Place: McDonald's
Lunch: McRib, McDouble, McChicken (no lettuce), Hi-C Orange Lavaburst
McRib is back. Monopoly usually is too around this time of year, but McDonald's did it in July instead. Which completely threw my internal clock off. I'm surprised I didn't show up in Utah in August, wondering where the Christmas light displays were. Thanks a lot for screwing up my entire year, McDonald's.
McDonald's got a lot of press last week when they announced the new "Dollar Menu & More", essentially morphing the dollar menu and the "Extra Value Menu" together. Media sensationalists largely reported it as a "farewell to the dollar menu" story because that sounds more exciting, I guess. But come on. The way things have been going with food commodity prices, many of the dollar items should have had a price bump a long time ago.
The new $1.00 part of the dollar menu still has nine items: including two burgers and two chicken sandwiches. The McDouble is not among them. It's now $1.19...at least at this location. The Double Cheeseburger, a former dollar menu champion, is $1.49. New to the dollar menu is a Buffalo Ranch McChicken, and a BBQ Ranch Burger, which the picture indicates is topped in something similar to Fritos.
Then there's a $2.00 line of sandwiches, including a Bacon McDouble, a Bacon Cheddar McChicken, and a Bacon Buffalo Ranch McChicken.
Then there's the $5.00 20-piece Chicken McNuggets, which McDonald's helpfully points out "serves 2".
That's everything they're promoting on the big store banner. There's other items, including breakfast stuff, on the main menu board that I didn't get a chance to read. I was sort of hoping for a "Mac Double", basically a Big Mac version of the McDouble. But when they're getting away with charging north of $4 for a regular Big Mac, what's the point, I guess.
The big surprise for me was that the McChicken stayed at a buck. I've often joked that McChicken was the biggest value on the McDonald's menu because they put nearly a dollar's worth of mayo on it.
I don't have a problem paying $1.19 for a McDouble. To me, it's the perfect McDonald's burger. Just the right mix of meat, cheese, condiments, onion, and pickle. If you're really hungry, get two of them, discard the bottom buns, and merge the two sandwiches together in what I call the "McQuad". Four patties and two slices of cheese with condiments on both sides with two bun crowns.
I almost never do that anymore.
