Instagram | @burgerking

NYC Burger King Caught Passing Off Real Beef Burgers As 'Impossible Whoppers'

Updated September 8, 2021

It's not totally uncommon to place an order at a fast food restaurant and later discover the workers had made a mistake or two while delivering your food, like adding pickles to your burger or forgetting you wanted Diet Coke instead of regular. These mistakes are a little annoying, but overall they aren't that big of a deal. After all, mistakes happen.

But when you're given the completely wrong order on purpose, that's when you're entitled to be a little more upset, especially if it leads to you eating something you normally wouldn't, like real beef.

One Burger King restaurant in Brooklyn advertised that they had the "Impossible Whopper" for sale on the food delivery app, Seamless.

Instagram | @isaac_j_s

According to Eater New York, this particular chain even once listed the burger as the most popular item on their menu.

This burger is definitely unique because it's plant-based and entirely meatless.

Instagram | @indulge_mia

Before, anyone who didn't eat meat might have a hard time finding something substantial to order from fast food restaurants. French Fries are probably a popular go-to, or meatless salads, or maybe even a burger without the patty...so basically just some cheese and lettuce between a bun. Delicious.

But the "Impossible Whopper" lets customers enjoy the great, meaty taste of a burger without having to sacrifice their desire to go without eating animals.

Advertisements tell customers they won't be able to tell the difference between the real meat burger and the "Impossible" burger.

So, when one vegetarian customer of this Brooklyn restaurant bit into a burger advertised as meatless, he simply believed it was this undetectable difference he was tasting rather than real meat. Enjoying the taste, he ordered a second burger through the app.

It wasn't until after he'd eaten two that the unnamed customer realized he'd been duped.

Instagram | @j326ff

He had later physically gone to the actual restaurant to order the delicious burger again, only to be told they didn't sell the "Impossible Whopper" at that location.

“I was incredulous,” he says. “It’s maybe 20 percent poisoning. This is a city where there are a lot of reasons why people don’t eat [meat], from religion to health to ethics.”

As it turns out, the restaurant had been sending customers who order meatless burgers through the app real beef Whoppers instead.

According to the location's manager, Seamless drivers were instructed to tell customers of the swap once they were handed their food. But drivers hadn't been doing so, leading to many customers eating real Whoppers they believed contained no meat. Even their receipts said they had ordered the "Impossible Whopper" rather than the real one.

The "Impossible Whopper" has since been taking off the location's menu through the Seamless app.

A Burger King representative told Eater that the burger was likely mistakenly offered through the app because of a "technology error" from a franchisee.

So, it doesn't seem like there were any malicious efforts on the specific location's part to feed their vegetarian-preferring customers real meat, which is good to know. But I'm sure it's still pretty shocking for those people to find out their delicious "I-can't-believe-it's-not-meat" meal turned out to be actual beef, and they'll probably hold off on purchasing any other meatless products for a while, just to be on the safe side.

h/t: Eater New York

Filed Under: