"BurgerKing" news and stories

In August, we announced that Burger King was launching yet another death-defying sandwich -- the NY Pizza Burger. This behemoth of a burger contains four Whopper patties, slices of pepperoni and mozzarella cheese with marinara and "Tuscan sauce" (which was indistinguishable from the marinara) on a giant sesame seed bun.

While we weren't able to attend the launch, we finally got around to trying it this week, and boy, was it worth the wait. Erik Trinidad of Fancy Fast Food joined us for the task and we were all in agreement -- this was one unforgettable fast food creation.

Coming in at a "whopping" 2,530 calories, 144 grams of fat and 3,780 milligrams of sodium, this burger is meant to feed six people. However, while we were there, we saw two people dig into this thing and finish it. We can't point fingers, but we were only able to get four servings out of it.

Burgerville, a fast-food chain centered in the Pacific Northwest, has made a business move that feels more Big Brother than burger joint: They've started printing personalized calorie counts on their receipts.

Most people agree it's good to be an informed consumer, but it's one thing to have posted calorie counts on the wall. Customized receipts that total up all of the calories of the food you ordered, even going as far as to tell you the percentage of your daily total of fat, calories, and protein that the meal you're about to consume constitutes is something else all together. (The information, by the way, comes courtesy of Nutricate, a system from a company called SmartReceipt).

With only 39 stores, Burgerville doesn't have the vast reach of Burger King or McDonald's, and the chain is commitment to locally sourced ingredients. But although the food is first-class, it's still fast food. The menu is jam packed with burgers, fries, and real ice-cream shakes that can total 800 calories all by themselves.

Hospitals in the U.K. are sending patients mixed messages, paying obese patients to lose weight while leasing space to fast food restaurants, The Sun reported.

Forty of the country's 170 National Health Service Trusts have opened their doors to fast food franchises including Burger King, Starbucks and Subway. Five more are set to open, the paper reported.

"Goods and services should not conflict with the ethos and objectives of health and well-being," the Department for Health told The Sun.

In England, the National Obesity Forum said the government hospitals were "effectively endorsing" fast food by letting it be sold on the premises, The Sun reported. The British Heart Foundation called the practice "absurd."

The Sun published photographs of an elderly patient in a wheelchair ordering at Burger King at the NHS Trust for Croydon hospital in South London and another of a woman connected to an IV drip at Burger King at Cambridge's Addenbrooke hospital. Burger King did not respond to Slashfood's request for comment.

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring ... except for the Fancy Fast Food Chef, stirring apple filling and honey mustard in a saucepan for a traditional Christmas dish!

We are talking about the traditional holiday ham, the centerpiece at many a Christmas dinner, which is unfortunately an item that fast-food restaurants don't sell (the whole ham anyway), so we'll have to get creative -- as usual.

Burger King franchisees are fighting to have it their way.

The suit, filed against Burger King by the National Franchise Association, comes after Burger King required all franchisees to sell its double cheeseburger for $1. The suit, which represents 80 percent of all Burger King franchise owners in America, alleges that the Whopper chain doesn't have the power to set price ceilings on choice menu items.

The saga started back in July when we reported franchisees turned down an initial plan to sell the double cheeseburgers for a buck due to worries that another $1 offering could cause more customers to trade down from higher-priced menu items.