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Burger King Japan’s new Ninniku Garlic Burger does not live up to the hype

Oona McGee Nov 22, 2023
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We want our money back.

On 10 November, Burger King introduced a new limited-edition item to its menu — the Ninniku Garlic Burger. With “ninniku” being the Japanese word for “garlic”, this burger promised to deliver a pungent punch to the taste buds, but when our garlic-loving reporter P.K. Sanjun tried it, he was left wanting his money back.

Granted, he should’ve known not to get his hopes up, following his recent disappointment with the chain’s Tom Yum Shrimp Whopper, but it couldn’t be helped after he read the tantalising advertising blurb from the chain.

“A limited-time burger that combines a juicy flame-grilled 100-percent beef patty with a special chilli garlic sauce containing a whopping three types of garlic (garlic paste, fried garlic, and garlic powder) that’s so delicious it’ll blow you away.”

Just reading about the special chilli garlic sauce made P.K.’s stomach grumble with desire so he headed out to Burger King to try it straight away. Available in four sizes: Double Large (1,040 yen), Single Large (640 yen), Double Small (540 yen), and Single Small (340 yen), P.K. opted for the Double Large, which was the same size as a Double Whopper with Cheese.

As soon as he received his burger, he realised it wasn’t just the same size as a Double Whopper with Cheese — it looked like one too, just without the lettuce, onions and tomato.

▼ P.K. figured that without any vegetables in the mix, the sauce would be able to stand out stronger on the palate.

P.K. opened his mouth wide to get a good bite of the burger, and his taste buds were immediately hit by the strong flavour of garlic. Being the connoisseur he is, though, P.K. knew that the real test would be after the second bite, once his palate had become accustomed to the flavour. If he was able to still taste the garlic after the first or second bite, this would be a very good burger.

However, P.K. is sad to say that after the initial hit of garlic in his first mouthful, he couldn’t taste much of it after that. As a regular cheeseburger, it was delicious, but as a garlic burger, it left him feeling rather underwhelmed.

Still, in the name of thorough reporting, P.K. was prepared to give it one last chance with a sniff test. After all, people don’t usually sense garlic in their system as much as others do, so he enlisted colleague Seiji Nakazawa to sniff the area around his mouth to see if he could tell what he’d just eaten.

▼ “I can’t smell anything.”

Seiji had no idea what P.K. had just eaten, which, in P.K.’s eyes, was a big fail for something with three types of garlic in it. So, in the end, the Ninniku Garlic Burger turned out to be a dud for our reporter.

If you like to feel like you’ve been punched in the mouth with something that would make Dracula himself keel over, you’re better off trying this trauma curry instead.

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[ Read in Japanese ]