Review of McDonald’s new Create Your Taste service by Knot Just A Stomach. #createyourtastenz
Disclosure: I was given vouchers to try it out as a prosumer for unbiased feedback.
On a stormy weekend, I set out to McDonald’s Greenlane to create some monster burgers for some warm comfort.
We each get a Create Your Taste burger combo. You can create your burger on the touchscreens they have instore, which was good because I can only imagine how hangry people would get waiting in line while I hesitated over which cheese to put in. It was mostly easy to navigate; my only gripe would be that when it came to selecting the drink for our combo the pricing of the drinks wasn’t transparent until you selected the drink. It would often indicate +80c for some coffees and nothing else for the other drinks on the drinks menu, but when you selected the drink it adds 50c to your combo price. You then had to engage in a mini dance to remove the drink and pick another if you weren’t happy with that.
There’s a bit of a wait after you’ve paid and you can sit at your table watching the Create Your Taste people at work in a separate kitchen. They’ll also bring you your order, rather than you standing out eyeing the screens for an order number, which I thought was rather fancy.
I opt for brioche buns with a Angus beef patty, 2x rasher bacon, 2x Swiss cheese, 1x tasty cheese, 2x grilled pineapple, and some lettuce, cucumber and grilled onion. With it, a basket of fries (surprisingly large!) and a medium lime shake (which was an extra 50c). It came to a grand total of $20.
I love the brioche buns. The surface was super smooth, with a soft centre that smelt of fresh bread. I was pleasantly surprised, because McDonalds has served me some seriously limp greasy buns before. I expected the pineapple slices to be quite large, but actually two was just right for even distribution within the burger, so I would go for at least two rather than skimping if you want some pineapple. The cheese was also amazing! I would highly recommend going for the full three cheese (it’s no extra cost, unlike some of the other customisations) because it sort of pulls the burger together. The Swiss cheese was especially excellent with the beef and bacon, and was super stretchy like mozzarella when I bit into the burger.
The other combo was a brioche bun burger with 2 Angus beef patties (113g each according to the receipt), 2 grilled pineapple, mushroom, 1x tasty cheese, beetroot, grilled onion, lettuce and tomato and onion relish. With it, a basket of fries, and a medium coke zero (free), which came to $19.50 all up.
The burgers are a bit of a struggle to eat because they were so huge. It’s definitely a messy affair, and the wet wipe and small serviette they provide don’t really help so next time I would be prepared by grabbing a few more serviettes beforehand. However, unless you had come up with a truly weird combination, it’s definitely very satisfying to eat a combination of flavours you created. I think cheese definitely improves the burgers heaps (especially because you can’t normally get good cheese on the other McDonald’s burgers), and being able to load up on the patties is a winner. It makes the burger instantly be a bit more meaty and perky.
They also have the option of having bunnuce (lettuce as buns!) and Big Mac sauce, which I’m curious about trying next time.
Overall, it was definitely a filling meal and the combos have HEAPS of fries even though the basket looks deceptively small. I really love the customisation and presentation, although I would probably hesitate to go for a full combo again. I didn’t feel like it was much value for money to add on about 4-5 dollars for a small drink and fries when I could buy whatever sides I wanted individually and probably get a lot more drink for the same price. I definitely love customising my burger to how I like it though (no sauce! plenty of cheese and meat!) and think McDonald’s is onto something here.