Whos down in Whoville, and underwater residents of Bikini Bottom, there’s news for both of you: McDonald’s and Burger King, longtime fast-food rivals, are going head-to-head. Or, to be more accurate, scary red-wigged, face-painted clown head against equally frightening red-bearded crown-wearing head.
On Tuesday, McDonald’s introduced The Grinch Meal, and on the same day, Burger King rolled out its SpongeBob SquarePants menu. So if you’re sick of Thanksgiving leftovers and want some fast food instead, you can decide if your taste buds resonate with the crabby green Grinch or the always cheerful SpongeBob.
Both are limited-edition offerings, so get to your local McDonald’s or Burger King soon if you want to try out the meals.
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McDonald’s Grinch Meal Review
Honestly, McDonald’s Grinch Meal isn’t as creative as BK’s offerings — where are the green-dyed buns, the green shake or the McRoast Beast burger? Essentially, the Grinch Meal is an adult Happy Meal, consisting of your choice of a regular Big Mac or a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, fries and a medium drink.
Fries with Grinch Salt (dill-pickle seasoning)
McDonald’s regular fries come with a bag of Grinch Salt, which is simply dill-pickle seasoning. You also receive a lunch bag-sized sack to dump the fries and seasoning in so you can shake them up together.
McDonald’s offers only one unusual food item with the Grinch Meal, and that’s an accessory for the fries. They come with a small bag of tangy dill pickle seasoning, labeled Grinch Salt, that you’re supposed to shake on your fries for a puckery addition. Pickles, like the Grinch, are green and sour, so I guess that’s the connection here.
My review: How did they taste? Pretty good! I’m a pickle fan, and once I shook them up, the fries were sour and salty and overall delightful. Two green, furry thumbs up. I wish there was a pickle-flavored dipping sauce too.
Grade: A-.
No Grinch toy, but … socks?
Happy Meals always come with an extra toy or prize of some kind. But there’s no Grinch stuffed animal or Cindy Lou Who figurine with McDonald’s Grinch Meal, although the box it all comes in is cute and Grinchy-themed.
Every McDonald’s Grinch Meal comes with one of four different pair of Grinch socks, each of which has a scrawled message from the Grinch on them.
Instead, you get the one Christmas gift that’s so cliched there are endless jokes about it: a pair of socks. There are four different Grinch-themed socks showing The Grinch, Cindy Lou Who, Max the dog and some McDonald’s logo-themed ornaments. Each pair also has an all-caps, hand-scrawled-looking message from the Grinch.
The blue socks read: “These socks stink.”
The yellow socks read: “Nose Hazard.”
The red socks read: “Property of the Grinch.”
And the green socks read, “The Grinch was here.”
My review: I ended up with the yellow pair of socks. They seem to be of decent quality, and considering how lame some fast-food prizes are, this was a score for me. I might actually wear them.
Socks are a laughed-at holiday gift, but for a fast-food prize, they’re not that bad.
Grade: A
Burger King SpongeBob SquarePants menu
If McDonald’s kind of went Grinch-appropriate stingy on its Grinch offerings, Burger King went Sponge Bob-overboard with the generous SpongeBob SquarePants menu. SpongeBob fans, you might as well go all out and order the Bikini Bottom Bundle, which gives you all four of the themed items in a pineapple-shaped box.
King Jr. kids’ meal in a pineapple box
The SpongeBob figurine that came with the kids’ meal was pretty cute, for a fast-food toy.
There’s no adult meal, but there is a King Jr. kids’ meal, in a box shaped like SpongeBob’s underwater pineapple home. It includes one of six SpongeBob toys.
My review: My toy was a figurine of SpongeBob wearing a pirate’s cap and clutching a ship’s wheel. There was supposed to be a Burger King SpongeBob crown too, but my location must’ve forgotten to give those out. The SpongeBob toy was pretty cool as kids’ toys go, though. And the pineapple box is cute.
Grade: A-
Krabby Patty? Almost!
As every SpongeBob fan knows, the cheerful sponge is a fry cook at The Krusty Krab, serving up Krabby Patties all day long, so he knows his fast food. Burger King has plenty of themed menu items, way more than the McDonald’s Grinch offerings.
SpongeBob’s Krabby Whopper
SpongeBob’s Krabby Whopper has no crab (or krab), thankfully. The yellow, squarish bun is kind of neat, though. That’s not a bite I took out of it, the edge of the bun was just kind of broken like that.
SpongeBob’s Krabby Whopper is the closest thing to the Krabby Patty from the show. (Wendy’s had a Krabby Patty and Pineapple Frosty last year, you might recall.) It seems to be a pretty ordinary Whopper until you get to the bun, which is square and yellow, just like our spongy hero. The yellow dye is made with natural spices, Burger King says. Otherwise, the Whopper is just a regular Whopper.
My review: The Whopper is not my favorite burger, but I have to say the light-yellow, squared-off bun looks super cool. It didn’t taste any different, but I appreciated it.
Grade: B
Mr. Krabs’ Cheesy Bacon Tots
Mr. Krabs’ Cheesy Bacon Tots were about as likable as the stingy Mr. Krabs himself. That is to say, not at all.
Mr. Krabs’ Cheesy Bacon Tots are crispy, coin-shaped potato tots filled with cheese, bacon bits and potatoes, served in a treasure chest-themed carton.
My review: Ugh, pass on these. The artificial taste of the bacon is pretty awful, and it dried out in about 3 seconds.
Grade: C-
Patrick’s Star-berry Shortcake Pie review
Patrick’s Star-berry Shortcake Pie was one of the best fast-food desserts I’ve ever tried.
Patrick Star is SpongeBob’s best friend, and in his honor, you can order Patrick’s Star-berry Shortcake Pie. It’s a strawberry shortcake pie slice featuring strawberry and vanilla-flavored creamy layers, a crunchy cookie crumb crust, shortcake cookie crumbles and pink star-shaped sprinkles.
My review: Yum! I’m not usually a fan of any fast-food dessert, but this was sweet and creamy, and the crust was tasty, too.
Grade: A
Pirate’s Frozen Pineapple Float review
The Pirate’s Frozen Pineapple Float was a delight. Think a pineapple Slurpee, but better.
Honoring SpongeBob’s pineapple home, you can order a Pirate’s Frozen Pineapple Float, described as “an icy, refreshing frozen pineapple-flavored beverage topped with tropical-flavor cold foam.”
My review: This was my favorite item among all the meals. I didn’t really detect any tropical flavoring in the “cold foam,” but the drink was kind of like a classed-up pineapple Slurpee, refreshing and sweet.
Grade: A+
Grinch Meal or SpongeBob Menu, which tastes better?
Fast food is what it is, but the design of the SpongeBob and Grinch boxes were pretty cute, and the SpongeBob figurine and Grinch socks were better than most included items in these kind of meals.
Is it wrong to say I liked the non-edible parts of both meals almost more than the food? The Grinch socks were decent quality and cute, and the SpongeBob figurine was fun.
Food-wise, Burger King gets points for the tasty pineapple float and the Patrick pie. The McDonald’s meal is just McDonald’s food with the dill-pickle seasoning for fries added. That’s fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go that far.
My vote, then, is if you’re only going to visit one of these chains before the limited-edition themed meals go away, hit up Burger King and try the Bikini Bottom Bundle. Unless you’re an enormous Grinch fan, pickle lover or really need some new socks.
