So it's April 2024, nearly 9 years since the original Mac Quest, I perhaps should have waited 10 years but hey, I'm back in Sydney at the moment and Maccas is having the Mac Family promotion which is quite rare and a bit of luck for me to be here for it. I'm of course still in love with the Big Mac, it's a delicious sandwich which I consume about 3 - 4 of in a year, doesn't sound like much but there's alot of other food to consume for these blogs and in general. So what have we got in store for today? A seriously large quest, the Mac Quest 2.0, the mission is more or less the same as the first Mac Quest however this time it's not necessarily about the biggest Big Mac, more about the best Big Mac variant, and also, we have actual Macs that have been carefully handcrafted by the chefs behind the counter at Eastgardens Maccas.

Perhaps we can start with introducing the line-up, the Mac Jr which has also been previously referred to as 'Son of Mac' in other showings, we of course have the regular Big Mac, also coming out to play is the Mega Mac, also known as the Double Big Mac, and lastly but certainly not least, is the Grand Mac. As you'd no doubt know, the goal here is to find the best Big Mac, and the first quest came the conclusion you should stick with the original, but was that really a fair comparison? After all I constructed the Grand Mac myself, and I didn't even have a classic Big Mac as part of the sample group. Now however we don't have these issues, all Macs in question are here and have come straight outta best McDonald's kitchen available in Eastgardens.

Let's start with the Mac Jr., this is a great concept, when you want that Big Mac taste but aren't hungry enough for a full size (even though they aren't that big anyway) and you're just in the mood to snack, usually, if you're at Maccas you'd get a cheeseburger, maybe nuggets, but with the Mac Jr. the choice is obvious, the perfect snack size. Is it though? There is a fatal flaw with this burger and that is too much bread, a typical Big Mac has the club that means three pieces of bread, but it also has an extra patty, more sauce and more lettuce, and that seems to make a difference, the Mac Jr. for me, whilst having that flavour missed the mark on the balance, the overwhelming experience for me was the bun. Moving on, we won't spend alot of time on the original Big Mac, this has been perfected over decades, although it was arguably a much tastier burger back in the 80s and 90s, that might have something to do with the taste buds not being quite refined by then though. Nevertheless, as I've said many times before, when you feel like a Big Mac, nothing else can quench that thirst.

Now it's time for the contender that is technically not part of this particular promotion, I know it as the Mega Mac, it's also called the Double Mac as the assistant manager who took my order yelled at the back station staff. This is basically a standard Big Mac that has an extra two patties, which not only means you're fast approaching half a pound of Macca's imitation beef flavoured round and brown chew things, but can be ordered at any time as a modification to the Big Mac. This to me was a bit of shock, the last time I had a Mega Mac I didn't like it, I remember thinking it was too dry and lacked the distinct Big Mac flavour, however this time things were very different. It might be due to the extra grilled onions on each patty, maybe the sous chef took the care to put on a tad more sauce, I don't know but this Mega Mac was as close to perfect as you can get for a Big Mac sandwich. It was beefy, it was oniony, you had that creamy, tangy Mac sauce coming through, even the crisp lettuce played its part and the briney pickles you got on every second or so bite punched through to almost cleanse your palate for the next mouthful to have the same impact as the first.

Honestly the Grand Mac has a lot to live up to after that Mega Mac experience, I must say it does look impressive, noticeably larger and I think mine erroneously has two slices of cheese, one at the bottom and one in the middle, could this be on purpose? I mean it's a bigger bun and bigger patties, but every pic I've seen of a Grand Mac only seems to show one slice of cheese on the bottom layer like a traditional Big Mac, this is more like the executive chef noticing me and deciding to enhance the burger, yup, definitely that. Well did he manage to do that? The first thing I can confirm is that these are not quarter pounder patties, well not in the sense of Quarter Pounder burger patties, they are definitely bigger, but how much in terms of weight I have no idea, I will say that a Mega Mac having double the standard would probably end up having more meat weight. The flavour of this to me was pretty good, personally I think the cheese at the top layer kinda messed with the balance, it felt a tad too gooey, but apart from that it was a decent Big Mac experience and quite similar to the standard Big Mac, which makes perfect sense as it's just trying to be exactly that, a bigger Big Mac. I have to add it was also a little harder to handle, just so used to the rather small circumference of a Big Mac.

For me there's a clear winner here, it's the Mega Mac, and I'm pretty happy about that because in the first Mac Quest I didn't rate it, however that was before Maccas were putting grilled onion bits onto the patties. Another reason to celebrate this win is it's for a menu item that can be had all year round, no need to wait for special promotions then jet halfway across the world to get to it, and while I can still stand by my original conclusion to some degree in the first Mac Quest, that being, nothing will replace a Big Mac, the Mega Mac is a welcome modification, particularly when you desperately need to double the Macca's laboratory chemicals infusion to your diet.

Volvodriver Advice - Enjoy the Mega Mac