Burger King: Is the Upgraded Whopper Good?

Michael Ornelas (0:00)

Burger King advertises that we can have it our way, but what if the way we want it is to eat somewhere else?

Having recently upgraded the Whopper, Burger King is currently writing a self-congratulatory wave of satisfaction after their CEO dunked on the head of McDonald's with his willingness to eat his own product with palpable enthusiasm. Personally, I've had a complicated relationship with Burger King in that every year or two, I remember it exists and regrettably caved to nostalgia. It's never going to be as good as it was before I'd been exposed to better burgers, but hey, at least I got a cardboard hat out of it. This week, we hit up the Burger King seen next to Doc Brown's Garage in Back to the Future and went nuts on Whopper's Crown-shaped Chicken Nuggets and the legendary Hershey's Sundae Pie.

Does Burger King have a shot at eliminating BurgerFi from the Septemburger 2026 tournament this week? By the end of this episode, we'll have our answer. Stay tuned. This is the Fine Dining Podcast.

Andrew Carter (2:21)

We are the I never put that together.

Michael Ornelas (2:23)

What's funny is the date that they time traveled to.

Andrew Carter (2:27)

That's Back to the Future Day, is October 21st, 2015, I think.

Michael Ornelas (2:31)

So, that day, a bunch of people gathered at that Burger King, and they closed for the day.

Andrew Carter (2:38)

That's funny.

Michael Ornelas (2:39)

Like, they ran away from their responsibility.

Andrew Carter (2:42)

Wow, that's amazing.

Michael Ornelas (2:43)

Hello, and welcome to the Fine Dining Podcast, the quest to compare all restaurants to Chili's. I am your host, Michael Ornelas, and this is week two of the September 26th tournament. Burger King will put the whopper up against the BurgerFi hamburger that I reviewed last week to see who can advance to the semifinals. I'm joined this week by a director and writer who I met doing studio tours at Paramount Studios almost a decade ago.

He's hilarious. His hips don't lie. And he's the human equivalent of the excitement you get when a band comes out for an encore after a concert that you knew was coming because they didn't play their biggest hit yet. It's Andrew Carter.

Andrew Carter (3:20)

It's a very nice intro. Thank you.

Michael Ornelas (3:22)

Yeah.

Andrew Carter (3:23)

I'm not sure if I fully will live up to that, but that's very, very kind.

Michael Ornelas (3:28)

To being the human feeling of an encore?

Andrew Carter (3:30)

That's a very nice description. That's wow.

Michael Ornelas (3:32)

How are you doing?

Andrew Carter (3:33)

I'm good, man.

I'm doing well.

A little tired. We were just traveling with our two and a half year old to Connecticut to see my family, and we just got back. And the three hour jet lag is actually, I think, harder than like an eight hour one, because it's like just enough.

Michael Ornelas (3:48)

It's like just so slight that you're like, I want to try and keep my schedule.

Andrew Carter (3:51)

I want to try and keep my schedule. I want to try and sleep a little more. But our baby has always been a relatively early riser.

Michael Ornelas (3:59)

Speaking of your household, your family, you told me that Burger King has a very special place in the zeitgeist of your home.

Andrew Carter (4:08)

A little bit. Yeah. If Zoe and I are discussing dinner plans and we don't have a plan yet, or if something's not cooked or we're figuring it out, I'll just very deadpan, like, so what do you think for dinner tonight, Burger King? Just throw it out every once in a while and she'll come back with that, maybe Long John Silver's, it's like a running bit of like.

Michael Ornelas (4:30)

One of my worst places.

Andrew Carter (4:31)

Oh my, dude, where is there one.

Michael Ornelas (4:33)

Baker's Field. Baker's Field. I did a road trip to have one of the worst meals.

Andrew Carter (4:38)

Wow.

Michael Ornelas (4:38)

It was bad.

Andrew Carter (4:40)

I'm not surprised. And then I just had it a lot when I was a kid. My dad and I would go after soccer practice, and we would call them out together lunches, where we would go to Burger King or McDonald's or Taco Bell. And this will come back later in our reviews of the food, but he would eat with me.

So it leads me to believe that it was not that bad.

Michael Ornelas (5:05)

I love the idea that not only did my dad take me to Burger King, he ate it too.

Andrew Carter (5:11)