We Tried And Ranked Every McDonald's Burger

McDonald's has been killing the burger game for well over half a century. The fast food restaurant was one of the first to go global and it's been a consistent leader in the industry. That drive-thru menu can be daunting if you don't have a regular order, though, so how can you tell how each burger stands up? The McDonald's burger menu items, for the most part, are just a topping or two away from each other. I tried them all –– minus the McDonald's secret menu –– and have ranked them for your reference.

While I enjoy a good burger at a cookout, sports game, or local burger joint, fast food burgers don't typically do it for me. I could probably count the amount of McDonald's burgers I've had in my life on both hands, and many likely came from a childhood Happy Meal. This gives me a semi-unique perspective when taste testing McDonald's burgers, so I went for the whole menu.

Though these rankings are my true and genuine opinions, take them with a grain of salt. Not all McDonald's franchises are created equal, so if you find a gem of a location, you could probably do a taste test of your very own and come up with different results. With that in mind, here's how all the McDonald's burgers fall from worst to best by someone who is going in blind to the fast food giant's menu.

I'm all for an underdog, but the McDonald's hamburger just doesn't stand a chance against its more flavorful siblings. It felt like a sad shadow of a burger, and I felt kind of sorry for the lukewarm bun that was forced to house a sliver of a beef patty and its sparse toppings. When you start to empathize with an ultra processed bun, you know the food is both boring and a little bit pathetic.

The hamburger was both bland and a bit dry, despite coming with the standard onion, pickles, and ketchup toppings. I think some of the issues were in part due to the toppings being piled up together, the pickles crumbled over a sprinkle of onions and splat of ketchup, rather than spread throughout the burger.

There's a reason why the chicken nugget option seems to be the most popular Happy Meal. The adult hamburger is the exact same burger put in the Happy Meals, and even kids seem to know they're getting a subpar burger at McDonald's. Save yourself the heartbreak of the hamburger, and just spend an extra 20 cents for a cheeseburger — the difference in satisfaction is more than worth it.

Considering the lowest spot on this list was ranked based on its lack of flavor, it may be odd to see the only deluxe burger at McDonald's skirting the bottom ranks. There is such a thing as too many toppings, though, and the Deluxe Quarter Pounder with Cheese takes its sauce way too far. If plain mayo can be considered sauce, that is.

The deluxe quarter pounder with cheese is the only burger at McDonald's that comes with mayonnaise. This burger is likely one of the only reasons the fast food chain stocks the ingredient, and they must have been overstocked when I ordered my deluxe. The burger was a sloppy mess of mayonnaise, and was impossible to eat without getting the condiment all over my hands. The rest of the "deluxe" consisted of lettuce, tomato, and McChicken sauce, but they were all completely lost in a sea of goopy mayo.

This may not be a fair ranking, because not all deluxe quarter pounders should be doused with mayo, unless that is truly company policy. I can only say that I am truly grateful that the rest of McDonald's menu is free of this issue, or my taste test would have been unbearable. The difference between the deluxe and the regular quarter pounder is vast when it comes to quality.

This ranking may be an unpopular opinion, considering bacon's cult-like following and that the Quarter Pounder is one of the meatier burgers McDonald's offers. However, I did not at all enjoy the flavors this burger was bringing, and the smell was a bit off-putting as well. The bacon, for me, was an ill-advised addition to an otherwise pretty okay burger.

The Bacon Quarter Pounder with Cheese is likely supposed to come with more bacon than the one I received. My bacon quarter pounder had one measly strip of bacon on it, but the lack of a proper amount was not the issue here. The bacon that was on my burger was dull, without much of the smoky umami flavor people love in the meat. It was board straight, and looked like it should have had a solid crunch, but was more chewy than crunchy. Instead of complementing the other toppings, the bacon distracted from them in a disappointing way. If you're looking for a bacon burger, go elsewhere. If you're looking for a meaty McDonald's burger, stick with the other burgers in the quarter pounder series.

The Big Mac might be the most iconic and symbolic of all McDonald's sandwiches, but the burger fell pretty flat for me. For coming close to McDonald's royalty, the Big Mac was more flashy than flavorful, with an extra wedge of bread stuck in the center and a lackluster namesake sauce. These two main elements that take the sandwich from your typical burger to a Big Mac are what really didn't sit right with me.

First of all, the McDonald's burger patties are not thick enough to warrant a bread barrier in between two of them. The skinny patties are minimal, and adding an additional bun gives off "Princess and the Pea" vibes. No matter how many layers the Big Mac had, there was no hiding the poor texture and flavor underneath. This brings me to my second point: the signature Big Mac sauce was a huge letdown. I'm a big fan of house Russian dressings, but McDonald's take on the Thousand Island-like sauce was too thin, too sweet, and not at all pleasant.

On another note, the Big Mac I procured was stacked so precariously that it really should have been presented on a princess cushion rather than in a cardboard box. In short, this burger is all big talk and no chomp –– but our Big Mac copycat recipe may be worth a try!

In my humble opinion, this is where the McDonald's burgers start to get passable. The cheeseburger is a solid burger for the price of under $3, and worth getting if you're looking for cheap, quick, and accessible eats. There's a lot of good about a basic cheeseburger, which is surprising seeing as the only difference between this burger and the bottom of the barrel hamburger is the addition of cheese.

First of all, the ratios of this burger are on point. The bun-to-burger ratio could be helped with a slightly meatier burger patty, but the toppings help make up for it. The dryness and overall bland quality of the hamburger is seemingly nonexistent when you add cheese in the mix. It would seem that the slice of melted cheese brings plenty of moisture to a McDonald's burger. The cheese seems to help hold toppings in place, too. The result is not a dry burger with all the toppings stacked in the center or off to the side, but a relatively small but satisfying burger.

It was hard to separate the Double Cheeseburger and the McDouble, as they are essentially the same burger. The only difference between the two is the cute name and an extra slice of American cheese on the Double Cheeseburger. As the burger with more cheese, you'd likely expect the Double Cheeseburger to come out ahead of the McDouble. In this case, though, more cheese seems to slightly take away from the burger as a whole.

Don't get me wrong, I am a cheese fiend. The added slice of cheese does not ruin the Double Cheeseburger in any way, however it does make the cheese slightly more overpowering than the rest of the toppings. When the burger doesn't have a large amount of toppings anyway, it's nice to really notice the ones that are there. Even so, this was a great fast food burger, but fell short for being a supposed upgrade from the simpler McDouble. I would still eat a Double Cheeseburger over a Big Mac any day, though.

When it comes to McDonald's burgers, it would seem that less is kind of more. The fast food joint clearly works better around more basic ingredients. The McDouble has two of the standard patties with one slice of American cheese, and it just works. The double patty seems to be the perfect offset to the size of a McDonald's bun, and the single slice of cheese in the middle adds an ideal amount of moisture.

The texture of this burger is nearly unmatched at McDonald's. It is small enough to get a decent bite that contains every individual part of the burger. Since the McDouble's burger-bun-topping ratio is pretty on point, every bite of it has a satisfying mouthfeel. However, the dehydrated onions are the star of the McDouble, so if your location skimps on them, this ranking may be a bit ambitious.

When it comes to the toppings, they're your standard McDonald's cheeseburger toppings, and the extra patty doesn't take away from the tang of the pickles or the flavor of the ketchup and onions. In fact, the extra patty seems to simply add flavor and complement the simple toppings. At under $5, this burger is a great mix of taste and value.

When we ranked popular McDonald's menu items from worst to best, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese was the highest ranking burger. This doesn't seem to be a one-off, because the same burger nearly tops this list as well, and for good reason. McDonald's really seems to have the burger-to-bun ratio down to a science with the quarter pounder series. The 4-ounce patty is the perfect amount of meat to go with the fluffier sesame seed bun McDonald's uses with its more premium burgers.

This burger gives what the double cheeseburger does, but with seemingly higher quality aspects. In addition to a heavier patty and a sesame bun, the quarter pounder trades the diced onions for sliced white onions. The swap, in my opinion, gives the burger a more fresh taste.

I've got to say that the Quarter Pounder with Cheese is an elevated fast food burger, and one I would not have expected to come from McDonald's. If there is one thing to know before visiting McDonald's for a burger, it's to stick with the more straightforward quarter pounder menu options.

This number one spot was truly well earned. The Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese was the clear winner of my taste test, and was the only burger I tried from McDonald's that would have me returning for a regular meal. This burger seemed to get it all right: burger-to-bun ratio, topping balance, and flavor.

Before trying the burgers, I had thought the only difference between a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese and a Double Cheeseburger was the patty size. However, the difference that really sets the Quarter Pounder burger series apart is the larger onions. Implementing those sliced onions over the diced onions found on smaller McDonald's burgers really brought the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese into the realm of a real, tangible burger. This felt like it could be a satisfying meal, rather than a quick fuel-up based on pure hunger and convenience.

The Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese is like an elevated Double Cheeseburger. Having more meat with a more substantial bun and higher quality onions brought out more flavor and moisture than other McDonald's burgers. With no extras like bacon or special sauces, this burger kept it simple while upping its fast food game.

These rankings were the result of a pretty standard, straightforward taste test. All the burgers were purchased at the same time, and from the same McDonald's. I also tasted the burgers within a short time frame, to ensure that freshness had no input on the rankings. After buying the burgers, I split each one down the middle and took one bite from the center of each. I figured this was the best way to get a fair taste of each burger. The center typically had a fair mix of toppings and an equitable burger-to-bun ratio.

After tasting each burger, I wrote down my first impressions and anything that stuck out about the burger. The rankings weren't determined until after all the burgers had been taste tested. My rankings were based on a few factors, taste obviously being the main one. Texture was another major player in the rankings, as well as any exceptionally good or bad qualities the individual burgers showcased.