September 2, 2024, 4:08 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a person with a “sedentary lifestyle” should consume an average of around 1840 kilocalories daily. A burger served in a restaurant in Las Vegas contains around ten times as many calories. “The fatter, the better” is the motto of the much-criticized restaurant, which uses dubious dishes and methods to attract customers.
Before going on the grill, the slice of meat is thoroughly soaked in butter. The same goes for the cheese, onions, and tomatoes that will later join it on the burger. Take the whole thing, spread a thick layer of onion and cheese sauce on top, and stack everything between two halves of a bun. This makes the world’s highest-calorie burger.
The so-called “Octuple Bypass Burger,” offered at the “Heart Attack Grill” in Las Vegas, has a whopping 20,000 calories. However, the version with just four slices of meat was enough to earn it an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s highest-calorie burger. The “Quadruple Bypass Burger” has an impressive 9,982 calories and weighs 1.4 kilograms. If you like it even heavier, order the burger with extra bacon. The “Octuple Bypass Burger” has 40 (!) slices of bacon between the individual layers.
It’s not just the burgers at the “Heart Attack Grill” that are high in calories. The menu also includes fries and onion rings deep-fried in pure lard, giant hot dogs, cream milkshakes, cola, chocolate, various alcoholic drinks, and filterless cigarettes – essentially, all things unhealthy.
The absurd concept of the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas
Anyone visiting the restaurant, which is known for its unhealthy food, is given a hospital gown at the entrance. This is because those who come here are not supposed to be guests but rather “patients.” The waitresses are nurses in revealing outfits.
The apparent sexism is just one of many critical aspects of the “Heart Attack Grill.” For example, particularly overweight guests receive a reward. The “patients” can have themselves weighed on a special scale before ordering. If they weigh more than 350 pounds (159 kilos), the “Heart Attack Grill” meal is free. Drinks are either administered directly into the mouth from an oversized syringe, served from a pillbox, or “donated” in the form of a blood bank hanging from a mobile stand. If you don’t finish the food you ordered, you will be spanked by one of the nurses as a punishment. If you succeed, you will be driven to your car in a wheelchair as a reward.
Massive criticism of the “Heart Attack Grill”
No wonder there have been numerous critical voices and protests since the opening in 2011 due to the questionable concept. Especially when one of the burger joint’s ambassadors, 29-year-old Blair River, died suddenly in January 2011, the uproar was huge. The former Arizona wrestling champion was a regular customer at the Heart Attack Grill and weighed 260 kilograms at the last count. He allegedly died of pneumonia.
In 2012, two other guests had health problems after eating at the restaurant. In 2013, there was another death of a regular customer. John Alleman, also an ambassador for the burger restaurant, collapsed at the bus stop outside his regular restaurant. The 52-year-old was rushed to hospital, but the doctors were unable to save him. The diagnosis: heart attack. None of the cases, however, had a clear connection to the food at the “Heart Attack Grill.” The restaurant warns of the food’s harmful effects and has deliberately named itself after heart diseases – but is that enough?
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Highest-calorie burger still popular despite everything
Despite all the criticism in recent years, the “Heart Attack Grill” is still popular. Many vacationers in Las Vegas make a stopover there – if only to take a photo of themselves with the gigantic burger. However, the numerous Instagram posts of guests proudly showing themselves with the giant burger or on the scales do not look like a critical examination of the restaurant or its food.
Incidentally, sharing one of the larger burgers with several people at the Heart Attack Grill is forbidden. Because almost no one can manage the immense quantities of meat, bread, cheese, and sauce, the rest inevitably ends up in the trash. This, in turn, raises the question of whether you really need a 20,000-calorie burger, half of which is thrown away.