Location: 5250 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca
French onion soup is delicious. That’s just a fact. If you disagree with that statement — sorry to break it to you, but you have bad opinions about soup.
Cramming French onion soup flavours into a hamburger is such a foolproof idea that I’m shocked you don’t see it more often. That’s not to say that you never see it (I actually reviewed a French onion soup burger for my burger blog a few years ago), but I think this is the first time I’ve seen it at a fast food joint.
The burger, as per Wendy’s menu: “A quarter-pound of fresh, never-frozen Canadian beef, two slices of cheese, caramelized onions, crispy onions, and a seasoned mayo sauce. Your favourite fancy soup is now your favourite fancy burger.”
(Is French onion soup fancy? I feel like any dish whose primary appeal is gobs of melty cheese can’t be classified as “fancy,” but maybe I’m wrong.)
The burger doesn’t do a particularly great job of capturing the flavours of a bowl of French onion soup, mostly because the cheese is American rather than the traditional gruyere (or even something vaguely gruyere-like, which does exist in processed cheese form). On the other hand, it’s delicious, so who cares.
It’s a really, really good fast food cheeseburger; one of the best I’ve had in quite a while, in fact. Gooey American cheese and griddled onions are best friends on a burger, the crispy onions add some nice texture, and the seasoned mayo sauce adds a nice dose of creaminess and richness.
And the patty itself was reasonably juicy and had a decent (if very mild) beefy flavour. Of course, that’ll depend on the location you visit, but I feel like Wendy’s is the most consistent fast food chain in that regard. It’s good more often than it’s not.
Michael Eats 