Is the ‘Double Donut Burger’ the worst meal ever?
Hungry Horse reveals a new burger with meat and cheese sandwiched between two donuts. Just how bad is it?
There’s no doubt in my mind that the newly launched Double Donut Burger from Hungry Horse is disgusting.
Two beef patties sandwiched between glazed ring donuts would be bad enough, but of course they add lashings of bacon, BBQ sauce and cheese to top things off – and all this for only £8.99!
That’s going to taste really bad
The burger contains a whopping 1,966 calories, which is 98% of a woman’s guideline daily allowance (GDA). It also contains 53g of saturated fat (267% GDA) and 8.2g salt (137% GDA).
To put that in context, a Big Mac burger meal with medium fries and a regular coke clocks in at 1,015 calories. And when McDonald’s looks like a healthy alternative, you know you’re in trouble.
While the numbers reflect the unhealthy nature of the burger, if you couldn’t guess for yourself from the picture, the first thought I actually had was that the whole thing would taste awful. A clash of overly sweet flavours with red meat – horrible. And that’s not to mention the practicalities of getting your mouth around a stack of food as big as your face.
I don’t believe this burger was developed particularly as something to ‘treat’ yourself with but a novelty inspired by eating contests and student dares. They might as well put a sign outside Hungry Horse restaurants saying “Hey guys, I bet you can’t eat all of this.” And chances are, you can't, and the leftovers will get thrown away, contributing to the 11,500 tonnes of food waste we produce every year.
The first few mouthfuls might be enjoyable, purely because your body has unleashed a flood of serotonin as a reward for the sugar you’re ingesting (over 50% of your GDA). And possibly adrenaline to keep your heart pumping. A few bites later, you’ll probably just feel sick.
It’s not the worst thing about the menu
While the donut burger has been rightly pilloried, it’s actually just one item on a menu that is thoroughly problematic.
Steve Jebson of Hungry Horse has been quoted as saying: “All the nutritional information for our menu is available on our website and in our pubs, so that our customers are able to make informed decisions about what they choose to eat.”
So I took a look through that nutritional information and discovered that their crispy hunter's chicken contains even more calories (2,145) than the double donut burger. In its favour, it has less saturated fat, but it’s not alone. Their curry ‘Banquet’ dishes all clock in at over 2,000 calories.
And worst of all, the (Wo)Man Vs Burrito ranges between 2,875 calories (for the spicy chicken option) all the way to 3,478 calories if you pick BBQ pulled pork as your filling. That’s 174% of a woman’s recommended intake, or 139% if you’re a bloke. Plus, the name suggests my suspicion that Hungry Horse has a penchant for encouraging folk who enjoy eating contests isn’t far off the mark.
In fact, there are plenty of examples on the menu of meals that contain close to, if not over, the 2,000 calorie mark. While eating out is supposed to be a treat and I admit that I myself have been known to over-indulge, this menu contains too many over-the-top items that don’t just linger on the border of ‘ridiculous’ but have marched right on in and made camp there.
Yes, there are lower calorie meals available. But a large proportion of the main meals are geared towards what I would classify as over-eating. So the Double Donut burger is actually the fat-laden tip of a very large nutritional iceberg.
Do you think there’s a place in restaurants for this kind of food? Would you ever eat a Double Donut burger? Let us know in the Comments below.
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