Review: KFC Tower Burger

Does KFC’s new sandwich tower above the competition?

via KFC Philippines

Is it the chicken lover in me or does KFC have very persuasive ads?

Whatever the case may be, lately, I've been trying out every new product KCF’s been introducing to the market – Krushers (Cookies and Cream and Halo-halo flavors), Pasta bowl (Alfredo sauce), Fish Twister, Rice bowl (Kung Pao) and Double Down.

And when my eyes laid on that Tower Burger TV commercial, something inside me said that I just gotta taste it. And I had the privilege of doing so this week.

Considering how scrumptious the Double Down was, and because of its name, expectations are high for the Tower Burger. So let’s try to break it down and see if expectations were met.

PACKAGE

So here’s what a pre-consumed TB looks like:

Photo courtesy of She Las Piñas
and TJay Araos

The Jollibee Champish black packaging struts an image of the TB with some sort of measuring stick beside it, indicating the order the ingredients are layered in the sandwich. The measuring stick was also placed there to probably give consumers the impression that the TB is one of, if not, the biggest burger they’ll ever have. If that’s the case, then let’s open the box see if it is what it claims to be.

SIZE

Photo courtesy of She Las Piñas
and TJay Araos

Wow! For something called a Tower Burger, it’s awfully small. After opening the box, I wanted to go back to the counter and ask the service crew, “Where the *bleep* did the rest of the burger go?” Well, I deserved to be disappointed anyway. This is the Philippines after all. Products here are smaller so I should’ve seen this coming. And if the size of the box were any indication, the sandwich wasn’t meant to be larger than life. But at the very least, for something called a Tower Burger, I expected it to maximize the space of the box. It could’ve been as big as its box for all I care.

All those recommended methods of eating the TB (Squeeze, Beast, etc.) are nothing more but marketing strategies designed to make it look massive. I’ve had a harder time eating a Big Mac and Champ because they’re bigger.

TASTE

Okay, so let me give you my elaborate, detailed account of the Tower Burger.

It tastes like a hash brown.

For all its ingredients, everything becomes an afterthought to the hash brown. Nothing wrong with that, right? When I eat my Jollibee burgers, I always sticksome fries in the middle of the buns so that it gets a hint of potatoes somewhere in all those meat and condiments. It’s just that, when I grabbed a TB, I was expecting to taste a lot of chicken with a hint of the other ingredients, not the other way around.

Wait, let me take that back. Save for the hash brown, the other ingredients don’t have a lot to offer. The chicken fillet wasn’t as big as I was hoping for, which was at least as big as one of those Double Down chicken buns. The serving of the lettuce, as my friend Shé Las Piñas puts it, is comparable to the one you’ll get in Burger Machine. The cheese, though visible, becomes barely noticeable when you start chomping down on the TB. Again, its saving grace is its hash brown, which is crisply fried, and for a meat substitute, tastes good and is almost better than the chicken. And that could be a bad thing. Considering that the value meal comes with French fries, don’t you think we should be getting more of something else?

The Tower Burger is a tasty treat that can quench the average person’s hunger. However, it doesn’t live up to its name and the hype. If you’re looking to spend 100+ pesos on a meal, you’re better off with a Whopper, Big Mac or Champ.

Sorry KFC, but you’ll just have to bring back the Double Down if you want to be the talk of the town. (But please replace the bacon with something else. I don’t eat pork anymore.)  

Rating:

2 out of 5