Review: McDonald's New Buffalo Ranch Menu And Chips Ahoy! Frappé Should Have Been Kept On The Down-Low

Even though we like to pretend we enjoy more elevated options for quick eats, we still perk up when McDonald's does something new — it's the pioneer of American fast food, after all. When McDonald's talks, we listen, which is why the recent quiet rollout of a whopping four new items created the biggest fast food buzz since the chain brought back the Snack Wrap.

Starting on October 28, 2025, McDonald's is releasing a brand-new, limited-time-only hot sauce, plus three new menu items designed to pair with said sauce. The sauce combines the nation's favorites — Buffalo and ranch — into one allegedly creamy, spicy, and unapologetically dunkable dip for all your chicken needs. On top of the new savory items — which include a Bacon Buffalo Ranch McCrispy (a regular and deluxe version) and a Buffalo Ranch Snack Wrap — Micky D's is also stepping up its sweet game with a collab that's hard to shy away from: a Chips Ahoy!-themed frappé, also available for a limited time.

I got my hands on all four items to see what all the sweet, spicy, and zesty buzz is about. I'll dive deep into the pros and cons of each so you can decide whether or not it's worth a stop at the tried-and-true fast food giant or if you're better off with something from the break room vending machine. So, grab plenty of napkins and get your dunking hand ready — let's see if the old Golden Arches still has a few saucy tricks up its sleeve.

The McCrispy (formerly known as the Crispy Chicken Sandwich) is a mainstay at McDonald's. It's easy to customize with your favorite sauce, which is exactly what the higher-ups at McDonald's had in mind when they unveiled the Bacon Buffalo Ranch McCrispy. It's got all the regular McCrispy fixings — a breaded chicken patty and pickles on a potato bun — plus bacon and a smattering of the new sauce. I picked one up for $6.19 at my local McDonald's in rural Pennsylvania, so city folk can probably expect to pay a bit more.

Before I took a bite, I removed the top bun to inspect the sauce. I was pretty disappointed in the quantity of the Buffalo Ranch — I'd say it came out to about a tablespoon. The chicken proved to be middle-of-the-road in terms of quality. The breading was nice and crispy, but the meat was full of chewy, overcooked spots.

The sauce provided most of the flavor in this sandwich since the pickles were sliced so thin that they were practically nonexistent, providing no crunch and almost no sharp, vinegary bite. The bacon didn't add much in terms of crunch, either, but it at least gave the sandwich a little contrast in flavor. I'd recommend adding a bit more sauce to make this meal less bland and boring. Generally, I think the chicken on this sandwich is better off as the McCrispy strips that came out earlier this year.

There aren't many differences between the regular Bacon Buffalo Ranch McCrispy and the deluxe version. You can expect to receive your deluxe sandwich in a swanky box instead of the flimsy paper wrapping, and your sandwich will be adorned with shredded lettuce and sliced tomato — in addition to the above ingredients — all for $1 more than the non-deluxe version. Nonetheless, I much preferred the Deluxe Bacon Buffalo Ranch McCrispy. It really benefited from the crunch and fresh flavor that the veggies provided — but at the expense of the meager amount of sauce getting lost in all the toppings.

This sandwich absolutely needs some extra sauce, especially since the new Buffalo Ranch is its major selling point. Just be warned: The bread is already pretty squishy, so try to sandwich the sauce in between the chicken and veggies so the bread doesn't turn into Buffalo Ranch-flavored soup.

The savory bacon paired with crisp veggies was a nice touch on this sandwich. In fact, I was pretty impressed with the quality of the bacon, since fast food bacon tends to have a notorious reputation for a reason. Still, the Buffalo Ranch sauce and some decent bacon wasn't enough to distract from the overcooked, chewy chicken and flimsy bread — there's a reason the McCrispy didn't make it far when we conducted our ultimate ranking of McDonald's menu items.

Fast food snack wraps are having a moment right now, and the long-awaited return of McDonald's iconic Snack Wrap may play a role in that. When they were initially brought back, they came in two flavors: Spicy and Ranch. As part of the release of the new Buffalo Ranch sauce, McDonald's introduced the Buffalo Ranch Snack Wrap. Having tried and reviewed the new Snack Wraps before, I can say with confidence that the Buffalo Ranch version is basically a hybrid of the two original flavors.

I enjoyed the Buffalo Ranch sauce on the Snack Wrap significantly more than on the two chicken sandwiches. The cheese tames some of the sauce's potent, overbearing zestiness while adding layers of creamy flavors and a soft, melty texture to the crispy chicken. However, this wrap wasn't without its downfalls, the most egregious being the size of the chicken tender within. It was about the length of my index finger, and only slightly wider. About half the wrap consisted of just lettuce, cheese, and tortilla. Like the McCrispys, there wasn't enough sauce to go around. I ate the few bites that contained chicken and tossed the rest, thinking that the measly, scrawny chicken finger in a soggy tortilla wasn't worth forking over $2.99 for, even if the flavor was more appealing than the other chicken items.

Despite being pretty disappointed by the new savory snacks, I retained high hopes for this new McDonald's dessert — a fun, nostalgia-inducing collab with Chips Ahoy! fit for adults with its coffee twist. The Chips Ahoy! Frappé certainly had an appealing aesthetic quality; tiny, crumbled bits of cookies atop whipped cream and blended coffee is hard to say no to. I grabbed a small one for $3.19.

I searched for any coffee flavor ... but found nothing. I later learned that there isn't any actual coffee in a McDonald's frappé, but rather coffee extract. Talk about disappointing. There might have been a whiff of robust coffee flavor, but the overly artificial cookie taste from flavor syrup was too loud for anything else to come through. It wasn't reminiscent of Chips Ahoy! specifically — just nondescript, generic cookie flavor.

The little bits of crumbled Chips Ahoy! that floated around in the drink like adorable chocolate chip shipwrecks kept getting stuck in my straw. Once I was able to finally force them through, they were mushy and tasteless. I think I'd have preferred just the cookie bits on top of the drink, where there's no danger of them shooting through the straw like a shotgun shell after repeated attempts at sucking them through.

Ultimately, I was disappointed with this new low-key release from McDonald's. The chicken items were lackluster at best, from the chewy chicken down to the soggy bread. But the focus here is on the new sauce. The Snack Wrap and McCrispys are basically just vessels for McDonald's fans to try out the new Buffalo Ranch sauce, which sounds promising on paper. Buffalo and ranch are a classic combo — the Lennon and McCartney of the sauce world, if you will. It could have worked if there was a better balance of both sauces, like enough spice and butteriness from the Buffalo and gentle zest and herbaceousness from the ranch. But McDonald's Buffalo Ranch tasted more like ranch with a hint of spice, so it earned itself a thumbs-down from this sauce lover.

The prominent ranch flavor likely would have been better if McDonald's ranch was any good to begin with. (It didn't fare well in our ranking of fast food ranch sauces.) It had the unmistakable flavor of preservatives, giving it an artificial quality that almost made me enjoy the fact that all the sandwiches skimped on the sauce. I appreciate McDonald's looking to expand its sauce repertoire, but combining two condiments already in its lineup isn't the way. The disappointing sauce and chicken items might have stung less if the Chips Ahoy! Frappé had been worth the trip to Micky D's. Instead, like the Buffalo Ranch, its overtly artificial flavor completely drained the joy that a nostalgia-themed dessert should bring.