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| My wife said I am no longer allowed to take any photos. |
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Consumed on 13 August 2014
Location - McDonald's City Square Mall, Singapore
Combo Price - $8.95SGD = $7.16USD
Calories - Unknown (but it must be a lot)
On the 7th of August McDonald's Singapore quietly launched a "Twilight" promotional menu to select restaurants around the island. The idea (pretty much copied from Hong Kong with their Rice-'Fun' menu) was that these were unique menu items, which were only available "late night", which in Singapore, mean't after 6pm. The restaurants selected to run the promo weren't in major malls or the business/tourist areas of Singapore, but rather purely residential areas, or a couple were in malls outside the city centre, which has been a first since I've been living here. Strangely, this promo also launched without any mention on the official McDonald's website or Facebook page, and since I don't live anywhere near the selected branches I didn't hear of the promo until nearly a full week after it started. Only in the last day or two had they posted any information about it on their official channels.
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| My 'artistic' burger shot |
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| Made for Night Lovers...at 6pm |
The promotion consisted of 2 burgers, the Grand and Classic Twilight burgers, I only bought and tried the Grand, since the Classic was simply a standard bacon quarter pounder with the nacho cheese used from the Nacho Cheese Filet o Fish, which has recently become a regular menu item since I reviewed it. The two ice cream dishes, the Midnight Delight, and Sunset Treat, were soft serve ice cream served with either a brownie from the McCafe, or a standard Apple Pie, so I passed on these as well. The only interesting burger was the Grand, since it included toppings not found anywhere else on the regular McDonald's menu. Like the Classic, it used a standard quarter pounder patty, but was also topped with 2 slices of cheese, an egg, grilled onions, and steak sauce. The inclusion of the centre bun from a Big Mac meant it was a pretty huge burger, and the size of it almost justified the historical-high, $8.95 combo price. There was also a new Pink Grapefruit McFizz, but it was only available when upsizing your combo, so we didn't try it this time around.
This burger wasn't trying to be anything but a good, filling burger, and the mix of ingredients exactly hit the mark of what it was trying to be. The egg, although it wasn't hot, was clearly made recently, and hadn't been sitting leftover from breakfast (like a recent re-purposed burger I've had). I'm not sure if this is the first time egg has been on a dinner burger here in Singapore, but I've had it in other countries, and it's always a big, big plus in my books. So much so, that it should always be an available add-on. Grilled onions are another ingredient used on McDonald's burgers around the world, when done poorly, they add even more grease to an already unhealthy meal, but these onions were grilled just enough that they still retained their crunch, and weren't overly greasy. The steak sauce reminded me of the brown sauce served in the UK, as it was darker and thicker than steak sauce you would find in North America. On its own with the beef, it probably wouldn't have been nearly as good (since they are both pretty salty), but when eaten together with the egg, it was a perfect combination.
The only thing I could complain about this burger, was it was missing a much needed 'crunch'. I always feel that a burger needs a bit of firmness in it, and although all the ingredients in this burger were great together, they were all pretty soft, which made for a messy eating experience. Something as small as a slice of tomato or a bit of lettuce would have been perfect, and when you are paying nearly $9 for a combo, they should be able to afford it. My wife on the other hand, when she thinks of 'western food', she wants a heavy, fatty and messy meal, and she absolutely loved this burger. She has been saying for 2 days that it deserved a "6 out of 5", but I'm going to be a bit more realistic.
Rating - 4.5/5