The Discontinued Burger King Sandwich We Want Back Rivaled McDonald's Filet-O-Fish

If there were an Academy Awards-style "In Memoriam segment" for all the discontinued fast food items that still have cult followings, Burger King's forgotten offerings would take up a good chunk of Lady Gaga singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," or whatever. The fast food giant has been around since the 1950s, so it stands to reason that the menu has seen its fair share of changes in that time. For example, Burger King used to have salads alongside something called the Enormous Omelet Sandwich. Likewise, some devotees continue lamenting the loss of the BK Turkey Burger, though most people are probably glad we'll never see that particular fast food burger again.

The discontinued Burger King sandwich that continues to break hearts with its perpetual absence is none other than the Whaler, a delicious-sounding fish sandwich that rivaled even McDonald's famous Filet-O-Fish. According to an ominous, vaguely "Jaws"-coded commercial from 1983, the Whaler was "a crispy fish filet, tender all white meat, topped with creamy tartar sauce," lettuce, and housed in a sesame seed bun. It was also roughly twice the size of its slyly unnamed competitor's fish sandwich (ahem, Mickey D's), hence the moniker.

While it was arguably a good move to highlight the size difference between the Whaler and the Filet-O-Fish, Burger King probably should have figured out a way to do it without making it sound like it was frying up Free Willy. Especially since the Filet-O-Fish is still a staple menu item at the Golden Arches. Burger King does still have a fish sandwich on the menu, but do you even know what it's called? Exactly. Poor, unknown Fish'N Crisp.

The Whaler was available by the early 1970s and went straight after the Filet-O-Fish in that '83 ad. If you ask some customers who remember both sandwiches at the time, the Whaler really was that much better. One Facebook commenter gushed, "It was about twice the size of McDonald's Filet-O-Fish and very, very good. Nothing on their menu today compares!" Many YouTube commenters concurred, with one writing, "I remember the Whaler! It was soooooooo good and the fish tasted fresh out the water! McDonald's fish filet had nothing on the Whaler!" Not to be drowned in a wave of monotony, BK launched the Cajun Whaler in 1987, which was essentially the same sandwich but with a Cajun-spiced fish patty.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Whaler was rebranded and reimagined several times as the Ocean Catch Fish Filet, the Big Fish sandwich, and the Premium Alaskan Fish sandwich. Now, something similar, the Fish'N Crisp, wallows in the murky depths of BK's menu. Part of the rush to rebrand may be due to the fact that in the late 1980s, protesters from Greenpeace voiced their opposition to the fact that Burger King sourced its fish from Iceland, which, at the time, had a controversial whaling practice.

So needless to say, the sandwich named the Whaler is no more, and BK's fish offering may not be as iconic as it used to be, but it also no longer references an environmentally disastrous practice, so, you know, probably a smart move in the long run. After all, not every fast food product can be a winner, but luckily Burger King has plenty of delicious and varied offerings on the menu on which to pin its paper crown, including a modern fish sandwich.