US vs India Burger King | Food Wars | Food Insider
Nikhil: From calorie count to portion sizes, we wanted to find out all the differences between Burger King in India and the US. This is "Food Wars." In Burger King India, our drinks come in one standard size, which looks to be your small or medium, but you can also opt for a can of 330 ml. Burger King in the US, our drinks come in four sizes.
Value, small, medium, and large. Let's measure this cup to see how much is actually in here. Does this make anybody else want to pee, or is it just me? Joe: 34 ounces. Well, it says 38 at the bottom of the cup. It ain't 38. Our Burger King fries come in two sizes, medium and king.
[angelic singing] Our fries come in four sizes. Value, small, medium, large. I remember the large being bigger than this. I'm just glad that the fuss we rose for the first UK-US "Food Wars" Burger King has resulted fry transparency. Next up, chicken fries.
I didn't know this was a thing, so I'm very excited to eat them. It should have five pieces. Three. Four. Five.
Six! Thank you, Burger King! Oh, never mind. One of the fries had broken. They gave me five. Ours also is one size. Nine chicken fries.
It's like a pack of chicken cigarettes. Seven, eight, nine. A nice brown on brown. Yeah. We thought ahead for this one. Next one we shoot, I'm wearing all brown. I'm wearing a brown jumpsuit.
We're gonna paint this brown. The most unwatchable series. Here's everything you'll find on the menu at Burger King India that you won't find in the US.
And here's everything you can get at a US Burger King you can't get in India. Let's begin with the Whoppers! This is a good time to mention that here in India, most fast-food restaurants do not serve beef or pork to keep the religious sentiments of both Hindus and Muslims. Conservative Hindus will not enter a restaurant that serves beef.
Conservative Muslims might not enter a restaurant that serves pork. All right. Keeping all of that in mind, let us begin with the chicken Whopper. Whoo, boy! OK, Burger King definitely has larger burgers than most other restaurants here in India. Look at this. It's the size of my face.
I am the Burger King. That's so good. You might notice if you are a regular Burger King consumer of the foreign lands that if you were to eat this one, it's a little spicier. And I think they've done that because most Indians love their spice. There's a lot of bite to it.
Next up, double chicken patty. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! This one's got some heft to it, huh? The mutton Whopper. Mutton, if you are unaware, is goat meat, and Burger King is one of the few fast-food chains here that actually serves red meat of some kind. Indians love their mutton.
I love my mutton. It's definitely more meaty. Has a lot more bite to it than the chicken. God, Burger King, what are you doing? The quality is out of control. Every beef burger at Burger King is a US exclusive.
Got all the Whoppers. Let's start down here. The little guy, the Whopper Jr. Not enough meat, you say? You can get yourself a double Whopper. Same burger, two patties.
Can they go bigger? They can. The triple Whopper. Look at this thing. Hey. Close your mouth when you're taking a picture. The Texans of the audience might have to help us out in the comments here.
The Texas double Whopper. Texas prides itself, from what I can tell, on always going bigger. So why wouldn't it be the Texas triple Whopper? A rare moment where Texas was reserved.
Texans of the internet, I think you guys need to step in here. I don't think that sandwich is doing you guys proud. On to the veg options. This is a veg Whopper. I expect great things from this bad boy. I would say this is pretty lackluster.
Next up, veggie double burger, if you want double the disappointment. Another thing that we have that technically isn't beef is the Impossible Whopper, which is made with Impossible beef. I'm actually very curious, how does the Impossible burger patty taste, Joe? Regular beef. I have to hand it to them. It tastes exactly the same. If you want to give the environment a break, maybe get one of these every once in a while.
Next up, we have an exclusive King collection of burgers. These better be quite royal and aristocratic. No. 1, Hot 'n' Cheezy veg. Lot of jalapeños. The patty actually has, like, cheese melt in it. Hot 'n' Cheezy Kings collection, on a scale of common villager to the king himself, I would rate this village bard.
Once in a while you want him there just to appease a few people, but otherwise pretty lackluster. Paneer Royale. Just by the name itself, this one should be incredible.
So, paneer, if you don't know, is cottage cheese, and here in India, it is almost a staple. We eat it in everything. We eat it in curries. We sometimes just sear it and eat it plain. And obviously it had to make its way to burgers.
The paneer is really good. Chewy and delicious. I would rate the Paneer Royale a local baron. Helps the king around a little bit. Now on to the two non-veg options. We have fiery chicken. Plain and simple.
They just want this meat to blow my mind. It's just spicy. That's all it is. It doesn't have the depth of flavor that the chicken Whoppers did.
Chicken tandoori. If you guys don't know what a tandoor is, it's basically this cylindrical oven that we heat up using wood fire and charcoal traditionally, and we use it to create everything from kebabs to breads. I doubt all Burger King outlets have an actual tandoor in their restaurants, but let's see if they were able to replicate that smoky flavor. On a scale of absolute street urchins to maharajas, I would rate these two court traitors that tried to backstab the king, and now they're on trial. They have a lot of bark but not enough bite.
They're gonna be executed. Non-Whopper burgers, aka burgers. You can get yourself something called the Big King. And that's what it looks like. Don't have it. What we do have is the single quarter-pound King. Bacon King! I would say generous amount of bacon.
It's great. Then these little, much more reasonable-size burgers. Bacon cheeseburger.
Bacon double cheeseburger. A bacon-free double cheeseburger, right? One of the most hilarious things on the Burger King menu is, of course, the Rodeo burger, a burger with barbecue sauce and onion rings, because why not? Then you got cheeseburger. Regular dry-ass hamburger. Who cares? Enough kingly sandwiches. It's now time for the regular vegetarian options that they have. We have crispy veg.
Crispy veg double. Crispy veg with cheese. BK classic. BK classic with cheese.
Lite Whopper Jr. And Lite Whopper Jr. with cheese. Why is it called Lite Whopper Jr.? How many more things do you need to add to the name to make it seem small? Mini lite small Whopper junior kindergartner burger. How about that next time, Burger King? OK, I don't want to try any more veg burgers, but this one, the BK classic veg, seems different. Like, the bun looks to be the same, but they've definitely used more perky buns here.
Don't use that audio clip out of context. OK. Finally. If you're a vegetarian, I would recommend the BK classic with cheese. Boom. Although it is currently for a limited time, I thought I would share with you guys, here in the US, we have the Southwest options at Burger King, starting with the Southwest bacon Jr.
Southwest Whopper. The Southwest Impossible Whopper. What makes a Southwest? Ooh, I'm seeing, like, crispy little chippy guys.
Ooh, spicy. Ooh, it's got some heat to it. Yeah, there's guacamole on here. Hang on. I kinda fuck with it. I wouldn't eat if I didn't work at "Food Wars," you know? And now for the chicken sandwiches. These look so tiny compared to the Whoppers.
We have crispy chicken. Crispy chicken double. Crispy chicken with cheese. BK classic chicken.
Spicy grill chicken. Big smoky grill chicken. Lite Whopper chicken Jr. Lite Whopper double chicken Jr. And Lite Whopper chicken Jr. with cheese. Yes! I could work at Burger King right now.
We're going to try just two of these burgers just to see if they're any different. First one, the spicy grill chicken. Oh, my God. I can imagine myself going to a drive-through, taking one of these, driving to work, sitting in Silk Board traffic, getting annoyed with all the other people honking, realizing I should have gotten a bigger burger, and next day, ordering two. Nice.
Next up, the big smoky grill chicken. I don't see how this is smoky at all. In fact, it's kind of sweet. On to the non-beef options. I personally think these new Ch'King sandwiches are fantastic. The Ch'King, that's C-H-apostrophe-King, because it's Burger King.
Spicy Ch'King sandwich. Same thing. Got some spicy sauce on it. This is very good. If you like these but want a little more veggies because you're some old fogy, here you go, vegetables. They also make the Ch'King deluxe. Deluxe equals lettuce and tomato.
This car crash of a sandwich is the spicy ... actually, the spicy with veggies is actually kind of nice. The coolness of the lettuce and the tomato actually counterbalances the spice.
The original chicken sandwich, shaped like the new iPhone for some strange reason. This guy's been around forever. It's their answer to the McChicken. It tastes exactly like a McChicken.
Chicken Jr. Look at this little guy. A spicy chicken Jr. And last, the only non-chicken thing in the chicken section is the big fish. And now for a set of snacks that comes under their Stunner menu. [whistling] We have King egg burger.
King egg wrap. Crispy veg wrap. Veg crunchy volcano. That's right. This is not even a wrap. This is a little geological formation. Tikki Twist burger.
Veg makhani burger. And chicken makhani burger. And finally, crispy chicken wrap and crunch chicken volcano.
All right, the first burger we're trying is the chicken makhani burger. So, makhan means butter, and it also means a lot to us Indians. You just walk into a room and you say "makhan," it will resound through the room. Like, people's eyes will perk up. The hairs on their arms will rise. Oh, my God, yeah ... mm.
OK, so they've gone for, like, a butter chicken, more makhani flavor, but it just tastes like tomato puree over a stale chicken patty. Next thing that I really want to try is the volcano itself. And I think this is their answer to Taco Bell's Crunchwrap. Oh, that's pretty good.
You were this close to offending two communities and Mother Earth herself, but pretty good. Next thing I'm going to try is an Aloo Tikki Twist. Tikki Twist sounds like a cocktail, but aloo tikki is actually, it's like mashed potato fried with breadcrumbs, and it's used in chaats.
It's used in a lot of other dishes. And they put these crispy shards of what seems to be the same material in the volcano! ["The X-Files" music] Illuminati confirmed. On to breakfasts! We got breakfast at the BK in the US. You can get an assortment of Croissan'wiches, biscuits, melts. I didn't get all of them. Starting down here.
A Croissan'wich, of course, for those of you not in America, is they took a croissant and stuffed eggs and cheese and your choice of breakfast meat. Bacon, egg, and cheese croissant. Sausage, egg, and cheese croissant.
Ham, egg, and cheese croissant. Bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. Sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit.
Ham, egg, and cheese biscuit. Cheesy ham breakfast melt. Sausage and cheese breakfast melt. Cheesy bacon breakfast melt.
And for both the Croissan'wiches and the biscuits, you can also get pretty much every combination of meat, egg, and cheese on said biscuit or Croissan'wich. Egg-normous burrito. Ah, no, no, no, no, no.
I am not starting off my morning with this. No, thank you. This looks like a dirty diaper. Like, what is any of this? I feel like if I bit this, like, one bite of this in the morning, and I'm on the toilet.
Get yourself two platters. Sausage and pancakes platter. And this one, I think, is, like, the platter deluxe. You get yourself pancakes, get yourself bacon, get yourself eggs, and, of course, syrup.
Next up, chicken wings. Burger King here sells boneless chicken wings. They feel like chicken tenders. They're super meaty. It's like proper chicken. It's not like that processed, nuggety chicken-juice thing that happens.
In the US, our Burger King has nuggets, and they come in four pieces and eight pieces. I asked the Burger King employees about the 16-piece, and they said they don't have a 16-piece. They just give you two eight-pieces.
Now it's time for Burger King India sides and sauces. No. 1, we have the classic peri-peri fries. They give it to you with a little sachet of the peri-peri powder and a little shake bag.
Pour it in there. Voilà! Your simple plain fries are now peri-peried. Hm. Go with McDonald's peri-peri fries. I'm sorry, Burger King. Too powdery. Almost chalky.
And the flavor is not quite there. [coughs] OK. Peri-peri fries has come back with a vengeance.
Fair enough. There is a bit of spice to it. Next up, cheesy fries. Italian cheesy fries. And I don't know what makes these Italian, but I think it's a whole lot of oregano.
And finally, veggie strips. Well, at the BK here in the US, you can get yourself onion rings. Jalapeño cheddar bites. See what one of these looks like. Mozzarella stick. Mott's applesauce.
Can't have nuggets without sauces! You know what that means! Sauce talk. As for the dips, we have Easy Cheesy. Twisted mustard. Fiery Hell.
They literally named one of their dips Fiery Hell. First up, Buffalo sauce. Honey mustard. Ranch. Sweet and sour. Zesty sauce? Do we know what this is? That is just mayonnaise and, like, brown mustard. Marinara sauce.
Salsa del Sol. It is milkshake time. Burger King has three flavors right now. They have mango, berry blast, and chocolate. Guys, at the time of filming this, it is currently mango season here in India.
None of you have tasted a real mango until you've tasted the king of all mangoes, Alphonso, available here. Everywhere you go right now, you're going to get a delicious mango milkshake. We also make something called aamras, which is like a delicious mango juice that we eat with puris and stuff. Let's see if this compares to fresh mango juice.
Oh, it's pretty good. It's not too sweet. It does kind of taste like mango ice cream sort of mixed. But I like it. I really like it. Next up, berry blast.
Paper straws. Burger King, thank you. The dolphins appreciate it just as much as I do. Whoa, I did not expect that flavor. Here, we have something called black currant ice cream that's rampant in very demented families that order the black currant ice cream.
I'm sorry to single out these Indian families like this, but this tastes like that. I'm sensing a pattern here. So it won't be a surprise to me if the chocolate milkshake also just tastes like watered-down chocolate ice cream. The mango one, I suppose if it wasn't mango season, you could go and get a mango milkshake, but otherwise, go to any other fruit or milkshake store in India, get a nice thick mango shake with actual mangoes. Way better.
On to the cold drinks. Let's start with the shakes. Over here, we have a frozen Coke. You can also get a frozen Fanta wild cherry. Sounds amazing. Our Burger King did not have it.
First one is this, the Oreo shake. Why is that so good? It's like a shake made out of the stuff in the middle. Brilliant idea. And you can also get chocolate Oreo shake. No, it's not. This one's better. But this one's very good. Desserts! I'm a sucker for desserts, but why would you order dessert from a fast-food place? Unless I'm going to be proven wrong.
First up, they have chocolate mousse cup. OK, it's got a little bit of cake at the bottom. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate at the top. Chocolate chips on the top. Too decadent. Very sweet.
Next up, they have a choco lava cup, keeping in theme with their random volcano-based food items. And I'm sure this would ooze out chocolate, but you have to heat it first. That is so sweet! When would I eat this? I'm trying to think of when I would eat something this sweet. Never. We have three dessert exclusives. The first one is this, the Hershey's sundae pie.
Chocolate chip cookies. A soft-serve cup or cone. Where is it, Joe? Well, it's roughly 100 degrees here in Southern California, and that thing would've melted into a soup before we even got it to the studio. Imagine either a soft-serve ice cream cone, or a melted soft-serve ice cream cone would be more accurate. As for cold drinks, we have Pepsi; Mountain Dew; Mirinda, which is an orange soda; and iced tea. All of these are under the PepsiCo range of products.
And, of course, in India, the Pepsi slogan is, "Har Ghoont Mein Swag," which means, "Every sip has a lot of swag." And I have to live with this cringe for the rest of my life now. Here in the US, we have obviously a variety of exclusive drinks you can't get in India. Coke. Dr. Pepper. Diet Coke.
There it is. Barq's, baby. Fanta orange. I should say that at least the BKs that I go to here in sunny Southern California has those Coke Freestyle machines, so. You can also get yourself an orange juice. It's really funny looking at orange juice next to orange drink. Like, look at the difference with it.
Orange juice. Orange drink. Capri Sun apple juice. Burger King iced coffee. The BK café, which is, of course, coffee. Milk. Let's talk price.
A single Indian chicken Whopper will cost you 199 rupees, or 1.56 US dollars at current conversion rates. In the US, a Whopper costs $8.79, or 668 Indian rupee.
That's around a 236% increase in price. Make it a meal with medium fries and a large drink, and it'll cost you 383 rupees, or 5.03 US dollars. Add a medium fry and a medium drink to the order, and that brings the price to $16.37, or 1,246 Indian rupee. Again, about a 225% increase.
Now upgrade to the large size, and it's 407 rupees, or 5.35 US dollars. Make it a large, $16.77, or 1,276 Indian rupee. That's a 214% increase.
200 rupees for a single burger is actually very expensive. And while fast food in the US and other foreign countries might seem like something that the average person can easily afford, here in India, this is expensive, and only the upper-middle class and the rich can actually go out and have a burger like this. In fact, in Mumbai, where we're filming this right now, our most popular street food is vada pav, which is like a potato burger, and it costs just 15 rupees, which is $0.20. It can fill you up.
Downgrade the cost. Upgrade the taste. Get a vada pav. To better illustrate the price difference, let's compare the US large Whopper combo to our combination of two Whoppers, two crispy chicken sandwiches, five-piece chicken strips, king fries, and four drinks. All of this still costs less, at just 1,102 rupees, or 14.45 US dollars. We would have to add a crispy veg with cheese and a crispy chicken with cheese to get around the same price.
But again, I have to remind you that in $14, an average family here in India could eat at home for a week. Calories time. My favorite part of these videos because I realize how much I should not be eating this food. Let's start off with a crispy chicken sandwich from Burger King.
Ahem. It has 430 calories. And in the US, our crispy chicken sandwich is 670 calories. Next up is one of Burger King India's most popular burgers, the veg Whopper, at 728 calories. Imagine that. High calories, low taste. We don't have that, but in the US, our Burger King does have the Impossible Whopper, which contains 630 calories.
Next, let's compare the fries. An average box of king-sized fries will cost you 535 calories. If I had to choose between these fries and an hour of cycling, that's very, like, probably skip the cycling. But this is still bad. It's a lot of calories. And in the US, a large fry has 430 calories.
And now, for some reason if you're really looking to pack on those calories, introducing Burger King India's most calorific sandwich, the masala veg Whopper, at a total of 734 calories. Damn! The website of Burger King India also says they sell a 15-piece grilled chicken wings, with a total of 1,256 calories. But we called a bunch of stores, it was unavailable, and I think they discontinued it because they did not want to kill half the country. Oh, yo! Yeah.
This is definitely a block of calories. And in the US BK, our most calorific sandwich is this, the Bacon King. Just one of these bad boys, 1,359 calories. Oof! God dammit. Brown on brown on brown. Brown on brown on brown!
Brown, brown, brown, brown, brown. Hey, you got to hand it to these fast-food companies, man. They make this shit look real appetizing for what is literally how many different shades of brown?
2022-08-30 06:22
