If you eat meat, you need to get yourself to McDonald’s and try the Serious Angus 1/4lb. Seriously.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of McDonald’s (and of burgers in general, really), but I often find their “limited edition” burgers wanting. Sometimes they’re awful (like that McRib abomination), usually they’re not bad, but rarely do they compare to masterpieces like the Big Mac or McChicken.
The Serious Angus doesn’t outshine those burgers – it eclipses them. I don’t think I’ve ever liked a McDonald’s burger as much as this one. It’s become my go-to option, and I must have eaten at least five or six of them in the last couple of weeks. Probably more. I don’t know what I’ll do when they’re no longer on the menu. Give up on food, probably.
It’s a pretty straightforward concoction, as far as burgers go: a quarter-pound Angus beef pattie, bacon, tomato, pickles, lettuce, red onion, mayo, mustard, all carefully set on a chilli chive bun. Aside from the bun, there’s nothing unusual here, but it all comes together in a perfect way that’s unlike anything else on the menu. Most of the beef burgers lack the salad ingredients, and the ones that don’t are still very different affairs. The Boss is probably the closest comparison, but without Angus beef and red onion, and a distorted meat-to-salad ratio, it falls far short.
The chilli chive bun is a big part of what makes the Serious Angus so good. It’s a really good bun, with a strange and wonderful mix of flavours that sets it apart even from the glorious sesame seed bun. But other burgers that use this bun – the Almighty Angus 1/2lb, for example, or the Chicken Bacon Deluxe – don’t even come close. The Serious Angus is more than the sum of its parts.
The most telling part? I’d rather get a Serious Angus than KFC’s Aioli Burger – sandwich that is basically tailor-made for my love of fried chicken and aioli.
If you’re a meat eater, you need to try this, the god of burgers. And McDonald’s, if you’re reading this – please, please, please make this a mainstay on your menu. I don’t know what I’d do without it.
The Serious Angus 1/4lb is available from McDonald’s in New Zealand at the time of writing, but it’s a limited-time burger and it’s unclear when it will be removed from the menu. We’ve reached out to McDonald’s for confirmation.
Something ridiculous like five or six Serious Angus 1/4lb burgers were bought at the reviewer’s expense; McDonald’s has had no involvement or influence in this review.