The Burger King Sandwich Even Celebrities Couldn't Make Popular

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Burger King's burgers are no doubt its claim to fame, but the fast food chain has launched plenty of alternative menu items over the years — and the list goes beyond chicken sandwiches. Take the Flame-Broiled Meatloaf Sandwich, which hit B.K. locations in 1993. Despite multiple celebrity endorsements on the airwaves, it ended up being cut from the lineup.

The sandwich featured a meatloaf patty, raw onions, and ketchup on a long sesame seed bun. It was part of the Dinner Baskets & Table Service promotion, a two-year campaign that beckoned customers to sit down for a proper meal at the chain rather than snagging a bag from the drive-thru. The brand even got MLB icon and sportscaster Bob Uecker and actor Dan Cortese to back the sammy in their own respective commercials, both showing it paired with a salad and baked potato instead of typical fries. Alas, the ads weren't enough — the meatloaf masterpiece was nixed from stores in 1994, less than a year after it launched.

According to a Retroist writer who tried it, "The patty was thicker than a standard burger, and the texture was somewhere between homemade meatloaf and a burger. The flame broiling was nice, but it also made it taste more like a standard burger ... It just didn't feel different enough from a burger to make any impressions on me."

The sandwich's discontinuation technically makes it a Burger King flop, but some remember it fondly. "I worked there as a teen when they had this on the menu and I loved it...got it for a lot of employee meals for sure," one Facebook user recalls. "It was pretty good for a fast food sandwich. I think a ton of people were questioning it simply because it was meatloaf," another adds.

Some found it similar to the McDonald's McRib. While BK's meatloaf was seemingly made with beef, the McRib is a patty of seasoned boneless pork, slathered in barbecue sauce and topped with raw onions and pickles. The only exact similarity is the long bun, but perhaps there are additional parallels between the McRib's cult following — and the sandwiches' FOMO-inspiring limited runs.

Many wish the meatloaf sammy would be revived. "They need to bring this back so I can try it because this sounds delicious," one X, formerly Twitter, user writes. "I never [tried] it before and I was born in 1998. But I do like meatloaf and I really want to try that sandwich if they release it again," one Redditor adds. "I would proudly go bankrupt if these came back," raved another. There's always a chance it'll return, and after all, it's not the worst sandwich at Burger King, according to the public. The Big Fish (crispy pollock, pickles, lettuce, and tartar sauce) bears that title.