Woman orders her favorite Filet-O-Fish at McDonald’s. Then she opens the box and gets stunned: ‘double price and half the size’

A woman who says she has eaten McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish since she was 10 years old was shocked after opening a recent order, saying the sandwich had shrunk while the price had gone up. Angie Batis shared the moment on TikTok, where the video gathered 370,900 views and more than 18,300 likes.

In the video, Batis said she “literally just opened up the box that had no weight to it” and showed the sandwich to the camera. She then asked an off-screen man named Sean what he thought of the size, and he replied, “A slider.”

Batis agreed with the comparison. “It literally is a hair bigger than what a slider is,” she said. “That’s crazy. They’re like double price and half the size.” She added that she still liked the sandwich and finished the video drinking what she called a “dirty Dr Pepper.”

McDonald’s says the sandwich’s size has not changed

Questions about the Filet-O-Fish size are not new. Mike Haracz, a former McDonald’s corporate chef, addressed similar claims in a TikTok video. He said he had been tagged in several videos showing a Filet-O-Fish that looked “like a little slider, much smaller than I remember it.”

To check for himself, Haracz said he went to a McDonald’s and bought just the sandwich, which cost $4.89 before tax and $5.42 with tax. He compared the price to a 6-inch sub from Subway, saying, “it seems like a bit expensive.” This isn’t the only recent McDonald’s portion complaint, as one woman filmed a large fry order and held up the bag questioning its size. 

After opening the box, Haracz said the sandwich was “definitely bigger than that video, but it is still certainly tiny.” He inspected the bun, tartar sauce, and cheese, calling it “a nicely assembled” sandwich. He said the fish patty “looks a little thinner than normal” but concluded, “I don’t think it’s any smaller than it has been for a while.” He also said it is “very expensive.”

McDonald’s has addressed the size claims directly. A company representative told Business Insider in 2023: “The size and build of the Filet-O-Fish, including a half slice of American cheese, has not changed in decades.” The company said the half slice of cheese is intentional, so it does not overpower the fish patty.

McDonald’s sells roughly 75 million Filet-O-Fish sandwiches each year during Lent, according to Mashed. Despite McDonald’s statement, some customers on social media continue to say the sandwich looks smaller than before. Mashed noted that any claims of the sandwich shrinking are anecdotal, and suggested that rising prices across McDonald’s menu may be shaping how customers perceive the value of items like the Filet-O-Fish.

Several viewers responded to Batis’s video with their own experiences and opinions about the sandwich. One commenter wrote, “It’s literally half the size now.” Another said, “The fact people still eat McDonalds boggles my mind.”

A different viewer wrote, “It won’t change unless people quit buying it.” One commenter pointed out another change to the sandwich, asking, “Did you notice that it only has 1/2 a slice of cheese now also?” Customer complaints about fast food portions and contents are not limited to McDonald’s, as a woman at Zaxby’s opened her takeout box and allegedly found something inside her chicken that made her lose her appetite. 

People are also discussing the issue on Reddit. One user wrote, “They are comically small. Slider at most. Don’t think they can call it a sandwich.” Another Reddit user commented, “Every product takes a dip in the pool, now. Everything shrinks.” A different Reddit commenter said, “I had the same experience recently. Hadn’t ordered it in forever and was shocked how small it is now.”