BANGKOK – Burger King is causing a stir in Thailand with its new offering: a meatless burger with a mind-boggling amount of cheese.
This week, the Thai operator of the fast-food chain introduced the so-called “real cheeseburger,” a bun stuffed with up to 20 slices of American cheese.
The item was launched on Thai menus on Sunday at a reduced price of 109 Thai baht ($3.1), compared to the usual price of 380 baht ($10.9). It quickly went viral on social media in Thailand, with many users on TikTok posting videos of them trying the new sandwich.
“That’s no joke. This is real,” Burger King said in a social media post on Sunday.
At a Burger King branch in Bangkok on Tuesday, a shift supervisor was overheard saying the branch no longer needed to take delivery orders to ensure there were enough supplies left for on-site diners.
A customer who ordered the cheese snack told CNN she first tried it after seeing it on social media.
Im Jeepetch, a 25-year-old IT engineer, said she loves cheese, but “that was a bit much.”
“I could only eat half of it,” she said, wiping her mouth with a tissue. “That’s an insane amount of cheese to put in a burger. Food is good when things are combined correctly.”
I added that she probably wouldn’t order the sticky food again next time: “Other burgers are fine. I think I’ll go back to my Double Cheese Angus as always.”
Another customer shared this sentiment, calling the cheeseburger “too intense.”
“Maybe I won’t try again. I like a few slices of cheese in my burger, but not that much,” said Alisa Chuengviroj, a 26-year-old entrepreneur who sells skincare products online.
Like me, she said she visited the store after seeing how many people had posted about the burger online.
Menu expansion is an example of how fast food franchises around the world are attempting to gain prominence by introducing wacky or flashy menu options that they hope will spread across social media.
In the United States, Burger King has doubled down on the Whopper, an open-flame grilled signature beef burger that also gained traction on platforms like TikTok through a catchy commercial jingle that dropped late last year.
In addition, restaurants continuously adapt their offer to local tastes in different countries. In Thailand, cheese is particularly popular with young customers, and it is common for the dairy product to be sprinkled over dishes of all kinds.
Also on the menu at Burger King in the country are salmon katsu burgers, an obvious indication of consumers’ penchant for a healthy alternative to beef.
In Thailand, the chain is owned by Minor International, a local hotel group that is one of the largest restaurant owners in Asia. The company, which also operates stores for brands including Dairy Queen and Benihana, did not respond to multiple calls from CNN Tuesday for comment.
The-CNN-Wire & 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery company. All rights reserved.