The MrBeast boxes give no clue that the food actually was prepared and packaged at Red Robin in Hendersonville.
-- Photo By Lucas Hendrickson | The LedgerHow does the MrBeast Burger experience work? For the end consumer, most probably the highly pressured parent of a pre-teen gamer or YouTube fanatic (or both), it works very much like any other food delivery service.
(Yes, that is my hand you see raised. I am that target market’s holder of a smartphone and payment options.)
The dedicated MrBeast Burger app is simple and colorful, asking you to select an order type, either pickup or delivery, before dropping you into the limited menu.
MrBeast and his cohorts each have their signature burgers, plus a few other types of sandwiches, to the relief of my grilled cheese-preferring offspring. On the plus side, they do offer Impossible plant-based meat substitute versions of their burger creations.
Most of the rest of the menu options are pretty thin: sides limited to crinkle fries (including a take on loaded fries called, naturally, “Beast Style”), desserts limited to a single chocolate chip cookie offering, drinks limited to canned Coke products and bottled water.
For our Sunday afternoon lunch option, the kiddo went with the Karl’s Grilled Cheese and an order of the undressed crinkle fries, while yours truly chose the standard MrBeast Burger (two smashburger patties with house seasoning, American cheese, pickles, white onion, mayo, ketchup and brown mustard on a soft roll) and the Beast Style fries (basically topped with the same items as the burger – including the pickle – and caramelized onions swapped out for the diced onions.)
The order arrived via a DoorDash driver within the traditional window of acceptableness these days: a few minutes past the estimated time the app gives you but not so far removed from reality that you consider canceling not only the order, but also the credit card it was placed on.
The food order, fulfilled by a Red Robin location in Hendersonville if the address on the app is to be believed, arrived in simple, branded MrBeast containers, sure to be collectors’ items among the aforementioned pre-teen gamer crowd.
The taste? In terms of condiment choice for the Beast Style items, the approach seems to be “more is more.” Both the burger and the loaded fries, while kind of small in portion size, were a full-on mess of toppings. It was a miasma of flavors, not unlike the visual style of the MrBeast videos themselves.
As far as the grilled cheese went, the general consensus was a thumbs-up and a grin from the target audience, though he also was quick to admit, “But you make me a better grilled cheese.”
Now there’s a kid who knows where – and how – his bread is buttered.
“Can I have my Xbox controller back now?”
Thus concludes the experiment.
– Lucas Hendrickson