An Australian chain released what they claim is the world’s first low-carb restaurant burger on Wednesday. It’s not just a loose slab of meat with salad ingredients – instead there is an unusual “bun” bracketing the ingredients.
Grill’d hamburger chain says that the burger contains less carbs than a sushi roll, with less than 10% carbs. The bun – suitable for gluten-free folks – is made from ingredients including eggs, coconut cream, honey and psyllium husk.
But how does it taste? We asked Guardian Australia writers to put it to the test.
Jessica Reed
I stare at the low-carb burger with its LowCarb SuperBun™ with my eyebrow raised, disapproving. Where I come from, you either go big or go home. Brioche and beef burger, with chipotle mayo? Hee-haw! Homemade onion jam on top of cheddar on top of perfectly pink meat? Done! But low-carb vegie burger? I can’t say I’m excited.
No matter, I have to take one for the team. So what does this wonder of dieting taste like?
First off: the filling. A layer of avocado (ripe, nothing bad to say about it), canned beetroot (sugary of course, but fine), a salad leaf, fresh tomato slices, red onion, and tomato salsa which suspiciously looks like sweet Asian sauce – thick, translucent orange chilli-flecked goop.
The vegie patty: not much to say there – potato base, peas, carrots. Grilled quite nicely with a hint of burnt flavour (a good thing).
Finally, the pièce de résistance: the bun. Looks like pancakes, tastes like pancakes. The texture feels heavy, eggy, reminding me of French toast. The killer ingredients are coconut cream and almond meal – its not bad, but I’m not sure whether I am eating a grain-free, gluten-free, low-carb (yawn!) cake or an actual burger. I countered this assault on my senses by pouring half a teaspoon of salt on it – so much for appealing to Aussies following a refined sugar diet. What about my salt-clogged arteries now, huh?
Paul Farrell
Eating a low-carb chicken burger is a little like eating a burger patty wrapped in a pancake without sugar. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a very different feel from a doughy bun. The chicken burger had a delicious fillet, fresh salad ingredients and a tasty sauce – all with the bonus of a substantially lower amount of carbohydrates.
But where it all falls apart is the grip. You need to be able to get a good, firm grip on a burger otherwise it’s just like holding up a bunch of meat and salad to your mouth without cutlery. A good bun plays a critical role. Unfortunately, the low-carb buns have two flaws; first, they’re quite moist. This leads to a general oozing of burger ingredients which is a little unseemly for the more dainty burger eater. Second, they crumble. Neither quality make for a good burger eating experience, unless you enjoy a real challenge.
If you are very, very keen to lower your carb intake, then I recommend the chicken burgers. If not, buy a burger with a normal bun.
Brigid Delaney
When I first unwrapped my Grill’d chicken burger I was confused by the yellow disc that sat on top. It looked like a corn pancake – quite moist and fragile. I wondered if it would be able to hold what was inside: a beautiful slab of chicken, grilled bacon, cos lettuce, tomato and sauce.
The first few bites were satisfying – the “bun” was nice and soft, with the texture of wet cake – and its sweetness provided a good contrast to the saltiness of the bacon and chicken.
But then it all started falling apart. A curious colleague wanted to try my burger and when I took to it with a knife, the “bun” fell apart, breaking into crumbs that were so thoroughly soaked by the meat juice that it became difficult to then get a purchase on the burger.
A few bites in it looked like couscous. It was tasty, but weird. I wondered – do we even need a bun? Can’t we just have it loose like a chicken salad?
But if I was on a low-carb diet I would welcome the introduction of this burger. It’s another choice available to dieters who would otherwise have to “unpack” their burger and throw out the bun.
Joshua Robertson
Like a European tourist rocking a bikini at Maroochydore in winter, the fatal flaw of this burger resides in the buns, which can only ever be half-baked.
One might wager whether you could deposit this concoction of almond meal/ground soy bean husks/whatever on a slab of caesar stone atop a six-burner pizza oven, drink a six pack of home-brewed pale ale, and finally achieve a consistency much different to a half-cooked pikelet (which is precisely how these buns “plate up”).
For nosh that’s pitched at Atkins freaks who want to keep their dietary slate clean, this burger sure is messy.
In moments, avocado and other assorted mush are bulging out all over the place. Not for eating on the go. Take a bib. And a handtowel.
The vegetable patty within strikes the palate in the same way the buns do. They don’t. No, in fact, it’s all quite palatable, if lacking anything resembling piquancy. Surely there is a protein-based sauce to turn to in these situations?
Nick Evershed
I had the beef burger. The contents are like a regular burger, but the “bun” is a sort of weird, pancakey thing. It’s very gooey on the inside.
The pancake “bun” is a bit too moist and doesn’t really hold the burger together like a normal bun. It doesn’t taste particularly different, but it didn’t seem to fill me up as much as a regular burger. I may need a second lunch.
I probably wouldn’t order one again, as I don’t eat burgers to be healthy – quite the opposite.
Patrick Keneally
On seeing this creation, I was interested but also confused about what actually constitutes a hamburger. Is it the bun and meat patty melded together as one in perfect symbiosis, or is it just the meat? The Collins dictionary comes down on the side of the meat, albeit recognising it is often served in a bun, but most of us would recognise a burger as being the classic pairing of charred meat and toasted bread. So is something that ditches the bread for a pancakey-thing still recognisable as a burger? You be the judge.
Semantic arguments aside, the “buns” are surprisingly filling for something that looks a bit like a pair of blini (or is it a pair of blintz?), but while it emulates bread in its satiety value, it lacks the crucial crunch that a toasted bun provides. They’re oily, floppy, dense and crumbly at once.
The rest of the burger doesn’t really deviate from the classic recipe, with the salad, beef patty, tomato jam and so on all scoring well in the taste test. But I’m left wondering, as others have, what the point really is when you could just have the meat and salad instead. I can also think of better low-carb alternatives, nice crisp iceberg lettuce halves for starters, rye crackers perhaps, or even two large slices of crispy bacon – all washed down with a non-low-carb lager.
