The Rise and Fall of McDonald's Arch Deluxe 

Please do the MC DLT I still can't understand why in god's name they quit selling it. Everyone I know only has fond memories of it. And let's get a petition going to bring that burger back.😉🤣

Carl Jr's double Western bacon cheeseburger or, the half lb knowlburger... It's a toss up for me.

do a story on the mcgangbang The Lusty Legend of the McGangbang, the Secret McDonald’s …

The Big Mac w/ Extra Sauce. Is The Best Fast Food Burger 🍔 Ever Invented ❤️👍

Whataburger hands down. But my second favorite is Wendy's and on that note you should definitely do a video on Dave Thomas he had a pretty interesting life

Agreed 😏

Same, I was 12

Same. I was 14-15

I was 13 and hadn't really been a big McDonald's fan since I was a younger child, but the Arch deluxe had me asking my mom to bring me one home for lunch nearly every day the summer it debuted! That burger was amazing, funny I did not realize it stuck around till 2000, I thought it was much more short-lived than that

We're probably around the same age then because I was also 15 when I tried it

I loved their sushi wraps! They had amazing chicken noodle soup too!

I never tried one, but my mom got it every time we went there while it was available. Couldn’t have been too bad.

@@stonecodfish2365 How do you replicate the sauce?

I agree, I don't even remember the ketchup, let alone a sweet ketchup. I remember the mustard and this was my favorite burger that McDonalds ever put out. I wish they would bring it back. For the year or so that it was out I'm pretty sure it was the only burger that I ordered. Edit: It sounds like in some markets the Arch Deluxe stuck around for a few years, but I could swear that in my town it was only here for about a year and then it disappeared. The same family owns the McD's in my market so maybe they had to option to pull it early if it performed poorly?

@@carlbrien I worked at Mcdonalds when they made it, it was the same ketchup that is on all their burgers. Now maybe they consider it to be too sweet, but it wasn't special made for it.

Usually it's the mayo/mustard sauce that makes a burger 'adult' or 'mature'. I'm not even joking. So many of those special burgers meant to appeal to 'mature' people with 'refined' tastes have that sauce.

Pandering did.

Loved it too

I loved this burger. Nobody ever remembers it

I loved it as well and I remember is because of the monopoly games they scammed lol

Same! lol

That's cool!

Same xD jk I finished school

I had a buddy that gave me a McDLT painters cap when that came out, I wish I still had it, lol

I started working at McDonald’s in the summer 1997-I don’t recall anyone else wearing pins by that time.

Pretty sure that's the opposite of a backfire

I actually liked their Chicken Deluxe and Arch Deluxes.

When kid me lived in England, there was a campaign of how the Yorkie chocolate bar is “not for girls”. So I got one to be… rebellious. It’s a good chocolate from what I remember. Recommend to all genders.

"I bought the thing they advertised, suckers"

no, spending money on ads and marketing is good for business premonition

yeah the "Deluxe" Chicken Sandwich was my go to chicken sandwich back in the day. Never had the burger version though.

Yeah I tried the Arch Deluxe first and afterward the Crispy Chicken Deluxe which I fell in love with. My older brother actually ordered all the variations including the grilled chicken twice. Pretty sure he was trying to trick me into ordering it. Although he liked almost every food. After the Deluxe line left, I remember the replacement Crispy Chicken sandwich was pretty close to the original. I know the bun changed but the meat felt the same. The toppings and sauce are kind of foggy to me though.

The deluxe chicken was the bomb

QUE?!?!

@BK Beatty Judging by the replies it doesn't really appear that that's the case. Seems to have worked on plenty of people.

I remember the wierd 1990s era TV ads, marketing. I & my 20s friends had no idea what McDs 🍔 was doing. 🤔 McDonald's is NOT a date spot or adult place.

I remember the commercial with the girl ordering an Arch Deluxe and the boy playing with his food and not wanting to be like the boy, but the rest of the advertising, promising children wouldn't like it and all that other stuff, that didn't work on me. I was a little upset when the McDonald's around here stopped selling it.

I feel like it came out to early. If it came out later it might have survived. It was good.

I used to get pizza bites and enchiladas with menudo! They had the best chow mein too!

I was around the same age and felt the same way

I was about 14 myself, and thought the sandwich was great. The ads were beyond bizarre, though.

I was about 10 when they came out. All I remember is the marketing bombing. Apparently they just started out in our area by teasing it with B&W billboards of kids making grossed-out faces. I remember my dad telling my mom he finally learned what they were all about. They thought it was stuipid.

Hello you

Big & Tasty in 🇺🇸.

Big Tasty in 🇫🇷

@@jaimel88 Nice, are they popular in France?

@@Larry they were when I lived there 7 years ago - seem to have disappeared everywhere else since 🫤

I think the McDLT was done in by environmental laws banning the chemicals used to make most of McDs packaging which was essential to the "hot side hot, cool side cool" aspect of that sandwich

I remember when Seinfeld came out and thinking how George Costanza looked oddly familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on where I'd seen him before... Then while I was watching the show, it suddenly hit me! "HOLY CRAP! THAT'S THE MCDLT GUY!!!"

@@ArcherSuh4721 Bang! Rite on! I came here to make this reply but you was faster on the draw! Good catch, mate..

It was good. I was a growing boy and remember eating 3 one time. It was just a deluxe cheeseburger. Gimmick was the in the old Styrofoam box days the cold top half was in 1 side and the hot burger bottom half was in the other side of this double box. Put it together yourself and look like the menu burger

Everyone is entitled to have 2- Sets of Grandparents ❤️❤️❤️😊😆. Cheers 🍻

@Edward Lee Miller My friends and I used to call it the Big and Nasty. It was the best thing on the menu. Fries with BBQ sauce and a Sprite Remix. 2003 was a good year for Mc.Donalds.

That sandwich was good

I liked the Big n' Tasty. It was a Whopper clone like the McDLT.

That's what drew child me to it. The marketing that kids wouldn't like it did not work on me, but it was new at McDonald's and it was different from the rest of the menu. Now, new and different is anathema to most children, but I was not most children. I was the weird kid who ate his broccoli and liked it, provided it had cheese, which it always did and still does to this day for me as a weird adult. I don't remember the sauce being crunchy, but I do remember liking the pickles and onion a lot more than what they do for their other burgers.

Never had philly steak at jack... what year was that out?

Me too!

@@NAT-turners-Revenge It was the mid 90s. They brought it back a few years ago and took it away after a few months. It was glorious! Better than any philly cheese steak sandwich I've gotten at any restaurant.

It was only like one video... probably was sick or something lol

The woman was better

Yeeesss!!!

Hehe! 😁

I never had one, but if I did, I would’ve asked for it without the sauce.

Strange 🤔 the sauce & fluffy bun i loved

@@NAT-turners-Revenge a man of distinguished tastes, I see. :)

Angus beef was definitely a trend then.

Yeah, those other pickles are repulsive af.

They still sell Angus burgers in Australia. There are 3 different versions, the Classic Angus looks very similar to these burgers which I don't think we ever got.

The Angus third pounders, yeah. I liked the mushroom n Swiss one the most. Best ever McD's product taste wise for me, and I miss it

Anyone who gave you their coupon was kind of dumb. They could’ve just gone in and asked for an arch deluxe and had them remove all that stuff that they didn’t like.

Pizza, spaghetti, hot dog, soup, the eggs benedict mcmuffin... they were all over the place over the years

@@LeviathanRX Yeah, they were. Though, I think that's just restaurants in general. A lot of restaurant owners on Kitchen Nightmares need to be broken of the "The problem is that we need MORE menu items," mindset.

so we have the pizza to thank for ruining pies but also the advent of mcgriddles. interesting.

@@lostone9700 Among other things, yes.

Same here 😐

Me too! Let's start a petition to bring it back!, lol

Yes 🙌 me too, I wish they would bring it back.

I can't tell if you're making fun of the burger or you're serious.

Yeah, same here, I thought it was pretty good!

@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 I am being serious. Its just ironic that something that was marketed as tasting bad to kids was actually tasty to my then ten year old taste buds.

Me too!

Same here.

Could you DM me on instagram (I have the same nickname as here)? I’m working on a RU-vid episode about remaking Arch Deluxe exactly the way it was done in 1996 at McDonald’s and I really need help with figuring out the right bacon, sauce, itd.

The thing is, people who want a "gourmet" burger typically aren't regular customers at McDonald's.

You take that back Shelly!

When I worked at McDonalds in 1999, the Arch Deluxe had evolved into the "Big Xtra".

I got those all the time as a young teen! Really wish they would bring them back too.

I’m in my late 50s, and I’ll still buy a happy meal from time to time. Depending on the toy.

I think that ad was designed to make people think it was popular.

A good father does not lie to his children. I’m far older than you, and I still think McDonald’s is fine.

@@CrazyMagyar i’d liked it through my teams, 20s, 30s, 40s, and still. And I guarantee, I’m in better cognitive and physical shape than you are.

@@spankynater4242 All right “Spanky”, thanks for your unsolicited parenting advice and for your uncanny ability to diagnose one’s health through a simple RU-vid comment. You turned what was meant to be a simple funny RU-vid comment into something more serious… You put into question my parenting abilities, and for that you are a horrible person! I am a two time brain tumor survivor, the last brain tumor destroyed my optic nerves making me totally blind. I am a single disabled father raising my three daughters totally on my own. All three of my daughters are in gifted programs, with my eldest having an IQ of 143… I think I’m doing a great job raising my kids to be well-adjusted members of society, even with my limitations of being a blind disabled father. I guess lying to them about the deliciousness of your precious McDonald’s makes me a horrible father? Is that about right “Spanky“? (And before you even ask… We in the Blind and Visually Impaired communities use screen readers and speech to text to reply to comments such as yours.)

Think it was The Big Xtra

@@cyric28 Actually - I think you're right

It would have done better in today's times with gourmet burgers being rolled out all over the place.

I know. Every time McD's rolls out their "grown up" or grommet burgers these past couple of years I've thought "just bring back the Arch Deluxe, or at least bring back the mustard sauce".

Going to a real restaurant and ordering a delicious burger. That would come close and be a lot better.

@@genxx2724 oh that is a given! Fast food is just as expensive as a nice restaurant now

@@EricTechstuffs Isn’t it ludicrous? Just short of $10 for a quarter pounder meal.

@@genxx2724 Yes it is ! Lots of empty calories and getting hungry again an hour or two later ! Everything just tastes the same now from there .

@@EricTechstuffs I made my own homemade egg McMuffin. Free-range egg cooked in Kerrygold butter, Mexican blend shredded cheese, a thin slice of Boar’s Head Black Forest ham heated in the skillet, all on a buttered English muffin. I got full, my stomach felt warm and satisfied, and I stayed full, happy, and energetic for hours. I knew their food was skimpy and fake, but this really proved it.

If I could have one thing, it would be a fresh, hot bacon double thick burger. Seems it’s impossible to get a freshly cooked burger from nearly any burger joint nowadays

😁 I remember those. I stopped eating fast food a long time ago, but I did really like the sausage, egg, & cheese McGriddle. 😋👌

When I worked there they had just come out and we would eat the buns by themselves they were good.

@@MyPhobo did you ever get creative and try different meat combos with the griddle buns?

MC.DLT was the best. Styrophome to keep one side hot and one side cold.

I don’t know if it is the same burger but there is a McFeast on the McDonald’s menu in Sweden to this day! It’s a staple.

I definitely got beetroot on a burger in Oz 4 or 5 years ago but I couldn't tell you what it was called.

*We had the McFeast for years in New Zealand. We also have the 'Kiwiburger' which is just a McFeast with beetroot and a fried egg*

Did you genuinely comment just to share that you're a vegetarian?! 🤣😂😂

The McRib is a permanent menu item at McDonald's Germany

I actually thought it was delicious. If they ever brought it back I would def eat it again.

Yeah it was great, was my mcdonalds order in high school.

Yes, it was the Cincinnati franchise. Corporate wanted pineapple, so they added both. I think they only sold one pineapple sandwich the first day, and hundreds of fish sandwiches!

uk still has it - its called the the big tasty. they do it with bacon too. its very good but its like £5.89 just for the burger. double check ur mcds - might still have it.