McDonald's France Wedges Review: Will The Orange Help Save Face?

Wedges, a different approach towards fried potatoes, has been included in our rankings and leaderboard in our pursuit to find the best fried potatoes in the world. Although constituting a small minority of overall fries we have indexed, they do seem to make a lasting impression with the clementine-like shape and color. So when McDonald's, the blog’s benchmark and the largest fast-food chain that produces fries, also has wedges, we had to give this a shot. And quite frankly, after the disastrous and disappointing regular fries by McDonald's France, we wanted to give it a second chance. McDonald’s only sells wedges in about six countries (France, Greece, Spain, etc), so it's worth trying them while we can. Here is our review of McDonald's wedges.

The counter is simplified by moving all ordering to self-serve kiosks.

Texture (4/10)

With a slight crisp, the wedges were appealing when first biting into, as they were also cooked unpeeled crisped some of the wide exterior. However, even the peel did not serve as well for the crunch, which was lacking slightly. The interior was worse in comparison. The innards of the wedges were unevenly cooked, some being well done while others being undercooked which made them hard and bland. We suspect that the cause of such uneven insides would be due to the fact that the potatoes were cut into different sizes, but cooked for the same amount of time, causing the offset in how well done each piece or part of the piece was. This is a massive miss in our opinion and an amateur quality issue that a global brand should not have. The texture of these wedges could have been spectacular but carelessness is severely holding them back.

The exterior has a proper orange crisp layer including the peel. They really look like clementines!

Flavor (3/10)

The wedges were incredibly bland, perhaps due to the fact that each piece was deceivingly orange and looked like they were blasted with flavoring and spice, making each bite very disappointing. They had minimal salt if none at all, and that was it. Additionally, after a few bites the spell faded away, and the wedges became very unappealing to continue eating. The wedges also came with this unique Creamy Deluxe sauce, which was some sort of mediocre ranch, but after a single dip, we continued eating the wedges without it.

We have never seen this creamy sauce anywhere else, and it only comes with their wedges.

Shape (7/10)

The wedges were surprisingly uniform per piece, of course adhering to the shape consistency limitations of making wedges instead of normal fries, but were still quite similar to one another. They were also sturdy, and easy to grab in their crescent like shape. Potatoes must be round and consistent for these perfectly "orange" slices so McDonald's must have done a great job choosing the right raw ingredients.

The McDonald's wedges really has a pretty shape, made with round potatoes.

Presentation (4/10)

The wedges came in the exact same fries carton and this was not efficient as these containers were optimized for vertically placed thinner potato sticks to make them look like a bouquet. Thus, putting these comparatively fat wedges, wasted a lot of space inside. The carton also came laying down, which is unusual for these cartons made for standing up, especially during a dine-in. Slightly tangential to presentation though, what really was disappointing was that although we ordered a large sized wedges, the carton it came in was that of the regular size fries. Perhaps it is indeed more expensive to produce these wedges, but it is clear that they are not the brand's priority.

We are happy to see the standard McDonald's large fries carton. It's the FIFA World Cup edition in gold.

Experience (3/10)

The price of the large wedges is similar to that of the large fries. But again, the key difference between the two experience was the "Creamy Deluxe" sauce. And as we mentioned in the flavor section, it just felt like a washed out ranch. And yes, they may be more expensive per unit, but simply shoving a few pieces into the regular fries carton just doesn't give us conviction that McDonald's is trying. All of this adds up to a poor overall experience, which we believe is holding back the potential to be great.

Texture	4
Flavor	3
Shape	7
Presentation	4
Experience	3
Overall	4.2 / 10

Conclusion

McDonald's wedges in France did not help the disappointment caused by their sub-par fries and commensurate to the name "French" fries. The wedges did fare slightly better thanks to their pretty shapes than the regular fries. However, they were still a big disappointment from Mcdonald’s own benchmark standards (recalibrated to 4.6 this year). The texture with an unevenly cooked interior, a deceptively bland flavor with a sauce that lacked authority, combined with a lack of attention and creativity in presentation with small portions all added to the let down.