Big Mac
If I was grabbing a burger on the run on a commute to London, I would prefer to go for the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. The Big Mac sounds appealing but lacks quality. That being said, McDonalds is hardly synonymous with quality. But, I would expect, for the price, to have something resembling food.
The Good
- The Gherkins
- Toppings and Bun
The Bad
- Still wondering if the patties are made from meat
Since I was a kid, there has been an illusion that the Big Mac is a beast of a burger. I have always struggled with the concept of McDonald’s, as feeling full is short-lived. Either way, marketing would have you believe that eating a Big Mac is an experience for us heavy hitters. I have to admit that even armed with thirty-plus years of disappointment, the marketing gets me every time. There is something about walking past a London bus stop and seeing the huge burger on an appealing billboard. Alas, I was sold again. The £9.99 deal on Deliveroo McDonalds got me! Two burgers and fries for £9.99 seemed somewhat of an offer I could not refuse. So, I ordered, prepped, and ready with my camera for another burger review. These are my findings!
Before we start! This is how a Big Mac is supposed to look, based on the image that sold me at the bus stop we discussed earlier.
The Big Mac Bun: 18/20
Not in a million years did I think I would be giving McDonalds a score of 18 for the bun! I am wise enough to know that the bouncy bun you see on the Big Mac in the movies and advertisements is overshooting. Even the coldness from the 15-minute journey Deliveroo made to get my burger to me couldn’t deny me a great first bite. Yes, it was cold; it looked like a pancake compared to the images we all see in advertisements, but it was so good. The taste was derivative of times past when you were younger and upscale from the cheap saver menu to the whole stack meal. It was probably full of sugars (I have seen the five year Big Mac experiments online, too, when the bread stays the same), but damn, it was good. I have to admit that at some points, I did question whether what I was eating was bread or not, but that didn’t matter. When it comes to taste, the Big Mac bun did taste great. The seeds add that bit of nostalgia, I think. When you can afford to buy your own McDonalds and not settling for Mum’s cheap knock off at home, the bun is a key first difference!
The Toppings: 8/10
The basics of the gherkins and shredded lettuce are surprisingly good. I have eaten all sorts of burgers over the past few years and gherkins are such a key addition to the Big Mac. There was a time as a kid that the first thing I would do is deconstruct any McDonalds burger and omit the gherkins. Not any more. I love them, I feel a little embarrassed to say as a grown man, but they are great. The sweetness goes so well with the sauce in the stack, the gherkins are an essential part of the construction. Now, I strategically place them inside to ensure that I get a balanced bite of gherkin each time (if the quantity allows).
Shredded lettuce adds textural imaging to the stack, albeit not much flavour. But, the tiny shards of onion are a quality addition. Although there are hardly enough to make a huge difference to the flavour, without them, it is noticeable.
The Condiments: The Big Mac Secret Sauce 10/10
You hear the word “secret” and get excited. As we all know, McDonalds are masters of marketing. The timeloop that has allowed McDonalds to create their own narrative around the Big Mac’s secret sauce has been disgruntled somewhat. Regulations require information around ingredients to be published, as do the caloric intake of products. Upon searching for the ingredients to the sauce, I was astounded to find this:
Thats a whole heap of ingredients for a teaspoon of sauce to be wiped on my bun! I know the raging debate around the number of ingredients in McDonalds products. Objectively though, the secret sauce is a banger! Ha! As a consumer, thinking about flavour, it is hard to beat the secret sauce for flavour. As someone interested in my health, they should probably call this sauce “This will mess you up”. But, who am I to challenge McDonalds on their marketing plans, they have done it for years. They give us sweet products knowing full well we are going to have stomach cramps in an hour or so. Regardless, the £5.99 is obtained, every time. A guilty pleasure that is difficult to swerve, especially on the go.
The Cheese: 5/20
What cheese?
Maybe it was the oozing cheese cascading down the side of the stack in the images that filled me with hope. However, the lack of cheese in this burger was embarrassing. There were remnants of cheese sporadically etched around, but they had fallen apart in the cook. What should have been at least a visual delight turned into a nightmare. There was nothing but pieces of broken cheese, which was annoying. Poor effort by Walton McDonalds!
The Patty(s): 5/20
To the meaty part of the review (pun intended).
When was the last time you had a hot McDonald’s? I mean seriously, when was the last time that you bit into a burger and thought, “Wow, that is too hot. Let me wait a minute.” The answer, I can imagine, is probably never.
The meat in the Big Mac was beyond cold. The taste was bland, tired, and barely resembled a cow. It led me to think whether or not this was meat at all. I have seen the advertisements claiming 100% beef is used at McDonalds. But, for once, I am not sold. If the patties, squashed to perhaps the thinnest burger patties I have ever seen, are meat, then something else is happening. Sometimes, I wish I was a scientist. I do, however, have a theory. Food can stay hot, but chemicals cannot. Basic as it may seem, if the patties are made up predominantly of preservatives, the molecules would need to maintain heat, which they can’t.
I wouldn’t mind if the patties tasted good; I would accept that I am putting trash in my mouth, but it tastes good. The problem is that the Big Mac meat tastes awful.
The Taste: 8/20
I am pushed to score the overall taste any higher. Without the secret sauce and the gherkins, I would struggle to give the Big Mac many points, period. For me, this burger represents McDonalds as a business and should be considered the flagship. But, it struggles so severely to define itself as such. Tasteless outside of the condiment and toppings, I would prefer to take these parts and put them on my stack at home. Sad day for the Big Mac. Maybe Wendys opportunity to swoop in?
Our Verdict: 54/100
If I was grabbing a burger on the run on a commute to London, I would prefer to go for the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. The Big Mac sounds appealing but lacks quality. That being said, McDonalds is hardly synonymous with quality. But, I would expect, for the price, to have something resembling food. There are so many debates online, and videos discussing the extensive chemical additions to the food at the brand. It is difficult to ignore, especially when eating and realising that much of what I consumed in this stack is not food at all. The nostalgia that McDonalds invokes in my generation is why so many of us still give it a chance. But, I fear, that the new generations after me will signal the death of the Big Mac. On this review, rightly so.
