Angus Deluxe, Photo: Martha Williams
Americans are bigger than most people on the planet, mainly because we eat too much. We like things large like the Big Mac and our children, by and large, are getting bigger—health conscious media reminds us of these observations again and again. Fast food and convenience stores have tried the healthier options route in recent years, but it turns out, as McDonald’s market research shows, that we actually want an even bigger slightly better burger. Entering locations today, the Angus Deluxe, McDonald’s “third pounder” has a stamp with a big ‘A’ and “100% Angus” printed on the box along with a graphic of two cheery lads playing football.
We gathered some staff to taste test the Angus Deluxe ($3.99, with American cheese, sliced red onions and tomatoes, green leaf lettuce, mayo, and pickles) and its sidekicks, the Angus Mushroom & Swiss ($3.99) and the Angus Bacon & Cheese (pictured above, $4.50). We grabbed some Big Macs for comparison’s sake and then hit the tasting laboratory.
All three burgers are big. The Deluxe weighed 10.8 oz, the Mushroom 9.3 oz and the Bacon 10 oz. As for flavor adn texture, those are subjective matters.
John Dugan - “I very rarely go to McDonald’s—during my twenties I refused to go inside for anything more than a chocolate shake. But McDonald’s has done a few things right with the Angus if they want to get the premium consumer back in the chain—the toppings are actually pretty fresh looking and tasting—the lettuce is really green and the pickles look enticing. The bun tastes more wholesome than a typical Mickie D’s powder puff. That’s why it is surprising that the straight-up Angus doesn’t have as much beefy flavor or juiciness as one would hope for—instead its been charred to a fairly dry consistency. A few bites of the bacon burger prove it the smokiest of the three—but I suspect that smoke comes in a bottle. Oddly enough, though I can’t stand the canned mushrooms on the mushroom burger, that version has a bit more beef flavor pushing through—perhaps ordering a basic version of the Deluxe might strike a decent flavor balance. And stacked up against the perennial Big Mac—the Angus actually tastes more like a real burger and less like an odd sauce between Wonderbread buns. Still, I’m not swayed enough to try this burger another time when there are “natural” burger joints popping up around the neighborhood.
Big Mac vs. Angus Deluxe
Madeline Nusser - “I turn my nose up at badly prepared meat, but somehow I’ve been able to condone my McDonald’s cravings for years. Here’s how I see it: McDonald’s meat is pumped full of so many vegetable-based products and chemicals, that it’s not really meat, it’s a foodstuff. And damn those Bigmacs are good. But the new burgers—angus overly ground to a fine, grisly mixture and cooked until it dies a second death—force me to officially renounce my love for McDonald’s. But in all seriousness, I give it good marks for fresh tomatoes and a nice mushroom/meat combination; bad marks for over-cooked, nearly inedible meat with no variance in texture.”
Kris Vire - “I can’t remember the last time I ate a McDonald’s burger—their usual lifeless gray patties are just too unappetizing. But the bacon and cheese Angus was surprisingly tasty. Not as juicy as something I’d order at Epic Burger or Patty Burger, but moist and with fresh-seeming toppings, and just the right amount of salt from what struck me as pretty decent bacon. The super-dry sesame seed bun was a buzzkill, though.”
Leah Johnston - “It’s no Hardee’s. They’ve had an Angus burger for years.”
Brent DiCrescenzo - “Is there any regulation on using the word Angus? Its got that plywood texture like its been ground-up too fine. It’s a dehydrated Whopper slathered in mayo. McDonald’s beef is particle board to begin with, so thickening the patty doesn’t help. Texturally, it broke down like a meat-flavored sawdust cake with little pearls of gristle. It’s supposed to be ground beef, not powdered. Also, man, I don’t want an uppity hamburger from McDonald’s. Savor your junk food status, Mayor McCheese. Nobody needs a pretentious sandwich, when it’s being pimped by a clown. The mushroom edition tasted alright, but those gummy ’shrooms chewed like Willy Wonka had made them. Or perhaps they’re little bits of Grimace.”
Frank Sennett - “As a McDonald’s aficionado of long standing, I have to say this tastes a bit too much like a BK Whopper for my taste, although it is drier (like Mickey D’s burgers always are). The flavor of the meat is a cut above what McDonald’s normally wraps up and shoves across the counter at you, though, and I do like the mushroom-and-mayo combo.”
Carly Mulliken - “It still kind of tastes like McDonalds, but is good.”
Jake Malooley - “Between the two versions of the Angus Third Pounders I tasted, the Deluxe and the Mushroom & Swiss, the latter’s surprisingly authentic mushroom flavor made it the more memorable burger. (Isn’t it sad that we have to be surprised by authenticity at a restaurant?) The Deluxe, which tasted like a lesser Burger King Whopper, struck me less like a menu item than a cheap shot fired in the fast-food wars. Neither of the burgers, despite the “angus” tag on their boxes, improved much on the typical beef taste we’ve come to know and avoid. If Mickey D’s really wanted people like me to consider eating under the Golden Arches instead of quality beef-between-bun joints like Patty Burger and Epic Burger, the Angus Third Pounder project should’ve been given to their food experts (presuming they have them) and not the marketing department.
I tried the deluxe. The burger was extremely dry and had a nasty taste.
Not too much slander going on here? Any proof of the “vegetable-based products and chemicals” comment? Millions of people don’t eat at McDonalds because they have to, but because they genuinely enjoy it. Look at the empire, their HQ in Oakbrook with an executive chef and extensive taste testing panel– they aren’t messing around.
Lot of poor generic ‘mcdonalds is terrible’ comments for a review. Why bother reviewing if you’re already predisposed to hating it? Well here’s my review. Angus Deluxe is a decent sandwich. Walked in planning on getting a Big Mac, walked out pleasantly surprised. Will go back for another.
I like the Angus Deluxe overall.
But let me backtrack a bit here first: I don’t often eat at fast food places, but Big Macs have always been a guilty pleasure for me that I’ve tended to indulge in two or three times a year. Lately, I’ve been getting the Angus Deluxe (with a small order of fries, which is what I have also always gotten whenever giving in to the occasional Big Mac urge).
My reason for switching to the Angus Deluxe this past year or so is mainly due to my perception that it might be just a little bit healthier than the Big Mac, and it gives me the same “I just ate a burger and fries” satisfaction the Big Mac always gave me. Whether the Deluxe is lower in fat and/or calories than the Big Mac, I have no idea. But I do find that the presence of the fresh tomato, leaf lettuce, and red onion toppings are rather reassuring to me. And since I’m not eating these things very often, I doubt it’s going to make any real impact in my health either way.
Anyway, I have to say that the burger in the Deluxe, since it is “well done,” is pretty darn dry. But with the addition of the mayonnaise, pickles, and tomato, the dryness is of the meat is off-set sufficiently to make it an enjoyable burger on the whole. For intense tastiness, it’s still beat out by the Big Mac, but not by too much.
Bacon N Cheese was really good. New thick-cut red onions, new crinkle-cut pickles, and friggin McD bacon on one of their burgers? AWESOME..I must be living in upside-down land.
Just tried this “angus mushroom&swiss” cause it looked and sounded just what I like. And it really could be great if it tasted anything but salt. The amount of salt in that thing is unbelievable. Let alone so much salt in a single burger is not very healthy, it just kills the taste of angus, mushrooms, and swiss altogether. I’d call it “a salty thing with meat, cheese and stuff”. Back to BK, I think, it’s never failed.
So, anyways, I just got the mushroom and swiss burger, and to my horror, it was covered in mayo… i hate mayo… McDonald’s usually doesn’t put mayo on their sandwiches… so, i didn’t even think of asking for no mayo… i mean, mayo on a mushroom and swiss burger doesn’t even make sense…
Agree with Vladimir. McDonald’s regularly oversalts its food — I assume to mask the poor quality of its ingredients. And, as everyone has said, the quality of the main ingredient here is so low — dry, finely ground, with no bite whatsoever and made worse by gag-worthy smoke-in-a-bottle. The whole thing seems more like a scientific curiosity than actual food.
Why is McDonald’s going to the trouble to offer a Angus grade burger if the product is delivered below room temp on a semi-stale bun? “Hot, sizzle-seared third-pound patty…”? What a joke!
NYC Nancy:
The perception that the Angus Deluxe is healthier than the Big Mac is entirely in your head. It takes about 10 seconds to retrieve the nutritional information for both sandwiches. The Angus Deluxe is less healthy across the board.
But when you are comparing a 540 calorie grease ball to a 750 calorie one, it’s splitting hairs, really. And it shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a meal at McDonalds.
This is truly the sandwich from hell. I have had the courtesy to try this meal twice, and both times I have fallen ill with an absurdly painful stomach. Now that I’ve seen this side-by-side with the Big Mac, I can’t help but wonder what I was thinking; it should be a crime to eat this much fast food- especially a sandwich with this quality of nutritional value. The Mushroom & Swiss combo is one of my favorites, but this burger has indefinately turned me off fast food.
Mushroom and Swiss 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.
One month later the ill feeling I had in my gullet after consuming this tasteless grease bomb still lingers. Every time I see one of Micky Dee’s truck and trailer combos drive by with the nauseating rolling trailer billboard my stomach begins to heave and the sarcastic name McDonald’s new “1/3 LB ANUS BURGER” comes to mind.
Alright just tried the deluxe and my brief thoughts: a decent burger but way too much salt. 73% DV of sodium would be laughable if it weren’t so true. I too was surprised by the lack of beefy taste, which is poorly covered up by exorbitant salt amounts. Also, for me, McDonald burgers always take forever to digest because of all the grease(and calories). So if you make a mistake picking your lunch item it will stay with you for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Pick carefully.