$200 Burger: Delectable Or Despicable?

(CBS)  It may be the most exotic, the most expensive and the most controversial burger ever flipped in a fast-food joint.

"This is not just ordinary beef, this is special?" CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips asked.

Burger King's Chef Mark Dowding said: "Absolutely; this is Wagyu."

Premium, prohibitively priced, Japanese-style Wagyu, flame-grilled, garnished with Italian truffles, Spanish cured ham, aged balsamic vinegar, Champagne onions and popped onto a saffron- and truffle-dusted bun.

Isn't it all a little elaborate for a hamburger?

"Absolutely not," Dowding said. "Absolutely not."

Total cost of ingredients, the chain says, about $80 a throw.

By the time it gets to the counter, it sells for just shy of $200. For a burger!

So is it worth it?

"Orgasmic," one customer says.

Which is a lot to ask of a burger.

To some this is a burger - a high-end burger. It would have to be at $200 a pop. To others, though, it isn't a burger. It's grotesque on a bun.

"Outrageous," said Dave Tucker, with the anti-poverty group "War on Want."

To food crisis campaigners trying to draw attention to the millions of poor around the world, who are struggling to survive at a time of shortages and rising prices for basic commodities, this is the wrong burger, and the wrong message, at the wrong time.

"To come out with this kind of hugely expensive and over-the-top burger and to have 80 million people going to bed hungry every night is just to shoot yourself in the foot," Tucker said.

The chain, which is donating the proceeds from this promotion to charity, calls it "deliciously decadent." Delicious is a matter of taste.

Nobody's arguing with decadent.

[aggiekat2004]

Hey, the little gang-banger gold-tooth gotta-have-bling baby''s-daddy crowd can drive through in their Humvee and grab a sack for their homies with their drug money.

Way to go, Burger King. That is your demographic, isn''t it?

[patriot12436]

michaelt302
I am neither jealous or bitter. I am just inteligent enough to not spend this kind of money on a hamburger. When i buy something i want it to be worth the money. This isn''t and i think with the recession we are in it is bad timing on the part of Burger King.

[kansas1946]

I think it is a great idea. At that price, folks ought to start losing some weight!! I could only affors about one of these a year.

[barbaram99]

NASTY.

[mjm117]

People get upset way to easy. WHO CARES about a $200 burger. If someone wants to make it and someone wants to buy it...no harm no foul.

Non story in my opinion

[Razzl]

I dunno if I care about the message, but unlike diamonds or Porsches or other stuff people waste their money on, you can be sure this money will go to regular folks--either the charity or the farmers or the bakers or the burger-flippers. Robbing the rich to give to the poor is hard to criticize when it''s all mutual and voluntary...

[waterandsand]

wait,,, where can you order this thing at? If i order a 200 dollar buger there no way in hell some punk 15yr olds making it.

[jboxton]

Wow...Keithgardner what the heck country are you from? flaks? croud? Learn English and repost, dummy.

[sociald63]

i''ll have the $200 combo, extra cheese, but hold the salmonella -

[imotorist]

Eighteen carrat gold hamburger turns into 18 carrat gold plated $hit.