we wanted to find out the biggest differences

between the UK and US McDonald's.

This is what a small drink looks like in the UK.

Joe Avella: This is a US small.

Harry: This is what a medium drink looks like.

Joe: This is a US medium.

Harry: And this is a large.

Joe: [grunts] And this is a US large.

Harry: So, with our McNuggets in the UK,

the default adult sizes on the menu

are a box of six,

a box of nine,

or a share box of 20.

Joe: Nuggets. You can get a box of four,

or you can get a six piece,

or 10.

20, for "sharing."

Or...ahh.

40.

And according to the three McDonald's in the area,

they don't have 20 or 40 boxes,

they just do them in increments of 10,

but this is on the menu.

Harry: In the UK, we got three sizes of fries.

These are our small fries in the paper bag.

Joe: Here is the small fry.

Harry: These are our medium fries in the iconic carton.

Joe: Here is the medium fry.

Harry: And then these are our large fries.

Joe: And here is the large fry.

Harry: So, we couldn't find the exact weight measurement

for these fries online,

so what we're gonna do is weigh them ourselves.

Just out of curiosity,

gonna bring our trusty friend, the scales, back,

and we're gonna weigh the Big Mac

and see if there is any difference in size.

I'm not sure there will be, but let's find out.

Joe: Hang on, hang on, hang on.

Harry: So, while McDonald's fries might look and taste

pretty similar in the UK and the US,

in the UK we only have three ingredients,

which is oil, salt, and potatoes.

Joe: The McDonald's french fries in America

have way more ingredients.

These fries are made from potatoes, obviously;

a vegetable oil, which has canola oil, corn oil,

soybean oil, hydrogeni...

hydrogenitated...genitated?

Producer: Hydrogenated.

Joe: Ha! Thank you.

Hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor,

dextrose, sodium aspid...phosphitate?

Phosphifi...phos...phiupp...pyrophosphate,

pyrophosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate,

which is used to maintain the color.

Are they that much of a different

color than the ones in the UK?

Is it worth it?

Can we get a side-by-side comparison?

Are they that much more bright yellow

we need to put sodium acid pyrophosphate

or whatever it's called in it?

Salt, and I should mention that a natural beef flavor

contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk

as a starting ingredient, and of course

I have no idea what that means.

Harry: So, the biggest calorie difference in a Big Mac

actually comes from the sauce.

In the US they've got about

40 more calories than we do in the UK.

We're not sure if this is because there's more sauce

or because the ingredients list in the UK

is just a little bit more simple.

Joe: Our sauce is made of soybean oil,

sweet relish, which is made of diced pickles,

sugar, high-fructose corn syrup,

distilled vinegar, salt, corn syrup,

all right, two types of corn syrup,

xanthan gum,

hang on.

Calcium chloride, spice extractives?

Water. All right, I've heard of that.

Egg yolks, distilled vinegar,

spices, onion powder, salt,

propylene glycol alginate?

Garlic powder; vegetable protein,

which has hydrolyzed corn, soy, and wheat;

sugar; caramel color; turmeric;

extractives of paprika; and, of course,

soy...lechithen.

Leechithen.

Lecithin.

I don't know which one it is.

Harry: So, if you are trying to eat healthily

at McDonald's, it might actually be

the drinks that you have to look out for.

Joe: That's nothing, guys.

Our chocolate shake? 840 calories.

That's as many calories as

two cheeseburgers and one hamburger.

Harry: So, what does that all mean?

If you were to walk into a UK McDonald's

and order yourself a large Big Mac meal with a milkshake,

it would be around 1,400 calories.

Joe: And if you were to get the large Big Mac meal

with a chocolate shake in America,

the total here is 1,870 calories.

So that's 1,870 calories,

the daily calorie allowance for an American dude

is 2,500, OK.

So you have 630 left.

One McNugget is 55 calories, right?

So you could also have 11 more nuggets,

and there you go, that's all you need for the day.

Harry: Here's everything you can only get

at a UK McDonald's.

So, here we've got the Veggie Deluxe burger,

which is a veggie burger that's served

with some mayo and some lettuce.

Here we've got a Chicken Legend,

which is a chicken burger,

again served with mayo and lettuce.

Joe: Chicken Legend, I don't even know what that is.

Not gonna catch on. That can stay in the UK.

Harry: We have a range of wraps that you can get in the UK.

We have a wrap of the day.

Here we've got the fajita crisp, which is some chicken,

along with some veg and some spicy fajita sauce.

Here we've got some Veggie Dippers.

These were actually introduced at part of Veganuary

in 2020 in the UK, but they're stuck on the menu.

So, these are Vegan Society-approved,

and they're sort of like a fried-bean-patty sort of thing.

Joe: [sighs] Like, pick a more

unappetizing thing to get at McDonald's.

Veggie Dippers.

Harry: And then finally we've got some Mozzarella Dippers,

which are just kind of mozzarella sticks, really.

Joe: Well, sucks to be in the UK,

'cause everything you see right here is USA only, baby.

Haha, USA only!

So, I'm gonna talk about the coffee drinks real fast.

Here in the US, we have all the same coffee drinks

they do in the UK, but every coffee drink

has an iced version and also a caramel

and/or French vanilla and/or mocha version,

depending on what you're getting.

So, we in the US, of course, have more variety.

Shamrock Shake.

The Shamrock Shake is, like,

it's like vanilla and mint shake.

Strawberry Sundae.

This has recently been discontinued in the UK.

Sorry, guys.

Still got it in the US.

My favorite as a kid, the Caramel Sundae.

Fruit and Yogurt Parfait, maybe it's healthy,

I have no idea, probably not.

Those were the cold items I wanted to get out of the way

as they slowly melt under these lights.

Got a lot more to go through.

Harry, bear with me here, buddy.

Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich.

Yo, I think this was introduced

when the chicken-sandwich wars were really heating up

when Chick-fil-A started taking over.

Let's see what's under the hood.

Look at that. Look at this.

Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe.

This is your fancy Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

This is for Sunday dinner. When you have company over.

Ah, there's so much.

Sausage Breakfast Burrito.

Even after it's, for a while, it's, like,

still, like, glowing yellow. [laughs]

Now, these are the Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Tenders.

These smell amazing. I wanna just bite into these so bad.

I wanna just take a big bite.

Wanna talk about sauces real quick.

OK, I'm at McDonald's, and I go get me one of everything.

I've heard from Harry and the team over in the UK

that some of these they don't have,

including sweet 'n sour, honey mustard,

what else don't you guys have?

I don't think you guys have ranch either, or buffalo.

I gotta say, though, the sauces are everything.

Harry: We've got a couple of sauces that

are kind of unique to the UK as well.

We've got a sweet curry dipping sauce,

and then we've also got a salsa dip as well,

which I didn't know existed until today.

Joe: Oh, yes, Donut Sticks.

These Donut Sticks also come with a chocolate dipping sauce.

Another thing I'm certain they don't have in the UK.

Yo ho ho ho ho ho ho!

Breakfast is served!

Look at this. Oh, yeah.

Who's ready to start the day?

[claps] It's McGriddle talk.

[audience applause] [jazzy music]

So, for those of you in the UK

who don't know what a McGriddle is,

the United States McDonald's had this genius idea:

What if we took breakfast sandwiches,

replaced the buns,

and made them pancakes and somehow injected

some sort of syrup flavor into the pancakes?

And the McGriddle was born.

And, I have to say, they're fantastic.

This one right here, the bacon, egg, and cheese McGriddle.

This is the sausage.

Yeah? Hi!

Hey, hey.

This is the sausage, egg, and cheese McGriddle.

American food engineering at its finest.

Look at that.

In the UK, you guys call biscuits cookies. Here...no.

So, in the UK, biscuits are cookies,

what we call cookies.

In the US, biscuits are what we call...

uh...

I don't know what else you can call them.

Like, you bake them, and they're from the South,

and they're dry, and I don't know what they are.

Much like the McGriddles,

we have a version of every breakfast sandwich

that instead of the regular bun bread, it's biscuits.

Not the cookie biscuits like you guys have.

These biscuits.

Harry: Joe, you were so close on the whole

cookie-biscuit thing.

What you guys call biscuits,

we would actually kind of call scones,

or scones, depending on where you're from,

and the thought of putting breakfast food

in between them is kinda weird.

They're usually reserved for

cream and jam for an afternoon tea.

Joe: Last, and,

in my opinion, least,

is this thing.

The Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad.

Producer: Yeah.

Joe: Oh ho ho ho ho.

Harry: Can I eat now?

Yeah? Yeah? K, cool.

I don't care how many calories, it's just really good.

Mm-hmm.