Consumed on 12 January 2012
Location - Chung-ang University, Seoul, South Korea
Price - 5900KRW (Non-Lunch Set Price) = $5.54USD
Calories - Unknown
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| McDonald's Korea Grilled Chicken Burger Receipt |
So I'll start off by saying, I missed yet ANOTHER Korean promo item just this week. My fiancées friend was flying down to Singapore from Seoul last Wednesday. I checked the McDonald's Korea official website, and their YouTube page to see if they had any promo items on offer that she could fly down for me (there's a McD's at the Incheon Airport arrivals floor, and she was flying non-stop, so it could have survived the trip without killing me). On Wednesday evening neither was showing anything new, so she flew down without bringing anything. On Thursday morning...they had updated their pages to promote the new Australian BBQ Burger and Wrap....I missed it by about 18 hours. It seems pretty similar to the Australian Olympic promo burger they had last summer, but I wasn't able to try that either. Maybe I'll get one of my friends to buy it and freeze it until I return to Korea in March, but I'll be so busy on that trip, I don't even know if I can find time to thaw it out and give it a try.
During my disappointment I was searching through their website in hope of finding any other items which they had hidden away in their full menu pages, and I noticed that the Grilled Chicken Burger had totally disappeared. They launched the Grilled Chicken Burger in January 2012, so it only lasted as a regular menu item for just over a year. At the time of launch, they were priced higher than most other single burger set meals (5900KRW lunch or dinner), but over the last 6 months or so, the price went down to normal meal levels (5200KRW dinner, 3000KRW lunch). I guess the price decrease couldn't even save it.
As you can see from the receipt when I had lunch with some co-workers classmates, ALL the Koreans went for the Shanghai Spice, hands down the most popular burger at Korean McDonald's. None of them seemed interested in trying the new Grilled Chicken option. My fiancée is the exact same way, she refuses to eat 'healthy' fast food and pulls her nose whenever I suggest anything that isn't fried. If she is going to have something terrible for her, she goes all out (see the review for the Double McSpicy). Other than the 'premium' bun, this wasn't all that different than a standard grilled chicken you would get a McDonald's in western counties. The meat wasn't all that juicy or big, the bun was pretty tasteless, and the only vegetable was a few flakes of lettuce. The only interesting merit this sandwich earned was the mustard that was hidden under the top bun. Rather than a yellow, tasteless American mustard, this had a sharper, almost hot mustard taste. It wasn't very spicy, but it was a very nice surprise as I was expecting this sandwich to be served with mayo like all the other Korean chicken burgers. An overly sweet Honey Mustard is a commonly served dipping sauce when having Korean fried chicken (stupidly popular), so I'm not sure why McDonald's used this slightly hot mustard over it. All McDonald's condiments in Korea are made by Ottogi, so you might be able to buy a bottle of it at a regular Korean grocery store if you want to give the mustard a try, because now that it's been discontinued you won't be able to try it at McD's as mustard isn't served on any other burgers in Korea.
Rating - 3/5