Another Chance for the Cheesesteak Burger

For those of you that missed it when Hardee's ran their promotion last spring, Carl's, Jr. (like Hardee's, a part of CKE Restaurants) announced on Wednesday that they would begin offering the Philly Cheesesteak Burger at their restaurants. The burger will be available in single, double and half-pound sizes, topped with steak, green peppers (?!), onions, cheese and mayo.

Here's what I said when I checked it out last spring:

With the release of their Philly Cheesesteak Burger the fine folks at Hardee's have confirmed what I've known all along: if you put the words "Philly Cheesesteak" in front of something, I'll eat it.

How else do you explain somebody who stops what they're doing and makes a one hour round trip in order to purchase, examine, weigh, photograph, and then -- and only then -- consume a $4.00 fast food burger? I may need professional help.

But until then, here are the gory details. For a burger that tips the scales at a hefty 10.4 ounces and 63 grams of fat, the Philly Cheesesteak Burger is surprisingly small and handy. Though the box is a major pain in the ass to open (and would've caused several accidents had I not transported the burger back to THG HQ), the burger isn't a sloppy, saucy mess like the Big Mac or Whopper. Instead, it's all pretty tightly packed, held together with a thick glue of Swiss and American cheese.

And unlike my ill-advised encounter with the McDonald's Philly Cheesesteak, I have neither a giant grease stain nor a stabbing pain in, around and near my heart.

Not surprisingly, the myth of the Philly Cheesesteak Burger vs. the reality of the Philly Cheesesteak Burger is readily apparent. Instead of towering over my paper plate like the image used on their website, the weight of all the sliced steak caused my sandwich to list terribly into a depressing heap. Maybe it knew how much time it was cutting off my life.

One bite in and the biggest issue with the Philly Cheesesteak Burger is obvious... the steak is nowhere near as good as the burger. This leads to a big problem as the tasty, broiled burger is quickly chewed up while the chewy steak lingers and lingers and lingers.

While it's not as good as I'd hoped the Philly Cheesesteak Burger also isn't as bad as I'd imagined. Still, it ranks far above recent culinary abominations like Herr's Philly Cheesesteak Rippled Potato Chips and the aforementioned McDonald's sandwich.