fast food – Michael Eats

Hockey Hero Burger at McDonald’s

Published on March 4, 2026March 5, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 30 Courtneypark Drive East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I might have gotten a bit too excited about the Hockey Hero Burger. It’s basically the Super Hero Burger, a tie-in with Batman Forever from 1995 that, for reasons I cannot particularly explain, has really stuck with me for all these years.

We all think about that burger regularly, right? I’m just going to assume that we all do.

Here’s how McDonald’s describes this one: “The Hockey Hero Burger® is back on the ice after a long break, with a fresh take. Made with three juicy 100% Canadian beef patties, shredded lettuce, crispy hickory-smoked bacon, processed cheese and mayo-style sauce on a toasted homestyle bun – one bite and you’ll know why it’s called the Hockey Hero Burger.”

It’s… fine? I guess?

One of the things I like about McDonald’s is that, generally speaking, they tacitly acknowledge that their burger patties aren’t very good by drowning them in sauce.

This one, on the other hand, has a teeny-tiny bit of mayo and… nothing else, which means that those burger patties are front and centre.

Speaking of which: there are three patties here, and the bun isn’t wide enough to properly spread them out, so you wind up with a triple layer of patties in most bites. That’s just too much McDonald’s beef.

It’s basically just a bunch of beef and a little bit of cheese and mayo. There’s also the bacon and lettuce, but neither adds all that much.

Oddly, my burger also had the little onions they put on the Big Mac, but that’s not in the description, so I’m guessing it was a mistake.

It all adds up to something that’s not unpleasant to eat, but is just aggressively boring (outside of the shape, and outside of the sweet ’90s nostalgia).

Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich from KFC

Published on February 24, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

I was actually kind of shocked to see that chili crunch is now mainstream enough to pop up at a giant fast food chain like KFC — but then I guess it’s been on its way up for a few years now (here’s an article from 2022 about how chili crisp “took over America”).

KFC’s got several items with the stuff, including a sandwich, Loaded Chili Crunch Tenders, a chili crunch Snacker Wrap, and chili crunch fries.

I went with the Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich: “Meet your new spicy obsession – the Chili Crunch Chicken Sandwich. KFC’s juicy, crunchy, signature tripled-breaded chicken fillet is layered with spicy chili crunch oil, creamy chili crunch mayo, crispy onions, and pickles— all sandwiched between a toasted potato bun.”

I’m a fan of chili crunch, so I sort of figured this would be good, and yeah, it is. For one thing, unlike my last experience at KFC, the sandwich was hot, fresh, and made with some level of care. This seems like it should be the bare minimum, but here we are.

But even aside from that, this is a tasty sandwich — the chili crunch they’re using is a bit tangier than the norm, but it works. Combined with the heat and the garlicky punch, it’s a great topping for a fried chicken sandwich. The mayo also has some of that flavour, which is nice.

The level of spice is pretty decent, too — it’s certainly not the spiciest thing you’ll ever eat, but it’s got a nice kick. It’s a level of heat that would have been unheard of from a fast food chain a few years ago, but fast food places have been upping the spice recently.

I’m not sure if the crispy onions add all that much, and the sandwich is maybe a bit too salty, but otherwise I really enjoyed this.

Frank’s RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald’s

Published on February 6, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I recently tried the Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy and found it to be pretty disappointing. It just didn’t particularly taste like Frank’s RedHot, which is odd, considering it’s right there in the name of the sandwich.

I figured I’d have a bit more luck with the Frank’s RedHot Hot Honey dipping sauce. Surely a Frank’s RedHot sauce would taste like Frank’s RedHot?

Yeah, about that.

Here’s how McDonald’s describes it: “A dipping sauce with the sweet taste of honey and the heat of Frank’s RedHot® to treat your McNuggets® to a flavour they’ve never experienced before.”

The problem here is that the sauce doesn’t really taste like honey or Frank’s RedHot. It’s just a mildly spicy sweet goo. I can’t find the ingredients online, but I’d be shocked if it wasn’t mostly corn syrup with a teeny-tiny bit of honey so they can legally put honey in its name. As for the Frank’s RedHot, the vinegary flavour of the hot sauce is almost completely wiped out by its intense sweetness.

If you like a very (very very) sweet dipping sauce, you might enjoy this — but I can’t say I did.

Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy at McDonald’s

Published on February 5, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

If you put “Frank’s RedHot” in the name of your sandwich, I’m going to expect a lot of Frank’s RedHot. I don’t think that’s unreasonable?

McDonald’s actually has a few new items in their Frank’s RedHot x McDonald’s menu: you can get the distinctive red hot sauce on a McCrispy, a McVeggie, several different McMuffins, or in a hot honey dipping sauce.

I went with the Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy: “We cranked up the flavour on the McCrispy with the added kick of Frank’s RedHot®. We took our McCrispy chicken sandwich, made with tender and juicy 100% Canadian-raised seasoned chicken, and topped it with shredded lettuce, mayo-style sauce and Frank’s RedHot® Original Thick Sauce. Served on a potato bun.”

It’s… fine? I guess? As I said, I was kinda (not unreasonably?) expecting this to taste strongly of Frank’s RedHot, and it absolutely did not. If you’re going to name this sandwich after one of the condiments, it should be called the Mayo Original McCrispy, because it was absolutely dripping with the stuff.

The Frank’s Red Hot, on the other hand? I got a couple of bites with a decent amount (you can see it on one side of the sandwich in the photo), which were reasonably satisfying. Otherwise, it may as well have not been there. Which left me with a plain old McCrispy with a vaguely dry piece of chicken. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t particularly like it, either.

Matty Melt Sandwich from KFC x Matty Matheson

Published on January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1610 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.kfc.ca/

KFC is making a pretty big deal out of their collaboration with celebrity chef Matty Matheson. At the location I went to, there was signage all over the restaurant, and even the bag was emblazoned with Matheson’s name. It’s in the news. People are excited!

And sure, it is kinda exciting. An ostensibly talented chef teaming up with a fast food joint? Yeah, I’m all over that.

There are three new items in this promotion: the Matty Melt Sandwich, the Matty Melt Slider, and the Matty Mega Melt Poutine. Hilariously, that poutine weighs in at a whopping 2390 calories (??), which seems like it’s probably too many calories? I briefly considered ordering this just for the novelty of it, but I just don’t think I’ve reached the level of self-loathing required to want to consume a 2400 calorie poutine from KFC. Sorry.

So I went with the Matty Melt Sandwich: “The Matty Melt Chicken Sandwich features our signature triple-breaded chicken fillet layered with cheese sauce, sweet caramelized onions, and creamy mayo, all stacked on a potato bun.”

I did not enjoy this sandwich. It’s that “cheese sauce,” which has zero cheese-like properties and is mostly just one-note salty in an oddly unpleasant way. If you served this to me blind, I never in a million years would have guessed that it was supposed to be a cheese sauce.

KFC doesn’t mention this in their description, but the only flavour there (aside from the vaguely off-putting amorphous saltiness) is truffle oil. I might be wrong, but there’s either truffle oil in there, or something that tasted a lot like truffle oil to me. I’m not particularly crazy about truffle oil, so can’t say I enjoyed this. Your milage may vary if you like the stuff more than I do.

The only other thing that differentiates this from a standard KFC sandwich are the caramelized onions. Some sweetness actually would have been nice, considering how salty the sandwich is, but I can’t say the onions added much.

It probably didn’t help that the chicken itself had obviously been sitting out for quite a while, and was dried out and chewy around the edges. This is partially my fault — the last time I visited this particular KFC location, I had a bad experience and someone commented that it was “the worst KFC in the GTA.” But that was a few years ago, and I had hoped things had gotten better since then. Clearly not! Oh well.