tonight we're having..

McDonald's Winter Burgers

it's almost tradition now

our longest stays at home are usually during winter and summer, which seem to always align with a new batch of seasonal burgers from mcdonald's (or as we call it in romania, mec), so when we arrive for these stays my girlfriend's and i first day out will usually be a walk around the city and end up in a mec somewhere along the way to try the set of burgers

i dunno if these are exclusive to romania (though some sets of them must be couse they'll be partnerships with local celebrity chefs). there's little info about them on their website, just generic descriptions. i'm pretty sure the webpage's gonna disappear soon enough, after the promotion goes away, which i'm a little sad about. it'd have been cool to have an archive with all these seasonal burgers. maybe there's something out there but it's late now and i'm gonna look it up tomorrow

we only got two of the three, the xmas beef and noel chicken. will discuss the jolly cheese as well

let's discuss the noel chicken first. i had high hopes for this. the mec seasonal burgers always come in a set, one with beef one with chicken, and it's the chicken ones that are usually good (well, better at least). these wintery burgers seemed really cheesy too so with these two facts combined the noel chicken was set up for success

and how hard the mighty fall (flat). get it, because, that's all it was. flat. one note. there's a number of core issues and personal offenses with this burger. it's all carbs or fat, and it's as obvious about it in its taste as it is in its color. the chicken is kinda unimpressive, and then all there is to it are buns, bacon, mayo and the cheese patty hashbrown. oh no it has a hashbrown in it. there's no way you can make a hashbrown work in a burger (unless you replace the patties with them). it's just gonna cover the taste of everything with grease and potato. maybe i've never had a good hashbrown in a burger, but i seriously don't think you can do it. just carbs between carbs

even with the hashbrown would it have killed them to add some salad or i dunno anything fresh. anything to shake it up and not make it seem so dull and greasy. was very disappointed by it. if only they gave it the cheese patty instead, it would've actually been great, a 9.5/20 at least, perhaps more. unfortunate!

final rating - [░▒▓▓██--------------] : 5.8/20

onto the xmas beef now. honestly this was great. i really didn't expect it. usually the beef side of the seasonal burger is more or less just the default "premium" beef burger with a dry beef patty but with a unique sauce. and sometimes with bacon. this is more or less the same but it's got two things going for it that make it actually really good (as far as a mec burger goes). first off, the sauce is amazing. on the website they call it "creamy sauce" which is stupid. it's horseradish! it's great, i love horseradish. it sometimes makes its rounds among mec burgers in romania and it always improves the burger by so much. off to a great start already

secondly, there's a cheese patty! no more hashbrown, yipee. the cheese patty is alright, not particularly impressive but definitely good for what it is. it blends really well with the beef and the sauce and salad. my only complaint is that maybe a slice of tomato would've improved it a little, but honestly i'm good. as far as mec burgers go this is just right. enough to actually consider getting it a second time some other time (i won't as i don't have mec that often, but enough to consider the possibility!)

final rating - [░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓███--------] : 12.4/20

the jolly cheese didn't seem worth getting it (if you ignore the fact that two burgers are generally enough for two people). it seems to be just the same burger as the xmas beef burger except with a hashbrown instead of the beef patty. solid vegan pick but i'll pass, don't think it warrants a review

t. for me, it's the big tasty. the best mec sandwich

a solid 18.8/20, at least

it's only now crossing my mind i should've coded a little something to hide away the daily scratcher advent game until you clicked at it a few times to "scratch" it off yourself. maybe tomorrow since we're just about halfway through so there's enough left over to go through