McDonald's Experiments

McDonalds Japan routinely (every month or so) introduces new promotional menu items. I don’t know if any of them have become permanent additions but some of them have been quite nice. Just recently, they had a chicken-cutlet burger, with the cutlet filled with melted cheese. Tasty, but the cheese often made the cutlet split apart and slide around, so it was a bit too messy.

And the teriyaki burger is part of the standard menu.

They serve McLobster in Maine and Eastern Canada, but only during the summer.

They have a McVeggie Burger and McFajita here in NY. Is that common everywhere else?
There’s kimchee burgers, mcbulgogi, rice burgers (instead of a normal bun, there’s one made of rice dough) and McPatbingsu (sort of an ice cream sundae).

what’s a mclobster? sounds kind of good.

McRibs are back around here.
I haven’t eaten at McDonalds since they took the McBeeftallow out of the McFries making them McTasteless. They try to McDrown them in McSalt but that isn’t a very good replacement for the McFlavor.
Personally, I’d like to see them go back to being a FAST food place, especially at lunch time.

In Hong Kong last year McDonald’s introduced plates of rice with vegies and chicken or a pork chop. Keeps them competitive with local fast food joints selling lunchboxes. More recently they started selling swee taro pies.

A while back,I heard that they were going to experiment where it was actually a sit-down resturant at McDonalds. Like they were going to sell pot roast and turkey and all the good things like that there. They never did it but I wonder what would happen if they did? Did anyone else hear about that?

McDonalds needs to get a McClue and stop putting ‘Mc’ in front of everthing!

I once visited a McD’s that had a grand piano along with a guy in a tux to playing it. It was supposed to create a “mood”.

Up until the early 90’s, McD’s burgers were sold in styrofoam containers. After they chaged the packaging, the burgers didn’t seem that tasty anymore. Was the recipe changed around that time, too, or did the packaging somehow contribute to the flavor?

I’m from the land down under and for about the past year Macca’s has been running an experiment called “The New Tastes Menu”. It has so far turned up some interesting dishes. They range from chicken Caesar salads to toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches. Every month the menu changes and those items that sold well are sometimes moved into the “standard” menu. I see it as a great way to do their market research; Use us as Guinea Pigs.
:dubious:

They have that here, in Texas at least, if not all over America.

Do they have “Pick your own sides” meals anywhere besides here? Instead of getting fries and a drink with your sandwich, you have a choice of two of the following: fries, drink, shake, apple pie, salad, and a cheeseburger.

When I visited home in Maryland, everyone looked at me like I was insane when I asked if they did that there. They didn’t, but they had hot dogs and mozzarella sticks which we don’t.

Now THAT’S a fantastic idea, and no, they don’t offer that here (central CA). I just NEVER want the damn drink, especially in the morning - I always make my own coffee at home, and only occasionally eat at McD’s

hrh

I remember seeing McPizza in Vancouver, BC circa 1993. Messing around with the menu is one of the things they have to try to win back some of the market share they’ve been losing, but man, I’ve never heard of McKimchi!

Part of the original concept was to sell a limited number of items that don’t require any type of utensil. Except for the salad and some ice cream thing they used to have, the experiments that drifted away from this ideal were the least successful.

McDonald’s burgers have never been sold in Styrofoam containers.

Perhaps a NOVa member can help me with a question about McD’s:

I SWEAR I ate at a McD’s in Dale City, Va (Around '96 or so) that had a full breakfast bar, from which you could eat as much as you wanted. At the time, it was near 11 am, so we ate lunch instead, but I thought how cool it was, and that I would have to come back again for breakfast sometime.

Fast forward to 2000, and I was in the during the morning hours, and decided to hit it with a buddy of mine.

No breakfast bar. He swears I imagined the whole thing.

Anyone else seen something like this?

I promised myself I wouldn’t get sucked into another McDonald’s
thread, but what the hell.

The New Taste Menu Should be running nationwide. This is their attempt to be able to bring in various new products. Currently in NE Ohio we have the McRib, and the Grilled Chicken Flatbread, and the " Widowmaker" , I mean the Cheddar, Bacon, Sausage, McMuffin, with Egg. Don’t get too attatched , they’ll be gone soon.

The salads Should also be nationwide. As spectre pointed out there is a Ceaser salad, there also is a Cobb Salad, both can be ordered with chicken, or plain. There also is a Ranch Medley, & a Side Salad.

McDonald’s is trying to entice people into the stores with new and different tastes. So, there will always be rotateing menu items.

That’s enough McD’s for one night. I just got home from the
" Snake-Pit " , it’s time for a beer.

Here in Anchorage in the late 70’s, one McDonalds restaurant in town served chilie for about 2 years and it was surprisingly good.

One day my mom took us kids all the way across town to that McD’s to get somebut they had quit serving it a month earlier. They said we were a test market and the trial was over with.

I wish they’d try it again.

We recently got the McChoice meal in Finland. Basically the same, except that our sides don’t include a cheeseburger; Finnish McD-goers have to settle for a hamburger. :slight_smile:

Another experiment which seems to have crossed over into the standard menu is the Big Extra, which really is quite big.

We used to have the McRuis (McRye), which is a hamburger made with rye bread instead of the standard bun. I don’t think McDonald’s offers it any more, but another local chain, Hesburger, has been offering it for a while now, and it’s pretty popular. Hesburger also offers wraps and salads in addition to hamburgers.

All of the McDonalds in Japan have started using a new menu set system, since they were expanding the menu, but the old sets were just sandwich, fries, drink. Now it’s: Choose one sandwich (which determines the price of the set), one side (fries, chicken nuggets or salad) and either a drink or dessert.

They’ve launched the McArabia sandwich or something here.

Have no clue what is in it, I never even go into McDonalds. The mere smell of the “food” as I walk past an outlet makes me retch.

Have stopped serving the Quarter pounder DeLuxe…and changed to the McFresh…DE-Skusting…all that fresh Cucumber makes me wanna puke

Bring back the good oul QP DeLuxe please…now

And the McRib is horrible…but the Euro-Saver menu is quite good and cheap…kinda Mix n Match to an extent
Still love those apple pies though!

They are coming … 4 in the MidWest so far…
McDonald’s With the Diner Inside

The diner food isn’t bad at all …