Wendy's Krabby Patty Kollab Meal is load of barnacles

Are you ready, kids? After 25 years of watching your favorite yellow fry cook, SpongeBob SquarePants, flip burgers underwater, you can now try a Krabby Patty on land at a Wendy’s near you.

The Krabby Patty Kollab Meal features a Krabby Patty Kollab Burger, medium natural-cut fries and a Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty. To customers' dissatisfaction, the Krabby Patty Kollab Burger does not accurately mimic the ingredients of the Krabby Patty that SpongeBob has made numerous times on the show.

Instead, it has nearly the identical accouterments as a Dave's Single — American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions. Not only did the Krabby Patty Kollab Burger resemble a Dave's Single, but it tasted exactly like one, too. 

The only difference is that it has Secret Krabby Patty Sauce instead of ketchup and mayonnaise. The sauce, as the name says, is a "secret" — one of the only ingredients listed online is eggs. But, when looking at the sauce in person, it has the same yellowish, orange appearance you'd see at any other fast food restaurant. It looked the same way it tasted — underwhelming.

The immersion took another dive when it became clear Wendy's was confusing their "SpongeBob" lore. The Krabby Patty has always had a secret formula, it never had a secret sauce. It also never had two slices of cheese. The burger is missing ketchup, mustard and a seeded bun. 

It might not seem like much, but it goes to show how little effort was put into this product.

Moreover, Wendy's has always been known for their square burgers, and while SpongBob is, of course, a square, Krabby Patties are round. Maybe Krabby Patties should have come to life at a fast-food restaurant already equipped with round burgers and seeded buns such as Burger King or McDonald's. 

Moving onto the french fries, they were just regular Wendy's fries. Hot and tasty, but nothing about them screamed Krusty Krab. At the very least they could have been advertised as Kelp Fries.

This brings us to the Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty, which was just a vanilla Frosty with pineapple and mango flavored puree, which was sitting at the bottom of the cup. Once you finish the vanilla Frosty, you're left with orange goo. If this was to remind customers of Goo Lagoon in Bikini Bottom then Wendy's may have succeeded there.

The puree itself tasted like a piña colada, which didn't feel on-brand. If they were going for theming, the Frosty should've just been pineapple-flavored, but that brings up some other concerns.

SpongeBob famously lives in a pineapple. So, you're essentially eating his home? What made this more disturbing was that this local Wendy's location was advertising its Crispy Panko Fish Sandwich right next to an image of the Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty.

If Wendy's was more creative, it could've made a Frosty that resembled a Kelp Shake. Or, since the entire purpose of this meal was to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "SpongeBob SquarePants," the brand could've poked fun at McDonald's celebration of Grimace's birthday with his own shake.

The meal also didn't have any special packaging. This location might've run out of them, but other spots had a SpongeBob-themed box and a Bikini Bottom-themed wrapper for the burger.

Unfortunately, the meal felt unfinished in the typical Wendy's packaging. There was no toy, which seems wrong, considering this is targeted toward children. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy trading cards or action figures could have saved this meal from the disaster it was.

The meal is available for $10.99 and comes out to about $12 after tax. Customers also have the option to purchase just the Krabby Patty Kollab Burger for $6.69 and four sizes of the Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty from $1.79 to $3.79.

Thankfully, Wendy's did not adopt the absurdly expensive prices of The Krusty Krab.

If you decide to taste this disappointing meal for yourself, just please don't ask the employees to rev up those fryers.