Restaurant Review: White Castle (Impossible Sliders and Veggie Sliders)
White Castle is test marketing vegan sliders made from the Impossible Burger, so of course I had to convince one of my friends to take a mini road trip to try them out!
French fries are the staple for stranded vegans everywhere (though you have to keep an eye on people like McDonald's who put beef in their fries). I liked the crinkle cut of these. Also, the drink pictured in the background was from one of the choose your own adventure type machines (I think they're called Coca-Cola Freestyle) and I got to have a vanilla orange soda (which was delightfully creamsicle flavored!). I was already pretty happy, but of course, there was also the matter of the sliders:
They weren't exactly a gourmet meal, but for the ease and convenience, they were amazing--a simple fast food meal that I would easily eat again. They are convincingly meaty. Do expect to pay more for these than your meat-eating friends will pay for their traditional beef sliders, though. This combo meal, with two sliders, drink, and small fries, was about $7.
I ordered my sliders without cheese (I did not fully understand the default of cheese on a vegan burger--though I have read that the manufacturers of the Impossible Burger have explicitly instructed restaurants not to serve it as vegan, which is bizarre), but otherwise this is a standard combo order--which is another awesome thing to get as a vegan. We do not just roll up to fast food joints and say "I'll have the XYZ combo meal, no cheese." We say, "I'll have the X without Y and the Z without A and..." This is why I do not typically eat at a fast food joint. I'm so excited about these for that reason, too.
After our meal, we couldn't help but also try the other vegan slider on the menu, the veggie slider. This one does not default to being offered with cheese. You can just order it as is, like some sort of miraculous alternate fast food universe.
This one, in contrast to the Impossible Burger, has more of a "healthy" taste--you definitely get chunks of vegetable, and rather than being reminiscent of meat, this is more like old style vegetarian fare. But it's nice, too, and it's great to have another option. This one is cheaper than the Impossible sliders are, too.
I've heard rumors of a third vegan option (a bean burger slider) but there wasn't one at the White Castle I visited. But they do sell it in the freezer section of my local grocery store now, so I may yet try that sometime!
General thoughts: There are a few complaints I had about the White Castle I visited. The service was slow and the staff pretty unresponsive and passively, if not actively, rude to the customers. For that reason, in spite of really liking the food and my excitement about the spread of vegan options (I hope the vegan choices will spread out to all White Castles and not just the test market here in the northeast), I can't give this a perfect rating. 4/5
I ordered my sliders without cheese (I did not fully understand the default of cheese on a vegan burger--though I have read that the manufacturers of the Impossible Burger have explicitly instructed restaurants not to serve it as vegan, which is bizarre), but otherwise this is a standard combo order--which is another awesome thing to get as a vegan. We do not just roll up to fast food joints and say "I'll have the XYZ combo meal, no cheese." We say, "I'll have the X without Y and the Z without A and..." This is why I do not typically eat at a fast food joint. I'm so excited about these for that reason, too.
After our meal, we couldn't help but also try the other vegan slider on the menu, the veggie slider. This one does not default to being offered with cheese. You can just order it as is, like some sort of miraculous alternate fast food universe.
I've heard rumors of a third vegan option (a bean burger slider) but there wasn't one at the White Castle I visited. But they do sell it in the freezer section of my local grocery store now, so I may yet try that sometime!
General thoughts: There are a few complaints I had about the White Castle I visited. The service was slow and the staff pretty unresponsive and passively, if not actively, rude to the customers. For that reason, in spite of really liking the food and my excitement about the spread of vegan options (I hope the vegan choices will spread out to all White Castles and not just the test market here in the northeast), I can't give this a perfect rating. 4/5
This sounds like such a fun little road trip! I love that they have these options and I hope that they do well enough that they will become permanent additions. Those crinkle cut fries look so good and I also don't understand why they don't make it vegan up front but like you said, it's nice to be able to just order it with no cheese rather than a million substitutions. They look really cute though and like I said, it sounds like just a fun experience to have with friends. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteIt's always good to have more vegan options :) The high calorie, fat and sodium content of the impossible burger will keep me away from it though. Nice review!
ReplyDeleteI need to try these at some point. Are they very expensive compared to the regular burgers?
ReplyDeleteThe Impossible Sliders are about $2 each--compared to about 80 cents for the beef version. I think most omnivores wouldn't bother to try them at that price. The veggie sliders are more reasonable at about a dollar each.
DeleteI have never been to a White Castle, but saw these in the freezer section at my local Grocery Outlet. I don't expect them to be amazing, but I look forward to trying them!
ReplyDelete