It's not always the taste. With three kids, McDonalds PlayPlaces are awesome, especially in those cold months...

But the Big Mac tastes so good!

You got that right! I knows In & Out burgers are much better rather than McDonalds. That's why we always went to eat lunch at In & Out Burgers near our house. It was not too much further away from Cactus Rd & Tatum Blvd.

Frankly I eat McDonalds more often when I am in HK than I do when I am in Canada or New Zealand. :p

One extra slice of cheese killed the McDonalds Double Cheeseburger
 

They keep running ads for the McDouble and I'm like hey, it's missing a slice of cheese, thinking it was a Double Cheeseburger replacement. So I go to the website to see

Rest assured, the Dollar Menu is still at McDonald’s® and your favorite Double Cheeseburger is here to stay! The Double Cheeseburger is now on our regular menu at a slightly higher price than a dollar, but still at a good value. But don’t worry, we have a $1 burger alternative for you!

Next time you visit, look for our latest addition to the Dollar Menu – the new McDouble® Burger. It’s pretty much the same as the Double Cheeseburger, just with one less slice of cheese.

It's fairly amazing they will offer it in two styles, wondering how much they charge for that slice of cheese.

Near me (STL city) the McDouble is $1. The double cheeseburger is $1.29. That doesn't make any sense, but whatever. By comparison, a cheeseburger is $.99

As a personal preference, I prefer a hamburger. When I have a cheeseburger, I feel more than one slice of cheese is overkill, because I can't taste the meat and other ingredients.

To each his/her own.

I think the Double Cheeseburger killed the North American. :eek:

IIRC, when McDonalds first opened in my hometown, a hamburger was $.15 and a cheesburger was $0.19, so a slice of cheese was $0.04. That was a 34% addition. Now on a sandwich with an additional patty, it's a 29% addition. Might be fair, but I think Mickey D's makes a disproportionate amount of its profits on cheese.

That's always what Mr. Kipper says... I have this issue where I won't eat a hamburger--any sort of burger must have cheese for me. He always complains whenever I insist on paying extra for cheese. :)

So in doing the math.

The difference between a McDouble and a double cheeseburger is a slice of cheese, for which they charge you twenty nine cents.

The difference between a cheeseburger and a McDouble is a hamburger patty, for which they charge a penny.

And the difference between a cheeseburger and a double cheeseburger, one patty and one slice of cheese, is thirty cents.

It makes perfect sense.

Patty - 0.01
Slice Cheese - 0.29

Both together - 0.30

It works.

Read an article where McD was pondering on what to do with the Double Cheeseburger price as the profit margin on the burger was diminishing and yet it was a very popular item on their value menu. They went through different options one of which was to remove it from the value menu but they were in agreement that a similar item at that price was needed to bring in the store traffic. Thus the McDouble was born. Of course it doesn't help that some people only order the McDouble and nothing else, e.g. high margin sodas, like yours truly ;).

For me, that's the point of the cheese. :eek:

When did McDonald's start using meat:confused:

I'm with you on this. I never ever order a cheeseburger ANYWHERE that uses American cheese. I order Big Macs w/o cheese. On very rare occasions I will have Swiss or blue cheese if offered. It's not that I particularly dislike American cheese, just that it totally ruins a hamburger.

Mrs BV is the same way. I don't make an issue of it, especially if we're talking $0.29. Did you know the fillet o fish only has a half slice of cheese? Mrs BV always orders with extra cheese. I have no idea what that costs.

It works, until you wonder what kind of meat you can buy for a penny. Even in bulk... :)

As I recall there was some kind of beef shortage in the 1970s. I remember Johnny Carson saying in his monologue that McDonalds was down to its last head of beef - only a billion more hamburgers.:)

I'll still get all variants of McD's burgers with cheese...that Angus bacon and cheese is to die for. It's almost not fast food. But anyway, yes, I'll get McD's with cheese despite that my favored cheese on burgers is provolone.

Mr. Kipper likes to tease me about it, because I've been known to not eat if we're accidentally given a hamburger. I didn't know that about the filet o fish... I tend not to order a fish sandwich in the Big Mac world. :D

McDonald's quality much better overseas
 

Recently came back from Japan where - yes - I did go to McDonald's. In fact, I became addicted to having filet-o-fish for breakfast (yes, they serve it at breakfast)...

I noticed the quality of the food there being much better than in the U.S. Anybody else notice the quality of McDonald's being much better overseas ???

Yes. When I moved from UK -> US I noticed how much worse US Filet-o-Fishes are. In the UK they are made with 100% cod (or at least used to be).

Also, fries are better in England. Nuggets are about the same. And they fry the apple pies in England, which makes them much better than the US versions.

Yup, the same thing McD in Hong Kong. They probably still use pork fat to fry the apple pies. And I love the sausage McMuffin. You can get it any time during the day. And the nuggets are juicier too. I think it has to do with the high traffic. They seem to make things on demand.

Although I hate to admit that I ate McD overseas. :)

The Belgian version of a McD's burger is pretty nasty, I think some products just don't "translate" across cultures.

I've found quality varies by city even within the same country. For example in France some were better than US and some were worse. Japan and HKG are consistently better (but pricing is also much higher than in the US, so it isn't a fair comparison).

HKG has the cheapest McDonald's in the world. Japan's are cheaper than the US's.

Well the ones in Finland taste different but I don't know if it's a "better" or "worse" issue.

I found the quarter pounders in the UK to be only slightly better than the US, but not by much. And chicken mcnuggets in Germany taste the same over there as they do in the states. And the french fries in the US, UK and Germany all taste the same. Those are the only countries I've had McDs in.

I did have Burger King in Nassau, and it was the same as the US, but considering how close The Bahamas are to the US, they probably get their food from the same companies that the US ones do

they also don´t have the same Ketchup in Europe, at least in Germany.
Sad, because I really like the Ketchup in the States...

i find the choice better at us mcdonalds. It may be less greasy overseas but i still delight in a chicken biscuit burger in the morning. Wi Fi speed is also varied.

McDonald's in Indonesia is generally of much poorer quality than McDonald's in other countries.

It is also the only place where I have ever been in a McDonald's outlet, ordered a burger and told that they had run out of burgers...all burgers.

In some places the food sourcing is different, such as in Australia where they like to point out that they can get beef, apples and potatoes in that country.

Another factor is whether they have deployed the "Made for You" kitchens (those ones where they're always opening & shutting what look like small drawers). I think that system really helps with the taste.

Lowest on the totem pole are places where they have to import frozen ingredients and then put them through the old-style kitchens. Indonesia probably qualifies, and I'm sure the Philippines does as well. Places where they operate in a very small physical space also are suspect.

OTOH, I think Burger King is much worse with the "freezer taste" problem in those countries.

I think the source materials are pretty much the same but in Korea it's prepared a little differently. The biggest difference is that amount of sauces and extras. For example, the filet o fish in the US is usually drowning in tartar sauce but in Korea it's usually just spread on top (like mayo).

The big macs are a little neater and there is usually less lettuce and secret sauce.

Of course everyone is free to choose where he/she eats and I don't want to be too preachy but I stopped eating McDonalds about 3 years ago mainly due to the following:

1) Everyone knows that the food isn't good for you but most people don't know how bad it is for you. Even 1 meal a week is enough to really wreak havoc to your internal systems (higher cholesterol, liver functions, etc.). Most people think a meal a week or a meal every other week is fine...it's not.

2) There are so many chemicals and preservatives that it only bears a visual resemblance to food. Did you know that if you buy a hamburger and lay it down on your desk...a year later it will still be there without any mold or rot? It will simply dry out. Sorry but that's not how real food should react in this world.

And there's obviously much more...

Even this is different from country to country. Here in Germany the food laws are pretty strict and a lot of preservatives are not allowed. So I doubt that a Hamburger form a McDonald's in Germany would survive.

What I noticed that McDonald's outside the USA is becoming more upscale. Almost every McDonald's in Germany got renovated last year and has now a Starbucks like McCafé where you get all kinds of coffee in real mugs and glasses, cakes and some snacks like bagles. The coffee is pretty good and the cakes, too.

By the way: The McGriddle has finally arrived in Germany :) .

This is currently being done in US McDonald's restaurants too. It's likely part of what is killing Starbucks.

Big Macs in Fiji are terribly untidy but taste as good as their US counterparts. We get no premium burgers here though....

I'm familiar with McD's in the Philippines and found the quality and taste comparable to the US. The McDs I've been to (Davao) are almost brand new so maybe they have the modern kitchen equipment.

It's also nice to spend US$2 or so on a combo meal that doesn't have stupid sized soft drinks and fries. The Coke made with real sugar is also a welcome change from the HFCS crap here in the US.

Although I've tried most sandwiches, I mostly eat the filipino foods at McD's: Chicken McDo and McSpaghetti ^ The sweet filipino spaghetti sauce takes a little getting used to...

I read somewhere that the McD's in Davao served banana ketchup - haven't found it yet...

If you're ever at the FRA McDonald's and you're tempted to try something called the "McFarmer"--don't. Just trust me on this one. :td:

That was the veggie burger. I'm not sure if they still have him.

We usually end up once or twice at a McDonald's anytime we're traveling internationally with our young son. So far he's had a Big Mac in Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and Canada.

His favorite Mickey D are those in Japan - they had some kind of seasoned fries (I think they were called "shaku-shaku" fries) where you dump the fries in a bag, add contents of a seasoning package and then shake the bag to coat the fries.

However his real favorite international hamburger place is Mos Burger in Tokyo. Heck, those are my favorite burgers too!