McDonald’s My Burger McPizza Pepperoni Burger
Review of McDonald’s My Burger McPizza Pepperoni Burger
Website: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/product_nutrition.beef.1314.mcpizza-pepperoni-burger.html
What they say:
This Italian-inspired delight from Charlotte Butcher takes a classic 100% beef patty, adding mozzarella cheese slices, a premium ketchup, pepperoni and chopped iceberg lettuce all topped off with tomato & smoked paprika sauce in a cheese-topped bun.
Price: £3.99 for the burger only (subject to variation).
Calories: 681 kcal.
Welcome to week four of the McDonald’s My Burger promotion and on the menu this week is the Italian-inspired McPizza Pepperoni Burger.
Now I must admit that this and week five are the limited time offers I have been looking forward to the most from the Golden Arches.
After the generic items of week one and week three this pretty much ticked every box in terms of my requirements and hopes for My Burger.
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| McDonald’s Promotional Picture… |
This is not the first item to be branded a “McPizza” by McDonald’s Corporation.
In the US from around the 1980’s or 70’s depending on the “sauce” you use, the big M actually sold regular style pizzas in some of their restaurants.
I’m not going to go into too much detail and you can read more about it here.
The only other burger I thought of when major chains combine pizza and patty is the calorie-laden BK Pizza Burger (which was available in the now defunct NYC Whopper Bar and Japan briefly).
This will NEVER see a release in the UK due to it being a whopping 2,500 calories. Oooft.
Back to our review… any High Street Burger we were going to sample after the amazing burgerworks was going to struggle, but any comparisons with this burger are unfair as they are on opposite ends of the review spectrum.
I’d sampled another Ultimate Supreme since our exclusive analysis last week and this time it had red onion on it.
This was a minor improvement but we are here to talk about the McPizza Pepperoni and back at our regular secret burger location I was confident we’d pay 10p more than last week and have every listed ingredient.
And I was correct…
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| First look at the McPizza Pepperoni… |
So I managed to get to the drive-thru slightly later again today but it was worth it as I had to park in one of the bays to get my order as it would be made up from scratch.
Just how I like it… But just how was this today…?
Opening the container I actually thought the bun looked quite small compared to the patty which is a common occurrence with the oval variety.
The smell coming from the McPizza Pepperoni was inviting and it looked like it had been put together with an element of care.
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| The real McPizza Pepperoni… |
We filmed our latest episode of BLTV which you can see below. You’ll have to excuse my appearance today as I’ve not been feeling 100% in the last 24 hours… but like a legend we’re still there on day one!
The first taste for me was the mozzarella which was a great addition to this burger and a welcome change from the standard offering.
It was fairly creamy and did manage to stand out ahead of some of the stronger flavours on-board. I was impressed with this and with the cheese-topped bun gave the McPizza Pepperoni that cheesy pizza element throughout. Like it.
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| A different product from McD’s… |
For me the next flavour that plays on your palate is the sauce.
It’s pretty much impossible to detect where the “premium” ketchup ends and the tomato & smoked paprika sauce begins but overall it has a sweet taste, I almost detected a basil hint to it but that might have been my senses playing a trick on me.
I liked the attempt at a pizza-style sauce and it was not too dissimilar from the bravas-style one seen on the Spanish Grande with Chorizo.
The 100% beef patty was up-to its usual standard and benefits from the sauce and cheese to help it from being classed as inoffensively dry.
What I really did love however was the two slices of pepperoni which were tucked away under the beef and this is what really delivered in terms of replicating a pizza.
Gone was the standard issue bacon and replaced with something we’ve not seen (I think) since the Arizona Nacho Grande – still one of my favourite promotional burgers!
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| Lifting the lid on week four… |
The pepperoni was cut fairly thin but did not lose any of that characteristic smoky taste.
Some people are not a fan of this but I’d definitely have the McPizza again based on this ingredient alone not including how well it works with the sauce and that mozzarella.
We’ll be sampling it again tomorrow in our taste test experiment where four people not associated with this website rank each burger – we’ll be revealing the expert statistical analysis on our final My Burger review in week five.
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| One of my favourites for 2014… |
Overall, I really liked the McPizza Pepperoni and it certainly delivers what it says on the box (or website).
My only minor grumble would be the addition of lettuce.
I know it’s there to give a slight crunch but for me lettuce and pizza is not a common association – perhaps that’s why I’ve added a few pounds in 2014.
Weighing in at nearly an eye-watering 700 calories for the burger alone, this is not one to have on a daily basis.
However, it’s certainly one of my favourite items from McDonald’s in 2014 and sets us up nicely for week five and the Big Spicy Bacon – the first McDonald’s burger in the UK to feature McDonald’s on it… I mean Jalapeños.
If you don’t know what I’m going on about just watch the video below…
Burger Lad®
Had one and didn't like it. Somehow the lettuce was the odd ingredient and as for the sauces, talk bout sauce overload.
Burgerlad you slaughtered The Ultimate burger because of the sauce but in your video and a photo of the pizza burger there's even more sauce but you didn't complain!
Can't wait for next weeks spicy bacon:)
I forgot to add that I thought the sweet chilli fiesta was good but the peppers did nothing to the taste IMO. The Ultimate burger was good too especially the bacon and pepper Mayo, although the emmental cheese could have done with 2 slices instead of one.
Here’s my run-down of the four so far:
1. The Big Uno. Won’t go on about this one too much as I’ve commented on Burger Lad®’s review here: https://burgerlad.com/2014/10/mcdonald-my-burger-big-uno.html I hastily dubbed this “The Big Oh-No” but I take it back. While Tammy Rose’s creation was nothing new or unusual, it had an amazing fresh crunch to it, which I’ve found myself craving with other burgers. In fairness to Tammy as well I wimped out of ordering her actual burger because I can’t stand mayonnaise, so had to ask for it without. If only I was more brave!
2. The Sweet Chilli Fiesta. What is wrong with you people!? Blowing your head off with spice!??? Shame on you. I guess I like things spicier than most, because I’d personally call this more of a Sweet Chilli “Siesta”. Nothing wrong with it as such, just disappointed with the level of spice. Harry Lloyd had a great concept, but I really do like things HOT *winks at Burger Lad®* and it would’ve been great to really push the boat out and chilli it up. Tasty though, and kudos for the lack of mayo.
3. The Ultimate Supreme. Now I did try this with the pepper mayo (sorry Tammy) but this one failed to hit the spot. Maybe it was the mayonnaise, but this one seemed like a step down from the Fiesta, and instead felt like the sequel to the Uno. Maybe I’d look at it differently if Dave Wright’s burger came out first, but for me this felt like just another burger with bacon, lettuce, red onions, cheese, ketchup and mayo. Ok, it was different kind of cheese and a different kind of mayo etc., but it still felt like an alternative burger to one we’d only just seen. I almost felt like McDonald’s cheated with this one, and with all the other burgers I saw made on the day I was very surprised that this one AND the Big Uno made the final cut. If only it was chipotle mayo with, um… mushrooms? Just saying… But like I said, if this one came out before Tammy’s my review might read differently.
4. The McPizza-Pepperoni. The fact that I had one for lunch and one on the way home says it all really. I bloody loved it. As with Harry, Charlotte Butcher gets bonus points for not using mayonnaise (I will never like that stuff) although I should hold her personally responsible if my jeans don’t fit me anymore. This was the best burger I have bought from McDonalds in my life. It really had those key pizza flavours going on, and the doughy cheese-topped bun worked perfectly to hold it all together. I can see me ordering another before the end of the week – in fact the only fault I can see is that this one is only out for 7 days. If I’m going to be nit-picky then McDonald’s could’ve been less stingy with the pepperoni I guess. It’s a key part of the burger (and the name) so to only have 2 bits hiding in there against such a big burger was the only thing I’d change, but other than that, this is my favourite hands-down.
In short, Charlotte is the running champion for me, Tammy and Harry are joint second (because I really can’t decide!) and Dave is 3rd on my list. Very excited about trying the fifth and final burger, but the Big Spicy Bacon will really have to be something special to knock Charlotte off the top spot!
Hi Burger Lad and Roxy,
Thank you so much for your lovely reviews! I am so shocked at the response my burger has received on Twitter! The lettuce was NOT on my original design (just thought I would clear that up!) When I was making my burger at the HQ after a few attempts, one of the chefs told me to put lettuce on it to give it a bit of "crunch" and to prevent the bun from becoming soggy! You can however, ask them to remove the lettuce for you!
Again, thank you so much for this awesome review,
Charlotte
A day late, but I finally got around to trying this burger today. I’ve been looking forward to this week.. from when Burger Lad first started talking about the MyBurger, to getting the exclusive and the breakdown of all 5, this is the one that stood out from the rest one that is trying to be different….. so how does it fare?
For the last three weeks, I’ve been getting my burgers from the McD drive-thru in Oldbury… so far, each of the builds haven’t quite been up to scratch (either something missing, too much of something, etc), so I thought I’d try my hometown of Worcester and see if it was any better.
The build was spot on – everything there, in perfect quantities… so the first bite..! The crunch of the lettuce, an amazing beef patty (not dry this week), with cheese, tomato sauce and a hint of pepperoni, but also a sense of disappointment.
Don’t get me wrong, this was a damn fine burger, and I ate every single bit of it – unlike other weeks, I didn’t feel “heavy” for the rest of the afternoon, nor had a dry mouth… I would go out and buy another one without question, but I felt disappointment. For me, I’d built up in my head that I would be getting a fusion of Pizza and Burger, but it didn’t quite hit the pizza side as much as I’d hoped.
For me, Pizzas are about having a damn fine sauce, maybe with a hint of garlic, oregano and basil, with melted mozzarella over the top and various toppings. The tomato sauce wasn’t the strongest in the world and whilst there was a hint of paprika, I wanted a hint of basil. The cheese was ok, but it wasn’t the pizza experience. It needs to be melted and stringy, not uncooked and just placed on the burger.
I think Charlotte has done an amazing job on this – she set out to be different to the other burgers (who, to be frank are pretty safe burgers, so far) and even resisted the urge to throw bacon in like the other four (don’t get be wrong, I love bacon!). I’m hoping this sells well, as it is a great idea, I just think that it doesn’t quite hit the pizza / burger mix that I was looking forward to. Maybe I’ve overly built this up in my head…? I’ll try not to do that for the next Star Wars film!
Ranking so far:
1. Mc Pizza Pepperoni
2. Sweet Chill Fiesta
3. The Big Uno
4. The Ultimate Supreme
By far the best so far