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Fast Food Review: Whopper Bar at the Rio Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas


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John Daily

Some people go to Vegas to see shows. Others to get hookers, lapdances, booze and premarital craziness.

I’m not saying I didn’t go for many of those things. But as soon as I found out Burger King had a Whopper Bar there where you can build your own concoction, it was on the must-list, along with maybe three other things (see boobies, go to Eli Roth’s Goretorium and do all-you-can-eat seafood).

While some of the best-laid plans went to waste, this one did not.

The Whopper Bar is like a regular Burger King, with a few exceptions. Here, having it your way means that for fifty cents more, you can add a topping from a menu that basically includes everything BK has ever put on a burger at some point or another.

Also they serve beer, in those big-mouth cans like Monster energy drink, but the only options are various Lite beers and MGD. I went for Light Lemonade instead.

Burger creation time. Let’s add blue cheese, “angry onions” (fried, breaded and spicy), guacamole, thousand island dressing, mushrooms, angry sauce, and hold the raw onion and mayo that come standard. (Other options include two types of bacon and various sauces).

You know how Carls’/Hardees burgers look in the commercials but never are in real life? This was that. But done RIGHT.

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John Daily

It got all over the place. It belonged in my face. Any falling globs of mess got mopped up with onion rings. The blue cheese was most dominant, with the “angry” elements adding some nice heat and the guac almost thick enough to hold everything together.

In fact, I couldn’t finish the whole thing. Not because I didn’t want to. It just couldn’t all fit in my stomach, possibly because the beers I’d been having all day were occupying too much gastrointestinal real estate.

Certain topping combinations are already on the menu, and my companions went for those – John, who took these photos, was initially dismayed by the small portion of blue cheese on his, but they made it right.

I’d have saved the rest to go, but there were strippers to be viewed, and bringing a burger carton into gentlemen’s clubs felt like a potential party foul.

All told, a great meal for under ten bucks. And the first time I haven’t felt like “have it your way” was an empty bullshit saying (ooh, I can get a burger without onions? Truly, sirs, you spoil me with a unique option there).