Apparently – and I’m not sure how I missed this memo – over the last couple months McDonald’s has been advertising a new Quarter Pounder made to order with fresh, not frozen, meat. After some comments from my cousin, who tried it, and one of my brother’s friends, I had to skip on down to the Mickey D’s and try it for myself.
Now, I like McDonald’s. A fair bit. I usually have a $1 sausage McMuffin breakfast sandwich from there about once or twice a week, and I used to eat their double cheeseburgers/McDoubles years ago for lunch when I was on a diet (seriously–lost 40 pounds on that diet.) So I like them well enough. And that jalapeno McDouble that came and went in limited time offers was crack to me.
Anyhow, so the new hamburger – tastes like a normal hamburger. And this disappoints me. It doesn’t taste like a McDonald’s burger. It just tastes like an average, decent, griddled hamburger (though the one I had seemed extra salty). It’s a burger that I think if you hate McDonald’s, you might tolerate it with this burger, but if you really enjoy McDonald’s and the taste of its burgers, you might be disappointed by it. The vast majority of people, I expect, won’t give a shit. But it’s definitely something I noticed.
Oh, and that was also the same review given by my cousin (someone who is a bit of a foodie, but loves his junk food) and my brother’s friend (who is absolutely not a foodie, but immediately noticed the difference. I think the way she phrased it was "if I wanted a fucking real hamburger I would go to a fucking real hamburger place. I wanted a quarter pounder!)
As far as I know, the Quarter Pounder is only available in its new form. But the other burgers use the regular patties. I think the new quarter pounder may be objectively “better” in the sense that it tastes more like a burger you might cook up at home, but it doesn’t taste like a McDonald’s burger, dammit!
On my only order of one so far, drowned by Big Mac sauce (as they should come naturally), I may have noticed a slight change to meatier more burger like taste, though that could have been because I was trying to taste the difference. Still seemed to be a McD’s burger, but that may have been the Mac Sauce. More experimenting is needed.
Hmm…It’s never occurred to me to get Big Mac sauce on a quarter pounder. On its own, I think that would be way, way, too rich for me (I don’t like mayonnaise or mayonnaise based sauces on my hamburgers typically), but if we add lettuce and tomato to it (which I also typically don’t like on hamburgers, but when I do have it, I do like “hamburger sauce” on it), that might be something I quite enjoy.
I’ve had it, I don’t think it’s significantly different. That has always been my favorite burger there, but in actuality I prefer the flavor of the regular cheeseburgers better. Something about it’s thinness, the onions and mustard get me.
McD’s is certainly something I like, but I still think the old adage is true that Wendy’s has better burgers and McD’s has better fries. BK lands somewhere in the middle for me but sometimes I love a Whopper with cheese, plain. Just meat, cheese and bread, dipped in ketchup.
I have tried the double QP’s and always felt they were just a bit too much beef and not enough flavor elsewhere, and I could never really finish one.
I think I’ve reached the point where I just like their breakfast food more than anything, usually just a simple sausage biscuit, maybe with cheese.
When I was a kid (C. mid-to-late-80s/early-90s), the Wendy’s Big Classic was my favorite burger of the Big 3. Nowadays, I actually prefer both McD’s burgers and fries to Wendy’s (lord knows I’ve tried about once a year for the last decade or so to really like Wendy’s burgers, but I just don’t for some reason).
Both are far, far better than BK to my tastes (I really can’t stand their grilled flavor, but part of it might have to do with the fact that BK was the only 24-hour restaurant open when I was in college, so I spent a lifetime’s worth of nights there and no longer need to taste BK.) Wendy’s has my favorite chicken sandwich, though, of the big three, and that’s what I order these days when I’m there (the spicy chicken sandwich.) McD"s does have the perfect fries for that particular style of fries (skinless, thin fast food fries–I used to call them “shoestring,” but I’ve found that the term can mean another even thinner and longer style of fries.) Also my favorite fries of the three, but I prefer skin-on fries a la Five Guys these days.
Hmm. The coupons we intend to use seem to indicate otherwise. But upon thinking about it, that would involve a duplicate cooking line, and McD’s is really efficient that way. Oh, well. Guess I’ll just to the usual of a Quarter Pounder and 2 cheeseburgers.
The burgers I like at Wendy’s are the double, hold the lettuce and pickles, or the Jr Bacon Cheeseburger with ketchup and mustard only. I heartily agree with the spicy chicken sandwich, it’s my favorite too, and that includes anything from Chik Fil A (although waffle fries are fun from time to time).
Wendy’s burgers are “wet” with grease, mayo, etc in a way McD’s are not. Upthread you said you didn’t like mayo, so maybe that plays a part…sometimes I just like a sloppy burger like that, even though I confess to usually sopping grease off the top bun with napkins before eating it.
BK is such a rarity for me that it almost doesn’t count.
No, I think I’m just somewhat unusual in not liking the Wendy’s patty. It just tastes bland to me. While I’m not necessarily big on mayo and burger sauce type things, I do like a good, truly greasy burger (I mean, I’m a fan of “butter burgers” for example, and you don’t get much fattier than that.) Maybe I need to put a bit of salt on them or something.
I had one two days ago, and frequently had the frozen version. It’s my standard choice at McD.
I thought it was saltier, as in they added salt, but I can chalk that up to individual preparation differences. Next time I get one I made ask for it with no salt - can I do that if it’s cooked to order?
The patty was looser, not as dense, more like a burger I’d make at home. I also got a bit of gristle/fat, like a burger I’d make at home.
If I didn’t know it was the never-frozen patty, or if it was from McD, I’d give it an average to above-average grade.
I think they are considerably better. I had one for the first time several weeks ago without knowing they had made a change. We were out of state and I said something like “Wow, McDonald’s is so much better in South Carolina!” They finally got the new burgers here in MD.
Yeah, that’s my standard order, as well. I’m not into this whole frou-frou fancy burger stuff that McDonald’s is up to these days (like the Garlic White Cheddar Burger and the Pico Guacamole Burger.) I mean, yeah, I understand it has to innovate and that younger generations may be wanting more from their burgers, but I guess when I go to McDonald’s is because I want a low-rent McDonald’s burger, not some gussied up faux gourmet burger.
I had it yesterday and the taste is definitely more along the lines of Wendy’s than classic McD’s. The patty wasn’t nearly as dry as usual and seemed to have more grease around it. I like what the poster above said about the burger being “wet”.
Haven’t done a double QPC yet. That’ll be next on the docket.
I had one while waiting for a concert venue in DC to let people in. Let me say that I worked in a McDonald’s from 1976-77 (in HS) so I remember when quarter pounders were grill cooked in batches of 5. The key was that they were frozen and I remember that they took 5 minutes to prepare. When I ordered my burger on Sunday, I was told it would take 3 minutes. Seemed odd that you could shave 40% of the time by being pre-thawed. Ok. Well I get the burger and my first impression was, “hooray, a burger that is actually juicy”. It had the same couple of pickles and chopped onions (not reconstituted) that we used back in the day. Refreshing after having dealt with pre-cooked/reheated burgers for what seems like decades. But the killer of the deal was the bun. My guess is that they do not use the same type of toaster that they used in the 70’s (or indeed, do they even use a toaster, or just a warmer). That difference made the bun chewy. Eating the burger was a bit of a chore. Not much else to add.