(Originally posted on my food review site, “Let’s Eat Out Once A Week.”)

So, McDonald’s came out with this Ontario Cottage Country Chicken burger which was available only between June 3th and June 9th. According to the signs on their menu, McDonald’s is supposedly providing customers with this “great Canadian taste adventure” where they’ll be introducing flavours inspired by different regions of Canada. They were kicking things off with “Ontario” and then doing “Alberta” the following week and finally “Atlantic” after that.

I got this so-called Ontario burger, the Cottage Country Chicken burger combo. Now, it cost C$7.99 at the Richmond McDonald’s location that I was at… but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 20-30 cents cheaper elsewhere. As I’d found while doing some McDonald’s food runs for some buddies recently, the same item would cost 20 cents extra in Richmond compared to Vancouver. Then, it would be 10 cents less in Langley, compared to Vancouver. For example, I picked up the Maple & Bacon Poutine for a couple of people recently, from different locations, and found that in Vancouver it was C$4.59 but in Richmond it was C$4.79. The “Buy One Get One Free” online app coupon that I used, where I ordered a six-piece nuggets along with a Quarter Pounder burger, also featured different prices: C$4.89 in Langley, C$4.99 in Vancouver, and C$5.19 in Richmond – all for the same, identical items!

Anyway, with this “Ontario” specialty, I thought the only good thing about it was this Muskoka sauce in the burger. I’m guessing it’s some sort of maple syrup-flavoured barbecue sauce that’s good on chicken. According to the McDonald’s website, this burger featured “crispy seasoned Ontario-raised Chicken and a smokey Muskoka sauce [that] bring the cottage to you.” I’ll admit the sauce was good – I initially thought it was some kind of hot mustard sauce – but the rest of the burger was pretty ordinary.

I suppose eight bucks wasn’t too bad… but given my recent past experiences, I would say it probably costs you 20 cents cheaper at some locations in Vancouver. Maybe 30 cents less in Langley.

Update: Yikes… As it turns out, I was wrong about the prices in Vancouver. Apparently, at the main Vancouver location I go to, the display sign for this “Ontario” burger there read eight-something (I understand it said C$8.69?!?!!). Meanwhile, at that Richmond location that I was at – a place that normally had its items 20 cents more expensive – it was C$7.99?! Again, these are the prices of the combo, which included the fries and medium drink. Weird.

2nd update: Apparently, at that Richmond McDonald’s location, the C$7.99 price I paid was just for the first day or so. I found out several days later that their sign was changed to say C$8.89 and my comment about this “new” or “updated” price is that the Cottage Country Chicken burger simply isn’t worth it!! Mediocre and overpriced. It was about a dollar difference – so not a big one – but still… if you’re paying nearly 10 bucks for lunch (including tax, this “updated” price becomes C$9.35), you might as well get something more decent than this.