McDonald’s Spicy Quarter Pounder with Cheese
McDonald’s Spicy Quarter Pounder with Cheese Review:
Price: £3.39/£4.89/£5.29.
Calories 518 kcal.
The Spicy Quarter Pounder with Cheese is a new promotional burger at McDonald’s UK and will be on-sale from Wednesday 7th October until Tuesday 17th November.
On its own, the Spicy QP costs £3.39 [at the restaurant I am visiting], with a Medium and Large Meal costing £4.89 and £5.29 respectively – all subject to variation based on where you are and what drink you choose.
As you can see from the ingredients list, there is nothing new on the Spicy Quarter Pounder, it’s just the first time this ensemble of items has featured on the same build.
The Spicy QP is now the fourth McDonald’s burger in the UK to feature jalapeño slices – the pickled chilli peppers have previously been available on the Big Spicy Bacon, Signature Spicy and Nashville Chicken.
I would also wager that the spicy ketchup is the same sauce we got on the Nashville Chicken and before that, the Louisiana Stack.
As of writing, you can add bacon (40p regular or 80p extra) but the big news is that you can add an extra beef patty for £1.00 to make it a double!!
I believe this is the first occasion McD’s have given its UK customers the opportunity of [officially] adding an extra patty to your burger.
To say I am excited about the prospect of a Spicy Quarter Pounder is a massive understatement and it was all the restraint I could muster not to double it up for the review. Next time, definitely.
When I opened the promotional clamshell I wasn’t greeted with the most appealing looking burger.
If I had a pound for every time I heard the argument that “it doesn’t look like the picture” then I probably wouldn’t be writing this review.
Looking past the appearance I did a quick check that all the ingredients were on-board and I was good to go.
The Spicy Quarter Pounder with Cheese is an extremely enjoyable burger and a welcome LTO – I certainly hope to see it back on the menu again in the future.
Without a shadow of a doubt, I will be sampling this multiple times as a Double – I’ve got to re-visit the Deluxe and review the McChicken BLT first though!
Biting in, you get that trademark Quarter Pound Beef patty – surely adding a second it should be called the Spicy Half Pounder..!? Meh.
You get that beef and creamy cheese and then are hit with a very respectable heat level which comes first from the spicy ketchup (yes it is the Tabasco-based one from before) and then the jalapeños.
The lifting the lid shot below really shows you the size of the jalapeño slices and how many they put on.
It just seemed to really work, with the faintest hint of the mustard combining with the spicy ketchup and then the tang of the fresh onions. I was actually quite concerned with just how fast I ate the thing!
Ten times out of ten, I would trade the regular sweet ketchup they use for its spicier counterpart.
There will be countless McDonald’s fans saying “it’s not spicy enough” blah blah and maybe you are correct..!?
It is a simple fact that you are never going to appease everyone as each and every individual has varying spice tolerances.
I’m a big fan of spicy food and I would say the heat levels on the Spicy Quarter Pounder are absolutely spot-on for a high street fast food burger.
In fact, the only reason the overall score below is not higher, is down to the reason that it really doesn’t look great. Top marks for the small bun to give the illusion of a massive beef patty though.
If only there were two of them…
Overall, the Spicy QP is a recommended promotional burger at McDonald’s and I will go on record as saying I will be having at least one or two more before the Quarter Pounder Range ends on 17th November (subject to availability!).
Please do not go into this expecting a melt-your-mouth intensity as frankly, you’re not going to encounter this at McDonald’s in this country.
I would bet that some people across the UK will find this spicy and IMO, it does exactly what it intended to be – a Spicy Quarter Pounder!
Next time though… make mine a Double!
Burger Lad®
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb.html
