Burger King Rib Sandwich – West St. Paul, MN

I’ve had a few friends ask how the Burger King Rib Sandwich compares to the McDonald’s McRib, so I thought I’d do a brief comparison (totally an excuse for me to run to Burger King and get one of these, by the way).

The BK Rib Sandwich, upon first look, is pretty small. It’s on the standard round JR Whopper-sized bun, so it’s bordering on slider-sized to begin with (the photo makes it look much bigger than it it really is). Added to this, BK has still chosen to go with a rectangular shaped rib patty, meaning it doesn’t even fill that entire small bun. So, once you factor in that, you’ve got a few bites of bun-only chewing. No fun.

There are a couple of pickles thrown on and two rings of onions (the McRib uses slivered onions for uniformity), so that part is similar. There was some BBQ sauce on the BK rib patty itself, but it was a pretty meager amount. It wasn’t slathered all over and sloppy like the McRib. Pretty skimpy on the sauce, if you ask me.

The overall flavor was pretty good though. I’m loyal to the McRib (I know that horrifies people, but it’s true – it’s the only reason I will actually go to McDonald’s in the past ten years, frankly), but the flavor of the BK Rib Sandwich was almost as good. The sauce flavor was a good complement to the meat patty, so no issue there.

On the upside is the fact that these things are ONE dollar – much less costly than the McRib. So the way I see it, you buy three of the BK Rib Sandwiches, and you’ll get more meat (and triple the bun, which isn’t necessary). So for a super-slightly inferior flavor, you get just as much out of eating multiple BK Rib Sandwiches as you do out of a McRib.

So my question is, why aren’t people as outraged that I eat the BK version as they are when I eat the McRib version. Is it simply because the publicity wagon hasn’t been boarded by a bunch of anti-corporate complainers YET? Frankly, I don’t care that these things are rib-shaped and rib-flavored – I think they’re delicious! I’m glad BK answered the McRib product launch. I’ll be especially happy if they keep them around on the menu, unlike McDonald’s once-a-year and inconsistent-regional-location publicity stunts.