I tend to eat out a fair amount. Perhaps not as often as I’d like, but likely more often than is good for my wallet (or health!). As long as I refuse to eat salads and “light” items, there’s probably nothing I can do about the health issue except for stopping to eat fast food, but there is something I can do about saving my wallet from taking a big hit, and that is one of mankind’s greatest inventions: the dollar menu.
That’s right, the wonderful place on the menu where everything is a buck. It warms my heart, I tell you.
This review is a throwdown between two of my favorite dollar menu items: the double cheeseburger from McDonald’s and the double cheeseburger from Burger King. Normally, a comparison of two items would include the price, but since – in this case – both items are on the dollar menu… we’ll call that a draw.
The first thing I look for upon opening the wax paper wrapper is how the food looks. In my mind, the McDonald’s double cheeseburger often looks greasy. My guess is because the hamburger patties are cooked on a flat grill, which means they end up soaking in their own grease. In addition – and perhaps this is strictly because of how the burger is wrapped – the McDonald’s double cheeseburger often ends up looking squashed flat. Not necessarily a big deal when the ultimate goal is to get the burger from the wrapper to your stomach, but something I usually notice. The Burger King double cheeseburger, on the other hand, does not have the grease problem the McDonald’s sandwich does. In fact, the Burger King double cheeseburger can – on occasion – be a bit on the dry side.
The second thing I notice about each burger is the size. Since I’m purchasing off the dollar menu, I’m looking for value, and in the case of these burgers, bigger burger means bigger value, at least as far as measuring the bites-per-dollar! Again, the Burger King double cheeseburger jumps to the lead in this category. While the McDonald’s double cheeseburger actually looks – in my mind – like an item from a dollar menu should look, the Burger King double cheeseburger looks like… well… it looks like a burger should look. It’s big! It doesn’t look like a child’s size sandwich, or something thrown together in order to go on the dollar menu at the expense of size. It looks like Burger King decided it would be a good idea to have a double burger on their dollar menu, and stuck the double cheeseburger there in order to fill the need. And that may be true, actually. Only in the past few months has the double cheeseburger from Burger King been on the dollar menu “full time.” Before, it typically cost $1.99, so we’ll see how long it stays on the dollar menu. But for now, it’s a great deal.
The last – and most important – criteria for judging food simply has to be taste. Once again, the Burger King double cheeseburger is victorious, hands down. Maybe it’s the lack of grease (the McDonald’s double cheeseburger, even with no grease dripping off the bun, always tastes greasy to me), or maybe it’s the flame broiling, but the Burger King double cheeseburger just tastes better to me. The McDonald’s double cheeseburger sometimes tastes too peppery, and the meat is just a little bland for my taste. I usually order each burger with only catsup, so all I’m tasting is the bun, the meat, the cheese and the catsup, so the flavor of the meat can’t hide as it does in a burger like a Whopper, where the hamburger can be obscured by the lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions and sauce. Because of this, perhaps, the Burger King double cheeseburger wins the taste portion of my throwdown, hands down.
Verdict: As is likely obvious from reading the rest of this review, I think the Burger King double cheeseburger easily defeats the McDonald’s cheeseburger. Price being equal, the Burger King burger looks better, tastes better, and is bigger. An easy victory.
One last thing: I would be remiss if I didn’t include some health facts for each burger, because this – while it doesn’t tend to sway my decision one way or the other, may be important to some people (Mom… I’m talking about you!). So, without further ado, here are the pertinent facts about each burger, taken from each company’s website.
