TikTok Wasn't Lying: McDonald's Dinner Boxes Are Real

A TikTok video posted by user @xolovelei went viral last week, after she documented herself and her family going through a McDonald's drive-thru and ordering something called a Dinner Box. In moments, she receives a special box and takes it home to reveal its contents: two Big Macs, two cheeseburgers, a 10-piece order of Chicken McNuggets, and four servings of small fries, all for the surprisingly low price of $12. But I had never heard of the Dinner Box before this video. Was this merely TikTok clout-chasing, or is there really such a thing as a McDonald's Dinner Box?

Other viewers of the video were similarly skeptical. One commenter on the TikTok video said, "All I heard was 'can I have the dinner box' and I called McDonald's the manager didn't know what I was talking about."

Another said, "I type in dinner box in my Macdonalds app and it says '0 results.'"

I did some research on this elusive Dinner Box and dug through the McDonald's app on my phone. There's a section in the menu called "Shareables" featuring bundle packs of food.

My nearest McDonald's location offers two bundles. One is a Chicken Pack, which costs $20.29 and contains four McChicken sandwiches, a 20-piece Chicken McNugget, and four medium french fries. There's also the Classic Big Mac Pack for $19.69, which includes two Big Macs, a 20-piece Chicken McNugget, and two medium french fries. But I couldn't find anything labeled a Dinner Box. 

The bio of TikTok user @xolovelei indicates a home base of Texas, so using the app, I studied the menus at McDonald's locations in the Houston area. After a few tries, I found a Dinner Box—but it was priced at $17.29, not $12 as the video claimed.

After digitally hopping around a few more Houston locations, I found a Dinner Box featuring the very same specs featured in the TikTok video—for $12.10. So the Dinner Box is real, and even for the promised price.

I contacted McDonald's to see why the Dinner Box was such an elusive creature, and why it's not available at all locations. A representative for the company told me that these bundled deals can vary by location, which would explain why my local McDonald's has a Chicken Pack and a Big Mac bundle, but not a Dinner Box.

The prices are determined by franchisees, so if an owner wants to sell a Dinner Box for $12, that's totally up to them—though that appears to be about as cheap as it gets. That's an absolute screaming deal. If I were to order the items in the Dinner Box a la carte at my nearest location, two Big Macs, two cheeseburgers, a 10-piece McNugget, and four small fries would run me $29.51 before tax.

TikTok users in other states where Dinner Boxes are available chimed in to cite how much their boxes cost, and the answers varied wildly. One comment read, "This dinner box is $22 here in Ohio idk where it's $12?"

"The bundle box in NJ is $25," another said.

So, yes, some impressive fast food deals still do exist in the wild, even if they're few and far between. You might just need to do some serious digging to find them, and hope that whoever sets the prices at your local McDonald's was feeling awfully generous when they did so.