I ordered a beef burger for lunch today and the place (Lucky’s in Hell’s Kitchen) had the option to add on a Beyond Burger patty, so I decided to give it a go. It’s not awful, and it is certainly more meat-like in texture than any veggie burger I have ever had, but it in no way tastes like meat. I’m eating it bunless and have had bites both with toppings and plain. Eaten with toppings (grilled onions, avocado, chipotle mayonnaise), you can still tell it’s not meat but it isn’t jarringly VEGGIE BURGER the way a black bean burger is. Eaten without toppings, it tastes very much NOT like meat - the flavor actually reminds me of the breading on these fish filets my mom used to give us when we were kids, which I always assumed was the flavor of potato starch. Potato starch is an ingredient in this so not surprising.
As a dedicated meat eater, I am not recoiling in horror from this but I would never choose it if beef were an option. I MIGHT choose it over a turkey burger, but that is not high praise given that I find ground turkey repulsive.
