Burger King revamped a major menu item after customers called it 'disgusting' — here's the verdict

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March 8, 2017 4:41 PM

The Tendercrisp is dead; long live the Crispy Chicken. Burger King has overhauled its chicken sandwich — but is it any better?

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The Tendercrisp is dead; long live the Crispy Chicken.

Burger King has tossed the Tendercrisp, often reviled as a sub-par chicken sandwich in the fast-food arena.

Business Insider's reviews of the sandwich, compared to its industry counterparts, have not been kind — but deservedly so.

The chain has supposedly given their chicken sandwich offering an overhaul, christening the replacement simply as the "Crispy Chicken" sandwich.

How has it improved on its paltry predecessor? We compared the two to find out.

At $6.19 a sandwich (in NYC, at least), it's only $0.20 more than the Tendercrisp. In hand, the sandwich does feel heftier.

Calling the Tendercrisp, pictured here, a disappointment would be an understatement of egregious measures. This sandwich was the bane of chicken sandwiches: soggy, limp, and swamped in mayonnaise.

Every bite of the Tendercrisp proved a challenge. How many bland and boggy bites could one get through before calling it quits? Often, gristle brought any attempt to an ignominious end.

The new crispy chicken sandwich is... a marked improvement. Gone is the flattened, lethargic standard bun, replaced by a pliant potato roll.

The sandwich seems more substantial, with an appetizing smell of fried chicken instead of a whiff of mysterious faux-poultry patty.

While the Tendercrisp was confoundingly neither tender nor crisp, this chicken, well... is. It may look a tad suspicious, but much less so than its forbear — and that alone is an improvement.

I can say with confidence that the patty is, in fact, crisp. It's very thin, which aids crispness but doesn't leave much meat to be judged as tender or not. The breading is very salty — even more so than before — but the chicken also has some seasoning to it. It looks like real chicken, too, which is a welcome relief — the Tendercrisp set the bar so staggeringly low.

Gone is the mayo morass — the levels are in check, which was by far my largest concern given Burger King's gloppy, mayo-slathering past. Is this an extremely good fried chicken sandwich? Well, no. Is it a pronounced improvement on the Tendercrisp? Absolutely, and I think that's a fine start.

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