McDonald’s Signature Collection – The Classic

Review of McDonald’s Signature Collection – The Classic

What they say:

100% British and Irish beef, Beechwood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, wholegrain mustard mayo, ketchup, lettuce and red onion, all in a Brioche style bun.

Price: £4.79.

Calories: 698 kcal.

I decided that my final review of 2016 would be to complete my personal look at The Signature Collection by McDonald’s – and last but not least in the range is The Classic.

The Signature Collection has now been rolled out at nearly 150 locations throughout the UK. If you are reading this and were lucky enough to be near to an early EoF converted restaurant then you may see this as old hat.

Otherwise, if you’ve not had the chance to sample The Signature Collection yet, stay patient. It’s really rather good and signs to look out for are the touch-screen ordering kiosks, table service (maybe) and the new order/fulfilment system. But don’t quote me…

It was very, very busy in my local McDonald’s today and eventually managed to score a table. After using the touchscreen kiosk, my order was swiftly dispatched via table service – two facilities I almost take for granted now!

The Classic is primarily a bacon cheeseburger with ketchup, lettuce and red onion. The main talking point of this build is the wholegrain mustard mayo.

Aesthetically, this looked very reasonable and had certainly been assembled with more care than The BBQ I had on my previous visit.

The predominant flavour is that mustard mayo. Quite a rich and grown-up flavour… I could see people either really loving or loathing this but I could be mistaken. I’m not a massive fan of mustard either but found this particularly tasty which was offset nicely by the sweetness of the ketchup.

The Cheddar cheese is not melted but that is anticipated as Signature burgers are made-to-order (as are all burgers in the new system). I find having cheese which isn’t melted, gives it a stronger taste than if it was. It didn’t get lost amongst the sauces either which was a bonus.

You get a slight smokiness imparted on your palate from the Beechwood bacon and this compliments the premium thicker Signature patty. A note again to McDonald’s – please, please do a version of the Big Mac with the Signature patties…

The Classic is finished with some lettuce leaves and chopped red onion. The ever-present lettuce doesn’t really bring much to proceedings but I must confess to being a fan of the sharp tang of the red onion which also features on The BBQ.

It’s good. Not great either… but a pleasant experience all the same. And in my personal opinion, I would rate The Classic slightly above The BBQ but slightly behind The Spicy in terms of overall enjoyment levels.

We talked in more detail about the patty in The Spicy review and this was again quite meaty and juicy with less seasoning used – definitely tasting like something you wouldn’t usually expect from McDonald’s.

The brioche also helps and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this return on The Clubhouse (and possibly a chicken version using two Selects like they did on the Chicken BBQ Smokehouse) in 2017.

The Classic is as it says… a fairly classic ensemble of flavours but with a different take on the mustard element. I’m no ketchup fan either but I found I needed it to temper that semi-strong mustard flavour.

This may feature fairly standard ingredients but that mayo certainly made me feel like I was eating a new taste at McDonald’s. I don’t believe we’ve seen anything like this sauce before… certainly not in recent times.

The patty is great… you’ve got a strong cheddar, smoky bacon, sweet ketchup, fresh, crispy salad items and a strong, rich mustard mayo. What’s not to like…!?

And testament to The Classic as I really don’t particularly like mustard and/or mayo.

Keep an eye out for The Signature Collection hopefully popping up at a McDonald’s near you soon, if it’s not already there. It’s certainly worth the extra money to try it at least once…

Happy New Year from all the team at BURGER LAD® – thanks for reading in 2016 and we hope to welcome you back in 2017 and beyond.

Burger Lad®

Website: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/content/ukhome/promotions/signature-collection.html