Burger King India - truly king size!

An invite for a pre-launch tasting session of a well known US-based QSR(Quick Service Restaurant) brand and I couldn't resist the lure of tasting some good burgers by none other than Burger King!

One might think, how does it make a difference if we have 3 brands or 4 brands serving us burgers? Well to answer that, one has to try out the whoppers at Burger King(whoppers literally!) and the mutton whopper in particular. More on these later, Let me soak in the ambiance first. They have done a decent job on the aesthetics, their main attraction being the hanging lights. Do I like it? Yes, quite so. They have not done anything jazzy with the place and the other most visible aspect is the larger than life burger pictures adorning the walls.

The food was impressive both to look at and taste! I was definitely impressed by the Cheesy chicken fries. The taste of minced chicken(keema) added to cheesy fries was just yum.

The staff was quite enthusiastic and gave us not a single opportunity to fret on service. Hope they keep up this enthusiasm! We were also informed that an average order would be complete in just about 2-3 minutes. If that ain't fast enough, then nothing is!

It was time for the whoppers to make their entry.The burgers were distinctively bigger in size and they were not being a miser either with the patty size too. We were told that Burger King India is using flame grilling techniques for the grilled patty burgers, apart from the deep frying techniques which is commonplace. This definitely gives them an edge over their competition as I have seldom seen anybody using flame grill in a QSR place. The grilled chicken indeed tasted quite delicious and with a prominent smoky flavor. Another unique aspect of it was that the whole patty constituted of chicken only and no additives(e.g., flour etc added to make patties generally). 

Burger King did have so many things which I hadn't seen in a while at many other places. They did have a mutton burger! How surprising and pleasing at the same time! A grilled mutton burger came my way and I was bowled over by its simplicity and taste. The mutton patty was truly succulent, well cooked yet tender. Like the chicken patty, this also was a patty of pure mutton and tasted really great when grilled. The burger was quite simple in itself, with just the mutton patty, tomatoes, onions, lettuce and mayo. For some reasons, there was excess mayo on my burger that partially overshadowed the taste of mutton. So I did a trick which I do most of the times - have an open burger by removing the top of the bun and scraping out excess mayo. We were treated to a double patty burger as well and all I can say is, if you had fun eating a single patty grilled mutton burger, you fun will double!

The crunch chicken keema burgers stood up to their name. Smaller in size when compared to the regular burgers, they had a very simple filling of keema patty and mayo and each bite was indeed a crunchy affair.

Medha Salvi, VP Marketing at Burger King India explaining about the brand and its offerings at Hyderabad.

A very interesting sides was the fiery rings. Quite akin to beer battered onion rings except there were no onion rings inside. Made spicy to suite Indian palate, made affordable to suit your wallet - palate and wallet - rhyming isn't it? The ring were thick enough and were slightly crunchy on the outside. I however felt there were a bit of inconsistency issues with the batches. The first batch was fried perfectly but lacked the spiciness advertised, the second batch was spicy enough but slightly under-cooked inside. Nevertheless, they were quite decent enough and I am sure I will get these whenever I visit next.

The chillers weren't exactly to my liking. They were quite average and I wouldn't think of spending on these on a regular basis. The icecream shakes were much better. Though a creamy lot, I liked the chocolate ice-cream shake more than the strawberry and other flavors.

It isn't exactly a meat fest at Burger King and the vegetarians can rejoice. They have almost an equal number of varieties to choose from, including the whoppers and the king melts and the extra long burgers. The veg versions tasted good and I would say they are comparable to the non-veg ones.

Pacman enjoys his bite! (food styling credit - yours truly)

The 180 deg desserts came to us in inverted cups literally. They claim these can stay inverted for just over a minute without falling down! Interesting indeed! There were two versions -Oreo and Cadbury's gems. I would say they were okay, especially the gems one. They can catch a kid's attention, but not really under my radar for now.

I can frankly say I liked their menu much more than what McD and KFC have to offer. But I would like to keep my fingers crossed for a little while. Consistency is a big issue with newly launched branded QSRs, but I am hoping that Burger King would steer clear off that area and serve some great grilled burgers at great prices. All the best Burger King Hyderabad!

#BurgerKingIndia # Pre-LaunchTasting #BKGrilledBurgers #BKWhoppers