- Amid a long-running feud with Wendy's, McDonald's just released its own take on bacon cheese fries.
- Dubbed cheesy bacon fries, the limited-time snack offer includes the signature McDonald's french fries topped with cheese and smoked bacon bits.
- The Wendy's equivalent, Baconator Fries, has been around since 2015. Similarly, the dish includes fries topped with cheddar cheese and Applewood smoked bacon.
- We compared the two, and while the Wendy's dish was tasty, the new McDonald's snack was a gross, mucky mess of gobbed cheese.
We visited a Wendy's in Daly City, California, first.
We asked for a regular-size order of bacon cheese fries or, as the snack is officially known, the Baconator Fries. It cost $3.25.
Our Baconator Fries were ready in no time at all.
They came in a plastic to-go container. Even through the lid they looked appetizing.
We surveyed the cheesy warm goodness before making the trek back toward the office for a more thorough taste test.
But first, McDonald's!
McDonald's rolled out its cheesy bacon fries to locations in Hawaii and Northern California in November.
Source: Business Insider
But now the snack is going national, with locations across the US offering the loaded fries since late January.
Source: Business Insider
The chain is also giving its menu a bacon makeover, adding the ingredient to classic McDonald's burgers.
Source: Business Insider
We ordered a regular-size cheesy bacon fries for $4.66.
We had high hopes when we saw the pristine packaging. This was going to be good ...
... or not.
The container consisted of a good portion of McDonald's fries but with a gross, Velveeta-looking dollop of cheese slathered on top and sprinkled with microscopic bacon bits.
To say we were not impressed would be an understatement.
We took a bite before taking our orders back to the office — and as expected, it did not taste great.
Eventually, we sat down with both chains' takes on the bacon cheese fries.
The idea of the new McDonald's menu item is to attract customers to purchase it as a snack rather than as a side for a meal.
Source: Business Insider
But the McDonald's Cheesy Bacon Fries as either a side or a snack doesn't seem too appealing.
We gave them as much of a chance as we could, but the lackluster cheese and the less-than-desirable amount of bacon made the order difficult to endure.
We ended up fishing out the uncontaminated fries from underneath the cheesy muck. Those were yummy at least.
And perhaps it was a fluke, but the gobs of cheese that decorated the inside of the container also didn't help.
But the Wendy's Baconator Fries were a different story.
The cheese was perfectly melted, and it actually resembled real cheese.
And the bacon pieces were thick and nicely bite-size.
The toppings were also spread evenly across a nice layer of thick french fries.
The amounts of cheese, bacon, and fries were perfectly proportional.
It didn't feel like eating something from a fast-food joint.
We alternated between picking the fries apart with our fingers and eating them with a fork — both methods worked.
And needless to say, the Wendy's Baconator Fries didn't last long.
We couldn't get enough of them, while the McDonald's cheese fries could really use some work.
And so besides the packaging (McDonald's red-and-yellow cheesy-bacon-fries-branded carton was a nice touch), the Wendy's take on bacon-topped cheese fries wins hands-down.
This is one battle that Wendy's wins in a long-running war between the two chains.
Source: Business Insider
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