“SpongeBob” fans, your dream is officially a reality. But we’re sad to report it’s underwhelming.
Wendy’s, the Columbus-based fast-food chain, is partnering with Paramount to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” which premiered on Nickelodeon in 1999, by launching the Krabby Patty Kollab.
Available starting Tuesday, Oct. 8, the Krabby Patty Kollab includes two new menu items: the Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty (a vanilla Frosty with a pineapple mango flavored puree) and the Krabby Patty Kollab Burger (a quarter pound of beef, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and a “top-secret Krabby Kollab sauce” on a toasted bun).
We at The Enquirer newsroom tasted the two menu items to determine: Would the Krabby Patty Kollab be SpongeBob SquarePants-approved?
Sadly, the consensus among myself and my colleagues, Haadiza Ogwude, David Wysong and Jolene Almendarez, was that the Krabby Patty Kollab Burger would fall short of impressing the good people of Bikini Bottom. Was it a good, plain old burger? Yes. Did it successfully uphold the revered Krabby Patty name? No.
The top-secret Krabby Kollab sauce was a tad underwhelming, lacking thickness, flavor and causing the burger to be good but “very wet” in Jolene’s words.
Haadiza said it was giving Chum Bucket vibes. David added that while SpongeBob himself wouldn’t approve, Mr. Krabs would because of the money it’s likely bringing into Wendy’s restaurants.
I was the only taste tester among the bunch to give the collab burger a seal of approval. But, as my co-workers love to remind me, my “SpongeBob SquarePants” knowledge is limited, so maybe take my opinion with a grain of salt. (They’re all millennials while I represent our Gen Z audience.)
The Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty was equally underwhelming, lacking the neon-yellow hue you’d expect a SpongeBob-inspired dessert to have. To its credit, the Frosty had an orange puree swirl throughout before melting and becoming essentially a cup of vanilla ice cream within 30 minutes (maybe that was our fault for waiting to eat it in the newsroom).
