Saturday, September 19, 2009

Grand Angus Burger, McDonalds Alderley

Now I don`t think this post should be rated safari status, but I`ve felt compelled to try the
new Angus Beef range of burgers currently on offer at Maccas. In other parts of the world the McAngus has been very popular, and if I can believe my beef industry contact Matty H, McDonalds sales have gone up 30% since the burger was released for sale in Australia.

So I feel it my duty to report on this new addition to the McDonalds line-up. A bachelor weekend at home alone is the perfect time!

Here is what the burger looks like freshly unwrapped


First impressions - this indeed is a tidy looking burger, and if the oblong shape is not completely groundbreaking it has been a long time since McDonalds have released anything in this format. The Grand Angus burger contains an Angus beef patty, fresh red onion, a solitary slice of tomato, a pickle, some 'gourmet' salad mix, which is actually seems to be iceberg lettuce and a few shreds of baby baby spinach ( just like on the lean beef burger ), thick rich mayonaise and on a good looking flour dusted "sourdough" bun.
The addition of raw onion is a good one, and it brings me to reminisce about what lifts a Hungry Jacks whopper - the fresh onion and mayo. So whilst the burger does`nt look like a whopper, it does have whopperlike characteristics. This is the lasting impression the burger left on me - that it tasted like a whopper, but not quite as good. Now I don`t eat whoppers anymore - I remember back in uni days when whopper`s were $1.65 and we`d pretty much live on them. through the late 90`s I'd often snack on whopper juniors. This burger reminded me of the whopper. Anyway more on that later.

So from the blurry profile view you can see a reasonable thick pattie - i reckon it was about a cm thick. You can also see a slice of cheese on the top and bottom of the pattie.

So I bit into the burger and noticed how light and spongey the "sourdough" bun was. The pattie itself, while allegedly being "Angus" beef, was not really discernable in flavour from any other McDs pattie i`ve ever eaten. In fact, the taste of the burger was unremarkable, if not, an obvious fatty flavour like you know you are going to regret eating it.



So about midway I broke into the mayo and this burger tasted like a half rate whopper but with Maccas style grease. There was no relish, sauce or mustard on the burger, and I felt it could have been seasoned more - seeing the marketing department had labelled this "Grand". I don`t rate this burger even as worthy of a must try - If I was to eat McDonalds I would stick to a the classic Big Mac and save my beef pattie cravings for a real burger from a real restaurant.
On the positive - for $6.45 my hunger is satisfied and I`m not craving more grease. 4/10