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Burger King Japan’s Cheeseburger Gelände — exceptional in taste, size and… paper napkins?

Katie Pask Feb 3, 2023
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Burger King’s latest offering leaves Mr. Sato stunned not once, not twice but three times!

If you’re looking for a fast food burger that comes in generous sizes in Japan, Burger King is probably your best bet. Time and time again, they’ve released burgers with an intimidating amount of meat sandwiched in them, and especially compared to their ‘esteemed rival’ McDonalds, the size of Burger King burgers is not to be sniffed at. Burger King’s latest offering, the Cheeseburger Gelände, is no different. It’s been sold in stores since January 27, with the slogan “so big, they tower over the world of cheeseburgers”.

Ski buffs/those who can speak German will already recognise the word gelände. Taken from the German word for terrain, it’s also used in skiing (for example, a gelände jump is a jump made from a crouching position when skiing downhill). In Japanese, gelände (or gerende, as it gets pronounced) refers to ski slopes in general, and Burger King’s Cheeseburger Geländes are meant to invoke the image of a snowy slope — just have a look for yourself!

The Cheeseburger Gelände comes in three varieties; the Double Cheese Gelände, (two huge chicken patties sandwiched together), the Chicken and Beef Gelände (a beef patty and chicken patty sandwiched together) and the Triple Beef Gelände (three beef patties). Each Cheeseburger Gelände contains six slices of Gouda cheese and is topped with a rich béchamel sauce, reminiscent of snow on the slopes.

Such daunting sounding burgers shouldn’t be attempted to be eaten by just anyone, so we sent the only man we could — Mr. Sato. After all, Mr. Sato may be the only man in the world to be able to claim to have taken on a Burger King burger with 1050 strips of bacon in it, or with 1000 slices of cheese. A man with such an impressive burger resume should find a Cheeseburger Gelände, despite Burger King’s lofty claims of it being king of the cheeseburger world, no problem at all.

▼ Compared to this monstrosity, the Cheeseburger Gelände should be a walk in the park.

There was no doubt that Burger King’s newest burgers were pretty gargantuan, but it wasn’t just the size of the burgers that was mind-blowing — it was the price, too. All of the below prices are the costs for just the burger, with sets costing extra.

▼ Double Cheese Gelände: 1,570 yen (US$12.05)

▼ Chicken and Beef Gelände: 1,570 yen

▼ Triple Beef Gelände: 1,890 yen

For comparison, Burger King’s signature Whopper burger costs 570 yen, and Burger King’s cheapest cheeseburger is just 270 yen, so these Cheeseburger Gelände are definitely a lot pricier than the chain’s normal fare, especially considering they’re fast food. But what else would you expect from something that claims to “tower over the world of cheeseburgers”?

Despite the hefty price tag, Mr. Sato was keen to try one out for himself. He decided to splurge and go for the Triple Beef Gelände set which, after substituting onion rings for French fries, cost him a whopping (no pun intended) 2,200 yen (US$16.89).

But as he opened the paper bag to inspect its contents, expecting to find a towering beast of a burger, he found something else instead, something equally impressive in its sheer volume —

▼ A huge wad of napkins.

In a world where we are constantly being told to be environmentally friendly and SDGs being known throughout Japan, Mr. Sato was pretty surprised to find 12 paper napkins were included in his set. What on earth would he need so many paper napkins for?

Even before it had been unwrapped, it was clear that the Triple Beef Gelände was pretty sizeable. Mr. Sato excitedly took off the wrapping to reveal…

▼ … the Triple Beef Gelände in all its beefy, cheesy glory!

Now this was a burger! Mr. Sato often hears his friends from abroad complaining that Japanese burgers are too small, but he was sure that even they wouldn’t be able to criticise this one. This was a huge burger!

Upon removing the top bun, Mr. Sato found a mountain of flame grilled beef and cheese all piled up on each other, with the béchamel sauce oozing down the sides — kind of like an avalanche on a ski slope.

After his initial inspection, Mr. Sato’s hands looked like this. He hadn’t even started eating his burger yet and he’d already made a mess. Good thing he had a paper napkin or twelve on standby.

Mr. Sato then split the burger in two to get a proper look at the cross section, which was a satisfying pattern of cheese-cheese-meat-cheese-meat-cheese-meat-cheese-cheese. It’s not entirely surprising to know that the Triple Beef Gelände contains a massive 1,263 calories, but Mr. Sato has eaten much, much unhealthier meals in the past, so we expect his body is just used to this kind of thing by now.

This cross sectional image of the Triple Beef Gelände is more proof of just how beefy this burger is, as the sheer weight and volume of the patties and cheese layers have caused the bottom bun to be smushed flat.

Once again, Mr. Sato’s hands were an absolute state, but at this point he was simply too eager to get stuck in to his mountain of a burger, and so took a bite. As expected, the burger was deliciously beefy and delightfully cheesy, and also definitely required the use of all twelve of the paper napkins to wipe clean with afterwards.

So in the end, Mr. Sato concluded that the Cheeseburger Gelände burgers have every right to claim that they “tower over the world of cheeseburgers”; not just for their sheer size, but their price, and also number of paper napkins needed, too.

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