Review: McDonald's Angus third-pounder sandwich

HeatherB

#1 – 2:26 PM October 26, 2008

I ate one and 30 minutes after my stomach was gassy and I felt a bit icky. I just can't do fast food anymore. Which I guess is a good thing.

stupidnickname

#2 – 2:31 PM October 26, 2008

Having lived in Pittsburgh and visited Philly repeatedly, I can only assume that the phrase "Pittsburgh, Philly and a few other big cities" is a double entendre. There are some . . . big . . . people there.

Those Yinzers really love their unhealthy meat/pork/fried/carb/cheese foods. The Primanti's cheesesteak is, like, a SLAB of meat and meat- byproducts, with fries on it. And let's not even talk about the "Roethlisburger," or an "O" large fries and a hot dog with mayo, or a kielbassi sammich wit pierogies and a bucket of sour cream and melted butter.

And Philly . . . unh, wit, wiz. Blargh.

Unh, I feel a little sick.

Rob Beschizza

#3 – 3:13 PM October 26, 2008

Research has revealed that the list of test cities is quite ... ample; I've edited the shortlist out.

toasterfire

#4 – 3:34 PM October 26, 2008

In our kitchen, reading this post aloud, we have decided two things.

One involves our continuing resolution to avoid McDonalds at all costs ($6? I can get a real meal for that).

The other is that your writing, Mr. B., has been top-notch as of late, and your conclusion, above, has brought joy to our lives. Come to Virginia, says the woman of the house, and we'll cook you a proper burger any time.

SC_Wolf

#5 – 5:09 PM October 26, 2008

Hey, if McD doesn't want all these nice stacks of money I've been spending at Burger King and Hardees for angus burgers, that's fine. I can wait for next year.

Stefan Jones

#6 – 6:29 PM October 26, 2008

FWIW, most fast food places will make up a batch of fries for you w/o salt.

I sometimes call ahead to the Carl Jr.'s across the street to have them start a batch. No salt makes a BIG difference in both taste and stomach-ability.

* * *

Confession: When Bush was re(?)elected I bought a whole bunch of Companies That Make Money Off Of STupid People stock. Including McDonalds. It has doubled in price since then, and paid good royalties. So, even though I rarely eat at the place and wish folks would learn to cook healthy meals at home I do find stories like this interesting.

Maybe McD should aim for the really low end, for recession struck people. McNoodles, or Ronald's Soy-Lent patties.

Dillenger69

#7 – 7:24 PM October 26, 2008

Which part of the cow is the angus?

certron

#8 – 7:32 PM October 26, 2008

Just in case you are aiming for 100% of your recommended dietary allowances for The Good Stuff: http://www.mcdonaldssocal.com/images/File/Angus%20Third%20Pounder%20Nutrional%20Information.pdf

Anonymous Anonymous

#9 – 7:45 PM October 26, 2008

More meat, even if it is better, does not necessarily make for a better burger. It is often better if the patty is smaller, in the fast food world, because pickles and onions and tomatoes aren't going to differ that much, and it is easier to get a balanced sandwich.

Similarly with other sandwiches, pizza et al, it is the credo of More is Better, it is a matter of BALANCE OF INGREDIENTS.

Worst burger I ever had was at Jack in the Box, where the buns were apparently replaced by similarly sized dollops of ketchup mayo and mustard.

noen

#10 – 7:47 PM October 26, 2008

Because Americans aren't fat enough.

shutz

#11 – 8:23 PM October 26, 2008

Up here in Montréal (Québec, Canada) we've had an Angus burger at McDonald's since spring 2007, I think. It's different from that picture in Rob's post, because it comes on a focaccia bun (square, firmer bread...) and usually contains lettuce, tomatoes and onions. There's a variant of this which adds bacon and cheese. I think it also uses some sort of special sauce, but my memory is fuzzy on this.

It was different from most other McD's sandwiches, felt more like a "real burger", but the bun was a little too firm, requiring a little more effort to bite into.

Note: I can't really justify it, but I like McDonald's burgers, especially the regular hamburgers and the Big Mac. I know it's bad for me, so I try to avoid it as much as possible, but once in a while, I hunger for that sort of food. I try to compensate for eating there by forcing myself to walk there (the most practical location is about 45 minutes' walk from my apartment...)

Droplet

#12 – 8:33 PM October 26, 2008

Look, I hate to be an elitist, but let me help you out with the apostrophe situation. There's one simple rule of apostrophes that will clear up ninety percent of everyone's problem:

You never use an apostrophe to show that something is plural (more than one thing). Two examples:

I went to McDonald's and had two heart attacks.

No apostrophe.

I went to McDonald's and even though I knew that the double fatty question burger would give me gas, the burger's smell, though chemically induced, gave me a heart attack of need.

The burger owned the smell and just one burger owned it. One apostrophe, before the S.

Peace and Love (though without Ringo's attitude [Ringo's owning] love).

I really am a nice person, I swear.

devophill

#13 – 8:58 PM October 26, 2008

Droplet-

I didn't see anything that would necessitate the posting of this cartoon. What apostrophe mistake was made?

edit-
Oh, wait. "McDonalds". I see.

Rob Beschizza

#14 – 3:38 AM October 27, 2008

Hello!

Fully cognizant of the apostrophe situation here. I just thought (mistakenly) that the company was named "McDonalds."

varelsee

#15 – 4:50 AM October 27, 2008

We've had these in Ireland for a while, although they look a bit different. (and they've apparently stopped selling them; the website doesn't list them any more.)

And $6 for a meal is nothing. Over here every meal you can get is at least €6.30 - that's just uner $8. I really need to get out of this country -_-

Patrick Austin

#16 – 6:15 AM October 27, 2008

It's also worth mentioning that "Angus" is simply the breed of cow and in no way dictates the quality of the meat you're getting. It's marketing BS. In fact, it's the most popular breed of beef cattle...hardly some sort of elusive holy grail of beefy goodness.

From a flavor (and health) standpoint, what really matters is the sort of life the cow lived.

Anonymous Anonymous

#17 – 7:24 AM October 27, 2008

The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.

Ryan Waddell

#18 – 8:23 AM October 27, 2008

The Angus burger has been here in Toronto for quite some time now... probably as long as it's been in Montreal as the poster above mentioned. It doesn't appear to be a test market thing, they seem to have it permanently on the menu. Never tried one, myself, as I only have McDonald's maybe once a month, and when I do it's a quarter pounder with cheese for me. I personally prefer the Angus burger from Harvey's though.

michaelportent

#19 – 9:11 AM October 27, 2008

This couldn't be any worse than the Wendy's Baconator which, frankly, made me feel like I was dying halfway through it.

Anonymous Anonymous

#20 – 1:13 PM October 27, 2008

Can't wait! Though I will only be truly excited when they come out with a 1/2 pound burger. I just had a double quarter pounder yesterday, which was satisfying but not as good as a true 1/2 pounder would be.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I am 6'1", 175 lbs, with excellent cholesterol and overall vascular health. :)

Anonymous Anonymous

#21 – 11:57 PM November 14, 2008

in the united states the angus burger can be found only in california so most mcdonalds that are operated witha full restraunt (so not ones found in walmarts) should have them in califonia there are right now four kinds angus delux wich has a "angus bun"leaf lettuce tomatos pickles red onions ketchup mustard cheese and the angus beef wich is seasoned with a specail spice seasoning at the end of assembly for all anguses . the angus bacon and cheese wich has musterd bacon ketchup chesse and red onions. the the chopotle bbq bacon and cheese has red onions cheese chopotle souce and bacon. and the angus mushroom and swiss has grilled mushrooms swiss cheese ansd mayo

Anonymous Anonymous

#22 – 9:47 AM July 11, 2009

This is a good burger. I loved the Bacon and Cheese. Nice to finally have thick cut red onions on a burger from McDs. Whether this is a hit or not for McDonalds won't make a bit of differnce to them. They have been kicking the crap out of the likes of BK, Wendys, and Hardees/Carls Jr. for a LONG time. They must be doing something right. While others see their sales slipping, McDonalds consistently sees theirs increasing.

tony

#23 – 2:35 AM August 10, 2009

lol, im eating a tasty granola snack i made, with raisins it delicious. anywhoozles, i had the third pounder its like weird fake meat. if your gunna eat shitty fake meat, at least get the kind that doesn't pretend to be something its not. nothing worse than a pretentious burger.

Anonymous Anonymous

#24 – 11:23 PM August 16, 2009

They just now started advertising for this burger in my area, and so far I've only tried the mushroom and swiss. I liked it! It has like a charbroiled taste. I still like their other burgers too (the DQPw/c is my fave) but these are a nice change of pace. To the people here complaining about how unhealthy it is, I can only say this: Of course it is!! Every now and then, most all of us want something besides health food. Live a little, but not to excess. It's not like you're going to eat these everyday. Besides, any review should be about how good it tastes, not how unhealthy it is. We already know it's not the most healthy thing in the world. Besides, McDonalds has come a long way towards providing healthy choices on their menu. If you come to McDonalds for health food, pick one of the healthy choices.

Don Wolverton

#25 – 7:03 PM August 21, 2009

I tried an Angus Burger. I found that the hamburger was very salty. Salt is added to inferior meat to try to boost flavor. I will never eat another one. Carl's Jr has much better burgers.

Soso

#26 – 5:06 PM August 23, 2009

THis is definetly the best burger in the whole world!

debra

#27 – 6:03 AM September 17, 2009

augus is the way to go also thanks to you i got one for free so i was able to give my husban one to i would not take the time out to buy him anything but you mad it posible thank again;

babooy bab

#28 – 7:54 PM September 26, 2009

Mushroom and Swiss minus the unnecessary mayo, with absolutely no taste except the mushrooms and whatever seasoning they used to to spruce them up. Angus fried on a grill, leaves no flavor of beef, only the guilty shame of eating the whole grease filled bomb, because $3.99+tax is too much to waste and hunger demands something to eat. Call this burger the ‘bulimics special.’ I know this is in bad taste, but 6 hours later I can’t get the horror out of my mind. I needed to vent so I came here and see what others are saying about the new Angus.