Fast food chain considering plant-based menus
The list of restaurants considering plant-based meat alternatives continues to grow.
america today
Burger King is beefing up its Whopper for the first time in 10 years.
The improvements come after the fast-food chain’s president, Tom Curtis, earlier this month encouraged customers to call or text to give feedback about their Burger King experience.
Some of those comments led to changes to Burger King’s flagship sandwich, the first in nearly a decade, the company said in a news release. According to the company, The Whopper is now a “more premium, better-tasting bun” and is “served in a box so it can be delivered straight from the kitchen to guests.”
The sandwich still comes with lettuce, pickles, onions, and tomatoes, and is topped with “more delicious mayonnaise.” According to Burger King, what is the goal? “From the bun to the toppings to the packaging, we deliver an even higher quality experience with perfect taste every time.”
The box resolves a complaint Burger King received regarding crushing the Whopper.
“Are you one of the people who asked me why my Whopper broke?” Curtis asks in a video posted to Instagram. “I think I have a solution.”
The change to the Whopper comes as fast food restaurants continue to offer value meals and larger burgers to satisfy consumers’ budgets and appetites. On March 3rd, McDonald’s will add the Big Arch, the largest hamburger ever, to its menu.
Last month, Burger King launched a double cheeseburger, fries and drink combo for $4.99 to go along with its $5 duo and $7 trio combos, and just brought back the Maple Bourbon BBQ Whopper to its menu.
“Over the past several years, we have focused on strengthening our operations and modernizing our restaurants to create a more consistent foundation across our systems,” Tom Curtis, president of Burger King U.S. and Canada, said in a news release. “That work is well underway, and we are now in a position to carefully improve our core menu. The Whopper is an icon, so we didn’t set out to reinvent it. Instead, we improved it based on direct feedback from our guests.”
AI comes to Burger Kingdom
Burger King also does the cooking. Burger King is rolling out an AI chatbot called BK Assistant to monitor whether employees are treating customers with courtesy.
Contributors: Kate Perez and Michelle Del Rey
Mike Snyder is a national trends news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, and X, and email him at: mike snyder & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
