Avocado Burger at McDonalds: A Hit or The Pits?

The most-recent limited-time menu to show up at McDonald's Japan is a trio of avocado sandwiches. Available in beef, chicken, or shrimp, the picture at the restaurant shows a thick layer of avocado in addition to a slice of cheese, a couple thick pieces of bacon, onions, and wasabi sauce, between two slices of ciabatta bread. The chicken and shrimp versions use a spicy cobb salad sauce instead of wasabi, bacon,  and onions; the chicken sandwich has cheese but the shrimp doesn't.

I am feeling a bit lazy after work lately due to (hopefully temporary) increased classes and responsibility, so I headed over to my local Mickey D's for a quick dinner. Noticing the avocado burger was available, I ordered a hamburger set (combo).

I feel compelled to mention that 99% of the time, the french fries and burgers are freshly prepared; only a couple times has my food tasted somewhat stale - seemingly the opposite of my experience with fast food restaurants in America! And this time, the food was very fresh too, my fries perfectly cooked and the burger was probably cooked within a few minutes of my ordering time!

Opening the wrapper, the sandwich seems a little smaller than I expected. Granted, it's a normal hamburger patty, not a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder patty. But it felt lacking.

Compare this side view to the promotional image. I can see the meat, cheese, and bacon, and there is a hint of onions, but where are the giant chunks of avocado?

I had to open up the sandwich to check. It's hard to tell, but there is some avocado inside, somewhere under the wasabi mayonnaise sauce and onions.

Okay, it seems to be lacking in avocados. But how does it taste? The first thing I noticed was the onions, because McDonald's onions have such a strong flavor. The next part of the sandwich that activated my taste buds was the wasabi - if you've ever had wasabi you know the burning sensation you'll get in your nose. Somewhere in there I noticed the bacon, and I could detect the cheese pretty early on too. But it wasn't until I was about halfway into the sandwich that I could tell that I was eating avocados.

The mix of flavors is very enjoyable, but I really think this sandwich needs a lot of avocados, from corner to corner. It's the first avocado burger I've ever tried, and it's given me reason to try one again sometime. But will I buy another McDonald's avocado burger? Probably not - there just isn't enough of the key ingredient.