McDonald’s partnered with the hit anime series Jujutsu Kaisen for a new limited-time dipping sauce, the Special Grade Garlic Sauce, which also comes with new lids. The sauce, inspired by the Black Garlic Sauce from McDonald’s Japan, is officially available exclusively on the McDonald's App starting today, July 9.
On July 8, I made my way to the McDonald’s on 8th Avenue in New York for a DIY tasting station. McDonald’s Special Grade Tasting Experience was led by Alvin Zhou, food filmmaker and anime food show host, who curated an original tasting menu with the fast food chain to showcase the versatility of the Special Grade Garlic Sauce.
What does Special Grade Garlic Sauce taste like?
The Special Grade Garlic Sauce has strong notes of garlic and soy sauce. It’s a sweet sauce that has a bit of sweetness that’s the perfect companion to McDonald’s fries.
Customers can grab the Special Grade Garlic Sauce for free (!!!) with any order of Chicken McNuggets or when paired with your go-to order. Each purchase of the new dipping sauce also unlocks a 30-day free trial of Crunchyroll, where you can watch full episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen and more of your favorite anime content.
The collab between Jujutsu Kaisen and McDonald’s doesn’t stop there, the Special Grade Garlic Sauce packaging will also feature eight unique lid designs starring fan-favorite characters from the hit anime series.
How to maximize the Special Grade Garlic Sauce experience.
On the second floor of the 8th Ave. McDonald’s, I put my culinary skills to the test to create four dishes using signature McDonald’s menu items and the Special Grade Garlic Sauce.
This was basically a cooking class, but I have to preface that the McDonald’s menu items were already made all I had to do was assemble.
We worked first with the McCrispy — no toppings — just bread and the chicken fillet. On the bottom bun, we poured the limited edition sauce and placed the chicken fillet on top. The chicken fillet is then topped with mayo and shredded lettuce. We started off strong with this one, it was my favorite of the whole tasting menu. The garlic sauce went so well with this sandwich, amplifying the McCrispy to the next level.
Alvin Zhou calls it an everything sauce, and he’s so right. Next, he had us mixing the Special Grade Garlic Sauce with mayo to make loaded fries. The crispy McDonald’s fries were topped with the mayo and Special Grade Garlic Sauce mixture, diced onions, and pickles.
Next up was the McDouble. Like with the McCrispy, it was two pattes and the bun. The limited edition sauce was spread on the bottom. This is where it gets messy, this burger was topped with pickles, onions, mayo, and fries. The fries added a perfect crunch and the saltiness blended with the garlic and soy sauce flavors of the limited edition sauce. If you didn’t notice, cheese was not part of this sandwich. That was intentional because, with all the textures, cheese would be too overpowering. The sauce is supposed to be the main event here.
Lastly were McNuggets, and no we’re not dipping our nuggs into the Special Grade Garlic Sauce. Instead, we’re doing saucy nuggs. In the container of McNuggets, we poured a whole packet of the garlic sauce and shook the container like a Kardashian shaking their salad. After the nuggs were evenly coated, we drizzled some honey on top and shook the container again. As a chicken nugget lover, this was one of my favorites of the tasting. The nuggs were so crispy and the sauce coated them beautifully — I could eat so many of these and am not ashamed to admit it.
This tasting felt like those TikTok videos of how to hack a fast food chain’s menu and TBH, you can do this too! In the app, order all the ingredients you need and you’ll have these right at your fingertips. But I’m just a simple girl, who loved dipping my McDonald’s fries into the Special Grade Garlic Sauce.