hello everyone this is running on empty food review well hello ladies gentlemen and everyone
watching welcome one adult this newest edition of the running on empty food review series
i'm your host the report of the week thanks for being here
it's back
it is back no one saw this coming it's not like this happens every year
even though it does but i'm trying to be dramatic and come up with some sort of introduction
i know that the reactions right now are mixed and i know that some of you a percentage not all
but maybe around like 35 to 37.2 percent have this look tell me it's not bad
tell me that it isn't true well it's not true but it still is
the mcrib is back yes mcdonald's has uh has done it once again though they have brought back the
mcrib uh granted this is like a you know i would say an annual event it's celebrated by some others
are terrified of this day but it happens every november the mcrib makes the rounds once again
now quite frankly the mcrib from mcdonald's is one of those
i would go as far as to say iconic menu items uh here's what it is i don't know if you could hear
that but that's a plane it is actually piloted by mcribs believe it or not and speaking of the
mcrib is a seasoned boneless pork patty it comes with barbecue sauce slivered onions dill pickles
and it's on a bun now the price i've heard that the price has varied by location it seems to be
quite different state to state i've seen this available anywhere from i think three to five
dollars or so um but there have been some outliers so that's just what the price is but it seems to
be affordable and reasonable at this point i've tried out the mcrib before i tried it out in 2018
i tried it in 2019 and yes i tried it in 2020. so you might be saying well you know you've tried it
out three times already i mean what's what's the point of trying it again and that's what i
was even thinking to myself i was thinking is there is there a reason to even try this out
i wasn't going to review it that's why you didn't see this video come out on the first of november i
thought to myself well i've tried it out three times already i mean what's what's the point
i was looking through the comments though on the youtube channel
i noticed something interesting i noticed a uh a rather interesting trend not only were
the requests still coming in people were saying can you try the mcrib again i'm looking forward
to the mcrib review i was even getting emails from people who wanted to see me
retry it but there was an interesting little twist to some of the correspondence that was coming in
not everyone but a percentage of people and i don't know if these are just mcrib haters as
they say or not um but a percentage of people were saying the mcrib isn't as i remember it
and um the quality might be slipping a bit they're saying you know i don't know what it is but when
i was trying the mcrib in 2021 it just wasn't what i was hoping for you know and i might even
be a big mcrib fan and it just it wasn't meeting expectations so that started getting you know the
ideas and then you know the gear is turning and i was thinking well maybe these are just people
who don't like it i mean again the mcrib is one of those things and i've said it before in my reviews
some people are going to like it some people are not so who knows maybe it's just that percentage
but has something changed with the mcrib i don't know so i'm going to find out today
now before we get into it i do want to give the previous ratings that i've personally
given this item and we're going to compare it and we're going to see how it's been
in 2018 the first mcrib i ever had i gave a 7.9 out of 10. in 2019 there was an improvement
and 8.6 out of 10 i gave it in 2020 i gave it a 7.5 out of 10. so admittedly in 2020
that was the lowest score that i've given it um what does that really mean though who knows a
7.5 is still above average on the 1 to 10 scale and we'll just have to see how this turns out
those are the golden arches right there and you can see that's fake seepage
that's not real that's fake now you could interpret that as the sauce
coming out or you could say that this is a little tongue sticking out of the box and
that's a smaller tongue because we know the anatomy of mcribs pretty well at this point
so who's to say but in this box indeed i have the mcrib right here and you can see those two things
are known as pickles
let's open it up and let's see what we have okay there it is in the box
and here it is
outside of the box
let's get a good view of it
well i do see already and i think this is indisputable it is looking a little lighter
on the sauce in previous times admittedly but still you know fair to good sauce coverage
you can see the onions and the pickle and the mcrib itself on that bun let's open up
the mcrib again though look see it for yourself not a lot of sauce
not a lot of sauce i have and granted now i am not a frequent mcrib consumer as a matter of fact the
three mcribs that i have previously reviewed are the only three i've ever had but in terms of sauce
distribution definitely is the lightest i've seen on a mcrib what does that really mean who knows
i'm going to get a couple thumbnails because we know those are important here's number one
number two we'll get a fairly close one and just know it's all right i know that
this can be kind of silly but if you're doing a video the thumbnail is important
going for the inquisitive look this time around
but a happy one just to be safe i know i'm going to be able to do something with all that it's
going to be fine either way so that said i'm going to quit wasting your time let's see if
it's maintaining the standards or what's going on this time around mcrib from mcdonald's going in
okay
so
if you can hear that airplane that's just piloted by a pilot
well
you know
i go into this with an open mind each time say to myself well look if the item's good
it's good if it's bad it's bad and i'm that's how it's going to be i'm not going to sit there and
you know play the game and say that you know something's good because i think this and it's
going to be this you know or whatever i just don't pick favorites it's just if the food's
good i'm going to tell it to you like it is if it's bad i'm going to tell it to you like it is
the last three mcribs that i had i enjoyed i found them to be enjoyable
i i understand where people are coming from though when they said in the comments that something was
different about the mcrib this year i'm not going to go as far as to say though that this
is indicative of something on a chain-wide scale i may only say that perhaps the one that i received
was indeed sub-par because yes it was definitely was not as good as the ones that i've had
beforehand that's not to say that the mcrib itself is bad like i said of the last four including this
one three of them were good problem that i have with this is um really about three separate things
number one most importantly lack of sauce you could see that yourself when i debund it and we're
looking at it and you can see even under it this is not a lot of sauce on this mcrib so that's a
problem every other mcrib that i've had had a lot more sauce on it and you know that's definitely
something to just take note of so the sauce is one of those things that would really make it
i i enjoyed the uh the barbecue sauce it had a nice little tang to it as well and it usually
complemented both the pork but it worked so nicely with the onion and the pickles as well
and i think it's one of the things that made the mcrib you know such a fan favorite so to speak
so the lack of sauce i think it illustrates so just how important the sauce is on an item like
this because my goodness what a difference even just a little more sauce versus what i got makes
but that isn't the only thing even if the correct amount of sauce was on the mcrib there's two more
problems that the sauce wouldn't fix all right here's the next problem and this one i had last
year actually so i still notice it that's actually why i gave it a slightly lower score last year
the mcrib was still a little bit dry and by that i mean the meat itself you could just tone was
just a little bit it wasn't as juicy as it used to be and that still holds true um again looking
at the cross section you could see that you know it's just not necessarily teeming with any sort
of moisture so that's definitely still the case third though and this issue just like the first
one is only apparent this time around and this is a pretty serious issue the mcrib that i had tasted
like it was a little overcooked believe it or not and um as i was biting into it i noticed the
dryness but i noticed this sort of burnt char to it as well which i've never had on a mcrib before
normally it would be quite tender and you know you wouldn't have those sorts of issues but last
last year it was just a little dryer this time though it's dry and like i said it's a bit uh
a bit overdone not to an extreme i would say but to the point where it's noticeable and it's like
yeah you know it seems like this was cooked a little too long and it's starting to show
in terms of the flavor that's not to say that this doesn't have redeeming qualities though
in one bite there was a little glob of the sauce that was mixed in with the onions
and the pickles and it kind of replicated that original mcrib experience which was quite nice
but to have only one bite that was like that when previously when i've tried the mcribs
every bite was good and you could revisit the videos yourselves and take a look you
could see that it just it did look different and it tasted different it tasted better
and that's the indisputable fact here like i said though i'm not going to sit here
because some people i think they take this as an opportunity to just pick at the entire chain and
they'll say this is a terrible product and it's reflective of mcdonald's as a whole and they're
gonna they ruined the mcrib etc etc um yeah the one that i did receive this time around was subpar
maybe that is reflective of something on a larger scale maybe it's not
i think it goes to show though that there is variability when it comes down to fast food it's
dependent on the circumstances granted but maybe those folks in the comments who are saying that
something is different about the mcrib uh well you know maybe they're onto something we'll see
so factoring that in either way i don't think i'm going to go that far
but it certainly is an interesting experience this time around considering how it used to be
out of 10 yeah this one is getting a lower a lower rating i'm going to be giving
the mcrib from mcdonald's this time around i am going to have to deduct a number of points
this is only going to get a 5 out of 10 because there were some bites that were still enjoyable
but by and large not the experience that i was used to not the experience that i've gotten before
you know mcdonald's they're one of those chains that uh they're hit or miss sometimes lately
they've been putting out a lot of good products when they do they don't release stuff as often
as they used to but like every chain sometimes you win sometimes you lose this is one of those
items though that it might be different for you so i still encourage you to go out check it out
try it out see how it compares to the one that i got and um i am personally curious if you get a
mcrib um let me know in the comments what you think about it how did yours turn out are you
noticing something with them too did yours kind of wind up this way as well or you know is it just me
so i'm interested in in seeing your reports as well so feel free to leave one that's all that
i have for you maybe we'll try it out again in 2022 and uh hey maybe it'll be an improvement
at that point we will see either way until next time i'm your host the report of the week