Burger King offers bunless Whoppers, low-carb meat salads
Dow Jones Newswires, 1/13/2004

Burger King Corp. 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, 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 Inc.'s Hardee's and Carl's Jr. chains feature burgers wrapped in lettuce.

McDonald's Corp. 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 Inc. 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 that customers had been coming into his restaurants for years ordering Whoppers without the buns, "so all we're doing is formalizing a process."

Way to go Fred!! I started the low carb thing last week...damn I wish I could have some fries!!

You eat out more than once a week dont you?

been on Atkins for a while

lost 20 lbs and trying to maintain

i fluctuate by 5lbs but been a good thing

it is a change of lifestyle

I don't eat fast food all that often, but I do love the spicy chicken sand. at Wendys. Unless of course I happen to be traveling and there is an In-n-Out burger in the area, you just can't say no to that!!


Trout~ We don't have Hardees or Sonic's (the burger joint that is... ) up here in the Boston area, but I hear they are pretty good, as far as fast food goes.

Yes I'm in the process of losing weight too. I have to tell you that I have lost 11-lbs and you really do feel better. Also the best part is that I won't have to run the starboard trim tab as deep as I use too.

Roby

You guys are going to kill me here but subways new low carb wraps are really good.

YES I SAID SUBWAY OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amen to that!

BK has salad?

We have been "re imaging" a bunch of McDonald's lately. They are really stepping up the decor of them, getting away from the generic look. Many of them are theme stores: golfing, surfing,rock n roll etc. A number of them are also installing the "Panini Bar" which is selling higher priced "yuppie food".