Wednesday, September 2, 2009

McDonalds' Grand Angus Burger

So I was really REALLY excited when I saw on NotQuiteNigella that McDonalds was putting out these two new Angus Beef burgers. I was so excited, in fact, that I started raving to my friends almost immediately, and force-showing them what little evidence I could find online. The tension was only heightened when I saw a squashed Mighty Angus box on the ground. You see, NQN had mentioned only the Australian release date, so I was unsure if (or when) New Zealand would get them, so far behind the rest of the world are we. There was no fanfare when these dropped in Auckland, and naturally my friends thought I was bonkers. They even proposed that I had DREAMT about the box I saw as I was fantasising so much..

As it ends up, I didn't have a chance to try until I was in Sydney, where I first heard about it anyway. Here's my take on the Grand Angus burger, and a comparison with the Deluxe Cheeseburger (a regular cheeseburger with lettuce).



Grand Angus Burger and Deluxe Cheeseburger side-by-side.


Open Casket shots.

As you can see, the Grand Angus completely dwarfs the humble cheeseburger. That 'sourdough' bun is HUGE and there's salad poking out everywhere.



The autopsy shot.

This is where things really get interesting. As NQN explains, the Angus Patty (100% prime angus beef, apparently) is a 3-to-a-pound patty, approximately 150 grams. The Cheeseburger Patty, on the other hand is a 10-to-a-pound patty, or about 45 grams. The Angus Patty is, then, justifiably ENORMOUS. It really is about 3 times the thickness and about 1 and a half times the top-down area.



Grand Angus autopsy shot.


The Grand Angus also contains two slices of McDonalds classic cheese, red onion rings, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and the usual sauces - mayo, tomato sauce and mustard, packed into a sourdough bun. Now, this bun isn't really a sourdough as such... more like a slightly denser version of The Boss burger's kaiser bun. It has some pretty track marks over the top, but otherwise tastes pretty bland, and just does an adequate job of holding all the fillings in the burger.

The patty is a real let down. I expected a really beefy flavour with perhaps a bit more ground beef texture. What I got was a big version of the cheeseburger patty. To be fair, when I separated bits of the patty from each burger and tried the patty on its own, I could detect a whiff of something other than standard McDonalds cardboard in the Angus Patty, so it may well be a decent (not really) patty on its own. However, when chucked in with the overwhelmingly rich stickiness of the McDonalds cheese, and then with the salad and sauces on top, it really was indistinguishable from any other McDonalds burger. The fat juicy piece of tomato was the real highlight of this burger for me :D



Deluxe Cheeseburger autopsy shot.


Not much to say here, except that it was cheaper ($1.95 AUD) than a regular Cheesebuger ($2.10 AUD) and you get a bit of munched up lettuce, a bit of mayo, and I think they take out the tomato sauce, so there wasn't that zingy bite anywhere. Thumbs down boring.


So there you have it. I rate the Grand Angus burger a failure on all accounts. Unless you're looking for something to make you feel sick late at night, don't go for it. In fact, if you were looking for just that, I'd go for 4 regular Cheeseburgers instead, it'd probably taste better going down. To really get a rounded view on the Angus hype, I might have to go back and try the Mighty Angus burger - bacon, cheese, mayo, onion and caramelised onion relish - and see if all that lack of greens makes the difference.. Tempting?


1 comment:

  1. AGREED!
    I wasn't a fan of the Angus burger either, despite hearing raving reviews from family & friends (my friend also linked me to a blogpost from somebody blogging about the burger!)

    I tried the Mighty Angus, but I thought it just tasted like a Big Mac with raw onions :( siiiigh. And inaptly named "sourdough" bun was ....the furthest thing from sour I've ever tried! :(

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