REVIEW: McDonald’s Grand Mac

Leonard Reviews

Do you see that party over there? It’s an LTO (limited time offer) party and I see the King from Burger King and the chihuahua from Taco Bell absolutely going crazy and for what seems like forever. Oh, and who’s that I see over there making a fashionably late entrance? WHY IT’S RONALD MCDONALD WITH TWO NEW BURGERS!

Welcome to the party, McDonald’s! Glad to see you here even if it is for just two size variations of your top performer.

The burgers are siblings to McDonald’s signature item the Big Mac, one of which is called the Grand Mac. Thinking about the name, though, a Grande at Starbucks is a medium and if you translate grand from French it means “big,” so jeez McDonald’s this is confusing.

I got a regular Big Mac too just so I could see the difference. And if the package wasn’t warning enough (you’re gonna need two hands), you truly see the magnitude when you open the box. This thing is big! Actually, scratch that since it’s confusing. It’s huge!

It’s definitely larger than its star sibling but not so much in height. However, getting a bird’s eye view is simply breathtaking as you compare the diameters of the two sesame seed buns.

The taste is right on point with the Big Mac as the usual components are there in all their glory. The lettuce, onions, and pickles add some really nice crunch while the cheese is a sort of middle ground in texture to marry up all the different components, which it does so beautifully. However, the star here is the Big Mac sauce, which is as it should be. It’s the flavor you know and love, both creamy and delicious in full force. If you absolutely love the Big Mac but usually finish it without feeling as full as you’d like then the Grand Mac is for you.

The one disappointment I had were with the meat patties. The taste was fine but they were a bit too thin for me considering everything else that was going on. So, here’s to hoping McDonald’s has another option in the works. I even mocked one up using the gloriously sized patties from a Double Quarter Pounder. Drive-thru patrons of America? The Hamburglar? The enormous gigantic Jumbo Mac has arrived…

(Nutrition Facts – 860 calories, 470 calories from fat, 52 grams of fat, 18 grams of saturated fat, 2 grams of trans fat, 140 milligrams of cholesterol, 1470 milligrams of sodium, 62 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of dietary fiber, 13 grams of sugar, and 41 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: $5.00
Size: N/A
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: A truly super-sized Big Mac experience. Ronald McDonald partying with the King and a chihuahua. Packaging warnings that actually hold true.
Cons: Meat patties that are underwhelming. The French translation of Grand Mac is Big Mac.

34 thoughts to “REVIEW: McDonald’s Grand Mac”

  1. Looks like you got jibbed on cheese. The Grand is supposed to have a second slice, but I only notice the one.

    1. he mocked that burger up with two patties from a double quarter pounder in order to show the size diff. in the patties. dont think he was worried about adding another slice of cheese

  3. Why oh Why? Can it not look like the one on tv? Wait ! I know the employees dont give a crap! Lol But still taste great just wish he bun would match the meat size

    1. You know they put polish on the burgers during the advertising and dont cook them all the way trust me you dont want that

      1. I don’t think they are getting the burgers from commercials. All fast food chains do that in their commercials.

        1. Legally they have to be the same exact product in the commercial as in the store. Doesn’t mean they don’t spend 5 hours finding the perfect lettuce strands and cutting the onions to perfection.

    2. This burger is way over priced you can make 2 of your own for for the price of this a real rip off.

  6. There was a time when McDonald’s was awesome. Then Ray Kroc died. After that, it was never the same. Not everyone will remember all of the different food production methods that were tried after Ray passed, but I do. I remember them all. From the un-toasted buns (they microwaved, or “Q’d,” the sandwiches to heat the buns, to when the clam grill was introduced, to when they started staging the meat and buns so that they could cater to the whims of the “special order” crowd.

    I remember when they stopped toasting both sides of the club (center bun on the Big Mac), I remember when they stopped putting the reconstituted onions onto the meat while it was still cooking on the grill and started putting it onto the buns (this makes it easier to cater to those “special order” folks). I noticed every time they re-formulated the buns, every time they re-formulated the BigMac sauce, and I noticed when they stopped making biscuits in the store and went to the frozen Ready-to-Bake (RTB) biscuits. I noticed when the water content of the 10:1 beef patties (the small patties found on the cheeseburgers and regular BigMacs) was raised to the point that the Maillard reaction would no longer occur during the clam-grill cooking process.

    Anyone remember when the drive-thru time standard was 30 seconds? And I’m not talking about when they started a 30 second timer at the presentation window, I’m talking about when the time standard was 30 seconds for the time it took after the customer gave their order at the speaker to when they were driving away with their food. That too went away when Ray passed. Ultimately, McDonald’s caved to the “special order” crowd.

    There was a day when if you wanted to place a “special order” at McDonald’s you could go and sit and wait for it while everyone else received their food immediately. Hot and fresh food. Today, the meat was sits in a cabinet waiting to be married to a bun that was toasted at some earlier time. The people on the grill endless reset the quality timers and this results in cold and dry sandwiches. Ultimately, today, every sandwich is “special” because them make them one at a time from staged product rather than 12 cheeseburgers or 6 BigMacs at a time, made from fresh toasted buns and fresh grilled meat (grilled on an open flat grill and seared properly, I might add).

    I have no idea why no one has noticed how much the quality has dropped over the years. A BigMac today tastes nothing like one from 1985. However, a Whopper pretty much tastes the same, a Krystal burger or a White Castle burger pretty much tastes the same, but McDonald’s does not. Why? All because of YOU!!!

    “No pickle,” “no mustard,” “no onions,” the only way to process these requests, and keep the line moving, is to either not allow people to place a “special” order, or change the system so that every sandwich is made to order. So, YOU, with your “no pickle,” and McDonald’s, thinking they needed YOUR business!!!

    I’m just glad I remember what it was like when Ray was at the helm and you “special” people could go to Burger King! I hope you are happy now that you ruined McDonald’s!!!

    2. I worked for the clown during the Q-ing oven era. It was easy to make a full tray of a sandwich and roll them down into the bin. But then you would have issues of prepared food sitting too long. The heat degrades the toppings and the meat.

      So now they make everything one at a time, which is pretty much how everyone does it now. They just stage everything to speed up the process.

      Anyway,

      The grande contains 1/3 pound of meat. Or about 5.33 ounces. A standard mac has two 1.6 ounce patties, for a total of 3.2 ounces.

      My biggest disappointment is that they no longer make hotcakes from batter. They take three frozen discs and pop them in a microwave. I was there when we went from scratch biscuits to frozen biscuits. Not even close.

      I feel bad for the people who work there now and have to have breakfast food and regular food staged for all-day breakfast.

    3. Been a special order guy my whole life. My cheese burgers have to be plain. I had no issues waiting longer for my special order at McDonald’s, I knew it was going to be coming right off of the grill. Many a time I would get a perfectly cooked medium rare Quarter Pounder. Not anymore, its just a pre-cooked patty sitting in a lexan hotel pan.

    4. the whopper tastes the same today?

      somebody is on drugs………………………………………………

    5. Burger Kings burgers are far superior to MacDonald’s that grand big Mac is over 5 bucks you get two woppers for 6 bucks.

  9. ….that dude (Nick) knew way too much about McDonalds…the kinda guy whose mom still cuts the crust of his sandwich bread. He’a got a Ray Kroc poster above jis bed…

  11. McDonalds had a $5.00 coupon in the local paper for a Grand Mac value meal.
    Big mistake: the burger is just too big to eat and is very messy with special sauce and lettuce falling all over your belly, lap and the car ‘s seat. It has an absurd amount of calories and fat and salt in it. Anyone over 50 should not eat it. The next day my digestive system revolted and I had lots of evidence of undigested fat in my morning deposit.

  12. I had one last night, and will not get it again was very disappointed. Brought back memories of a little old lady hollering “Where’s the Beef!?!”

    First 2 bites was nothing but bun, lettuce and sauce. Opened it up to find that the patties were the regular Big Mac patties buried inside an extra large bun with extra lettuce and sauce.

  13. I just tried the grand Mac. I usually eat healthy foods. But when I get a taste for a burger, l would get a Big Mac.
    The grand Big Mac is not good. I ended up throwing over half of it away. My advice….stick with what you know.

  14. If I ever have a fast food chain, I’m going to show the burgers on TV commercials just like you’d receive them in stores. They’d still taste fantastic, just look like some underpaid schmuck who doesn’t give a f-. I think I’d get a lot of customers. People respect honesty.

    I tried the Mac Jr. Because I don’t eat McDonald’s too often, and it’s cheap price was enough to satisfy my crave for awhile. However, I wouldn’t be interested in anything more expensive, so next time I get the crave I’m just gonna order me a cheap cheese burger and ask them to squirt sauce on it.

  15. I tried the Mac Jr. but didn’t like it. I think it tasted different than the regular Big Mac. It must be the “grill seasoning” they use on the Mac Jr. and the Grand Mac. It is weird when you bite into it expecting the taste of a Big Mac but it tastes different.

  16. fuck you the grand mac is so good! The special sauce tastes just like my boyfriends sweet pineapple flavored cummies. So ya’ll better shut up and lick all that sweet special sauce up boy before thoumst comes up and kills you.

    1. You’re a reject and like to show it. I’ll bet in person you’re a slob and a wussy.

  17. Suked! Dry as hell! Where’s the sauce? Not like I remembered as a kid! Disappointed to say the least!

  18. Dont get me wrong I Love Big Mac’s but the grande is a little too sloopy for me seems like its the same as a regular big mac with just a bigger bun.

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