Macca’s vs Mickey D’s: The Ultimate Cross Continental McDonald’s Breakfast Sandwich Showdown

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The iconic golden arches of McDonald’s are a beacon for fast food lovers across 118 countries with 34,000 restaurants around the world serving up 69 million people every day. However, that doesn’t mean someone in Japan is noshing on the exact same Big Mac and fries as someone in England. In India, you can score a McSpicy Paneer,  Chili is home to the McPollo Italiano, and you can even get Chicken McDo with McSpaghetti in the Philippines. (Click HERE for more!)

Here Down Under, there are 970 McDonald’s (known as Macca’s), so of course I had to fulfill my foodie duties by checking it out. Compared to the United States, the menu isn’t wildly different. There’s no double Kangaroo Big Mac with cheese, if you were wondering (click HERE if you want to know more about eating kangaroo in Australia!) However, the McDonald’s breakfast sandwich options are definitely next level with a wider range of fresh pastries and breakfast sandwiches.

Breakfast culture is a BIG deal in Australia, so I decided the Mighty McMuffin would be the perfect Macca’s dish for a head to head battle with the American Mickey D’s counter part, the Egg McMuffin.

I recruited my dad, to be my Mickey D’s investigator while I hit up a Macca’s for a cross continental breakfast sandwich show down:

Australia:

The Mighty McMuffin

The Experience:

I rolled on up to the McDonald’s at 8am on a Sunday morning and walked into the immaculately clean and completely empty restaurant. There was a handful of staff, all of whom had big smiles. While there was plexiglass in between the workers and the customers along with markings on the floor to encourage social distancing, Tasmania has been fairly unscathed by COVID-19 with no present cases, so there’s no need to wear a mask and business is more or less as usual.

I ordered and paid for my sandwich on the touchscreen, then happily  scooped it up when my number was called.

The Sandwich:

The Mighty McMuffin consists of sausage, egg, cheese, bacon and chutney on an English muffin, and oh man… I was blown away.

For starters, the egg was a real egg, which blew my mind. Usually fast food eggs are fake, and seem more like plastic than an edible food item. The sausage was juicy and flavorful without being too salty, and while Australian (Canadian) bacon isn’t my favorite (limp as oppose to crispy), it had a tasty smokiness that added an elevated dimension. To tie the McMuffin together, there was a delightful chutney sauce with the perfect level of sweetness to cut through the fatty  richness of the sausage and bacon.

Final Thoughts:

WOW! I do have to say I was overwhelmingly impressed with this McDonald’s breakfast sandwich! The sandwich had a real egg, tasty meats, and an exciting flavor profile that didn’t taste like cardboard. I’m guessing it won’t be my last Macca’s experience.

USA:

The Egg McMuffin

By Lewis Askegaard

The Experience:

There were 9 cars and trucks in line for drive through at 8:50 am, so I walked in.  A sign in the door warned me that there was NO in store dining no and face masks were REQUIRED.

My first impression was how modern and sparkling clean the store looked inside. There was a large touch screen menu that told me it was out of service and directed me to the counter. I stood behind thick, perfectly clear plexiglass sheets.

Almost immediately, a busy masked worker at the drive through window cheerfully called out that she’d be right with me.  10 seconds later, she was. The Egg McMuffin appeared about 30 seconds after I ordered.  I stuck my credit card in the slot.  $3.81, $5.34 Australian.  She cheerily wished me a good day and I returned the favor. 

The Sandwich:

The sandwich was perfectly round, 3 inches in diameter (7.6 cm).  It consisted of four layers, each fitting perfectly in the muffin.  Muffin, orange cheese, round egg, Canadian bacon slice.  I was impressed by the perfect fit of each component.  Here’s the deconstructed sandwich that has fueled America and changed fast food for 50 years.

I’ve eaten my share of these babies, but not in decades. The main impression was mouth feel rather than taste.  It was very chewy.  The egg and Canadian bacon were tactile, not taste sensations.  The taste came from the back of the mouth.  In my extensive 5 minute Wikipedia research,  I see that it used to be the bitter/sour domain, but that’s been debunked.  It was a kind of mild taste, vaguely eggish, but mainly salt and cheesy.  Texture and chewiness were the sensation.  It wasn’t at all unpleasant, but when I looked hard, I couldn’t identify any real taste.

Final Thoughts:

Since it’s Election Day, let me philosophize.  This is the McMuffins 50th birthday .  It’s a nice tidy metaphor for America.  All the different parts meld together to produce tasteless, featureless utility.  A gourmet might despair the lack of character, but buddy, take a mouthful and it’s impossible to ignore

The McDonald’s Breakfast Sandwich Side by Side:

Note: I have an iPhone 11 while my dad has an iPhone 7 that 4 years old…..

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And the winner is…..

Macca’s!

The Mighty McMuffin is more calorically dense than the McMuffin, but was superior in terms of price, taste, quality, and overall enjoyment, making it the clear McDonald’s breakfast sandwich winner!