What to Order at McDonald's: Every Item, Judged

$3.59 avg · 400 cal

The whole menu's center of gravity. Two beef patties and a slice of cheese for $3.59, which is more actual meat than the McChicken at the same price. It's the sandwich every $5 meal deal is built around, and the one to default to when you can't decide.

$3.56 avg · 320 cal

Still the best fast-food fry in the country, and it's not a close vote. Thin cut, salted while hot, that specific McDonald's flavor nothing else copies right. The catch is the half-life: excellent for about eight minutes, cardboard by the time you're home. Eat them in the parking lot.

$3.59 avg · 400 cal

The quiet value king. A crispy chicken patty with mayo and shredded lettuce for the same $3.59 as the McDouble, and it takes a hot-sauce packet better than anything else on the menu. Not much protein for the calories, but at this price nobody's asking it to be dinner.

$2.51 avg · 300 cal

The floor of the whole menu and still a real sandwich for around $2.51. Single patty, pickles, onions, mustard, ketchup, 300 calories. Buy two for the price of one Big Mac and you'll have eaten better.

$5.79 avg · 420 cal

The most shareable order on the board, and the sauce lineup is free, so a rotation of dips makes ten pieces feel like more than it is. 420 calories for the box, and the white-meat recipe holds up when they're fresh. Ask for them unsalted and you'll get a batch cooked to order.

$5.79 avg · 540 cal

The fresh-beef upgrade you can actually taste, seared to order instead of held under a lamp. Around $5.79 makes it the burger to get when you want beef and not a bargain. But it's within pennies of the Big Mac and more than double the McDouble, so you're paying a real premium for one bigger patty.

$5.91 avg · 590 cal

The icon, and the menu's worst value hiding in plain sight. At $5.91 you're paying for special sauce and a third bun more than for beef. A former McDonald's chef's move is a McDouble with Big Mac sauce added for about $4 — more meat, same flavor, none of the tax.

$5.99 avg · 530 cal

McDonald's finally built a chicken sandwich worth ordering on purpose. A whole fried fillet on a buttered potato roll, crisp where the McChicken is soft, and the Spicy version's pepper sauce is the one to get. At $5.99 it's aimed straight at Chick-fil-A and holds up better than it has any right to.

$6.49 avg · 390 cal

The cult sandwich, and it earns some of the devotion: steamed bun, half a slice of cheese, tartar sauce, 390 calories of nostalgia. But the math has drifted. At $6.49 it's the priciest single sandwich on this list for the smallest patty on it.

$3.99 avg · 310 cal

The best thing McDonald's makes before 11 a.m., and honestly good at any hour. A real cracked egg, Canadian bacon, cheese, English muffin, 310 calories. It's been the same for fifty years because they got it right the first time.

$2.99 avg · 140 cal

Crisp, greasy, and gone in four bites, which is the whole problem at $2.99. Next to a McMuffin they're a worthwhile texture break; on their own they're a lot of money for 140 calories of potato. Order one, not two.

$5.59 avg · 510 cal

Soft-serve with crushed Oreos folded through, and there was a time this was a two-dollar impulse add-on. Now it's $5.59 and 510 calories, and it's still hostage to whether the ice cream machine is running — the chain's most reliable running joke. Sweet, but not $5.59-sweet.