Review: Wendy's - Big Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger

Wendy's Big Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger features a grilled beef patty topped with applewood-smoked bacon, a new slightly-sweet bacon sauce, crispy-fried onions, American cheese, and a new, creamy, tangy cheddar cheese spread, served on a toasted cheddar bun.

It costs $6.19 at my local Wendy's but I received this courtesy of Wendy's.

Wendy's looks to amp up the simple bacon cheeseburger here with complexity rather than abundance like they do with the Baconator. You basically get two different elements of bacon and three different elements of cheese.

The bacon sauce turned out to be an onion jam with bacon. It's slightly sweet and smoky with a mellow caramelized onion and bacon flavor. The bacon sauce added an extra layer of flavor to Wendy's excellent crispy bacon.

The toasted cheddar bun came with a fairly even shell of baked-on cheddar cheese. It looked like it should have been a little crispy on top but was soft all the way through with a somewhat airy, spongy soft crumb. I was a little tempted to throw it in the toaster oven for some toasted cheese texture. I couldn't really pick out the slightly funky cheddar flavor of the bun unless I ate the burger upside down.

Directly under the bun was a layer of pimento cheese that they're calling "Creamy Cheddar Dip." Wendy's version is basically a mixture of very mild shredded cheddar, mayo, cream cheese, pimento peppers (which aren't spicy). It mostly added a slightly cheesy creaminess with just a touch of tang.

The crispy-fried onion came in with a nice crispiness and slightly sweet onion flavor. It joined the bacon for a pretty substantial crispy layer in the middle.

The American cheese was thoroughly melted on the beef patty, which add some nice charring and a coarse grind to it

Taken altogether, Wendy's Big Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger offered up a well-balanced, varied, and almost pure expression of beef, bacon, onion, and cheese that was very enjoyable from start to finish. That being said, it's not very bold in the cheese department and if you like your burgers with a hit of acidity, you're not really going to find that here.

Nutritional Info - Wendy's Big Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger
Calories - 810 (from Fat - 490)
Fat - 54g (Saturated Fat - 21g)
Sodium - 1370mg
Carbs - 44g (Sugar - 5g)
Protein - 39g