Jonathan Kay on the shocking deliciousness of McDonald's new "hamburger masterpiece"
Posted: May 13, 2008, 1:12 PM by Jonathan Kay
As someone who has been enjoying McDonald's quick-service food products since I was old enough to flick the pickles off a hamburger patty — and who worked at McDonald's as a fry cook in 1985 and 1986 — I know a thing or two about the Golden Arches. And I don't get excited about every new product the restaurant chain rolls out. (Anyone remember the McLean Deluxe of 1991 — or the 1985 McDLT?) I'm more jaded than that. I've seen burgers come, and seen burgers go. After a while, they start to taste the same, to be honest.
That all changed on April 24. That was the day McDonald's Canada rolled out its new Angus Burger. I don't want to be overly dramatic about this — but I really don't think I can go back to eating regular hamburgers again.
I ordered my first Angus Burger with bacon and cheddar cheese. And when I say "cheddar cheese," I mean the real thing. At least, that's how it tasted. Sometimes, a quick-service food chain claims it is giving you "cheddar cheese" — when it's really just a slightly modified variant of the cheap-o slices they put on their regular burgers.
In fact, everything about this burger tastes premium. That includes the 100% Angus beef patty, which is so delicious that you can hardly believe it is surface fried. (The thought that this burger might be even better — if it were flame-broiled — boggles the mind.)
McDonald's has also given serious consideration to the vegetables. The tomato comes in meaty slices, and the lettuce is of the whole-leaf variety — unrecognizable when compared to the tasteless confetti-like substance they put in Big Macs.
There are two sauces served on the burger: a solid mustard, and a "savory garlic mayonnaise" that truly does taste like something you'd get on the side of your plate at a continental Mussels-and-Fries bistro. When was the last time you experienced a sauce at a quick-service food restaurant that had nuance?
The onions were so special, they deserve their own paragraph. These were real red onions — the sort of thing you cut up and put on your backyard BBQ burgers when you have good friends over to your house. From a supply-chain perspective, it was a gutsy call to bring in a third onion type (McDonald's already uses reconstituted onions on its Macs, and slivered onions on its Quarter Pounders.) But I think it will pay off: Onions are the most cost-effective non-chemical, zero-fat, sugar-free taste enhancers in the quick-service food arsenal. Red onions have a unique, slightly spicy taste, which co-mingle with the garlic mayo in an utterly sublime manner. (For a moment, I was so distracted — this is true — that I accidentally ignored the McDonald's assistant manager telling me that I was not allowed to eat in the Playland area, where my kids were working off some energy.)
As for the bun, it is of the bleached-flour "bakery-style" type. Crucially, it is toasted. For me, the low point of the McDonald's eating experience came in the dark days of the latter 1980s and 1990s, when many stores were given the option of using special buns that — we were told — didn't have to be toasted. This saved a lot of time in production. (As a fry cook, I spent about as much time on toasted buns as I did on the patties they contained.) But the quality of the product took a huge hit as a result. A burger without a toasted bun can never — ever — be a premium quick-service food item.
The big question: Will the high price — $4.99 plus tax (or $6.99 plus tax as part of an Extra Value Meal); $5.99 plus tax for the Angus Burger with Bacon & Cheddar (or $7.99 plus tax as part of an Extra Value Meal) — scare off your average consumer, who may not have the same finely attuned tastes as moi? Consider that a Quarter Pounder with cheese (burger only) is just $3.79, and provides roughly the same amount of meat. (I find it interesting that McDonald's does not note the size of the Angus Burger patty in its promotional materials — presumably so as not to invite price/weight comparisons with its established products.) Better yet, from a value perspective, you can get a double quarter-pounder with cheese for $4.79 — a lot more meat than the Angus Burger, but at a lower price.
One cannot help but wonder: Will the Angus Burger go the way of the $300-million Arch Deluxe project 12 years ago? Recall that the AD was also a "premium" burger sold at an upscale price. During an email discussion I had with some friends yesterday, I was reminded that the ads featured Ronald McDonald in a business suit, and claimed that it was “the McDonald’s burger with the grown-up taste” — or some such. In an eerie foreshadowing of the Angus Burger, it, too, had an upscale sauce (bernaise), as well as an upscale onion treatment (sautéed).
McDonald's calls the Angus Burger a "hamburger masterpiece." I agree with that description, but I worry that the restaurants rank-and-file consumers aren't ready for something this beautiful. If they aren't — and the product falls — it will be a sad day for the industry and quick-service gourmands alike.
jkay@nationalpost.com
