The Halloumi McMuffin Is Here (But You Can Only Get It At One McDonald's In The U.S.)
If you've been enjoying McDonald's new International Favorites offerings in recent months, know that more options are on the way. There's just one catch: For now, you have to find your way to Chicago to try them.
Since the opening of its flagship restaurant in the city last year, on the ground floor of its new global headquarters, McDonald's has been testing out first-time-in-the-U.S. items ahead of a wider release. Now that the International Favorites have already proven popular with customers, McDonald's has announced its latest slate of imports. The new additions:
- Halloumi Muffin from Cyprus, which features grilled Halloumi cheese on a toasted and buttered English muffin, with tomato slices and lettuce. Bacon is optional. We'll be honest: This is the one we're most excited about. Burger King offered a fried halloumi sandwich in Sweden, and only recently brought the sandwich to the U.K. The idea of a crisp cheese-as-protein sandwich is very, very intriguing to us.
- The 1955 Burger from Germany. It's described as a glazed bun with "seasoned ketchup, grilled onions, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce and a special 1955 sauce to compliment the beef patty." What is 1955 sauce? McDonald's doesn't say.
- CBO (Chicken-Bacon-Onion) from France. From the looks of it the buns are square with toasted onion and sesame seeds. The cheese is "bacon and pepper-flavored." There's also fried straw onions, bacon, lettuce, and a mayo-based sauce.
- The Manhattan Salad from France. Another item from France, this one features kale and lettuce with grape tomatoes, dried cranberries, sliced apples. The one thing that gives us pause is it also comes with grilled or fried chicken strips, and the history of McDonald's salads with chicken hasn't been a successful one, in our view.
- The 'I'm Greeking Out' Salad from Canada. Same chicken-topped salad as above, but with lettuce, cucumbers, red pepper strips, feta, seasoned couscous, pita chips, and something called "Greek dressing."
- Sweet Potato Fries from the Netherlands.
- Caramel Dipped Cones from South Korea. McDonald's soft serve with a caramel shell. This sounds promising, as we're on record as loving the Stroopwafel McFlurry.
It's an attention-grabbing slate, especially when it comes to that Halloumi breakfast sandwich, which sounds like the kind of meat-free morning option (at least sans-bacon) that can still deliver the hearty, greasy start to the day that you'd want from a fast-food breakfast. If you're already craving any of the new options, the flagship McDonald's in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood awaits you, at least until they hopefully debut nationwide.