For a long time, I have felt like the only vegan in the world who hadn’t tried either the Beyond Meat or the Impossible Burger. There has been so much buzz about them, but I’d never seen them in a supermarket or in a restaurant…until the last few months, when they finally started popping up on a few menus in Prague.
Burrito Loco is a Mexican fast food chain in Prague which is open 24/7 and is very good at labelling its vegan options. It seems like you’re never more than a 10 minute walk from a branch of Burrito Loco, making it a really solid option for emergencies. Besides picking up a vegan burrito en route home from a late flight occasionally, it’s not really a place I visit much. But Dr HH and I needed a quick bite one evening and decided to give the Beyond Meat burger a try at last, as they were advertising it fairly prominently outside (and inside) our local branch.
Rather worryingly, the menu listed it as “Guacamole free”, which had us wondering if the guacamole was included at no extra charge, or if there was no guacamole to be found (happily, it was the former). We also got a choice of salsa (mild, medium, spicy) and some standard salad thrown in there as well, plus some crisps and coleslaw on the side.
The burger was interesting – it was pretty much as I’d expected from the reviews: good meaty texture and taste. It was definitely one of the more convincing vegan burgers I’ve tried, but not necessarily one of the tastiest – I might even have preferred the M&S version. I feel like this one is ultimately designed with the meat eater as the target customer, not people who are already vegan. It seems to be doing its job in at least piquing the curiosity of enough meat eaters to get them to choose the vegan option more frequently, so bravo for that! I won’t be going out of my way to have it regularly, but I’m pleased it’s out there in the world!
What’s your take on these new, mega meaty vegan burgers? Which is your favourite?
Herbivores' Heaven 
I am honestly surprised how much meat eaters are actually eating these burgers! It kind-of makes me happy, and kind-of annoys me lol. But I always been the person to be like “I rather have some change, because then it becomes more normal for the next generation”
I tried the Beyond Burger not very long after I went vegan and it was so good to me back then I literally teared up. It was pricey, but worth it to me at that time, because it was comforting and reassuring as I was drastically changing my diet (I went to vegan from omnivore, not vegetarian). As I got used to my new vegan food, though, the Beyond Burger was no longer my favorite, though I will definitely get them for omnivores to try because they usually really like them. These days, I find the Impossible Burger’s availability so many places makes life easier, but it’s not exactly my favorite thing–better, in my opinion, than the Beyond Burger, though that’s ironic because I think the Beyond Burger is more convincingly like meat.
I now love the Gardein beefless burger patties best of all for a burger, and their beefless tips for beef substitutes in general. Meanwhile, I am really distraught that Beyond Meat stopped making Beyond Chicken, because THAT stuff was ambrosia.
Mock chicken is the stuff of my dreams, so I’m sorry I never got a chance to try that! We get a few Gardein products in Prague, and I’m a fan, though I mostly just stick to the fish fillets and need to branch out a bit.
I tried the Beyond Meat burger once and really disliked it. I found the taste to be quite weird. My partner explained to me that that was the taste of meat (I wouldn’t have recognized it after almost 20 years of not eating meat!). The hot dogs are better though, in my opinion.
Ah, I haven’t seen the hot dogs yet – I’ll keep an eye out!