I agree completely. A later poster (#34) praises the Sausage McMuffin with Egg, and I agree that it is very good, but my own favorite is the classic Egg McMuffin, which is the same but with Canadian Bacon instead of sausage.

Readers might enjoy the following: I live in New Jersey, which has a large Indian-American population, and many of them are vegetarian. I am Indian-American myself, but most assuredly a carnivore. When I order the Egg McMuffin, the worker sometimes says "And of course you don't want the bacon, right?" More tactful workers say "And you want it with the bacon, right?"

One of the best travel tip around Europe is to find a McDonald's for a clean public bathroom. In Germany, you have to pay (roughly 50-75 cents) to use the public bathroom.

Cleanish anyway. But yes, when I'm in big cities in Europe, we probably average one visit a day to a McDonald's to use the facilities.

Switzerland McDonalds was $60 Francs for my family of Four to eat. Unbelievably expensive and the service wasn't something to write home about either. Seems the Swiss are used to the high prices. The prices elsewhere in Europe seemed normal, even at Disneyland Paris.

Canada McDonalds is somewhat like the US counterparts nowadays. At least their new box type remodels are looking good.

We buy large drinks for takeout when returning is inconvenient.

It's more complex than that.

http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index

McDonalds uses the same flavoring in all of its restaurants worldwide. You're not getting "real" meat anywhere, you're eating barely edible meat that has usually been "cleaned" in an ammonia bath. The trick to the consistency is in the flavoring, which is mainly produced in new jersey and used in every restaurant worldwide. Same goes for the fries. Whether the fries are hot or crispy, thats just up to the management, and it varies from restaurant to restaurant, and also on the time of the day (busy or not busy).

I've eaten in McDonalds all over Europe and Asia and the US, and its all the same stuff, basically. Asian countries in general have much better service than anywhere else in the world, so you should never be surprised about them working hard to ensure that they follow the mcdonalds rule-book.

Another opinion:

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/...-around-world/

If you're referring to the "pink slime" discussions, that has largely been discontinued, as has the use of ammonia washing. On top of that, it is hardly the same stuff, and I think that's really why McDonald's has been so overwhelmingly popular abroad. Being able to eat a McArabia in Dubai or having fried chicken wings in China I imagine is the result of rigorous market research on what's popular in those environments. They use their quality as the main selling point to get people in the door, and that's definitely contributed to their image.

Thanks for the great read on Big Mac Economics. Surprising to see McDonalds might be more expensive than Switzerland, in Venezuela and Norway.

http://www.psfk.com/2013/08/mcdonald...e-burgers.html

Looks great. Price is OK. Anyone here try them? What does artificial truffle oil taste like?

i love the japan mcdonalds a lot compared to the US mcdonalds

I'm quite willing to pay for 2 sodas for the use of the facilities and the chance to sit down for 10 minutes. Sightseeing can be hard on the feet.

In Rome, the kiwi on a stick was quite good. But in general we don't eat most of what's on the menu because we can't eat gluten.

I've never been to Israel, but I refer to McDonald's chicken nuggets as Chicken McBrains. Everything else gets used elsewhere and the chicken brains are bleached and breaded for McD's

KFC is awful, too, though not sure why, maybe because the Colonel died?

It's not up to management, it's totally random. I gave up on McDonald's fries a couple of years ago. Sometimes the workers oversalt them, sometimes they let them sit over the vat too long (no heat lamps ==> soggy and cool fries), and sometimes they bag the fries in advance of you ordering them. Same thing -- the heat lamps can't reach the fries below the top of the box, which results in the first few bites being OK and the rest not fit for dogs.

If you've been to Norway, it shouldn't be so surprising!