The race to serve the Impossible Burger is on across the country, and kosher restaurants are not sitting this one out.
For those unfamiliar, the Impossible Burger is a vegan/vegetarian burger that most closely represents a real beef burger in nearly every way: taste, texture, and sight, except it’s made entirely from plants. According to their website, the I.B. is made of “wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein, and heme. Never heard of heme? Heme is responsible for the characteristic of taste and aroma of meat.”
The nationwide freak out over this product is justified. Former carnivores missing their juicy burgers, kosher observant Jews abstaining from eating meat during the 9 days / who want to have a milkshake with their burger / who finally want to have a cheeseburger / who just don’t want to be fleishigs, and many others who generally avoid meat are ecstatic over the developments of this product.
Having tried the Impossible Burger for the first time this week (served as a classic cheeseburger with Cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onion, and special sauce) at LolliBop Cafe in the 5 Towns, I understand what the fuss is about. It was as close to the real thing as I’ve had in a “veggie burger”.
While the real excitement for this burger for most kosher keepers will be to have it with real dairy cheese (opt for cheddar if available), there are many vegan and meat restaurants putting this burger on the menu too, giving vegetarians and vegans more options for dining out.
With the 9 Days approaching and the collective community generally abstaining from meat for the week (save for a local siyum), I wanted to bring this deliciousness closer to consumers to try.
Here’s the current list of all kosher restaurants in North America serving the Impossible Burger. (If this item doesn’t appear on the menu, often it can be requested as an off-menu item). We’ve notated what type of restaurant it is so you can seek out a real dairy cheeseburger if you’d like.
ATLANTA
- Formaggio Mio (Dairy Restaurant- enjoy with real cheese)
BOSTON
- Clover – all locations (Pareve Restaurant)
- Milk Street Cafe – Downtown Boston (Dairy & Meat Restaurant – they have 3 kitchens)
- Pure Cold Press – Brookline (Dairy Restaurant- enjoy with real cheese)
CHICAGO
- Ken’s Diner – Skokie (Meat Restaurant)
DETROIT
- Dave’s Gourmet – Oak Park (Meat Restaurant)
- Kraving’s – Oak Park (Meat Restaurant)
LOS ANGELES
- Meshuga 4 Sushi – both locations (Pareve Restaurant)
- Pizza World (Dairy Restaurant- enjoy with real cheese)
- Shiloh’s Steakhouse (Meat Restaurant)
- WunderEats (Pareve Restaurant)
MIAMI BEACH
- Tasty Beach Cafe (Dairy Restaurant- enjoy with real cheese)
MONTREAL
- Chiyoku Steakhouse (Meat Restaurant)
NYC AREA
- Bravo Pizza – Queens (Dairy Restaurant- enjoy with real cheese)
- Candle Cafe West – UWS (Pareve Restaurant)
- Eden Wok / Kosher in Midtown – Midtown (Meat Restaurant)
- Golan Heights – Washington Heights (Meat Restaurant- 9 Days only)
- Holy Schnitzel – all locations (Meat Restaurant)
- Josh’s Brooklyn Brick Oven Pizza – 5 Towns (Dairy Restaurant- enjoy with real cheese)
- LolliBop Cafe – 5 Towns (Dairy Restaurant- enjoy with real cheese)
- Mexikosher – UWS & Queens (Meat Restaurant)
- Paprika Kitchen – Midtown Manhattan (Meat Restaurant)
- Shelly’s Cafe – Teaneck (Dairy Restaurant- enjoy with real cheese)
- Snaps – Lakewood (Meat Restaurant)
- Yummy Grill – Midwood, Brooklyn (Meat Restaurant – 9 Days only)
The Impossible Burger product is kosher certified by the OU, which made it possible for its wide adoption at kosher restaurants across North America. However, each restaurant on this list has a different hashgacha.
Please comment below if you have amendments to this list.
