2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Trevor Carlson)
As one of the most popular and ubiquitous fast food restaurants in the world, McDonald's is known for its speedy service and convenience. The fast food chain is also a solid choice for people on the go since it has so many locations with drive-thrus. McDonald's breakfast menu has remained relatively simple over the years, offering a handful of classic early morning favorites like Egg McMuffins and spongy stacks of hotcakes glazed with luscious pools of maple syrup.
McDonald's breakfast menu is concise yet varied, offering a reasonable range of options to accommodate different appetites and diets. With so much to choose from on the menu, you might be wondering how lots of those items stack up. Good news: I woke up with a wild appetite and documented the feast.
Now I'm here to give you my two pennies and deliver the lowdown. Here's the ultimate ranking of McDonald's breakfast menu items, from worst to best. 10.
Sausage and gravy biscuit As someone who was born and raised in the South, I'm no stranger to biscuits and gravy . That said, quality can vary dramatically between restaurants, and I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from McDonald's on this one. On the one hand, biscuits and gravy is a relatively simple dish that just about anyone with some basic cooking skills can make.
But on the other hand, there's still a lot that can go wrong. The biscuits can be mushy. The gravy can get too thick and pasty.
The sausage can be chopped too fine and become granular, robbing the gravy of texture. As it turns out, the sausage and gravy biscuit that McDonald's served me was guilty of all these offenses. The taste of the gravy itself wasn't too bad, though it was a bit bland.
It also had a decent consistency, similar to cream. The biscuits, however, were flavorless. Each bite was like putting a forkful of wet flour into my mouth.
McDonald's was pretty stingy with the sausage in the gravy, too — there were a few decent pebbles of meat, but for the most part, the sausage was chopped so much that it practically disintegrated into the gravy. 9. Big Breakfast The big breakfast at McDonald's comes with a biscuit, scrambled eggs, sausage patty, and hash browns.
My first thought here is: McDonald's isn't exactly a "knife and fork" sort of establishment — why would anyone choose to order this instead of getting one of the breakfast sandwiches? Considering most people ordering fast food for breakfast are trying to save time, wouldn't they rather have these ingredients in a conveniently delivered sandwich instead of trying to eat everything on a platter with plastic silverware on the way to work? Everything about the big breakfast is disappointing. First of all, the name of this menu item sets the bar higher than it should be, considering the humble portion size that McDonald's dishes out here. The scrambled eggs were clearly overcooked on the bottom and had developed a light crust that gave them a dry, slightly crunchy texture.
The sausage patty was also overcooked, a sad fate possibly exacerbated by roasting under a heat lamp until it mummified into inedible oblivion. Eating this was a bummer. 8.
Big Breakfast with hotcakes This menu item offers everything the regular Big Breakfast comes with plus three hotcakes. The additional three hotcakes in this meal make it not only more filling, but also way more enjoyable because the hotcakes at McDonald's are surprisingly satisfying . Are they going to blow your mind? No chance.
But they get the job done and I think that I detected a nice touch of vanilla in the batter. The scrambled eggs weren't as overcooked as the other Big Breakfast meal that I ordered, but the sausage patty was in even worse condition, shriveled into a burned hockey puck of pork. The addition of the tasty hotcakes, even if not made fresh daily , nudge this menu item ahead of the regular Big Breakfast, but this meal still isn't something I'd recommend.
The maple syrup this comes with is thick and delicious, providing a nice contrast to the saltiness of the breakfast sausage, but it does all the heavy lifting here. The only thing about this meal that is good are the hotcakes. 7.
Egg McMuffin The classic McDonald's Egg McMuffin comes with a freshly-cracked egg , a slice of Canadian bacon, butter, and melted American cheese on a toasted English muffin. The breakfast sandwich that I received was well-assembled and the fried egg was perfectly fine, but the slice of American cheese was just barely melted. For some reason, I find this particularly offensive when eggs are involved.
When I bite into a breakfast sandwich that has eggs and American cheese, I want the cheese to be fully melted and creamy because when processed cheese cools off or it isn't fully melted, it can take on an almost plastic-like texture that's not exactly appetizing. And that was the case here with my Egg McMuffin. The other issue here was the English muffin, which wasn't quite toasted enough.
And because the rest of the sandwich is so soft — with the egg, cheese, and thin slice of Canadian bacon — the bread has to do a lot of heavy lifting in the texture department to help ensure it isn't a sad and soggy failure. If the English muffin on my Egg McMuffin had been toasted a little more and the cheese had been melted better, it may have landed a little higher in this ranking. All in all, though, this is still a decent menu option when you just need a quick handheld breakfast.
6. Iced French vanilla coffee No breakfast is complete without some form of coffee. I tend to prefer most of my drinks cold, so I almost always opt for an iced coffee of some kind.
At first glance, I thought that my iced French vanilla coffee from McDonald's had too much milk in it, purely based on its pale brown color. But much to my surprise, upon first sip, the flavor of the coffee still rose to the surface. The taste of vanilla is faint but still detectable.
To really knock this drink out of the park, McDonald's would be wise to turn the vanilla up a notch. Still, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting this to be weak and watered down, but instead it was rich and flavorful.
There was also ample ice in the cup, which kept the coffee nice and cold for a long time. 5. Iced caramel coffee McDonald's iced caramel coffee is made with premium roast coffee , cream, and caramel syrup.
My biggest fear here was that McDonald's would go too heavy on the caramel syrup and the drink would be sickeningly sweet, which can happen from time to time with anything pumped full of caramel-flavored syrup. Thankfully (and perhaps even miraculously, depending on your enthusiasm for breakfast) that's not the case here. The caramel flavor in this drink is extra buttery, smoothly coating the tongue.
The sweetness is dialed in just right. Tasting the iced caramel coffee and the iced French vanilla coffee side by side, it's very noticeable how much more flavorful the former is. The iced caramel coffee is definitely a little bit sweeter, but there is also a richness and depth of flavor in this drink that blows the French vanilla out of the water.
I really enjoyed this iced coffee and I think the only thing that could make it better would be adding a few extra swirls of caramel along the inside walls of the cup to add more visual appeal and some extra pops of flavor. 4. Hash browns There are times in life when language inevitably fails us.
Sometimes, it's hard to fully express how we feel about something — and even beyond that, articulate why we feel that particular way about it. Such is the case with the hash browns at McDonald's. There's nothing truly spectacular about them, and yet paradoxically they still somehow manage to be highly satisfying.
I think much of it comes down to consistency and texture. The outside of McDonald's hash browns are consistently crispy while the inside is still fluffy and soft. And if you want them even crispier , all you have to do is ask.
The shape is also conducive to easy munching, formed into a bite-sized oval that's slipped into a paper sleeve. Add a squirt of ketchup to these hash browns and take a bite — it's hard to deny how gratifying it is. There's something so blissful about the simple pleasures of life and these hash browns are definitely one of them.
Tasty as they are, there are still better items on the menu. 3. Sausage McMuffin with egg McDonald's sausage McMuffin comes with an egg, American cheese, and a sausage patty on a toasted English muffin.
While the classic Egg McMuffin comes with a slice of Canadian bacon, this one comes with a hot sausage patty, which feels more substantial and filling on the breakfast sandwich. This is why it ranks higher on my list. The combination of sausage, American cheese, and eggs on a toasted English muffin is classic for a reason: It just works .
The biggest thing holding this sandwich back from greatness is the sausage itself, which tends to be overcooked and a little dry. It would be great to see McDonald's step up its breakfast sausage game a little bit and come up with a recipe that's a little more flavorful. Still, this is a solid option that packs a punch of protein.
2. Sausage McGriddle McDonald's sausage McGriddle features a sausage patty on what the chain refers to as griddle cakes. Griddle cakes are essentially mini pancakes that serve as buns for various breakfast sandwiches on the menu.
Between the taste of maple in the griddle cakes and the breakfast sausage, this sandwich manages to deliver incredible flavor. Eating it is essentially no different from pairing a forkful of pancakes with a slice of breakfast sausage. Maybe it's just the nerd in me that appreciates the practicality of such a feat, but I'm always impressed when handheld fare can successfully capture the flavors of something that's normally eaten on a plate with a knife and fork.
That said, delicious as it is, this sandwich still feels like it's missing something. The simple pairing of sausage with griddle cakes is enjoyable and sufficient, but it's also obvious that this item has so much more potential. The concept of using pancake buns to make a breakfast sandwich is brilliant though, and luckily for us, McDonald's offers a few variations of its McGriddles.
1. Sausage, egg, and cheese McGriddle The highly coveted slot for best menu item goes to the sausage, egg, and cheese McGriddle. What's truly exceptional about this sandwich is that a single bite of this manages to deliver all the flavors that you could want out of a full breakfast.
The maple-flavored griddle cakes, sausage patty, egg, and cheese all come together and create an indulgently delicious experience. Even the texture of these griddle cakes, which were a little crispy along the edges but still fluffy on the inside, pleasantly surprised me. This breakfast sandwich is cheap, delicious, easy to eat, and tastes like a whole plate of breakfast rolled into a single handheld item, which is why it's one of the best options on the menu.
Pro-tip: Ask for sides of maple syrup and hot sauce to use as dipping sauces for this one. Alternating from sweet to spicy (or dipping them in both at the same time) is a delightful contrast that suits the medley of flavors this sandwich brings to the table. How we ranked the best McDonald's breakfast items Taste, texture, and overall flavor were the major variables taken into consideration during the formation of this ranking.
I sampled each menu item multiple times. Tasting notes were recorded during the session to consult during the writing process..
