Yes, you read right. I’ve never had the McRib.
This is because, in case you weren’t aware, it’s something of a love-it-or-hate-it thing. And my mother hates it. And by the time I was an adult with my own money, and when the world needed it most, it vanished. It was the beginning of a dark age for McDonald’s, as they began simultaneously testing new menu items (remember when they had chicken wings?) while also purging items to streamline their menu.
But now, for the first time since 2012, it’s available nationwide. Maybe McDonald’s knew we needed something to get through this year. So let’s dive-in to some porky… goodness?
There it is. Slathered in onions. Glistening with BBQ sauce. Pickles nowhere in sight, per my request.
Let’s start with the real meat of the matter- the… y’know, meat. The meat itself was just porky enough that I could tell that it was pork, but not so much that I suspected any foul play in the form of too many crazy chemicals. I’m assuming that most people’s problems with the McRib is the consistency of the meat, not quite ground but something between mince and mush, vaguely shaped into a rib-like patty. But the same could be said for McDonald’s burger patties or Chicken McNuggets. As far as I’m concerned, this is just the risk you have to be willing to take when eating McDonald’s.
The onions were not as strong as I was expecting for the giant pile they had put on there, and was ultimately fairly well balanced with everything else.The bread was a McDonald’s bun, there just isn’t anything to say about it. And again, I got mine without pickles, but I’m sure if pickles are your thing they would be doing what you’d expect them to do. My biggest problem, on a personal level, was the BBQ sauce, just because I always have a problem with this kind of generic bbq sauce that kinda just tastes like ketchup, brown sugar and liquid smoke thrown together.
All-in-all, this is exactly what one would expect from a McDonald’s BBQ sandwich. Would some sort of pulled pork sandwich have been better? Sure, but the concept of a loose pile of pulled pork spits in the face of McDonald’s ideology of streamlined mass production. Once you get over the hangup of a pork patty (is it really any different from a beef patty? Or a chicken patty?), it really isn’t all that bad. That being said, I can understand why they would want to keep this a seasonal item. I don’t think I would pay it a second thought if it was a regular menu item. But with the limited availability, I would at the very least consider humoring the hype, since you only have to put up with it once a year.
