McDonald’s Winter Warmer

McDonald’s Winter Warmer

Website: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome.html

What they say:

100% beef patty topped with bacon and layered with smoked cheese, Batavia lettuce, cool mayo and tomato and red pepper sauce, all within a cheese topped bun.

Price: £3.79. £5.39 as part of a value meal, 40p extra to go large.

Kcal: 770 for the burger only.

McDonald’s provide us with a bit of Christmas cheer with ‘The Festive Menu’ – first up in our advent calendar is The Winter Warmer with Tomato & Red Pepper Sauce.

The curse of the drive-thru re-development hit us Monday when we ventured out to try this new promotional item from The Golden Arches. Once again it was closed and I turned away empty handed and stomached.

We had a number of tip offs as the week progressed informing us that once again that loveable fast food was being served. So today would be the day…

I stepped out of the office and was hit by a harsh cold. “Ooh it’s a bit cold out here” I said… “I need a bit of a winter warmer” and the scene was set (from a camp Carry on movie).

At McDonald’s, it was fairly quiet and didn’t take long to get our orders in.

I seemed to be waiting AGES for mine to come as these latest delights are made up from scratch in the kitchen.

I hovered, waiting impatiently and saw the unease of the girl behind the counter grow as she glanced back waiting for the magic to happen. Finally, I snatched the tray of food from her like I was Gollum from The Hobbit clawing at the ‘One Ring’ and off to my secluded seating I went. (I’d like to note here that I did not snatch anything and I was more than polite).

So… cool mayo. One of my arch nemeses… After years of waiting for ‘plain’ burgers to be made up fresh, here I was ordering something without saying the dreaded “can I hold the x please?”. Ironically, I had to wait approximately five minutes for this burger, but how would I cope with this ordeal?

Doing reviews has been like therapy and has helped ease my condiment related fears/dislikes/phobias.

I have stopped asking for things to be excluded and ventured out into unexplored territory. This has enabled me to try new things and feel like a new man. I also realised that only so many reviews can be written with “this and that” taken out before all credibility is lost.

Anyway…. What was this burger actually like?

As you can see from the photos, the burger was presented well and had been prepared with care. And it was big. Not thick, but a big burger and it certainly isn’t one of the standard menu item burgers with some additional ingredients thrown on.

The initial taste I got was the red pepper and tomato sauce which we noted was sweet and ever so slightly spicy.

The cheese topped bun held firm and was the perfect size for the large burger held within. It was warm and soft and I felt the coldness of outside disappear as I took another bite into this winter wonderland.

To be honest, the cool mayo didn’t really offend me, it didn’t really have a taste to it and I wondered what the fuss had been all these years.

Now I didn’t actually count how many bites it took to get me through this burger but it was quite a lot. I’d say it’s worth the money due to the size and the additional smoked cheese and bacon giving us that classic combination.

Every now and then though the red pepper & tomato sauce reminded us that it was there and it brought back memories of the Spanish Grande.

The bacon and cheese provided a smoky element and I did enjoy the overall taste of this burger. The lettuce was fresh and managed to cut through the other flavours on-board this ‘burger sleigh ride’. The killer question is would I get this again? Probably not. Would I recommend it? Yes I would.

The Winter Warmer with Tomato & Red Pepper Sauce will probably be around for most of the festive season so if you’re passing and fancy some respite from the cold then pop in and try one.

Just remember that a burger is for life, not just for Christmas and that I hope you like to read about my greed.

Burger Lad®