We Tried Wendy's Krabby Patty Kollab And It Isn't Just For SpongeBob Fans

In the same week that Krispy Kreme is celebrating the 40th anniversary of "Ghosbusters" with a line of doughnuts and a slimey drink, the fine folks over at Wendy's is rolling out the yellow carpet to tout 25 glorious years of the Nickelodeon cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants." While it's not transforming itself into the second coming of SpongeBob's favorite haunt, The Krusty Krab, Wendy's is hoping to tap into its Krabby Patty's secret sauce to top its own burger. Lindsay Radkoski, U.S. Chief Marketing Officer for The Wendy's Company, said in a press release, "It makes sense that two of the most iconic squares in pop culture are teaming up to bring a taste of this unique, limited-time experience to life for fans of all ages!" And if that wasn't enough, it is also offering up a special Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty to complete one's SpongeBobby meal.

So, is Wendy's Krabby Patty Kollab, featuring this burger and frosty, a true treasure of the sea, or does it deserve to be buried 20,000 leagues under it? The Takeout headed over to Wendy's to reel in this new inspired Kollab to find out. This chew and review is based on taste, sense of fun, and overall lovability.

The Krabby Patty Kollab is currently available at participating U.S. nationwide, Canadian, and Guam locations of Wendy's. They will remain available in stores until sometime in early November, while supplies last. Fresh beef is only available at Wendy's in the contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada.

The average cost of the Krabby Patty Kollab Burger is $5.99, and the Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty is $2.79, but price may vary per location. The burger comes with a single patty of quarter-pound beef, and extra patties cannot be added to any order. The top-secret Krabby Kollab sauce is not sold separately and can only be ordered on the burger. However, you can order an extra amount of it on your burger. The Frosty is available in four sizes: junior, small, medium, and large. There is also a meal deal option called The Krabby Patty Kollab Meal, which includes the burger, a medium order of fries, and small Pineapple Under The Sea Frosty.

These new, but limited time only, items in the Krabby Patty Kollab can be ordered in-store, at a kiosk, or drive-thru where available. Advance ordering for dine-in, pick-up, or delivery is available directly through Wendy's website or app. Services fees may apply when ordering for delivery. They are available when Wendy's takes a break from chipping away at McDonald's breakfast, when lunch is served around 10:30 a.m.. Availability hours may vary per location.

The Krabby Patty Kollab Burger comes standard with a quarter-pound burger patty, two slices of melty American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, and a top-secret Krabby Kollab sauce on a toasted premium bun. Under the list of ingredients, nothing is revealed about the Krabby Collab Sauce other than it contains the allergen egg. The burger nets 590 calories, 36 grams of total fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 1.5 grams of trans fat, 80 milligrams cholesterol, 1,110 milligrams of sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, and 29 grams of protein. It also contains the allergens milk, sesame, soy, and wheat.

The Pineapple Under The Sea Frosty begins with a standard vanilla Frosty base, which is made of milk, sugar, corn syrup, cream, nonfat milk, whey, and molasses. Included in this mix is a pineapple purée, which consists of sugar, water, banana purée, mango purée concentrate, pineapple juice concentrate, and less than 1% of elements like natural flavors, citric acid to provides tartness, pectin, xanthan gum, fruit and vegetable juice to add for color, potassium sorbate to protect taste. A small size contains 330 calories, 8 grams of total fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 160 milligrams of sodium, 58 grams of carbohydrates, 52 grams of sugar, and 8 grams of protein. In the United States, it contains the allergen milk, and in Alaska and Hawaii, soy.

From the exterior looks of this Krabby Patty Kollab Burger, nothing seems out of the ordinary. It looks like any other Dave's Single one has ever ordered from Wendy's. The only real difference is noticed when you lift the top bun back to see where the top-secret Krabby Kollab sauce lies. Even though I ordered my burger with an extra amount of the sauce, what I received seemed very meager.

The sauce itself had a salmon-orange color, with tiny black pepper flecks. It certainly had Big Mac sauce vibes, and even had a similar scent, as well. Before tasting it with the burger, I spooned up a bit of the sauce off the bun and into my mouth. It had a sharper taste than Mac sauce, like a mayo with a relish zest, and perhaps dashes of Worcestershire sauce thrown in for good measure.

So how did it play with the rest of the burger, cheese and veggie toppings (minus tomatoes, which I opted out of)? The sauce lost a bit of its punch, kind of buried among the other elements, but it still added a nice new flavoring to compliment Wendy's salaciously salty beef patty. It was good enough that I almost had forgotten that it was missing the standard mayo and ketchup I usually include with my burger order.

When I was handed the Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty, my mind thought of Lando from The Empire Strikes Back saying, "Hello, what have we here?" I cannot recall a single Frosty ever looking like this one did, as a thing of such pure beauty. Bright amber yellow swirls were compartmentalized by large swaths of vanilla Frosty. It kind of looked more like a McDonald's butterscotch sundae than the signature dessert Wendy's has served since day one. It was so sunshiny alluring that I couldn't wait to dig right in.

I popped off the cap and took a quick whiff. It had a strong pineapple essence, which landed somewhere between a pleasant tropical summery drink and an artificially-scented air freshener spray. Luckily, its actual taste leaned more towards the former than the latter. While there were hints of mango and banana in the syrup, pineapple was indeed the primary flavor driving this treat. If you've ever had a banana split from a place like Dairy Queen, it resembles that type of gloppy pineapple juice, minus any actual fruit chunks present.

What was really nice about this dessert was how well Wendy's landed with a ratio of pineapple syrup to vanilla Frosty, and not fully mixing the two together. While it's hard to escape the pineapple flavoring in any spoonful or straw sip, there's just enough included to soothingly enjoy it without having it feeling remotely saccharine and overly sweet.

I devoured my Krabby Patty Kollab Patty, and barely had a chance to appreciate what I had just eaten. I really would have loved to have had the Krabby Patty with plural patties, and a heck of a lot more sauce. Not sure why a side of this good sauce wasn't available for ordering. It would have been awesome for the ability to have a dip cup of it, to dunk a few fries into them, or even try to drizzle it over the Frosty. Why not? I'm sure SpongeBob would approve.

Speaking of dunking fries, of course I wasn't leaving the comfy confines of Wendy's without doing so into the Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty. The result was a super happy place where the saltiness of the fries plays really nice with, not only the creaminess of the vanilla Frosty, but with the neat sweetness of the pineapple syrup, too. All in all, the Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty is required eating. I actually have zero complaints to make about this well constructed treat, which nailed the syrup to Frosty ratio. It also reminded me how great a vanilla Frosty is over a chocolate one, with its more airy taste.

Any chance Wendy's could bring this Kollab back next year for a 26th year of celebration of "SpongeBob SquarePants?" And perhaps next time add a fun side toy for the Kollab meal?