Review: Burger King's How To Train Your Dragon Menu Is Ready For Its Fiery Close-Up

In 2010, kids and kids at heart began to see dragons in a new light thanks to DreamWorks' new film "How to Train Your Dragon." The box office success starring a warm-hearted titular dragon not only launched a fiery movie franchise, but opportunities for fast food chains to sell toys with movie tie-ins. McDonald's was the first to train its sights on the series with a set of Happy Meal toys, and was back on board when the sequel dropped in 2014. Wendy's took flight with its own set of toys for the spin-off Netflix series in 2015, and a decade later, Burger King gets its turn to reign in the Dragon in honor of the release of the live-action film of the same name. Sure, there are dragon toys to be found within the King Jr. Kids Meals bag, but BK is trying to heat things up a bit more with an entire meal menu to celebrate.

A fiery-inspired menu at Burger King isn't exactly a novel concept, as the King unleashed a spicy line in the summer of 2024. Well, the new How to Train Your Dragon menu sounds like it's trying to ignite a similar spark with a Dragon Flame-Grilled Whopper, Fiery Dragon Mozzarella Fries, Soaring Strawberry Lemonade, and a Viking's Chocolate Sundae. So, is this new movie tie-in menu pure fire, or more like smoke and mirrors? On behalf of The Takeout, I got a sneak peek chew & review and sip & say on the four new items to see where the truth lies. Here's what I found.

Recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Starting on May 27, the How to Train Your Dragon menu items will be available for a limited time only while supplies last, at participating nationwide locations of Burger King. The menu consists of four items: Dragon Flame-Grilled Whopper, Fiery Dragon Mozzarella Fries, Soaring Strawberry Lemonade, and a meal-capping Viking's Chocolate Sundae. The Whopper comes standard with a hamburger patty, but you can ask a BK team member to swap it out with the more vegetarian-friendly Impossible Whopper patty.

The suggested retail price for the Dragon Flame-Grilled Whopper is $7.99, $2.99 for the Soaring Strawberry Lemonade, and $2.49 for the Viking's Chocolate Sundae is $2.49. The Mozzarella Fries are available to order in four-, eight-, and 12-piece denominations. Their suggested retail prices are $2.29, $4.29, and $5.29 respectively, but price and availability may vary per store. These items can be ordered in-store or at the drive-thru where available. Advance ordering for pick-up in-store or delivery is possible through Burger King's app and website. Additional fees and higher prices may apply for delivery.

Nutritionally, the Dragon Flame-Grilled Whopper clocks in at 870 calories, the Soaring Strawberry Lemonade at 90, and the Viking's Chocolate Sundae at 260. Meanwhile, a four-piece order of Fiery Dragon Mozzarella Fries counts 230, while an eight-piece delivers 450 calories.

Colored buns at Burger King have been dazzling eyes stateside since the chain launched a blackened Halloween pair back in 2015. Ever since, the wildest and weirdest colored-Whoppers have seen the light of day, including, more recently, a tricky treated purple one in honor of the Addams Family for Halloween 2024. The Dragon Flame sounds like quite the usual Whopper suspect, with a ¼-pound flame-grilled beef burger topped with American cheese, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, pickles, ketchup, and mayo. The show-stopper here is the red-and-orange-marbled bun, which is colored not with dyes, but with natural spices, making it very FDA-friendly.

It's hard to keep your eyes off this Whopper, with its brilliant and ultra-vibrant buns. The swirling mixture of warm red and pumpkin-orange truly do unleash fiery vibes, with some black sesame seeds to invoke charred marks to its appearance. I leaned in for a smell, and it gave off a similar essence to a typical Whopper. Before taking a full bite of the burger, I started with the bun. It tasted more densely doughy than fluffy, but its innards revealed an even brighter, fiery coloring that I also had to stop to marvel at.

Overall, this Whopper tasted like the good old standard version, with the added bonus crunch of bacon. I've always personally enjoyed the combo of the crispy lettuce and creamy mayo that mesh together beneath a Whopper's buns, and this contained the same enjoyable mess. My eating companion had a go at the Impossible version. It lined-up with what a standard Impossible Whopper tastes like, although there's nothing here to replicate the missing crunch of bacon that comes with the Dragon Whopper.

Burger King offers so many versions of "fries" these days, it's hard to keep up with what's available. I was saddened to learn that the most excellent Pickle Fries were no longer on the menu when I last looked. Plenty of good options still exist, offering solid alternatives to the pretty pedestrian fries. The chain once offered Mozzarella Sticks which morphed into a thinner "fry" frame in 2024. Not long after Mozzarella Fries' debut, a Fiery take got a brief run with the summer's Fiery Menu.

When comparing last year's Fiery Mozzarella Fries and the new ones branded Fiery Dragon Mozzarella Fries, the only real difference I could surmise was the addition of the word "Dragon," and the super adorable box that features the titular green-eyed creature. Otherwise, this side item consists of mozzarella cheese, peppers, and fiery Calabrian chili pepper breading. Whether you had it then or now, these are thin sticks, with a thick, non-greasy breading and an unnatural orange color, which in comparison to the Whopper, actually looks a bit subdued.

These fries have a mild smoky smell, which hints at the spice that lies within. The breading has a great crispness to it, and when you penetrate its innards, you realize it makes up the bulk of the fries. The inside cheese is meek, more spongy than gooey, but good nonetheless. A full bite starts with the typical taste of a mozzarella stick before the heat punches through. Having one alone left a punchy and powerful fiery aftertaste behind, and on subsequent nibbles, I made sure to dip them inh the provided Hidden Valley Ranch cup to cool things off a bit.

They say if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. That's not actually the case here with the Soaring Strawberry Lemonade, but I just don't have much to say about it. Imagine strawberry lemonade, but in a fun How to Train Your Dragon-designed plastic cup, which hearkens more to the animated version than it does to the new live-action one.

This drink consists of lemonade, sugar, fruit puree, and natural flavors, displaying a nice toned-down pink hue in the glass. A first sip unleashes the tartness of the lemonade, before the sugar sweet strawberry flavoring takes over the affair. It's a fine drink that will probably help send your caloric and sugar intake soaring.

After battling with a beautifully fiery-looking burger, a flaming side, and a saccharine drink, it was time to simmer down with the Viking's Chocolate Sundae. Since this was the only menu item without a nod to the Dragon, it got a hall pass to be free of the brighter colors of the rainbow's spectrum. The base is Burger King's usual vanilla soft serve ice cream, which is topped with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup and crumbles of a green cookie.

From afar, this sundae has an earthy, worn-in look to it. The top looks like a mountain capped with loads of pepper and dashes of salt, almost like a ground-down gravel road. A closer inspection reveals the cookie crumbles, where hints of mint green try to stand out amongst the brown bits of the cookie and the Hershey's syrup. Whoever decorated this treat did a solid job. It looked more like a background setting than a dessert, but luckily it tasted more like the latter than the former.

The sundae delivered what it needed to — vanilla flavoring that lightened up the heavier lusciousness of chocolate syrup while adding a smooth juxtaposition to the welcome textured crunch of the crumbles. The cookie had a light mint flavoring that helped add a bit of an accent to this otherwise standard chocolate topped sundae.

While this new How to Train Your Dragon fiery menu by Burger King feels like a meal we've tasted before, it definitely doesn't look like one we've sunk our teeth into. The buns on the Dragon Flame-Grilled Whopper alone are worth the price of admission. The flaming marble swirls of red and orange make for an oddly calming sight to behold, carefully crafted to be ready for a close-up, with our eyes standing in for the camera.

Sure, this new menu talks a good game about being all fiery, but for the most part, the spice has been kept to the sidelines, perhaps to make the items more family-friendly, just like the movie itself. One may actually feel deceived when biting into the not-so-spicy Whopper, but I feel the goal here was for Burger King to conjure up movie magic effects to pair with familiar favorite flavors. It's nice to see the Fiery Mozzarella Fries back on menus, even under a different name, but I kind of wish the dragon was more into pickled cucumbers so Fiery Dragon Pickle Fries could have been something more than a myth in my own mind. If you actually want to spice up the Whopper, put a Fiery Fry or two under the bun for added crunch and fun.

There's no reason to dodge the Soaring Strawberry Lemonade, but after experiencing the biting awesomeness of last summer's Fiery Strawberry & Sprite, I was hoping for an encore experience. Perhaps I'll just have to wait for a movie meal tie-in with the live-action sequel, which was green-eyed-lit for summer 2027. Meat you there?

Prior to the public release of the new How to Train Your Dragon menu, the fine folks at Burger King invited me to an early sneak preview of the items at a store location in New York City. I had no say in the ordering of the items, and ate them as they were presented to me — although I removed the tomatoes from my Whopper, as I believe tomatoes ruin a sandwich. I also took home an additional Whopper and order of Fiery Dragon Mozzarella Fries, which I reheated the next day for further taste testing. Spoiler alert — they reheated quite well, with my bun getting a little bit toasty thanks to my over reheat.

I dined on these items with one eating companion, and while I noted their opinions, the results of this chew & review and sip & say are solely based on my tastes and experience with the items. The ultimate criteria is based on flavor, appearance, smell, texture, fiery-ness, Dragon-ness, overall lovability, and likelihood I would order any of the items again. The short answer is — not sure there will be a more beautiful set of buns than these Dragon ones. I want to own a pillow that looks exactly like the Dragon Whopper's flame-embroiled buns, to warm my heart and soul as I snore the night away.