McSloppy

The challenge was set to sample McDonald's new Moroccan Lamb Burger. McDonald's have pitched the burger as containing an aromatic sauce with just the right amount of paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, turmeric, cumin and a hint of chilli, plus crisp fresh cucumber, tomato and lettuce.

The advertisement

The billboard advertising had already planted the seed with a clever tag line of 'Moorish', but what made the purchase a certainty was when an email containing words such as "superb", "something special", "you won't be disappointed" describing the burger arrived in my inbox, I knew what I was having for lunch.

The trip to Queen Street McDonald's was uneventful, the queue moved relatively swiftly.

The wait time for my order took longer than the allotted 60 section lunch time allocation so I was rewarded with a voucher for a free cheese burger on a return visit.

 

At $11.90 (true cost $12 as I gave the 10 cents to Ronald McDonald House) this was quite a commitment compared to my usual lunch time spend.

 

The meal arrived and I hastily went to find a table. Everything present and accounted for, I shouldn't have ordered the large size, but could not understand what the person serving me was asking when we went through that part of the transaction.

The email

The meal

It was time to open this box up. I have to say I was not impressed with what I saw.



What's in the box?

A lot of the satisfaction of a McDonald's burger is how the burger was prepared. Mine looked like it had been thrown together. Pretty sloppy. I knew I was going to have a lot of difficulty eating this without it ending up on my lap.

Well the truth is in the taste, so I went for my first bite. Carefully picking it up so the contents did not cascade out onto the table I took a bite. Jesus, just the right amount of paprika? I'm not sure about that, that sauce was pretty hot (and now running down my cheek in large globules). Damn I did not grab any napkins. Without been able to put the burger down for fear of it collapsing, I managed to extract a tissue out of my suit pocket to clear my face of the toxic looking bright yellow sauce that was not encasing it.

 

This was going to be a very difficult eat. In an effort to not end up wearing the burger, I had to consume it very quickly. This in turn allowed me less time to construct an in-depth analysis of the burger in question.

I did however have the following observations:

• Sloppy
• Poor construction
• Way too much sauce
• Sauce is very bright yellow, hopefully from the turmeric
• Sauce is very overpowering
• Bun was very average, in fact mine tasted stale
• Cucumber and tomato was fresh
• Cucumber was cut to a decent thickness
• Not sure what the percentage of lamb was in the patty, I suspect low
• The meat patty was quite bland



After a few bites



Almost done

I think the fact that I gave my cheese burger voucher to a homeless person on the way out shows what I think of the new McDonald's Moroccan Lamb Burger. I went into this with very high expectations, I left very disappointed. I won't be back.