We Tried The Meatless Burgers And Nuggets Coming To Restaurants Near You

The meatless movement is on the rise.

Sales of meat alternatives in the US rose to $553 million in 2012, up from $513 million two years earlier, according to market-research firm Mintel.

Meanwhile, Americans' per capita consumption of meat and poultry has declined more than 9%, from 221.6 pounds in 2007 to an estimated 200.8 pounds this year, according to the USDA.

Dozens of well-financed startups are battling each other to capture America's growing population of plant protein-seekers, including Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods and Hampton Creek, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

One of the brands at the head of the pack is five-year-old Gardein, which is based out of Canada.

Gardein expects to generate retail sales of $100 million this year, the company's founder and president, Yves Potvin, told Business Insider. That makes it one of the top five meatless brands in the country, according to sales estimates by Mintel.

The company's meatless meatballs, beefless tips, chick'n tenders and two dozen other products are sold at roughly 22,000 grocery stores and restaurants across the country. Gardein's products are also served in the cafeterias of more than 70 college campuses and at the corporate headquarters of Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft and AOL.

"Restaurants is one of the fastest growing segments for us," Potvin said, noting that Gardein expects to double foodservice sales next year.

More than a dozen Gardein products are offered at Yard House, a chain of 60 restaurants owned by Olive Garden parent company Darden Restaurants, and Lyfe Kitchen, a fast-growing chain launched by two former McDonald's executives.

The diner chain Johnny Rockets, which has 300 locations around the world, just launched a test menu with Gardein products and the company is also in talks with Chili's, which has more than 1,500 restaurants, Potvin said.

Surprisingly, vegetarians and vegans don't make up a majority of Gardein's consumers. Most of the company's consumers describe themselves as flexitarians, which means they eat a primarily plant-based diet supplemented by occasional meat consumption.

"Many people are just incorporating Gardein into their diets to diversify their protein," Potvin said.

For the purposes of this story, I tried some of Gardein's newest offerings from the frozen aisle. I'm a meat eater and I don't typically eat frozen foods so I didn't have very high expectations.

I ate the Beefless Sliders, the 7-Grain Crispy Chick'n Tenders, and the Golden Fishless Filets.

Here's a look at the chick'n tenders (left) and the fishless filets (right).

After more than 20 minutes in the oven, the tenders and filets were hot and crispy. I took a bite of each and was shocked at how closely they mimicked the taste and texture of chicken and fish.

Here's a close-up of the fishless filets.

After a couple more bites, the filets and tenders started to taste pretty similar to one another, however, and the chicken tenders started to dry out too much. They were much better with some ketchup.

In the future, I would add the filets and tenders to a salad instead of eating them alone.

I was more impressed by the beefless sliders.

Here's a look at the sliders after they have been warmed in a microwave.

They don't look particularly appetizing, but they tasted great.

I could taste onions and seasoning and again, the texture was surprisingly close to meat.

I also liked that I could pronounce all the ingredients listed on the back of every package.

The calorie counts and sodium levels are pretty reasonable, as well.

Every two tenders, for example, is 100 calories and contains 240 milligrams of sodium and 8 grams of protein.