McDonald’s “Bold” Big Arch Burger Is Just Too Much

It’s a special one today, folks. While McDonald’s regularly adds new items to the menu, they don’t launch new burgers too often–let alone one even bigger than the Big Mac. Our ears perked up at the news that the Big Arch burger is seriously packed with “new.” Inside a single burger, McDonald’s is debuting white cheddar cheese slices, crispy onions, and a mustard-tomato-pickle-embued “Big Arch Sauce,” all inside a bun peppered with sesame and poppy seeds.

Videos by Sporked

The reason we’re getting all this innovation at once is pretty simple: The McDonald’s Big Arch burger is only new to us Yanks. The Big Arch burger debuted at McDonald’s locations overseas in 2024, with ingredients more common to those international markets; we’re getting the full, authentic experience with this stateside release. McDonald’s was nice enough to McDeliver an early Big Arch burger to Sporked‘s resident fast-food test subject (even though I technically tried the Big Arch burger for the first time last year). Let’s find out what makes this new burger so special.

Big Arch Burger!

McDonald’s Big Arch Burger Review

Pros: The new ingredients featured in the Big Arch are great additions to the McDonald’s menu, and I hope they stick around. Despite being the biggest game in town, McDonald’s doesn’t offer too many “this or that” menu customization options. The ability to sub in Big Arch sauce, crispy onions, or white cheddar cheese on other burgers would have us all lovin’ it. (The sweet sesame-poppy-seed bun would be particularly great on their chicken sandwiches.)

Cons: The end result is just too damn much. Between three slices of cheese and a typhoon of Big Arch sauce, this is easily the messiest McDonald’s burger I’ve ever eaten. The pickled tanginess of that sauce takes over the entire burger (even if you order your burgers without pickles, like me), and it quickly takes the crunch out of those crispy onions. These new ingredients would definitely shine better in separate menu items tailored to showcase their strengths.

McDonald’s wasn’t kidding when they said the Big Arch burger was “BIG with every bite”—but maybe they should have been. I ended up eating this burger with a fork since I didn’t have an industrial supply of napkins on hand; call me crazy, but hamburgers really should be handheld.

Credit: Griffin Parker / McDonald’s

Rating:

6.5/10

Sporks

What was that about trying the Big Arch burger for the first time last year?

Back in October, I went to a convenience-store trade show in Chicago to cover as many product reveals as I could. While I was in town, I stopped by the McDonald’s restaurant on the ground floor of their Global Headquarters (right next door to Hamburger University). This “Global Menu” restaurant features a rotating menu of international items. Fellow Sporked contributor Tyler Bowers and I feasted on sweet potato fries, a variety of filled donut holes called “McPops,” Biscoff McFlurries, and the first stateside release of the Big Arch burger. I didn’t write up a detailed review at that time, but I do recall that experience being far less messy; I’ll chalk that attention to detail up to those particular employees being just a floor away from their bosses’ bosses’ bosses’ bosses’… You get the idea. (And yes, the ice cream machine worked.)