Burger King jumping in...
 

Burger King goes bun-less, adds high-protein salads
From wire reports
NEW YORK — Burger King is joining the low-carbohydrate parade by offering bunless Whopper hamburgers and, soon, salads featuring steak, chicken and shrimp.
The bunless sandwiches, which will be available nationwide beginning Tuesday, will come in plastic salad bowls, with knife and fork.

Dieters also will be able to order Whopper meals that substitute salads for French fries and bottled water for soft drinks.

Burger King, the nation's No. 2 hamburger chain behind McDonald's (MCD), suggests that its restaurants charge the same for burgers with or without the bun. Because most of its stores are franchised, the company cannot mandate prices in them.

While bunless burgers will be available in all 8,000 U.S. restaurants immediately, the new salad line will debut in phases. Those featuring chicken and shrimp will roll out in February and March, but steak versions won't appear systemwide until May.

"It took us a little longer to get the quality we wanted," Russ Klein, Burger King's chief global marketing officer, said of the sirloin steak strips option.

Burger King's introduction of low-carb fare follows that of some competitors. CKE Restaurants (CKR) Hardee's and Carl's Jr. chains feature burgers wrapped in lettuce.

McDonald's restaurants in New York City have posters and brochures advising customers how they can lower their carbohydrate intake by modifying what they order. Wendy's International (WEN) has similar nutritional information posted on the Web.

Burger King also is debuting a Web site, www.haveityourway.com, that shows how many carbohydrates, calories and fat each meal component contains.

One Midwestern Burger King franchisee who asked not to be identified said customers had been coming into his restaurants for years ordering Whoppers without the buns, "so all we're doing is formalizing a process."

Burger King is owned by a group of investor firms, including Texas Pacific Group, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.

Privately held Burger King is trying to improve sales and reverse a 22% decline in customer traffic over the previous six years.

The menu changes reflects similar measures taken by McDonald's, which credits its meal-size salads with turning around sales at its struggling U.S. restaurants.

In the wake of the popular protein diet wave, Burger King continues efforts to capitalize on its fire-grilled image, setting itself apart from restaurants that fry meat.

By spring, Burger King will add a one-third pound Angus beefburger to its menu, in addition to the steak strip, shrimp and chicken strip salad offerings.

"We may not have been the first, but we feel like we're now clearly offering the preferred burger in the industry," both for meat lovers and low-carb dieters, said Russ Klein, the company's chief global marketing strategist.

Burger King added three low-fat chicken baguette choices to its menu in September, each containing less than five grams of fat.

Like McDonald's and Yum Brands (YUM), which operates the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains, Burger King faces growing competition from fast-casual chains that are responding to consumers' desire for fresher, healthier foods.

Burger King had $11.3 billion in systemwide sales in fiscal 2002.

I am a taco bell addict. . .COME ON TACO BELL! redawn:)

This is great news!!!

I sure wish that the media would quit calling it a "protein" diet. It makes it sound like all we eat is meat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just a pet peave of mine.

Wee

Oh wow. I am so happy to hear this!!

Hardees also makes a "thick burger" lettuce wrap. I had it a few weekends ago on a road trip and it was wonderful!

Bob Evans restaurants (Owens in some areas) has also jumped on the low carb wagon by offering "Protein Lovers " Breakfast plates. Basically it is just eggs with extra sides of sausage and bacon. I'm really not that impressed because DH and I have been ordering the low carb version of all their meals already and they have been very agreeable about helping us with our choices. In fact, the manager and three of the waitresses at our local Bob Evans is on the Atkins.

There will be more restaurants jumping in.........you just watch!! :yay:

I had the Carl's Jr version of this and it was heavenly.

I am looking forward to trying the new burger king menu! Sounds great for those days when you are out doing errands and don't want to spend a lot for lunch.

I agree let's see what Taco Bell can come up with. I was surprised to see the new product they just rolled out - it is a big ole stupid burrito thing with beans and rice and tortilla - I am kind of wondering what marketing exec is going to get axed over this! LOL Orchid

what about lowcarb pizzahut!!!! hopefully they intro some lowcarb super thin pizza crust :p

WE'RE TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!! (evil laugh)

If you have an O'Charley's in your area, I hear they have a low carb section now too, although I haven't been there yet to see if that's for real.

When TGIFridays got their official Atkins menu, a friend of mine predicted that no other chain resturants (not fast food) would get the Atkins Seal of Approval untill some significant amount of time had passed. This is because TGIFridays (probably should have) wanted exclusive rights to the market of Atkins friendly resturants. If they're going to spend money to print new menus and expand the menu selection, they probably demanded as part of the deal exclusive rights for a while to cover the costs.

Sounds like a sucky deal for us consumers... I'd like to see more resturants with Atkins friendly menu's.

I hate feeling like someone is making money off of me.

Does this make sense to anyone else?

agree, although it was the first time I tried to eat a lettuce burger, I was not very successful eating it like a regular burger

I hadn't heard anything about Burger King Yet. That is absolutely wonderful. I'm so excited.

I didn't know that!! I haven't been there for a few weeks, but I will definitely have to check it out! It's one of my favorite restaurants.....but oh, how I miss their rolls! sooooooo goooooood! lol

I just heard that PepsiCo is coming out with a low carb tortilla chip in Feb. It was on the business news. No details... Hope it is TRUE lc and not just reduced carb.

Cheers!
BrewWa