McExtreme Pulled Pork at McDonald’s (World Menu Heist)

McExtreme Pulled Pork at McDonald's (World Menu Heist)
Location
: 30 Courtneypark Drive East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

The World Menu Heist!  It’s back!!  Is it sad that this is probably one of the highlights of my summer?  Please don’t answer that.

As I was leaving the office at lunch today to head to McDonald’s, in my head I was like, we should all be chanting “Menu heist! Menu heist! Menu heist!”  I believe this is a totally rational thought that doesn’t raise any troubling implications about my mental state.

McExtreme Pulled Pork at McDonald's (World Menu Heist)

For all the normal people out there who don’t get unreasonably excited about novelty menus at McDonald’s, the World Menu Heist is a promotion featuring various items pulled from McDonald’s locations around the world.  This year, that includes France, Spain, Australia, Japan, and the Netherlands.

Obviously I’ll be trying everything (what do you think, I won’t be trying every item on this menu?  Get out of here) but I started with the McExtreme Pulled Pork from Spain.

Here’s how McDonald’s describes it: “Pulled from Spain, now in Canada. Layers of pulled pork in BBQ sauce, beef, hickory-smoked bacon, white processed cheese, crispy onions for some crunch and creamy chipotle sauce for heat make for one delicious sandwich. One bite leads to another… and somehow it’s all gone.”

McExtreme Pulled Pork at McDonald's (World Menu Heist)

I’ve had some weird international McDonald’s menu items over the years, but somehow, pulled pork on a burger at McDonald’s strikes me as particularly weird.

It’s a tasty burger, though sadly, the pulled pork element is negligible.  There’s a teeny-tiny amount of pulled pork on the burger, and it’s spread very thin over the large patty.  You can taste the BBQ sauce, but I suspect if I had eaten this blind, I wouldn’t have even known the burger had pulled pork on it.  There’s just too much other stuff going on.

McExtreme Pulled Pork at McDonald's (World Menu Heist)

I did try a little bit on its own, and it’s exactly what you think it’ll be.  It’s pretty mushy and soaked in enough BBQ sauce to completely wipe out any pork flavour — but that sauce is tasty, and it’s pleasant enough as a burger topping.

Otherwise, this is probably one of the better burgers McDonald’s has come out with in a while.  The creamy chipotle sauce is pleasingly zesty and very mildly spicy, and the BBQ sauce adds a nice sweet/savoury kick.  The cheese, bacon, and crispy onions complement it well.  It’s a solid fast food burger.

Hockey Hero Burger at McDonald’s

Hocky Hero Burger at McDonald's
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.

Hocky Hero Burger at McDonald's

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?

Hocky Hero Burger at McDonald's

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.

Hocky Hero Burger at McDonald's

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).

Frank’s RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald’s

Frank's RedHot Hot Honey Sauce at McDonald's
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.

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 
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.

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
Website: https://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.