If you live in the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill), you have likely read about Beyond Meat being available at Hardees. If you watch TV, you have likely seen the commercial with the farmer that explains that Beyond Meat is actually better tasting than their normal Angus beef. So, just how good is the Beyond Meat burger at Hardees.
The Hardees closest to me is the Hardees on 54 in Chapel Hill just as you get off exit 273. This Hardees can be a pain in the neck to get into, but once you have tried their Beyond Meat burger, you will fight the traffic to get there.
When ordering the Beyond Meat burger, the menu says they can substitute Beyond Meat on any burger. I tried to get the #7 which is the 1/4 pound burger but it was explained to me they only have Beyond Meat patties in 1/3 pound, which is the #1. It really isn’t that big of a difference. You will have to pay the extra $2 for the Beyond Meat, but it is well worth it in my opinion.
When you first bite into the Beyond Meat burger from Hardees you will think you are eating an actual hamburger. Let me be clear, it is not a veggie burger or an Impossible Burger. It definitely has the “bloody” taste and texture that comes with ground beef. There is a hint of firmness to the meat that you wouldn’t normally get with a normal hamburger from Hardees or McDonald’s but most people would never know the difference.
In fact, I asked one of my guy friends to attempt to taste test the difference in a Beyond Meat burger and a normal Angus beef burger at Hardees. He couldn’t tell the difference. This is a guy who has been eating burgers for over 35 years and he couldn’t tell that Beyond Meat was not hamburger meat.
Overall, I think the Beyond Meat burger at Hardees is wonderful. If you want the “bloody” texture and taste, Beyond Meat is definitely more of that than the Impossible Burger. I do eat the Impossible Burger from Only Burger in Durham about once a week so I will have to do a review on that in the near future. There is also a Burger King just down the road on 54 so I can get an Impossible Burger there, but I prefer to go to the Only Burger just because it is a better atmosphere.