McDonald's New Dollar Menu Sampling

In the beginning of November, McDonalds decided to get rid of its classic Dollar Menu and replace it with the new "Dollar Menu and More."  I am 100% for change in the fast food industry. It gives us such classic hits as Wendy's sea salt fries and Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Tacos¹ but in the case of McDonalds, it doesn't seem like a winning idea.  My biggest and only issue with the new menu is the McDouble, the once classic one dollar, two patty, one slice of cheese burger, is now two fucking dollars.  So just like lead paint , clearly that can never be eaten again. The good news is they added multiple new items to try and fill that void.  I recently got to sample two of them with varying results.

Grilled Onion Cheddar
As the name implies, this is simple a hamburger with grilled onions and cheddar.  I have to be honest, caramelized onions on a burger can be very hit or miss.  Sometimes they can be overly sweet, ruining the entire burger.  I still remember being introduced to caramelized onions for the first time at home one day when Zino made them to go over steak.  I fell in love with caramelized onions, best thing in the world, put them on everything.  Soon after, I went to the Rain Forest Cafe for the first time and asked for caramelized onions on my burger.  Little did I know, I just asked them to dump brown sugar on top of my burger.  To this day, that is one of the worst dining experiences of my life and I have eaten at Cici's Pizza buffet - twice.  I know exactly what you are thinking "why the fuck is this guy rambling about the Rain Forest Cafe?" The reason is twofold. I want to make it clear it's easy to mess up a burger with sweet onions but I also want to make it clear that the Rain Forest Cafe should go out of business.


So back to the grilled onion cheddar. I opened the wrapper unimpressed. I mean look at the photo it looks like it got ran over by Phil Margera and Don Vito riding in Bam's H2 hummer.  But when I looked inside I was pleasantly surprised.  There was a nice amount of dark, dare I say beautiful, onions set atop "cheddar." I have to be honest, I was very apprehensive of this burger but it ended up being delicious. The Americanized cheddar single was salty and melted and contrasted the not too sweet onions perfectly. The burger and bun were the Chewbecca, they are there but you know Han Solo is the real star. For a dollar this is one of the best value menu items on the market - McDonalds or otherwise.

Buffalo Ranch Bacon McChicken
Complete honesty on this one, I did not order this. I literally only ordered the Grilled Onion Burger and this was mysteriously in the bag as well.  I know you're not supposed to look a gifted horse in the mouth but man this sandwich needs to be made into glue.

What you get is a McChicken patty with a spicy  breading which is actually pretty nice. Not completely bland but definitely not what I would call spicy.  That's where the positives on this sandwich end. The bacon was limp, greasy, and tasted of nothing. The amount of lettuce makes it look like someone recently mowed their grass. And the worst offender of them all: the buffalo ranch. What's crazy is I enjoy both the buffalo and ranch nugget sauces offered at McDonald's but the sauce on this sandwich was sweet - just cloyingly sweet. Lost is that beautiful mix of heat, vinegar, and creaminess of ranch. If that sauce weren't there I may be able to recommend this sandwich but with the sauce being the defining characteristic, you'd be better off getting a 4 piece and some buffalo dipping sauce

---

1. Try asking for a DLT shell in a Cheesy Gordita Crunch, they will up charge you but you will taste what it's like to be Zeus. ↩