat them with a fork. I'd rather eat something like a black bean burger, but I also eat meat so I'm not looking for my vegetable burgers replicate the experience.

dmoy 8y ago
Yeah I agree, it's good but it's very clearly not a burger. I'm also not vegetarian, just eat meat only once a week or so. (But then maybe I'd say the same thing about burger Kings beef burgers too haha)
cheeze 8y ago
IMO it all comes down to the place that cooks it. I've had oily ones and I've had ones that were very meat like.
SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
This is actually making it sound even more appealing to me. You can't beat a good greasy burger after a night out!
functionstooge 8y ago
It definitely depends on how it’s cooked. I’ve had quite a few of these and certain places tend to make them oily. I’ve found that to be the case when ordering a Beyond Meat patty as well from Carl’s Jr./Hardys even though they aren’t nearly as oily when I make them myself.

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MisterBastahrd 8y ago

Vegns often fail to understand how important texture is to meat eaters when it comes to replicating a meat product so that it will appeal to meat eaters. Additionally, a lot of vegns are also extremely health conscious, and so they tend to avoid a lot of unnecessary fat in their diet. A lot of chefs will say "fat is flavor," which is true, but what's also true is that fat conveys flavor. It sticks to surfaces in places that water doesn't and allows flavors to linger. It's why the Impossible and Beyond Burgers are succeeding: they haven't lost sight of what makes a burger, a burger.

lifeisstillgood 8y ago
(off topic) Is there any reason you seem to have replaced the a in vegan with an asterisk? It happened twice so I am guessing it was not a typo? I am just curious? Is it like x86 or something?
- Max_Mustermann 8y ago
  The term seems to include both "vegetarian" and "vegan".
  - MisterBastahrd 8y ago
    This guy gets it.
- astura 8y ago
  * is the wild card character so veg*n "matches" both "vegan" and "vegetarian." It's a short-hand way to say "vegetarian and/or vegan."
  - Dylan16807 8y ago
    It's not very obvious that it's supposed to stand for more than one letter. Is it less confusing to do this way than to say "vegetarian" since that includes vegans?

gowld 8y ago

It's an Impossible Burger, and left undersaid is that it's a fast-food burger. It's not an Impossible Steak or an Impossible Grill Burger. I just don't see the point, vs a high-protein high-fat patty made of bean or soy protein isolate that tastes good in it own non-fake-fast-good-meat-burger way. The only reason I am tempted to buy meat patties is that they are so much cheaper than Boca patties. An even-more-expensive patty that adds red liquid to simulate the look of heme is moving in the wrong direction.

covercash 8y ago
I ate lunch at a Founding Farmers (https://www.wearefoundingfarmers.com/about/story/ https://www.wearefoundingfarmers.com/about/story/) and we ordered a regular burger and an Impossible burger for the table. Everyone was not only surprised at how good the Impossible burger was, the majority actually preferred it.
- Kyragem 8y ago
  I highly agree, it somehow just cooks better though and doesn't burn that easily.
atombender 8y ago
I disagree. Momofuku Nishi in New York sometimes (weekend brunch only, I believe; the rest of the time it's a boring fast food version) serves a high-end version of the Impossible Burger for lunch, and it's decidely not a fast-food burger. It's the best veggie burger I've had the pleasure of eating.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> It's an Impossible Burger, and left undersaid is that it's a fast-food burger. Since it's right up front in the headline that it's Burger King,I don't think the fast food part is “undersaid”. > I just don't see the point, vs a high-protein high-fat patty made of bean or soy protein isolate that tastes good in it own non-fake-fast-good-meat-burger way. If you don't see the point of fast food, you can, I hope, at least see that lots of people do. And since there are people going off meat for environmental or ethical reasons, providing them an open which is both attractive in taste to their current palette and fitting with their existing lifestyle but for the change they are deliberately making seems to have obvious value.

mratzloff 8y ago

As a vegetarian and former meat eater, I've had an "impossible taco" a couple of times. I don't want or crave meat, but they tasted very good. However, the texture totally weirded me out and both times I checked more than once to make sure they didn't accidentally serve me meat. I would wager a meat eater wouldn't know the difference if they were accidentally served these vegetarian tacos instead of beef.

odyssey7 8y ago
In a fast food environment, as a vegetarian, I don’t think I would order this unless there was an easy way for me to verify which burger I was eating.
- deleted 8y ago
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- docbrown 8y ago
  Also as a vegetarian, there is a clear difference in the earlier veggie patties that Burger King served—Morning Star possibly, not these—and that of a regular whopper meat patty.
- Forbo 8y ago
  I still would. It still signals to the restaurant that I want the non-meat option. If they slip up, oh well, and at that point it would be more wasteful for me to throw the "real" burger out.
patothon 8y ago
I eat meat and occasionally eat impossible burgers to reduce my meat consumption, and you can definitely tell. Just not as good.
- Schiphol 8y ago
  Another vegetarian here who cannot tell the difference. I guess not having had meat in a few years helps make the effect realistic.

samth 8y ago

Interesting. I really like the Beyond Burger (and their sausage) but the one time I had the Impossible Burger, it tasted like a pretty generic veggie burger. Maybe the restaurant ran out and substituted.

joshschreuder 8y ago
Yeah I tried the Impossible 1.0 a few weeks ago in Hong Kong, and the Beyond a few days ago in Melbourne and found the Beyond much nicer. With that said, there is a lot more to burgers than just the patties so it could just be differences between restaurants. I honestly think if the Beyond wasn't more expensive than a normal patty, I would probably order it all the time (and I am very much a meat eater) I'm keen to try the Impossible 2.0 and the Beyond sausages.

Not_a_pizza 8y ago

The irony is that most people have given up on Burger King because of the poor dietary selection. In the breakfast menu, there is almost nothing to eat that is not high cholesterol and/or fattening. If Burger King manages to leverage this new item effectively, they could assist in saving the lives of the same people that they are helping to make piss poor life choices with.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> The irony is that most people have given up on Burger King because of the poor dietary selection. [citation needed]
- random878 8y ago
  It's quite clear the OP is speaking in an anecdotal manner. The use of [citation needed] is one of the most infuriating, passive-aggressive internet trends perpetrated by people who clearly don't understand the point of citations [1]. [1] citation not required
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > It's quite clear the OP is speaking in an anecdotal manner. No, it wasn't; OP made a universal claim (“most people” not “most people I know”), and a claim of irony which makes more sense with a real geerality. I actually assumed (and, in fact, still assume despite your interjection) that the not_a_pizza had some basis for making that general claim, and merely omitted it, perhaps because they assumed others were familiar with it.
    - scott_s 8y ago
      I agree, but there are less snarky ways to say that.
KozmoNau7 8y ago
The impossible burger isn't really noticably healthier than a beef burger. It still has roughly the same calories, saturated fats and so on. Anectodally, it does make you feel slightly less bloated, though.

doublepg23 8y ago

I also had an Impossible Burger at a Pittsburgh chain Burgatory [1], I was extremely impressed and wouldn't noticed it was a veggie burger if I hadn't ordered it. [1] https://burgatorybar.com/ https://burgatorybar.com/

Simon_says 8y ago

If it's been 18 years since you had a burger, I'm not sure you're the expert on what's closest to meat.

scott_s 8y ago
You have to consider the set of alternative available to the person. If you're considering people who do eat meat, and want something that is close-enough to meat as a substitute, then yes, I am not a good judge of that. But if you're considering people who do not eat meat, and want something that's as close as they can get of things that are not meat, then I think I am an expert since over the past 18 years I have had many different varieties of that thing.
sillypuddy 8y ago
Why is this getting downvoted?
- Simon_says 8y ago
  Vegans are an opinionated bunch.

Wistar 8y ago

Addon: This youtube video posted by Burger King of "expletive-filled double-takes from actual diners informed that the Whoppers they just ate were made of plants..." https://youtu.be/N9FED3jkNTo https://youtu.be/N9FED3jkNTo ... was linked from this Politico piece: "Inside the Race to Build the Burger of the Future." https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/01/meat-politics-226342 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/01/meat-poli...

rorykoehler 8y ago
Isn't it illegal to sell people food that doesn't contain what is advertised?
- Doxin 8y ago
  Presumably the video is either faked or (more charitably) the customers were asked if they would like to try this new recipe. No lying going on in that last case.
  - rorykoehler 8y ago
    Certainly viewed like it was made for /r/hailcorporate, complete with authentic f bombs and all.

jopsen 8y ago

If you really like cheeseburgers that much how about just eating fewer? :) Does it have to be an all or nothing experience?

Jedi72 8y ago
If you are vego for ethical reasons then yes, every time its bad.
- dotancohen 8y ago
  Every time you press the accelerator pedal on your car you are spewing CO2 into the atmosphere. Every time is bad. That does not mean that we stop driving. We drive less.
  - andygates 8y ago
    That's not fundamentally ethical at scale, it's a systems problem. "Do the least damage" is the interim fix while the industry decarbonizes. Not eating cute critters is fundamentally ethical.
  - ohbleek 8y ago
    These kinds of comparisons just don’t work and they come off as being an odd sort of defensive reply. Not to mention it’s a false equivalence. In the end though it’s a personal choice that really doesn’t need to be criticized, whether it is based on preference or ethical beliefs.
Emma_Goldman 8y ago
If you consider it wrong to torture and kill animals for your pleasure, as many vegans and vegetarians do, then it's unlikely that you think that occasionally torturing and killing animals, and eating their dead bodies, is either moral or appetising.

cynoclast 8y ago

Would you eat cloned-from-cells meat?

ultrasounder 8y ago

This is awesome that you have managed to stay vegetarian for 10 years. I have heard the term Pescatarian before but didn't quiet understand it. Is that when you eat fish + veggies?

saagarjha 8y ago
Essentially, yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescetarianism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescetarianism

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gigatexal 8y ago

This is great news. I’m looking forward to trying it out. Thanks for your review.

cyrusmg 8y ago

> If someone told me that the world would end tomorrow, I would go out and eat a proper cheeseburger. Let me do you a favor: The world is going to end tomorrow!

henvic 8y ago

I had the Impossible Burger in a few places. About six months ago I had it in a vegan place near Cape Canaveral, and I was in disbelief it wasn't a meat burger. I asked the waiter twice. It's been 15+ years since I last ate meat (and even more, red meat), and I hate the taste. For anyone vegan or vegetarian who hates the taste of meat and is afraid to try it, I recommend giving a try even though it's supposed to taste like meat as it might feel different. I believe the preparation makes it very different because all other times (10+?) I had it (both 1.0 and 2.0), I enjoyed (specially at Umami Burger in Anaheim). The only reason I haven't had it more is that I don't live in the U.S., and I prefer the Portobello mushroom patty at Umami.