The Popular McDonald's Burger You Should Avoid Ordering

Whether you believe Mcdonald's is the world's best burger chain or not, it's certainly its most popular. With estimated sales of 75 burgers per second and more than 41,000 locations worldwide (a count that's only growing), McDonald's tops the chart for nearly every metric of success. Burgers are the centerpiece of the chain's operation, and their list of offerings is both iconic and constantly shifting, with new items such as the Chicken Big Mac joining the pack every so often.

Given the potentially overwhelming list of options at this beloved chain, we took it upon ourselves to sort out the must-haves from the can-skips. Chowhound writer Katie Melynn ranked each McDonald's burger from worst to best, relying on her own taste buds (as well as her three kids') for their honest reviews. Taste, texture, and ingredient ratio were their primary points of comparison along with convenience and cost factors. Surprisingly, Melynn and her family found that they tended to prefer the simpler offerings over the bigger, more elaborate burgers.

With that in mind, the lowest ranked McDonald's burger was the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, which Melynn determined was just too bulky — even for customers with large appetites. Because of the burger's colossal size and uneven meat to topping ratio, the Double-QPC was too beefy to be an enjoyable bite, especially since the patties are cooked to a well done state that makes them chewy and unappetizing.

The Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese was added to the permanent national McDonald's menu in the early 1990s, two decades after the original Quarter Pounder was introduced by Al Bernardin, a McDonald's franchisee in Fremont, California. Although it contains a full half-pound of beef, the Double Quarter Pounder somewhat confusingly keeps the quarter fractional in its name, most likely for branding purposes.

As the name indicates, the burger features two quarter-pound fresh beef patties. (In 2018, McDonald's made the switch from frozen to fresh beef for the QPC.) It also includes onions, pickles, two cheese slices, and a sesame seed bun. It is the largest burger on the McDonald's menu, containing a whopping 740 calories. It has 42 grams of fat and 2.5 grams of trans fat, which is already ⅔ of the recommended daily value — in just one sandwich.

Everyone has their own McDonald's preferences, and the Double QPC certainly has its fans. However, anyone looking to avoid tough, chewy meat, a strong onion flavor, and some serious bulk in their burger should steer clear and opt for a classic hamburger or cheeseburger instead.