The meatless Impossible Burger bleeds and sears, but wasn’t a crowd pleaser

Enlarge / The Impossible Burger IRL. (credit: Sean Gallagher)

A beefy burger without the beef? That is the seemingly impossible promise of the Impossible Burger, a trendy plant-based burger that claims to "bleed," sear, and taste like the best of the best all-American whoppers-without the environmental impacts of beef production and ethical concerns of meat-eating.

On a cold and dreary Friday, a band of Ars reporters set out to nosh these mythical sandwich beasts for ourselves to see if the impossible had indeed been accomplished.

Before this, all indications were that it had. Since its introduction in 2016, the Impossible Burger has graced the menus of high-end restaurants such as Momofuku Nishi in New York and Jardiniire in San Francisco. Investors have forked over more than $250 million to the faux meat's maker, Impossible Foods. Impossible Burgers are now served in dozens of restaurants across the country. And the company has "ambitious plans to open new production facilities and partner with a ton more restaurants across the United States," according to its website.

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