This Easy McDonald's Ordering Trick Transforms Any Sandwich On The Menu

We could sit here and tell you every McDonald's hack until we're blue in the face, but the truth is, clever fans are always coming up with some new way to upgrade everyday items. Some customers with a sweet tooth swear by scooping McDonald's vanilla ice cream between two hash browns, while others use two of the M&M cookies from McDonald's for the same ice cream sandwich concept. There are tips for saving money, tricks for earning rewards, and even methods for ordering secret menu items, but we would say that the easiest way to transform any sandwich on McDonald's menu is simply to order the "Deluxe" version.

Not every item on the McDonald's menu can be ordered as Deluxe, but those that do generally come with an upgrade of lettuce, tomatoes, and mayonnaise. For example, the classic Quarter Pounder with Cheese is different from the Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe. In the latter, you'll find "crisp shredded lettuce," "three Roma tomato slices," and "creamy mayo" between those golden buns on top of all the other time-tested toppings (via McDonald's). Both the Deluxe McCrispy and the Spicy Deluxe McCrispy also come with the ingredients upgrade, and all three are available as meals. The price difference between traditional and Deluxe versions of these McDonald's staples averages about $1.20 for Quarter Pounders and $1.30 for both McCrispys.

Before the Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe and McCrispy Deluxe offerings we know today, McDonald's launched the "Arch Deluxe" menu in 1996, which included burgers, chicken, and fish sandwiches in a new "deluxe" format. The Arch Deluxe items were geared towards shaking up the McDonald's menu, including upgrades such as peppered bacon, mustard, mayonnaise, and the now-known lettuce and tomato combination. Even though McDonald's spent billions of dollars advertising the Arch Deluxe line, it ultimately flopped and was officially pulled from menus at the turn of the century, becoming just another one of the discontinued McDonald's menu items we don't miss at all.

In 2013, over a decade after the failure of the Arch Deluxe burgers, McDonald's introduced the Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe, which has remained on the menu ever since, despite our ranking it as quite mediocre on our list of every McDonald's burger. The Deluxe Crispy Chicken Sandwich rolled out in 2021, before the name changed to the McCrispy Deluxe in 2023, though the beloved Filet-o-Fish has yet to reclaim its Deluxe counterpart. McDonald's has stated repeatedly that its core menu items tend to be the most popular, so even though the brand tried to revive the "Archburger" in 2018, it didn't last very long.