It’s largely true in the US. The one major factor is timing – showing up at off hours and getting an old patty (or worse, chicken/fish meat) from the warming tray. Aside from that, they’re all basically the same burger made by the same semi-automated process on the same equipment.
I’m a little amused by some people’s vehement response to McDonald’s and can never quite tell if it’s hyperbole or if I just have a much different band of opinions when it comes to food. Most food rates as ‘fine’, including McDonald’s (in moderation) and I’m more offended by going to Five Guys and getting a “not much better” burger for 2-3x the price out the door for the family’s meal. None of my best or worst meals have been at a major chain though. For burgers it’s all local stripmall dives that either offer a “This is a pretty good burger!” fast food experiences or the sad opposite.
But, for consistency, I’ve had McD’s at their flagship Oakbrook & Chicago locations and I’ve had McD’s at small town exit ramps in the middle of nowhere and it’s generally just “McDonald’s”.
The last time I went (which was a while ago now), they rather carefully rationed the fries: a large fry was the paper large fry sleeve filled and no more. Maybe my local store was behind on its potato bills.
Naw, not true in the states, either. The McDonald’s near me is very old, from back when they posted how many burgers they had sold. And it looks it. It’s dingy. It’s never really clean.
I had 5G last week. With small fries. They filled the paper sleeve then dumped about that much again in the bag afterwards.
Which was unhelpful to my goal of not even finishing the sleeve’s worth. But they were generous with them.
One thing I like about 5 Guys is the peanuts. I can gorge on those while the food is prepping and get enough salt and crunch in me early so the fries quickly become too salty to want more of.
I’ll add another voice to the Krispy Kreme chorus. Even Dunkin’ is better, and Dunkin’ isn’t exactly a great donut, either.
Chipotle’s, I can at least understand, because in a lot of the country, that’s the only place you can get a mission-style burrito. Or the competition isn’t much: Like, here in Cleveland, we have a four-location local mini-chain that does the same thing, but I think Chipotle is better. But there are definitely places that do it much better, and I’m quite confident that there are many such in California (where, if I’m not mistaken, that style originated).
It isn’t hyperbole. I don’t go out of my way to eat BK, and think Five guys is overrated and expensive, but they beat the living crap off of burgers I’ve had in McDs. I’ve also had ok McDs. It genuinely is not consistent. I remember it being the only place open in Vegas at 1am on Christmas morning, and had one there. It was fine. I would have not chosen to eat there if I had alternatives. But it was a much better burger than I’ve had in both Wolverhampton and Stevenage (UK).
However, the consistency argument seems fundamentally baked into the heads of people who believe in it. I guess nothing I can say to people who believe this will change their mind. I was in a bad mood. Or imagined it, I guess. I suppose I should give up, and continue to not eat there and let you believe that fairytale. Till you luck out and find one of the many shitty McDs somewhere.
Given that there’s a bajillion McD’s out there and we’re different creatures with different tastes, it’s almost as though a couple of people can have legitimate opinions borne from their own experiences that still somehow differ.
I might! Actually, I probably have. Then I’d still figure that the vast majority of them are going to offer a predictable experience and not worry that it’s not an absolute binary between “Every one is 100% the same” and “Random crapshoot every time”
Case in point. I had a very different fries experience but I’m going to assume that I’m (and/or my store) is the outlier, not that the world has been brainwashed into thinking Five Guys puts a lot of fries in their bag.
There is a chain of cookie stores called Crumbl. When they opened here a couple of years ago, the queues were hours long even on days when it was bitterly cold (teens or even single digits). The craze has worn off, but people still insist they’re the Best Cookies Anywhere.
Except for being huge, I find them quite unremarkable. There are a dozen bakeries with ten miles of me that make better cookies, and are cheaper pound-for-pound.
Semi-hijack but, not long ago, they opened an Olive Garden in the area and local people were going apeshit about it. The parking lot was PACKED with huge lines. The stupid thing is that this wasn’t like Olive Garden was anything new or some mythical chain from the other side of the nation we’d only heard of in whispered stories – you could drive 20min and go to an Olive Garden. The only thing different this one offered was being 20min closer. This is also a large suburb so there’s plenty of other options for eating out, both much better Italian and your usual slew of restaurant chains up and down the spectrum.
Anyway, I can’t imagine anyone got an experience worth waiting 90min for out of the local Olive Garden. I suppose that counts as “overrated” since I dunno what people expected they were going to get at this new location.
You MUST follow the crowd on your FB feed or Nextdoor or whatever. We MUST all do the same thing because our friends said it was awesome because their friends said it was awesome because …
a corporate marketing dpartment paid somebody to say it was awesome.
Yes, Olive Garden is another one I never quite understood. It seems to be both the butt of deserved jokes, and yet is constantly packed. In my experience the food was edible, but for the price I could think of much better Italian restaurants I’d rather eat at. Usually without a wait.