Vanbrosia: A & W / Burger King / McDonald's

September 9, 2014

Brief Note from J

I have been meaning to compare the fast food joints for a while, and thanks to the prompting from pinky&brain on my KFC post, I decided to compare a burger from each of the A & W, Burger King & McDonald's locations in downtown Vancouver (they are about 1 min apart). I was surprised at my favorite!

The three bags

Of course I couldn't just review the burgers... I had to try out the fries too for *ahem* a thorough journalistic coverage. Funny, the A & W burger looks the least substantial, but size-wise, the A & W fries take the cake here. I got the smallest sizes available at each location to er, cut down on calories.

The three burgers side by side comparison
(Burger King's definitely wins in the bun size category)

And the winner of the fries fight is...

A & W

A & W's fries were slightly soft, not crisp, but I like them that way; they also tasted like they were freshly cut and then fried.

Burger King's was the runner-up, but it wasn't close by any means. If anything, it was closer to last place w McDonald's. These were plumper fries than McD's, but had the same dry, no flavor (strangely, both BK & McD's fries weren't too salty this time around, they're usually too salty for me), processed texture. Actually, I thought they were slightly stale. No contest here.

The real burger winner

A & W: Mama burger w cheese - 2

J's comment > not bad; definitely the winner of the burger battle (man, I'm just owning this alliteration thing!); bun was soft and held all the fillings nicely; loved the mayo and cheese (had to ask for the cheese, it usually comes without) that gave it the extra 'oomph'; patty was slightly dry on its own, but compared to the other two burgers, a much better alternative

McDonald's: Quarter pounder w cheese - 2

J's comment > really heavy; bun also soft, but a tad firmer than A & W's; patty was dry, and honestly, without the cheese, I'd say it was exactly the same as BK's below except that McD's quarter pounder patty is a tad thicker

Burger King: Whopper - 2

J's comment > I didn't know the whopper didn't come w cheese! So there was no cheese in this burger, but to 'make up' for it, the BK burger definitely had more bun, veggies (actually, it's the only burger w lettuce and tomato); there was way too much bun to patty ratio, in fact, I pulled out both the McD's and BK's patties to measure and the BK's patty was thinner than the Quareter Pounder patty; other than size, both patties were the same to me - forgettable

Extra Comment

Wow! I would have thought McD's was a sure win as the Quarter Pounder w Cheese has been my all-time fav since I was a kid. But very good to know that A & W now takes the crown in both the burger and fries department. At least for this round... next up, Wendy's, Five Guys & Fatburger!

A & W Menu