Whataburger Jalapeno & Cheese Whataburger

Review of Whataburger Jalapeño & Cheese Whataburger

Website: http://whataburger.com/

What they say:

How can you make an original Whataburger even better? Add cheese and jalapeños. Then again, these two fixings improve just about everything.

Price: $4.09.

Calories: 730 kcal.

Whataburger seems to be the pride of Texas, where this particular chain originated.

I felt like having something spicy this time, so as I stood at the counter and looked at the menu, both bedecked in Whataburger’s orange colour scheme, one burger jumped out at me.

Whataburger USA

The Jalapeño Cheeseburger. This price is low but as with all the burgers I’ve had in the U.S., the price listed isn’t actually the price you pay. You dig out the right amount of money only to discover it actually costs more.

Why? Tax. Well, is there a situation where you don’t pay the tax? No, not if you don’t want to go to jail. Well, include it in the prices then, if it isn’t optional!

Catches me out every single time. Not Whataburger’s fault.

Inside, the place was very clean, but the decor seemed a bit drab. Functional I suppose, and I wasn’t here to eat the furnishings. I was here for a burger.

The wait was a bit longer than I might have expected, but I wasn’t in a hurry. On the window beside my table was the American flag and the words “One nation under God, indivisible”. I sighed and imagined that someone like Salmond and his cult wouldn’t be as tolerated here as they are back home.

Whataburger Jalapeno & Cheese

Before I got too upset, my burger arrived in a yellow wrap on an orange tray.

Orange and yellow certainly wouldn’t be my first choice of colour scheme unless I was in the 1970s but from a marketing standpoint the colours and the balloon-style font of the lettering stood out really well.

Instantly recognisable, which in a busy market segment, is definitely desirable.

When I opened up the yellow wrap, I was greeted by a flat-ish but very wide burger. This was a pretty substantial circumference. They do say everything in Texas is bigger, so I suppose it’s fitting.

Whataburger Jalapeno & Cheese

Inside, the jalapeños, cheese, shredded lettuce, a bit of mustard and three (count them!) slices of tomato were all competing for space above and below the beef patty.

The bun was your standard squashy affair and does the job very well.

Onto the taste then. The strange thing was, despite the mustard and the jalapeños, there wasn’t a huge amount of heat. It was there, alright, especially when I got one of the pieces of pepper, but it wasn’t a volcano. It was a gentle nudge of heat, which is very enticing.

Whataburger Jalapeno & Cheese

The large round part covered in cheese had considerable taste, and it was complemented rather than masked by the toppings.

There was a bit of dribble out the back as I got through this and that was probably suggestive of the fat content and therefore the nice taste.

I’m always surprised when people moan about this. The thing is, you need some fat content for taste, and good patties often have a 70/30 split or thereabouts. If everything is too lean, it’s simply not as tasty.

There wasn’t any particularly unique stand-out taste about this one, but its sheer size and price guarantee popularity, and the taste is great enough to justify the adoration that Whataburger receives.

Whataburger Jalapeno & Cheese

I’m not going to assess whether or not I will have any of these American burgers again because unless they open British branches, I probably won’t. Not because they are no good though, and that’s certainly the case at Whataburger. I enjoyed it.

Anyway, I sat with the desert sun streaming in the window and savoured my last few bites of Texas.

Whataburger has quite a lot to offer on the menu, all large at very reasonable prices. What’s not to like!

Admiral Burgerbar