McDonald’s USA Steakhouse Sirloin Third Pound Burger
Review of McDonald’s USA Steakhouse Sirloin Third Pound Burger
What they say:
One-third pound burger made with 100% North American sourced sirloin. Freshly prepared with sautéed mushrooms, grilled onions and white cheddar** plus creamy peppercorn sauce atop our premium bun. This burger is limited edition, so enjoy the lovin’ while it lasts.
Price: $4.99.
Calories: 730 kcal.
The most famous burger chain of them all, the Golden Arches, McDonald’s had added a range of three burgers which have a sirloin steak patty as opposed to the usual patty in their other burgers.
The arrival of this new range in an initially small area was first reported by Burger Lad® back in April.
It now appears to be available throughout the US, so I find myself in McDonalds Scottsdale branch, ordering the Steakhouse.
The McDonald’s USA Steakhouse Sirloin is a third pound burger, with cheese, onions and mushrooms, the latter of which is still a rarity among burger toppings.
The burger is presented in a specially branded box with the word “sirloin” displayed prominently. There’s also a bacon and cheese, and a lettuce and tomato option, with little flaps around the edges of the box to choose which one is inside. There’s also a flap marked “special” so it may be that the Sirloin range is added to in the future.
I unpackaged my burger and instantly it was the smell of the mushrooms that came through loudest and most clearly.
The burger felt substantial. Not particularly tall but heavier in the hand than a standard McDonald’s. Heavier than a Big Mac, I thought.
The cheese, rather than the more yellowy colour I’d associate with McDonald’s regular menu items, was much whiter. A similar consistency to the standard yellow, and as such was slightly, but not entirely, melted on top of the beef.
The patty itself was clearly thicker than McDonald’s standard patties. It was almost the sort of thickness you’d expect from a pub or a gourmet burger, rather than fast food. Even before taking a bite, this felt like a premium product, despite the low price.
The bun didn’t seem to be enormously different from a normal one, and it was lightly toasted on the inside.
On top, the onions and mushrooms were much the same colour as each other and had been scattered around on top of the beef.
While the onions added a slight background flavour, the mushrooms were, as they might say here, very much front and centre.
They dominated the smell, they dominated the taste and they weren’t exactly insignificant to the look of the burger.
It was an altogether new experience.
And the beef was “new” too. It really didn’t taste like the patties used elsewhere on the menu. There’s beef, it would seem, and there’s beef.
This was very beefy beef. Although each bite had a distinct mushroom taste, the sirloin was hardly a silent partner. It was helped in this respect by its thickness.
Although mushrooms aren’t really my thing, I left feeling that McDonald’s has picked a winner here.
The beef is different enough to feel special and the mushrooms certainly feel special.
I would like to try the sirloin burger with a more traditional bacon and cheese topping combination, and who knows – if this range is successful in America, perhaps we will see it one day in the United Kingdom.
Admiral Burgerbar
