McDonald's

We went into this expecting to have some fun at its expense, and that is not what happened, so it is worth saying what actually did.

The Big Mac's flavor balance is good. The sauce, the sugar in the bun, and the rest of the construction are calibrated against one another with real precision, and the result is more balanced than several considerably more expensive burgers we have eaten across New York. That is a counterintuitive finding and we are not going to suppress it to look more discerning.

What that calibration is for matters just as much. It is not cooking. It is engineering, and every element is doing one job, which is making you want the next bite. Doing that job well is not the same as being a good burger.

Our summary was that we were pleasantly surprised and that it is honestly not bad. Both of those are true and neither is a reason to go out of your way.

Two things worth being straight about. Our notes assess exactly one dimension, flavor balance, so we have nothing to tell you about the patty, the cheese, or the sauce individually. And the Grinch Meal itself is gone: it launched nationwide in December 2025 as a limited promotion, packaging a Big Mac or McNuggets with a drink and McShaker Fries served with a dill pickle seasoning called Grinch Salt. The Big Mac remains. The meal around it does not.

Flavor balance is the one dimension this burger genuinely wins on, and it wins on it against restaurant competition many times its price. That is worth acknowledging honestly.

It is also the only thing it has. The balance exists to drive consumption rather than to deliver quality, and nothing else about the burger argues for it.