Launch of the McGriddle in the UK – the McDonald's breakfast sandwich divides opinion on social media

March 20 2026

By Jack Cork – assisted by Shooglebox AI

McDonald's have finally brought the American breakfast favourite the McGriddle to the UK – and reaction to the launch on social media shows British opinion is sharply divided, with some giving it 10 out of 10 and saying it "might be the best thing McDonald's has done", and others saying it's too sweet and "one of the most unpleasant meals I've had in ages".

Sausage & Egg McGriddles – which have been sold in the US since 2003 – went on sale for the first time in the UK and Ireland on 17th March and are available for a limited time only as part of the latest McDonald's menu refresh.

McDonald's regularly refresh their menus throughout the year – so there's a constant stream of new talking points around the brand on social media as thousands of people review and tell others about the new items, from the McSpicy Pineapple Burger and Sour Cream & Black Pepper McShaker Fries in the World Menu Heist last autumn to the Grinch McShaker Fries and the Grumble Pie in their Grinch-themed Christmas menu.

The growth of interest-based media like TikTok and Reddit gives brands an instant way to get detailed insight into what customers are thinking and saying about new products and ranges.

Shooglebox AI helps PR and marketing teams quickly gather, analyse and create instant outputs summarising the things people are saying about their brands on social media. A task that previously took hours can now be accomplished in a few minutes. Find out more here – or read on to see how Shooglebox AI captured Brits' reaction to the arrival of the McDonald's American favourite the McGriddle.

Fans saying the McGriddle is their "new favourite breakfast item"

On launch day lots of people made special trips to their local McDonald's to try the McGriddle for the first time.

One of the strongest early reactions on TikTok came from Poppy Mead, who has nearly 800,000 followers on the platform. Poppy said the McGriddle was "the best thing I have tried in a long time" and "beats the breakfast bagels they used to do." She scored it "a solid 10 out of 10" and said "we need to make this a full-time menu thing".

Georgia Portogallo (460,000 followers) also loved the McGriddle, saying "This is by far my new favourite breakfast item from McDonald's." She thought "the sweet and the savoury together is delicious" and even added extra golden syrup before telling viewers "you guys need to try it".

Yaz Moore (97,000 followers) said: "This might be the best thing McDonald's has done ... I'm going to give this a 10 out of 10. If you love sweet and savoury together, you're going to be so obsessed with this."

It was "10x better" than expected for Mollie Layton (240,000 followers) who ordered the McGriddle without the egg. She told viewers "If you love pancakes, I think you're gonna really like this. It's like an American breakfast in one sandwich ... If they bring this to the main menu, I fear I'll never leave McDonald's ever again."

Others think the McGriddle is "far too sweet"

If you look across lots of different social media platforms you'll see that for every person saying the McGriddle's a winner there's another saying it's a no no.

Food reviewer Josh Wyard Eats (14,000 followers) did a taste test on TikTok and thought it was "just too sweet and too sickly". He rated it 6/10, saying "It definitely tastes like a pancake because that's what it really is. Very syrupy … I feel like it's taken the taste away from the sausage, egg and cheese."

There's a similar review from Jack Eats Everything (55,000 followers) who thought the McGriddle "just tastes artificial. It's so sugary. It's like you got a McMuffin and added a few teaspoons of sugar to it." He understands why some people would like it but "this thing was not me."

As is often the case on Reddit, many of the posts and comments in the r/McDonald'sUK subReddit go into much more detail about why the McGriddle's sweet-and-savoury combination does or doesn't work.

On one thread in the subReddit, commenters said things like:

• "I had one yesterday morning after being pretty excited. I'm a big sweet & savoury fan, I wasn't expecting it to dethrone the McMuffin but didn't think there was much chance of me disliking it. Well, I really disliked it. The overwhelming flavour of artificial maple against the funk of a maccies egg really didn't work for me. The texture was all wrong, too soggy and squidgy, the structural integrity to act as a sandwich container wasn't there. Switching out the egg and cheese for a hash brown would have been loads better. I really wanted to like it but it just didn't land for me."

• "Had one today in UK. I found it disgusting. Artificial maple flavoured soggy pancake thing, combined with sausage, plastic cheese & egg one of the most unpleasant meals I've had in ages. And I eat nearly anything lol. But it's interesting to see many people like it, to each their own I suppose."

• "Stick with the McMuffin. To me syrup doesn't belong near breakfast but maybe that's just me."

• "I enjoy pancakes with sausage, although bacon would be better, but there’s something off with the McGriddle’s sweetness paired with egg and cheese."

One commenter on a different post concluded, "The most controversial item on the breakfast menu seems like Marmite from what I can see."

"It's a shame that they haven't actually put the folded egg in there"

One of the common talking points across posts on TikTok, Reddit, Facebook and YouTube is the kind of egg that should be in the McGriddle.

The US version of the McGriddle uses a folded omelette-style egg while the UK version is a standard McMuffin-style egg that some find to be "rubbery".

Grumpy Northern Foodie, who has more than 700,000 followers across his social media channels, enjoyed the sweet and savoury mix of the McGriddle and gave it an 8/10. He was disappointed by the egg though, saying "It's a shame that they haven't actually put the folded egg on there."

In a similar review on TikTok, James Holt (365,000 followers) scored the McGriddle a 9/10, saying "The only reason I'm giving it a 9 is because they've done the original egg, and in America, you get the folded egg. I feel like they're a bit lazy with that in the UK. They could have just done the original one. But apart from that, I love it."

On Facebook, Bigdaddybsfoods (430,000 followers across social media) wondered what the fuss is about. He posted, "Can someone enlighten me ... a lot of comments about the new McGriddle and how it should have been a folded egg? And how the egg they've used is a let down? But I honestly don't really see much difference? Maybe slightly different texture but ultimately one of broken and the other isn't. It's still an egg. The flavour really isn't much different? What's all the fuss about?"

People jumped in to the comments to explain the difference between McDonald's standard round eggs and their folded eggs:

• "It tastes less eggy and is a better texture. Anyone that had the belter of sausage and egg bagel will know the egg is different"

• "The UK round egg style is awful as I hate the taste and texture of the yellow, no problem when mixed so scrambled or folded omelette style great. They used to do both ie the bagels and the big breakfast so it's not like they cant do it. They just cant be bothered anymore!"

• "Folded egg is more like a small omelette. It's a texture thing. The rubbery hockey puck eggs are rank."

• "Definitely a texture thing. The folded omlette was way better than the semi-poached thing. These look far more appetizing."

• "The difference between both round egg and folded egg could not have been any more nights and day. Round egg 1/10. Folded egg 10/10. Will never understand why they got rid of folded and kept the giant haribo eggs"

TikTok food reviewer Becca Eats Everything (590,000 followers) thinks the McGriddle would be better without the egg altogether. She said, "I'm not a fan of it with the egg. I think, honestly, I would have preferred this if there was no other bits in this, if it was just maybe a double sausage."

How I used Shooglebox AI to analyse reaction to the McGriddle

It took just a couple of minutes for Shooglebox AI to pull in, analyse and summarise the main themes in all the reaction across social media to the UK launch of the McGriddle.

Each post in Shooglebox is represented by a card with an at-a-glance front and playable embed on the back.

At the click of an Enhance button Shooglebox AI:

• Generates an editable transcription of videos in the posts

• Downloads all comments from the posts

• Analyses and groups comments into themes for each post

• Adds it all to the back of each card

In the case of the McGriddle it looked at posts from TikTok, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and analysed thousands of comments.

It takes seconds to group the comments on each post into themes – and it does all the posts simultaneously.

Next I switched to use the Shooglebox AI Assistant, where I can choose which LLM model I want to use to help me draft outputs like internal briefing documents or articles and blog posts like this one.

Our team of experienced writers, editors and technology specialists have worked together to engineer very detailed prompts designed to create clear, accurate, readable content that avoids some of AI’s well-known quirks and bad habits.

I chose one of the blog post creation pre-canned prompts and used OpenAI’s ChatGPT 5.4 as the LLM.

Within less than a minute the Shooglebox Assistant had drafted a full article, complete with formatting and links to sources.

I’d put the kettle on for a cup of tea when I first set the AI off pulling in and analysing comments. The kettle hadn’t finished boiling by the time the full article was drafted.

I didn’t leave everything to the AI of course. I used the draft as a start point for the final edit, rewriting elements, double-checking sources and adding context to some of the things AI had highlighted. But it would have taken hours for me or another researcher to get to the same starting point.