After months of anticipation, the BTS Meal has finally dropped at McDonald’s today, June 1 across the UAE, before it heads across the GCC tomorrow. Outside of the hype, outside of the fandom, the question is—is it worth it?

We at Esquire Middle East went to investigate. We may have very well been the first to eat it in the UAE, lining up outside the restaurant just as the menu switched from breakfast to lunch, anxious to get a try at the K-Pop sensation’s signature meal.

The staff did not seem to be in the BTS Army themselves—after all, we had to repeat ‘BTS Meal’ a few times as they kept thinking we were ordering a Big and Tasty—but once it arrived, it was exactly as promised—adorned in BTS purple, two special-edition signature sauces, nuggets and drink.

What exactly is in a BTS Meal? Let’s break it down: it’s a 10-Piece Chicken McNuggets, medium Fries, medium Coke, and sweet Chili and Cajun dipping sauces inspired by recipes from McDonald’s South Korea.

Interestingly, the meal is impossible to upgrade to ‘large’—it must be, and can only be, medium. This is the way BTS has declared it, and this is the way it must be.

Honestly, I salute their hard limit on my own gluttony, as I’m one to always end up ordering the large, unable to resist the allure of extra fries as much as I try.

Besides the branding over each item, all of which are currently littered across eBay with even stained bags adorned in the purple BTS insignia being offered for hundreds of dollars without any takers—the true piece-de-resistance, the killer item that is worth coming down to the golden arches and trying this meal, even if “Dynamite” and “Butter” have never been stuck in your head—are the sauces.

I will confess: I am a hype beast at heart. If you launch something for a limited time, I have to try it, the fear of missing out coursing through my veins regardless of how much I may actually want this item all things considered.

This time, my FOMO steered me well. It’s good.

In particular, the Cajun sauce is the best McDonald’s dipping sauce since the brand discontinued Buffalo sauce last decade. For those who have been to the US, it reminded me of Zaxby’s sauce, one of the great dipping sauces of the American south, that perfectly complements fried chicken in all its many iterations. A bit sweet and citrusy, a hint of chili and paprika, a light flutter of ginger–it’s the stuff of fast food greatness.

Honestly, the BTS Cajun sauce is the first time that I understood the episode of Rick and Morty when Rick opined about the Szechuan sauce that debuted for Mulan in the late 90s, the same sauce that caused a stir, and a lot of bad PR for all involved, when McDonald’s reintroduced it in the United States and caused Rick and Morty fans to embarrass themselves trying to get a packet.

I could see myself inventing a time machine in order to try this sauce again in 10 years. It’s that good.

The BTS Meal is having a global roll out in 50 markets, with the UAE arriving strictly in the middle, and countries like Indonesia getting them later in June. The meal launched in the United States last week, and having found many reviews of the US version, I found a curious fact—the Cajun sauce looks decidedly different, looking more yellow, more like a honey mustard than a Cajun sauce.

The UAE Cajun sauce has more of an orange tint, perhaps with a hint of paprika or chili sauce, though it is not spicy. The US does not seem to be going wild for it as I am, so perhaps our version of it is unique, though I will have to investigate further in order to find out why our sauce looks different, and is so very good.

The Sweet Chili sauce, however, is much like the Sweet Chili sauce that is already available in the UAE, and I could taste no actual difference between the one that is my usual go-to and the one with BTS branding on it.

And yes, while these are ordinary McNuggets, can we talk about the McNugget for a sec?

I have reviewed some of the best restaurants in the world over the years, and no matter what the gastronomic innovators come up with, there are still few things better than the market-tested globally-uniform mass-market perfection as the McNugget, a tempura battered chunk of heaven. We don’t appreciate it enough.

Say what you will about BTS, they are men of taste, as there is no better item on that red-and-gold menu.

While BTS continues to dominate global pop culture and “Butter” seems poised to become the song of the summer, for fans and non-fans alike I can say, the BTS Meal at McDonald’s was worth my Dhs24, and I would head down and try this Cajun sauce before it’s too late, as supplies are limited.

Via Esquire Middle East