Inside Mr. Charlie’s: The “Vegan McDonald’s”

This might look like a classic cheeseburger but this and everything on this tray is completely vegan and Mr. Charlie's has built an entire restaurant around recreating the fast food many of us grew up with without any meat or dairy. But why recreate fast food in the first place? I'm Eunice and today I'm sharing the story behind the viral vegan restaurant that's putting a fun plant-based twist on the fast food we find so nostalgic. Let's check it out. Mr. Charlie's opened in Los Angeles on Valentine's Day 2022 co-founded by Charlie, Aaron and Taylor who wanted to make plant-based food feel familiar and satisfying rather than the stereotypically vegan. The playful branding and nostalgic menu quickly caught the internet's attention earning the restaurant the nickname the vegan McDonald's. And the nostalgia is built right into the menu from not a hamburger, not chicken nuggets and the frowny meal Mr. Charlie's recreates the fast food experience down to the packaging. But do the vegan versions live up to the originals? Well one guy that's going to know all about that is Andrew. What's up guys? How y'all doing? I'm Andrew with Mr. Charlie's corporate training manager and owner. I've been with the company from day one. I started as a line cook and literally built my way up. One thing that I notice about all the customers that come in is how many non-vegan people come in and try our food and love our food. Some of them get a little skeptical. I'm like yeah it's vegan. They're like what? They're trying to roll out but we get them to try something and they usually fall in love. How do I know they fall in love? Because they come back. They keep coming back. So after that I of course was ready to place my order. So they left me behind the kitchen. I'm gonna see how all this stuff is made. I started strong with the not a cheeseburger with vegan cheese, perfectly grilled buns, a layer of vegan mayo, ketchup, mustard and pickles and of course some fries because a frowny meal isn't complete without them. The fries just got done. I can't help myself. Oh my god. So good! Next I got the not a chicken sandwich and because breakfast is sold all day I of course got the Mr. Muffin that comes with vegan egg and not nuggets because why not? But there was one more thing I wanted to take to go. Okay so I'm about to make the Mr. Chuck. It's supposed to take seven to ten minutes for me to make it. I'm gonna see if I can do it in the time that's needed to make it. Andrew the manager who's behind the camera right now he gave me the run through. Let's see if I can do this. Let's go. Boom boom boom right? Mayo goes first on this one and this one. Oops I'm already got mayo. Okay both sides. Put it right here. Am I putting enough mayo on this? Yes. Okay wonderful. Now patty. That's right. Okay patty goes on this side. Okay. It's those recipe videos I've been doing at home. Okay buns go on that side right? Correct. Okay so we're gonna put the bun down like here and there and then we wait. So is it ready to flip now? Yes. Okay first flip the burgers. Oh look at that char. Oh yeah. You want to grab a slice of cheese? Okay this one. Look at that. One slice of cheese. Just one slice. We'll do it right here. And cover it? You don't have to. Okay. Because we're cooking them slow so they'll melt. Oh okay. And then check the first one. Oh yeah. Flip it back. Flip this back? Okay. And then flip that. Okay. Okay. So shuffle this one and then that's it. I can still leave it down right? You can still leave it down. Okay. We're making we're making burgers here. Okay so flip this one or no it's time to plate. Yep check the buns first. Oh okay. So this these oh look how golden those look. Okay do I put this on the paper? Where do I put this now? Put them all on the spatula. Oh. I'm all grabbing it with my hands. Okay so back here. Again like a triangle. Top one on the top. Bottom right. This is those two. Okay. Perfect. And then while that's melting you can put the spatula back over there. Okay. Oh yeah see the corners are melting now. So I which one do I put first? Neither one. We're gonna decorate the buns first. Oh right. Okay sorry. So we're gonna grab the chuck sauce. This one? Yep. Okay. Then you're gonna squeeze some chuck sauce on the bottom. On the bottom? Yep. Bottom two. Like that? Yes. And this one? Yep. Okay. No onions. I'm gonna put no onions. Two pickles on each bun. Okay. Two pickles on each bun. That wasn't two but close enough. It's for you. Yeah. And then lettuce on both of the same two buns. Lettuce. How much lettuce? Like this? It's for you. Whatever you want. Whatever I want. Extra lettuce. All right now we're going in the patties. Okay which one goes first? Either one. Okay. The one without cheese is going to go on the right part. Okay. And then the one with cheese is going to go on the left. Look at me making burgers. Perfect. Okay. Now you're going to take the top bun and put it on the cheese. Okay. Now you're going to pick up that whole stack and put it on. Yep. And then you're going to grab a white wrapper from up top. This one? Yes. There's no more. Okay. Upside down. Okay. Right in the middle. Uh-huh. Yes. And I'm done. I'm putting it in a box. Okay let's see. Let's check the time. Eight minutes and 44 seconds. That's not bad. And after all that hard work I was ready for the taste test. So growing up I used to eat McDonald's a lot. Okay. If you understand Spanish a funny little joke my parents used to always say would be like, ¿Qué le pasa por McDonald's? And we'd be like, yeah, yeah. And they would just drive by. Okay. Say bye. Ya pasamos. It's kind of mean. But we they did that because it wasn't exactly the healthiest but they would give it to us every once in a while like a treat. Right. So as an adult this is very nostalgic and obviously being vegan you're like uh I kind of want to relive this nostalgia. Now I have tried Mr. Charlie's like a couple years ago at the Hollywood location. The first location that they opened up here in Southern California. And all right I can't stop eating these fries because they're so good. But I remember the minute I tried it I was like it's McDonald's. Yeah. All right starting with the not a cheeseburger. Ketchup, mustard works. No onions because I'm not an onion person. When I tell you that this tastes like my childhood a little bit, it does. It's kind of wild how well they do it. For those wondering the protein in here is impossible. So if you've ever had impossible meat you know that it tastes very similar to meat. This is, hold on. Sorry this is my first meal of the day. I'm going a little crazy. I can't get over these fries. Which the nice thing about here is you don't have to worry about the fries being anything weird. It's 100% potatoes okay. As fries should be. All right the next item. The Mr. Muffin. I like that they picked creative names that are similar to the original. Just so you know what it is. But you know they obviously can't use the same one. They got the English muffin, sausage. I believe this is a just egg patty. Cheese, mayo. Let's do this. Can't go wrong with anything here. This tastes so good. You can't have a breakfast sandwich without ketchup. So here we go. Cleanse my palate with a fry. You know I was just talking to a customer, who is not vegan by the way. A lot of non-vegans come to these, to this chain. He was saying that the fries, he was very surprised with how close and very similar they are to the McDonald's fries. Almost identical. You wouldn't be able to tell. Which I think is really cool. And a reason a lot of non-vegans come here is because they really like that it tastes similar to McDonald's. But maybe they don't want to eat a lot of meat, or they want a healthier alternative. So I think that's really cool. So before I continue on with more of the taste tests, I want to talk to you guys about the sponsor of this video, which is me. I do a plethora of different things. Number one, if you're a restaurant that really needs help with social media, whether it's coaching, you want a course, you just need guidance on how to level up your social media, I offer different services that can help you with that. So just check out this page in the description below, and I'll send you more information. Also, if you don't want to just watch me eat, and you want to travel with me to different countries and eat food of that culture, you can come with me. I'm doing multiple international trips, so check out this page where you can see where we're going next, and you can join one of these trips. All right, now let's go back to the taste test. Chicken sandwich. I like that they put, guess what, chicken butt. They're comical here with their names. That looks pretty good. Oh, this is delicious. This is so juicy. For those wondering, the brand that they use here is Tindle. It's based out of the UK. I need another bite. When I was a kid, 99.9% of the time, I was ordering chicken nuggets and barbecue sauce. So I want to see how close this is to what I remember. I know it's been over 30 years since I probably had chicken nuggets, but these are pretty close. They don't taste identical. I still remember the flavor vividly, okay, but they're really good. Like, I am happy with these. These are solid, not chicken nuggets. The other cool thing I like about this place is they have a variety of different sauces. This is just called green sauce. It has like jalapeno, cilantro. Oh, this is good. This would be good on like tacos. I also appreciate that here, they don't default to fountain drinks. I can't open this, but they have water and like juice and soda, everything. So I think that's really cool. So the really cool thing is that Mr. Charlie's is a franchise now, and the owner of this Brentwood location is Shaka, and he really focuses on fitness. He's even hosting run clubs here. So I want to give him a call to hear his point of view and his perspective of why he wanted to own this. Hey guys, I'm Shaka Smith. I'm the owner of the Brentwood franchise location with Mr. Charlie's, and I want you to come see us here in Brentwood. What kid did not want their own McDonald's? What kid did not want to eat McDonald's every day, 24-7? Like, I prayed for that as a kid. I wished for it as a kid, and you know, I got to a point in life when my health told me, oh, okay, that's not a great idea, right? And then later on I went vegan. That was even before I went vegan. I had to give up McDonald's. It wasn't right with my body. And then this opportunity came to me kind of like I kind of wished it into existence. As a content creator, I was working with Mr. Charlie's for a couple years, and I had the idea of starting a little food cart. Not even, you know, anything else. It's a food cart because a lot of people sell hot dogs outside of these clubs, and I would see them. I was like, wait, there's no other options, and what if we had like a vegan hamburger? Mr. Charlie's would be perfect. After that, they were franchising, and it just sort of kind of snowballed, and the timing was just right. I think I really love the nostalgia of the food we used to eat, but want to do it in a healthy way, a compassionate way that's good for the planet, good for ourselves. I had a mom come in here with her child, and she was able to have a birthday party for the kid here, and just know that should be a core memory of his. He's not going to associate a plant-based meal with anything negative but just joy and happiness. That really fulfills me. If you're in the LA area, you have to visit one of the Mr. Charlie's locations. This is the one in Brentwood, and obviously there's one in Hollywood, and now there's one in San Diego. It's just nostalgic. It's very fun the minute you walk in, so I highly recommend. Lastly, you can also hit super thanks or the hype button to support this channel, either give me more reach or donate to the cause. So, I hope you guys really like this video, and tell me what you would order if you came here, and I'll catch you next time on Rated V. Bye!