Botched McDonald's Orders That Don't Look Anything Like They Should

By now, we all know what we're in for when we order fast food: The hamburger we get in real life will look absolutely nothing like the hamburger the commercials promise. The patty won't be as juicy, the cheese won't be as melty, the lettuce and tomato slices won't be glistening with dew drops, and that's fine — we've learned to live with it. As long as we get what we ordered, and it tastes good, we're fine. 

But what if your order is so bungled it's unrecognizable? Or if your cheeseburger is missing its main component? Or if what's supposed to be in your Chicken McNugget box isn't there, but something else is? These hungry McDonald's customers experienced all that and more, and took to social media to call out Mickey D's for their total lack of attention to detail. While we don't expect to be chowing down on anything that looks like these images shown on the left, we sure hope our food doesn't look like the botched orders on the right. Take a look, and prepare to be stunned...

This Instagrammer got duped by the mouthwatering Big Mac photos that McDonald's dangles in front of our faces, only to be totally and completely let down. Not only does it not look like the picture promised, but the worker who made it seems to have forgotten how to make the chain's most iconic burger. And surprisingly (or maybe not?), a scroll through the #bigmacfail hashtag reveals that this kind of botched preparation happens on the regular.

"McDonalds Big Mac Fail. When you have an urge after seeing a scrumptious looking photo then get bummed out because the reality is a failed prepared mess of a sloppy Big Mac by a careless employee who slapped it together, failing to put a burger on top of a roll and just dumped cheese sauce and threw lettuce on top. A #bigmess that cured my urge forever..." the caption reads.

That's one McDonald's customer who isn't "lovin' it."

Is there anything worse than having a craving, then attempting to satisfy that craving, and then getting 100 percent denied? Imagine placing an order for McNuggets at the drive-thru, your mouth watering at the thought of that crispy fried chicken dipped in barbecue sauce, only to get home and open the box to find... cheese? That's exactly what happened to this disappointed Instagrammer who lamented, "I thought I wanted a 4 piece nugget. I was wrong. You were right @mcdonalds, I wanted a single piece of cheese instead. Who orders a single piece of cheese?"

Did someone else actually order a single solitary slice of American cheese, and this is the result of an order mix-up? Or was this just a cruel joke to play on a hangry customer? We may never know, but we sure will check our Chicken McNugget box before pulling away from the drive-thru window next time.

The Sausage McMuffin is one of McDonald's tastiest breakfast options. Never mind that the McMuffin you receive will not look like the advertisements promise — the English muffin is usually completely blackened around the edge, the cheese is never so melty, and the sandwich looks like it might have been run over by a steamroller. Still, we order them with fervor, probably with a side of greasy hash browns.

But how much would you be willing to overlook to get your Sausage McMuffin fix? How about what this Instagrammer got when he unwrapped his sandwich? "McDonald's at it's finest. The ink on the date stamp for the package transferred to the bun. Great food storage and quality control McDonald's!!!!" 

Just the tiniest bit of attention to detail would have prevented this unfortunate mistake from making it out of the kitchen, but if we're being honest here, we'd probably still eat it and love every date-stamped bite.

The Filet-O-Fish has gotten some pretty bad press thanks to the Reddit threads devoted to hating on McDonald's only pescatarian option. Ex-employees have identified it as the one item they would never order, and warn of less-than-fresh filets that get microwaved, tartar sauce that's been out for days, and other questionable sandwich-making practices. Still, it remains a fan favorite at the Golden Arches with its hard-to-resist combination of a crispy patty, American cheese, and creamy sauce. But if that cheese is a particularly important part of the Filet-O-Fish's success in your eyes, you might want to rethink your order. 

Scrolling through the #mcdonaldsfail and #failofish hashtags reveal a very serious problem with cheese misplacement, as shown in this Instagrammer's disappointing post. Though it seems like the Filet-O-Fish would be one of the simpler sandwiches to make, time and time again we can see that it is extremely difficult to get that cheese in the right spot. Apparently.

Here's a serious question for McDonald's workers: How hard is it to put a hamburger patty and a slice of cheese on a bun? That's all this customer asked for — a simple plain cheeseburger. There were no special substitutions, and no elaborate add-ons. You didn't even have to go to the trouble of reaching for the bottles of ketchup and mustard, or adding the pickle slices and a spoonful of onions. Nope, just the two basic ingredients slapped between those buns. 

But what did the customer get? Basically a sad, dry cheese sandwich. "Asked for a plain cheeseburger at McDonalds @ Orlando Airport and they went too far on plain. Brings whole new meaning to #wheresthebeef," the dissatisfied Instagrammer wrote. 

Maybe next time if they order a side of Chicken McNuggets, the patty will magically appear in that box instead. Stranger things have happened, as we've already seen. 

Speaking of strange things in Chicken McNugget boxes... 

If you thought a single slice of American cheese laid into a box that should have contained nuggets was odd, get a load of this botched order. This poor Instagrammer was already having a bad day, but it was about to get even worse.

"Locked both sets of keys in the car... Go to McDonalds for dinner because... Spilled the drinks in the car... Find pickles in the nugget box... #picklesfordinner," the post read. 

Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. Locking the keys in the car and then spilling sticky soda all over once you actually get back in would make most people want to curl up in the fetal position and cry. But then? Pickle slices in place of Chicken McNuggets? Nope. We're guessing this unlucky customer's dinner that night was actually wine, not pickles.

Look at that perfect specimen of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese on the left. That's the drool-worthy burger McDonald's wants us all to believe we'll be getting when we finally give in to our cravings. But instead? You might end up with a Quarter Pounder with Cheese... on top.

We've already established that McDonald's workers seem to have a bit of a problem getting the cheese in the right spot when it comes to the Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, so it probably shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that the same could happen with any menu item in which cheese is an ingredient. But again we have to ask, is it really that difficult? Even if you realized that you shorted the burger one slice of cheese after you'd assembled it, nobody could honestly believe that placing said cheese on top of the bun was the best option. But then again, maybe they could...

The McChicken is another sandwich that seems like it would rank pretty close to the top of the "easy to make" list — it really is about as basic as it gets. According to McDonald's, it consists of four simple ingredients: "A crispy chicken fillet topped with mayonnaise, shredded iceberg lettuce, and served on a perfectly toasty bun." 

Turns out it's that last part about the bun where the workers seem to experience some trouble. This Instagrammer posted their #mcchickenfail, saying, "Mystery of the missing bun... 2am munchies at McD's after our Friday night Christmas party and this is how I got my McChicken." 

Perhaps the employees were just taking that description literally... it does say "served ON a perfectly toasted bun," after all. Memo to McDonald's corporate: Think about amending the McChicken description to something more straightforward, like, "A crispy chicken fillet topped with mayonnaise, shredded iceberg lettuce, and served WITHIN a perfectly toasty bun." Problem solved.

This time the McDonald's cooks decided to shake things up a bit, and rather than go for the standard botched Big Mac order in which the two pieces of untouched bun sit atop a pile of ingredients, they decided to assemble this Instagrammer's burger on top of the buns instead. "Dear McDonald's Big Mac assembler: you had one job. In case you didn't know, the hamburger patty goes UNDER the top bun! Not the way you assembled it," the caption read.

Not only is the burger assembled all wrong, it also looks like it got sent though the spin cycle before being plopped into its cardboard box. There's no way that someone put this Big Mac together and patted themselves on the back for a job well done, right? It's got to be a classic case of fast food workers trolling their customers. Or at least we hope so, for their sake.

You might look at this order and think, "That's not botched, that's just a plain bacon McGriddle, and it looks downright delicious." And you would be right — it does look like a plain bacon McGriddle, and sure, it even looks delicious — if you're into that kind of thing — but that's not what the customer ordered. "This was supposed to be an egg cheese and bacon McGriddle. So disappointed!" the Instagrammer explained. Whomp whomp.

As with the case of the plain cheeseburger without a patty, and the McChicken sandwich without a top bun, the missing ingredient problem seems to run rampant at Mickey D's. Again, these are not special requests for ingredients that don't belong — nobody is asking for a McGriddle with pickles and sweet 'n sour sauce. They are ordering a sandwich with its standard ingredients and getting one of the three components. Not a great ratio, McDonald's.

If you've ever ordered a Sausage Burrito from McDonald's, you know that they are in no way massive. As long as you don't go in expecting a Taco Bell XXL Grilled Stuft Burrito, you should be fine. But should you expect your Mickey D's breakfast burrito to be larger than your hot sauce packet? Well, in a perfect world, yes, you should expect your burrito to be larger than a half ounce sauce packet. That seems like a fairly low expectation, really. 

But if there's one thing we've learned today, it's that this world is far from perfect, especially when it comes to fast food orders. Because it turns out that you might unwrap your Sausage Burrito and you might find that it is, in fact, the size of the hot sauce packet, and your only recourse is to snap a pic for Instagram and hope that all the other recipients of botched McDonald's orders come to comfort you.