How LA’s vegan In-N-Out tastes

Following is a transcript of the video.

Sydney: OK, so there are people in LA that are comparing this plant-based burger chain to In-N-Out. We’re gonna try both and see if we can tell the difference. So I’m taking my friend Kim, resident INSIDER vegetarian. That’s all she’s known for.

Kim: That’s all I do. Sydney: To Monty’s because I have heard that their burgers are delicious and plant-based. Have you heard of Monty’s before? Kim: I actually hadn’t, and I’m really excited to be here and testing it out for the first time because I could always use more veggie burgers in my life. Sydney: What is the best part about a veggie burger, and what’s the worst part about a veggie burger? Kim: I loathe a veggie burger that is like mush on mush on mush. A lot of the time, restaurants just don’t really know what to do with them. It feels kind of like an afterthought on the menu. What’s cool about places like Monty’s is that it’s the focus, doing this plant-based burger and doing it very well. Sydney: Yeah, and they use Impossible meat. You’ve had the Impossible Burger. Kim: Yeah, I’ve had it a bunch of times. Sydney: People have this idea of LA as being a very vegan-friendly city, and it is.

Kim: That’s accurate. The trope is that it’s all like salads and juice and whatever, and this is the kind of…

Sydney: This is not health food.

Kim: No, this is precisely the kind of vegetarian food that I love, which is like greasy, cheesy, indulgent food that makes you feel full, makes you feel satisfied, and then you can have a salad later. Nic: Literally, from day one, we opened the door, looked out, and there was about 50 people in line, and it’s kind of continued that trend ever since. We always wanna be that place that transitions people or shows them a way to look at plant-based foods in a different light. For us, I think it always starts with our grilled onions. First thing we do in the morning is slather the grill with fresh onions, and then we come with our Impossible patties. We do them super thin. We learned that getting them nice and crusted on both sides, they stay real moist in the middle but gives it really nice texture. And then we use Follow Your Heart cheese, and we learned early that if you add a little bit of steam in there, the cheese just literally falls on top of the burger. We put some fresh lettuce on there, fresh tomatoes, some of our house-made sauces, wrap that up in a nice little package, get it super hot. It’s super tasty. One of the things people say when they come in here, it reminds them of In-N-Out, they call it the vegan In-N-Out. Growing up in southern California, there’s no bigger staple than In-N-Out. One of the things we always said was we knew we’d be getting close to some success when people would land at the airport and put Monty’s in their phone, and that’s been something that people do for In-N-Out since its inception, and now we’re starting to see that happen with Monty’s, so to be anywhere in the same conversation is a huge honor.

– I think it’s better than In-N-Out, actually.

– It’s really good.

– I was surprised.

– I’ve been seeing it on Instagram, and I was reading everybody’s reviews. See, I have it up. And I’m working in downtown today, and I was telling my husband who’s not really a fan of plant-based, but he was like, “That looks good, so go for it and get it.” I have no idea what I’m ordering.

Sydney: All right, let’s take a bite because I’m salivating, it smells so good.

Kim: If someone handed it to me, I’d be like, “I’m so sorry, I’m a vegetarian, I can’t eat that.”

Sydney: And the texture, I mean the texture looks good, checks out. Smells like a burger.

Kim: Yeah. I’m like, I can’t wait.

Sydney: We’re working. This is work.

Kim: This is my job. Yeah, this is amazing.

Sydney: This is really, really good. The texture’s definitely there. I wanna try a little piece of it without the bun, just to kind of really get at it. The caramelized onions are bomb.

Kim: This feels, like, indulgent and greasy and delicious in a way that a lot of vegetarian food never does. This is doing the trick.

Sydney: There’s lots of fresh vegetables, but the patty is really what you’re here for. You’re trying to replicate a cheeseburger. This is not a veggie burger. This is a plant-based burger, and the difference being that, you know, you want it to taste like meat.

Kim: Yeah, and this is an improvement on what I already thought was a good starting point.

Sydney: Yeah, all right, one more, I have to take another bite too, let’s take one together. Ready? You just took one?

Kim: We’ll do one more.

These fries, I think, are better than In-N-Out fries.

Sydney: Yeah.

Sydney: ‘Cause In-N-Out’s fries suck, and we all know it. Kim: In-N-Out’s great flaw is its french fries.

Sydney: All in all… I can see you going to town on that burger. What I think is that if they’re gonna call themselves the vegan In-N-Out, or if people are gonna call them that, they kinda nailed it. Good job.

Kim: It’s one of those things where it’s a higher price point, but you 100% get what you pay for.

– The first week that they opened, I’ve been here, and then actually, I keep coming back. I’ve actually dreamt about this burger for a week now, and so I finally convinced my sister to come out with me. I’m a former vegan, and this burger just is the bomb. It tastes like a real burger. Sydney: We know that Monty’s is delicious, but we still wanted to see if our meat-eating coworkers would like it better than In-N-Out. So we had them do a blind taste test to compare. First up, Monty’s Good Burger. Mikala: This looks like a Krabby Patty. Honestly, it smells like vegetables to me. Mmm. Very messy, very good. Joe: Looks like a cheeseburger. Oh, is there pickles on this? Sydney: No. Joe: Yeah, what’s this? Sydney: Try it. Joe: No, I don’t like pickles. What does that taste like? I’m not familiar with it. See here. Yeah, see, more of those things I don’t like, but that’s OK. Smells good. It tastes different. It’s good, but it doesn’t taste exactly like a cheeseburger. I’m gonna guess it’s either an Impossible Burger or something with, like, bugs. Caroline: I guess I’ll just try it, OK. What a day. Hmm, this is good, but I’m getting a weird flavor from it. OK, hold on. It’s good. I’ll eat it. Am I comparing it to another burger? Hmm. I like the fries a lot. Sydney: Next up: In-N-Out. Mikala: This looks familiar to me. I’m thinking this is In-N-Out, but we’ll see. Honestly, I’m not that impressed. Oh no. The fries are awful, I’m sorry. The fries on the other burger were much better, but the cheese on this, on this one? It’s really good. It’s really cheesy. Joe: Are these bug burgers? I’m pro-bug. I mean, if this isn’t an In-N-Out burger, then someone’s ripping them off hard. Oh yeah. That’s really good. This one tastes more like a cheeseburger. I do like this one a lot better. Let’s see here, I mean, normally you don’t eat a burger, like, two different burgers at the same time, but… Yeah, that meat is definitely missing something, versus this guy… Better fries and better burger on this one. Caroline: 99% sure this is an In-N-Out Burger. The thing is, I grew up eating In-N-Out, so to me, if this is an In-N-Out burger, I feel like it’s something that I just always have had, so I don’t think of it as anything special. It’s like a classic burger. Mmm. Oh, I love it. Sydney: And now, it’s time for the reveal. All right, so that one is from Monty’s, and it’s plant-based. It’s the Impossible Burger. Caroline: Ohh. Sydney: And that other one is, of course, In-N-Out. In-N-Out! OK, interesting, an Impossible Burger. Huh. If you said it was from a regular burger place, I would’ve believed you. Can I try it again, now that I know? It’s good. But I would still have my In-N-Out burger. If I was vegan or vegetarian, I would have this burger and enjoy it, but I’m not, so in that case, I will stick to the classic, but the fries are really good. I would have these fries over these fries. Mikala: It tasted like a burger, and I think when it’s already in your mind that it’s going to be vegetables, you’re like, “oh no,” but even with that in my mind, it still tasted like a burger. It felt like a burger, if that makes sense, and it was really good. Joe: Out of these two, my favorite’s definitely the In-N-Out. Tasting them right next to each other, you can definitely taste the difference. I would say Monty’s and the Impossible Burger, which I have had Impossible Burger meat at other places, it’s comparable to regular hamburgers, maybe one you would make at home, but when it comes to something like In-N-Out, and they have such a distinct flavor, you can definitely taste the difference.