Taste-testing Burger King’s red, non-radioactive Spider-Verse Whopper

Miles Morales’ home turf may be in Brooklyn, New York, but the teenage Spider-Man is temporarily taking up residence in the borough of Queens, Peter Parker’s stomping grounds. Specifically, he’s hanging out at a Burger King in the neighborhood of Astoria, where diners can leap into the Spider-Verse and try two new menu items as part of a tie-in with Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse.

Burger King has tweaked its flagship offering to fit the color palette of Miles’ spider suit: The “Spider-Verse Whopper” features a red bun with black sesame seeds, and Swiss cheese — in something like spiderweb white, you might say — instead of yellow American. The burger and the “Spider-Verse Sundae” debuted Monday in Burger King locations nationwide, and will be available through June 21, a few weeks after Across the Spider-Verse’s June 2 release.

Of course, chain restaurants have a long history of promoting media such as movies and video games with themed menu items — think of McDonald’s and its Szechuan sauce for 1998’s Mulan (and, two decades later, Rick and Morty). This isn’t even the first time Burger King has done a tie-in for a Spider-Man film. Back in 2007, Burger King’s U.K. arm launched the “Dark Whopper,” which was inspired by the Jekyll-and-Hyde turn of Tobey Maguire’s symbiote-infused hero in Spider-Man 3. (The burger — which featured cracked black pepper cheese, black pepper ketchup, and a “darkly delicious” sauce — drew some eye rolls when the company brought it back just one year later, this time as a tie-in for The Dark KnightThe original commercial was reused with just a movie poster change.

Photo: Samit Sarkar/Polygon

As a tribute to Mike Fahey, the legendary Snacktaku (late Mike Fahey), here is a review of the Spider-Verse Whopper & Sundae.

First, I’ll say that you don’t have to worry — it’s just food coloring in the bun, not tomato flavoring or anything like that. Secondly, that’s a microcosm of my thoughts of the Spider-Verse Whopper: It’s like putting a visually striking superhero costume on an ordinary person. Or, something.

While it has been years since I’ve eaten a standard Whopper, this one didn’t taste meaningfully different from my memory of the fast-food staple. Swiss cheese has a distinctive nutty taste, but whatever variety Burger King is using, its flavor is overwhelmed by all the other ingredients in the sandwich — particularly the sweetness of the raw onions and the sour tang of the pickle slices. That said, if you enjoy a Whopper with cheese, you won’t mind this remix.

It was the Spider-Verse Sundae that I enjoyed more. As with the burger, the recipe is a simple twist: Chocolate-flavored popping candy in red and black is sprinkled atop Burger King’s vanilla ice cream. As the normal item on the menu is just ice-cream in a cup, or a cone, the addition of chocolate candy adds an extra dimension to the flavor and texture.

Grid View

You can find the Spider-Verse Whopper and Sundae at a Burger King near you, but the aforementioned restaurant in New York City’s Astoria neighborhood is the only one in America where you can enter the Spider-Verse. The Burger King in question is located a stone’s throw from the Astoria Boulevard stop on the N/W subway line. It has been outfitted with a full Spider-Verse skin for this promo, turning the restaurant from your friendly neighborhood Burger King into, well, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man’s Burger King.

The front entrance is surrounded by a yellow hexagon — a shape that evokes the comic book-tinged flourishes of the Spider-Verse films — and it sits beneath a glowing yellow “Enter the Spider-Verse” sign. Tables and walls in the restaurant feature artwork from the movie. Decals featuring Spider-Man’s logos are also on the windows. And there’s a figure of Miles in a web-swinging action pose, maybe 20 feet in the air, beneath the Burger King logo on the restaurant’s massive signpost. Burger King’s cardboard crowns have been given a Spidey twist, and that is my favorite touch.

All in all, it’s not a radical transformation, but the thoughtful designers did go a lot further than Burger King did with the Spider-Verse food options.