Frank’s RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald’s

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's
Location
1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke 
Websitehttps://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.

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's

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.

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's

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.”

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's

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

Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy at McDonald's
Location
1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke 
Websitehttps://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.

Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy at McDonald's

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.”

Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy at McDonald's

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.

Frank’s RedHot Original McCrispy at McDonald's

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.

Double Cheesy Melt from McDonald’s

Double Cheesy Melt from McDonald's
Location
30 Courtneypark Drive East, Mississauga
Websitehttps://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I don’t think it’s possible to have too much cheese on a fast food cheeseburger.  Generally speaking, I want the beef to be the star of a hamburger, even a cheeseburger, but a fast food burger with fast-food-quality beef patties?  Sure, pile on the cheese.  The more the better.

Double Cheesy Melt from McDonald's

And McDonald’s definitely piles on the cheese with this one.  Here’s how they describe it: “Two juicy 100% Canadian beef patties with a delicious cheesy sauce,  two processed cheese slices, grilled onions, crispy onions and pickles on a warm toasted sesame seed split bun.”

I think the fact that they’re using smaller patties rather than the Quarter Pounder patties that you might expect really helps to tip the cheese-to-beef balance in favour of the cheese.  The cheese isn’t kidding around here, that’s for sure.

Double Cheesy Melt from McDonald's

I liked it.  The cheese sauce tastes exactly how you want it to taste: extremely processed, but in a satisfying way.  The grilled onions are a nice touch, and make the burger feel a bit more deluxe than your typical McDonald’s fare.  And the crispy onions, as always, are tasty and add some nice texture.

I will say that I wish there were more pickles in the burger, or some sauce other than the cheese.  The pickles do a great job of rounding things out by cutting through the richness of the cheese, but they’re not in every mouthful; the pickle-free bites feel like they’re missing something.

Baked Salted Caramel Pie at McDonald’s

Baked Salted Caramel Pie at McDonald's
Location
: 1500 Dundas Street East, Mississauga (inside Walmart)
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I’m going to try not to spend this entire review complaining about how McDonald’s used to fry their pies, resulting in a golden, satisfyingly crispy exterior, and now bakes them instead.

Remember how good the fried pies used to taste?  No, you don’t, because the switchover happened back in 1992, and you weren’t even born when it happened??  That’s extremely upsetting to me, but yeah, fair enough.

Baked Salted Caramel Pie at McDonald's

Well, the fried pies were good.  And you don’t need a time machine to discover this for yourself — basically every other country in the world still serves their McDonald’s pies fried, and it’s a million times better.  Why we still have to put up with gummy, tasteless crusts despite the fact that the low-fat diet craze that spawned this change has been gone for decades is a mystery that will eternally haunt me.

Baked Salted Caramel Pie at McDonald's

Oh, did I say I wasn’t going to spend this entire review complaining about the crust?  Well, I lied.  Otherwise, this is basically fine — it tastes like an apple pie that’s all goo, no apples, with the slight hit of salt making it a bit more interesting.  But seriously: why are we all putting up with the fact that the pies at McDonald’s are terrible when they don’t have to be???

Triple Pickle McCrispy from McDonald’s

Triple Pickle McCrispy from McDonald's
Location
1001 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke 
Websitehttps://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

Pickle-heavy fried chicken sandwiches are officially a thing at fast food joints.  There was the Pickle Glaze Chicken Sandwich at Popeyes, the Pickle Sandwich at KFC, and now, the Triple Pickle McCrispy at McDonald’s.

I was a bit baffled as to what the hell is going on, so I Googled it, and apparently the pickle mania is a Gen Z thing.  Sure, why not?  I guess pickles have rizz.  Am I using that right?  They’re full of rizz?  That seems right.

Triple Pickle McCrispy from McDonald's

Here’s how the McDonald’s website describes the Triple Pickle McCrispy: “A crispy chicken patty – made with 100% Canadian-raised seasoned chicken – and shredded lettuce on a soft potato bun. But that’s only the beginning. Crispy dill pickle-seasoned cucumbers, our classic pickles and a generous spread of our all-new creamy dill pickle sauce. All together in a bold collision of pickle pickle pickle flavour.”

Triple Pickle McCrispy from McDonald's

I enjoyed this.  It is, indeed, very pickley, with a noticeable punch of pickle flavour.   The sauce is slightly sweet and thoroughly zesty, and the fried pickles are basically like the crispy onions that McDonald’s occasionally uses, only… pickley.  They’re tasty.

Between those two things and the standard McDonald’s pickle slices, it’s a lot of pickle — but in a satisfying way.  This doesn’t just feel like a novelty.  I’d get it again.