- We tried everything on the UK and US Burger King menus to find out the big differences between the two.
- While the two
fast food chains look similar on the surface there were huge differences between the sizes, calories, and ingredients.
Following is a transcript of the
- Harry Kersh: From calorie count to portion sizes, we wanted to find out all the differences between Burger King in the US and the UK. This is "
Joe Avella: This is a US small.
Harry: We have a regular, which is 400 milliliters.
Joe: This is a US medium.
Harry: And we have a large.
Joe: And here [groans] is a US large. Burger King.
Harry: Now, in the UK, we have three sizes of fries, small, regular, and large.
Joe: Here's a Burger King small fry. Here's a Burger King medium fry. And a Burger King large fry.
Harry: So, of the three sizes of fries that we were given, I'm actually not sure which one is the regular and which one is the small, because these two kinda look identical. We're going to weigh them all. We're gonna start with this orange-bottomed bag. 80... 88 grams. Now we're gonna weigh the slightly darker orange bag and see which size this is. So, there's only a 5-gram difference, but this one is the small. So, a large fries in the UK looks like it's around 180 grams, which is double the regular. [beep] I broke the scale. [laughs] We're actually having some concerns about the sizes of the fries in the UK, because our measurements showed that the lighter orange bag actually contains more fries than the darker orange bag. However, when lined up very scientifically like this, what we'll actually see is that the bag sizes go up in that color order instead. So I think what's happened here is that our small was actually bigger than our regular.
Joe: Wow, a lot of fry drama over there in the UK. As you can see from our sizes, it's pretty obvious what the small, medium, and large is, but, of course, we're still gonna weigh them. So let's start with the small fry. Yep. Boom. Rogue fry. And now the medium fry. You're making a face. I don't like that face. It's like... yeah, it's pretty similar. I know how we will solve this, but not... not that way. Over here. Burger King is in the hot seat, baby! Burger King's in the hot seat! Large fries. So, I'm gonna do something really tedious and boring. Two, three, four, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22.... 35 regulars, 10 kind of broken-up ones. One, two.... 34 and 18, but then a lot of smaller ones.
Producer: Arguably more than the medium.
Joe: Whoa! That's pretty cold, Burger King. That is pretty cold. Don't act like you're surprised by this. And I know what they're gonna say. They're gonna be like, "Well, everyone who scoops is different." OK, but our scooper here and their scooper in the UK made a similar error. Hmm. Suspicious, right? Frygate 2020!
Harry: So, this is a Whopper in the UK. No, it's not, that's a Halloumi King. Is this the Whopper? Have they forgotten the f---ing Whoppers? Burger King! So, what we're going to do is weigh a Whopper and see how much a Whopper weighs in the UK. [burger thuds]
Joe: All right, let's take a look at the US Whopper. First thing I'm gonna do, I'm gonna weigh it. Oh, yeah. That's a Whopper. Booyah. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, gotta be scientific about it.
Harry: In the UK, you can get Burger King's chicken fries in three sizes. A six-piece box, a nine-piece box, or if you're really hungry, a 20-piece box.
Joe: In the US, according to the Burger King website, they have three sizes of chicken fries. We went to, like, five Burger Kings. Two. And both of them said that they only have one size, the nine-piece chicken fries. I don't know why that is. And after Burger King Frygate 2020, I'm gonna count these. There's nine.
Harry: So, what about calories? Well, for example, a large Whopper meal, the Whopper itself is 627 calories, a 180-gram serving of large fries would be 437 calories, and a large Coke would be 209 calories. That brings the total of a large Whopper meal in the UK to 1,273 calories.
Joe: And in the US Burger King, the Whopper meal comes in at a hefty 1,600 calories. That is an increase of about 378 calories, or roughly 30%. However, there are ways to bring the calorie count down. For example, if you get the Whopper without mayo, you save yourself about 157 calories, taking the Whopper down to, like, 503. The drink is a major culprit. If you get a sugar-free soda like a Diet Coke, you immediately save yourself 510 calories. So with these minor adjustments, you can get a large Whopper meal for about 933 calories.
Harry: Now, for whatever reason, the mayo in the UK only comes to 6 calories. So I'm not sure what you guys are putting in your mayo. Now, in the UK, a bacon double cheeseburger comes in at 430 calories.
Joe: And our bacon double cheeseburger in the US only has 404 calories. Now, this has to be a "Food Wars" first, where something in the US has less calories than something in the UK. I do wanna point out, our bacon double cheeseburger does not come with mayo, so I think that might be the calorie culprit.
Harry: So we finally found something that's less calorific in the US than the UK. Congrats, guys.
Joe: Error 404, mayo not found. That's funny. Like, just put that on the screen there like an error code.
Harry: Here are some things that you can only get at a UK Burger King. So, here we have the veggie bean burger, which, you get these two fried bean patties with some lettuce, some mayo, and some cheese. Here we have the Halloumi King, which is kind of exciting. It comes with lettuce, mayo, onions, tomato, and then these two fried pieces of halloumi. They also offer that with bacon, which seems slightly counterproductive if you're a vegetarian, but pretty delicious if you're not.
Joe: Hey, Siri? [Siri beeps] What is halloumi? Siri: "Halloumi or haloumi is a semi-hard, unripened, brined cheese made from a mixture of goat's and sheep's milk, and sometimes also cow's milk." Do you want me to keep reading? [beeps] Joe: Yes. Siri: [beeps] "It has a high melting point and so can easily be fried or grilled. This property makes it a popular meat substitute. Rennet is used to curdle the milk in halloumi production, although no acid-producing bacteria are used in its preparation." Joe: Huh, thanks. I don't want that.
Harry: In the back here, we have a Chicken Royale with bacon, which is a longer chicken patty that's fried. Comes with lettuce, bacon, and cheese and mayo. To round out the
Joe: I'm furious we don't have those. That is ridiculous. How did they have the jalapeño chicken fries and we don't? That is ridiculous.
Harry: So, on top of what I've got in front of me, there are also a lot of exclusives that we have in the UK, which I'll read for you now. The steakhouse Angus, classic cheese melt, a barbecue double melt, a chili cheese melt, the Roadhouse Crispy Chicken sandwich, the Crispy Bacon King, a Rebel Whopper, mac 'n' cheese bites, chili cheese bites, apple slices, a Breakfast King, a range of breakfast sandwiches including a bacon butty and a sausage butty, porridge, and an Oreo Fusion, which is like an ice cream with some Oreos in it. It has to be said that Burger King isn't the friendliest place for vegetarians. They have some kind of vegetarian options, like the Halloumi King or the Rebel Whopper, but unfortunately these are actually cooked in the same oil and on the same grills as the meat. So it's not 100% vegetarian.
Joe: Here is everything that is exclusive to the Burger King in the United States. I'm just gonna start here. Impossible Whopper. Even when we're trying to be healthy, we still managed to figure out a way to be unhealthy. There's stuff in our Impossible meat that has not been approved in the UK yet. Crispy taco, here in Burger King USA only. I don't know why there's tacos at Burger King. I don't know who's getting a taco at Burger King. That's ridiculous. Crispy. The Stacker. Ooh, bacon. The Double Stacker. These things are so heavy. This is so much. Now, from my understanding, what separates the Stacker from the bacon double cheeseburger is these are quarter-pound patties, and also there's some sort of Stacker sauce on here. Special Stacker sauce. Spicy crispy chicken sandwich. The barbecue bacon crispy chicken sandwich. Spicy chicken sandwich junior. For the little guys! You can also get an order of mozzarella sticks, four, with marinara in there. Applesauce. Oh, yeah, breakfast. Oh, good Lord. All right. So, you get pancakes and of course syrup. And of course we're gonna do a syrup pour. Wouldn't be a "Food Wars" episode without me pouring something on something else. Oh, OK. Ah! [spits] Ooh, yo! You like that? You like that how that looks? Damn. Ah, yes, the Croissan'wich. So, as you can see, what a Croissan'wich is, is a breakfast sandwich where a croissant is the buns. How's it look? Look good? And also, similar to McDonald's, breakfast sandwiches. They also have breakfast biscuits, also sausage, egg, and cheese. And then last, the US Burger King breakfast burrito. Let's open it up. Let's take a look inside! What do they got there? They got a egg, got sausage. Oh, they got potato in here! OK. I wouldn't, I would not get this, but good for them. Good effort. Last but not least, you can also get yourself a Hershey's sundae chocolate pie. Oh, look at that. Look at that! Oh, man, I just wanna jump into that.
Harry: Meaty.