McDonald's Angus Third Pounder

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McDonald's Angus Third Pounder

Monday, June 22, 2009

McDonald's finally has Angus burgers! Maybe that'll cure what ails them. Their ailment being a lack of depth in their usual patties. One thing's for sure: the price isn't lacking in depth. $4 is pretty pricey for a single burger... could it be worth it?

Reviewer Brad Kaitis Categories Food & Drink

Reviewed by Brad Cook

McDonald's Third Pounder Bacon and Cheese Angus Burger

Pickles and (uncooked) Onions make me wanna harvest the little sisters.

A while back, McDonald's announced, rather quietly, for some reason, that they were soon going to be featuring a variety (three, to be exact) of Angus beef burgers on their menu. I also have a guy on the inside at McDonald's, if you catch my drift. Basically, I have a friend who works at one. He told me what day they were coming to McDonald's, but alas, I was either too lazy to go, or too forgetful to remember. To prove my lazi/forgetfulness, I can't even remember what prevented me from reviewing this mother in the first place. But that's neither here, nor there. (Or is it? I can't remember and I'm too lazy to check).

Regardless, I reached my hand deep down into that Angus steer that is McDonald's and pulled one Bacon and Cheese Angus Third Pounder out. The first thing I noticed about this burg is that it has ccrrrrrrrraaaazzzzy bacon! Stickin' out all over the durned place. Not one for bacon with a side of anarchy, I quickly folded them in half whilst rolling in traffic. The burger is pretty damn hefty; probably a diameter of about 4 - 4.5" (that's inches, for the symbolically impaired), with the actual patty itself a bit short of an inch thick. That's some impressive girth for a burger, especially for being purchased at McDonald's.

As I worked my way through this beast, I definitely noticed a quality difference between this Angus beef and their normal fare. It's chunkier, like actual beef, and had a straight up beef flavor, so I'll probably trust them on this one. Good news, too, for cheese fans: they slab a slice on both top and bottom of the patty. It also comes with pickles and red onions. The bun seemed a bit beefed (oh!) up too, so as to be able to handle this 1/3 lb chunk of cow murder. O hai, PETA!

Overall, though, this is nothing more than a pretty good bacon cheeseburger. There's nothing overly unique about this burger, but I suppose that's what the other two varieties, Deluxe, and Mushroom & Swiss, are for. There's not even any special seasoning, that I could taste, at least; just beef, cheese, bacon, and veggies, essentially. If you go to any restaurant that doesn't serve fast food burgers, you can get the same size burger (if not bigger) with fries and a drink for probably a meager dollar or two extra, since just one of these will run you a cool $4. Or, you could simply spend $2 on two double cheeseburgers, and achieve the same effect. Plus, it's a little late for anyone to be getting excited about fast food Angus burgers, because so many fast food restaurants have already done this. Kaitis also points out it might be the very first Mickey D's burger to be blessed with bacon on top, which is a bit strange. McDonald's is pretty late to the game with this, and the item itself is a bit pricey, although I just realized you're probably paying extra for them to stuff as many calories into it as possible. Huh. Maybe that $4 is worth it after all!

Note: According to our good friends at GrubGrade, these items are currently only in select markets, but are expected to go nationwide in August.

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Reviewed by Michael Kaitis

McDonald's Third Pounder Mushroom & Swiss Angus Burger

While I doubt anyone on our staff could be tricked into ordering the "Deluxe" version of this burger, which is just a plain Angus burger with a garden variety of veggies, adding Mushrooms or Bacon makes the 4 dollar price tag not nearly as much of a stretch. While Brad had to go and offend every Jewish person by reviewing a burger with pork on it, I went with the friendly, all natural, fungus route. Due to our good friend John Hoy actually working at the fast food MegaCo, I have insight that these are actually somewhat fresh looking Mushrooms, see for yourself!

Once they hit the grill, I assume they put a decent variety of McSpices, because by the time they make it to the burger, they're cooked to a perfect amount, with peppery seasonings that make them stand out on the burger, instead of blend in. Pretty damn shocking for McDonald's. Another thing I did learn from being friends with an employee is that they almost always have swiss cheese, and you can ask for it on anything. Which makes me see this burger as a little less special, but they're lucky it's the standard mushroom burger cheese, or I may actually have gotten a little pissed.

The only other thing on the burger is Mayonnaise, the one and only condiment. I usually like mayo, but this time it struck me as kind of gross. It starts melting quite quickly once it's on there, and soon turns into a greasy, melty mess with the cheese. Don't get me wrong, it worked pretty damn well, but they went a little heavy on it in my one experience. I'll be asking for light mayo next time, thanks.

Besides me complaining about how greasy their food was (what was I expecting?), I actually enjoyed this enough to at least try one of the other ones also. The quality is such a step up, it's shocking, and in retrospect just about worth my cash. Like Brad said, you can get a burger that's easily much better, for not much more at most restaurants. But if you don't have a lot of time, and are close to those Golden Arches, this is much better quality than most of the other junk they have.

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