The Burger King must have had an embarrassing emotional trauma growing up, because for some reason the man is obsessed with length. Nearly every limited time offering comes in one size: extra long. If it sounded like he was compensating for something by naming his last sandwich the BK Big Fish, its now blatantly obvious with the Extra Long Fish Sandwich.
I have to say, I consider myself somewhat of a fish sandwich connoisseur. Growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to frequent the fish fry circuit. The fish fry game is strong there, and nearly every church fires up the fryers during Lent. This is not an exaggeration, I legitimately had the phone number for my favorite fish fry stored in my phone for years (I checked, its still in there). I’ve since relocated to New York, and I was shocked to find the fish fry scene is nonexistent. I’m not going to hold BK to my (impossibly) high standards, but lets just say… I’ve been around the block.
When BK rolled out their new extra long fish sandwich, I had to give it a try. First things first, if we’re being honest measuring length is only one dimension that matters, most people will agree that girth is also key. Fine, make your sandwiches long or extra long, but don’t skimp on the width to meet a length requirment.
Full disclosure on the below image slider. I spent a few minutes re-orging my sandwich to make it presentable. we all know the food stylists spend hours fondling these things so I figured I’d give it a fair look:
[image-comparator left=”https://fastfoodgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screenshot-2016-02-18-22.21.05.jpg” right=”https://fastfoodgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/IMG_1240.jpg” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]Easy shot right out of the gate: as always it looks like the lettuce is a completely different species in the promo vs reality. No amount of crimping can bring my lettuce to life like the promo pic.
The Ingredients
- Toasted Hoagie Bun
- Alaskan Fish Patty
- Pickles
- Lettuce
- Tartar sauce
Really standard build and thats a good thing, no reason to get cute here. There’s a certain amount of expectation of how a fried fish sandwich should taste going in and you don’t want it to diverge from that too much. With a short list, what matters is the quality of each piece to set it above the rest
As with all Burger King sandwiches, the real disappointment typicaly comes when you open it up. As I mentioned above, girth plays a big role in satisfaction. Here we have a very flimsy fish stick completely drowning in the extra long hoagie bun. I tried to find the net weight of the old BK big fish patty to compare but I couldn’t (gift card reward to first reader to post the weights of each patty in the comments below). But honestly, if we took a conventional length bun and cut this patty in half and laid it side-by-side it would seem like a reasonable amount. Which means BK is convincing you to pay for a double length bun with a single length patty, molded into a “longer” shape. Classic. They also call this patty a Premium Alaskan Fish Patty–says who? Really would hate to see their idea of an ordinary Alaskan Fish Patty.
The good news is, while you’re eating it, it hits all the taste marks. The creamy tartar sauce blends well with the three nice sized pickles. The tartness of the pickles helps cut through the creaminess even more, which is crucial because the tartar sauce is so present due to the size of the fish. Even though my lettuce didn’t look like the stock photo, I have to say this is the best my BK lettuce has looked in a while so +1.
As for the cost, this thing retails in the >$5 range for the sandwich alone. Thanks to its inclusion in the 2 for $5 deal, it becomes a good deal. I would be very disappointed if I paid $6 for just this sandwich, for some reason I can save some money and get a second sandwich if I say “I would like the two for five deal please.” (Btw, this is an absurd deal in NYC and its insane that it is even offered here)
Burger King Extra Long Fish Sandwich – The Verdict
Its hard to get past the fact that the fish represents 30% of the sandwich. Due to the length, it becomes fatiguing eating all that white bread hoagie roll. The roll is fine, your typical grocery store roll, and would actually be ideal for a no frills fish sandwich. You want a big fluffy white bun when you have a pipping hot, just fried huge piece of fish. Its a good contrast to soak up the hot grease and moisture. Its emotionally draining when you have a small, floppy piece of fish inside.
Burger King Extra Long Fish Sandwich [Review]
5.9Overall Score
