McDonald's Testing Its Larger, More Satiating 'Big Arch' Burger in Select Markets

McDonald's quietly began testing a new larger, more "satiating" burger over the summer, which the company recently teased to appeal to increasingly value-minded customers and compete with fast casual chains such as Shake Shack and Five Guys. Although the Big Arch burger, as it's being called, is currently only available in select markets in Canada and Portugal, the chain eventually hopes for a broad rollout, possibly as soon as early next year.

McDonald's global president and CEO Chris Kempczinski revealed plans for the Big Arch burger during an investors call on Monday, along with news of the first same-store sales losses since the pandemic. As the company attempts to reverse course, value will be a big part of its strategy going forward.

"As we announced late last year, we continue to innovate across our core menu to address unmet customer needs with a more satiating burger that will provide great value for money," Kempczinski explained. "It's a quintessential McDonald's burger with a twist on our iconic familiar flavors, named the Big Arch, we plan to attest and learn through the end of the year to gather learnings before scaling more broadly internationally."

According to a press release back in June to announce that select McDonald’s restaurants in Ontario and Alberta would be testing the new burger, the Big Arch features two 100 percent beef patties "perfectly layered" with three slices of white processed cheese, crispy onions, slivered onions, pickles, lettuce, and a tangy new sauce on a brioche bun with multi-colored seeds.

A TikTok user in Canada posted video of the new offering earlier this month, and as you can see it is indeed more substantial than McDonald's usual fare.

"It's massive—huge! I don't know if I can even eat that," the user exclaimed, unboxing the burger. "Holy cow, there's like three pieces of cheese on that or something, what is happening?"

The Daily Mail reports that the Big Arch meal cost CA$12.59  at one test location in Ontario. That's the equivalent of about $9 in the United States, where some customers have recently reported paying upwards of $20 for a Big Mac meal.

Whether the strategy pays off remains to be seen. The last time McDonald's introduced an upscale burger was the Arch Deluxe in 1996, which featured a quarter-pound beef patty on a split-top potato bun topped with peppered bacon, lettuce, tomato, American cheese, onions, ketchup, and Dijonnaise.

Unfortunately, it was discontinued shortly after, and is generally considered to be one of the chain's biggest and most expensive product flops.