# Was there ever a time when McDonald's food was markedly better? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [March 7, 2023, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843 "2023-03-07T18:02:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/1 "2023-03-07T18:02:03Z")
I imagine a lot of people would agree with me when I say that McDonald’s food is mediocre even for a fast food establishment. Burgers that aren’t filling for an adult person (and the McRoyal - I.E., what they call a Quarter Pounder where I now live, has apparently shrunk recently, if not other sandwiches), that are more heated up than really grilled, the list could go on. Was there a time within not-so-distant past where McDonald’s hamburgers, etc. were actually seriously better? They don’t seem to have been much better as far back as I can recall. But what about back in the 70s? the 60s? The 50s? As I recall, in the film “The Founder”, a biopic about how Ray Kroc discovered the original McDonald brothers’ restaurant and decided to franchise it, in the scene where Kroc comes to the ur-McDonald’s and takes his first meal there, he says to himself that it’s the best burger he’s ever eaten. I think we can safely say that very few people would say that of the McDonald’s hamburger today. Could the burgers really have been that good at the time, or were they doing them the same back then as today? And if they _were_ better in the day, did that change shortly after Kroc started franchising the name, or did it take a bit longer for the product to deteriorate to its familiar standard? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/2 "2023-03-07T18:08:10Z")
> [@themapleleaf](#): > > Was there a time within not-so-distant past where McDonald’s hamburgers, etc. were actually seriously better? Well, in the past, they may have been better in the sense that they were on par with or superior to their rivals. But, most other burger places have really stepped up their game in the last 60 years. McDonalds, not so much - because what they are selling is consistency: not innovation. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/3 "2023-03-07T18:14:33Z")
In the 1960s when we ate out, the hamburgers were so much better at any restaurant than the ones my mother made; she thought burgers were just meatballs in a bun. I had my first McDonald’s hamburger in 1967 (my brother was graduating from college, in a distant city) and as a kid of course I loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/4 "2023-03-07T18:16:08Z")
I’d say the cheeseburger I had last week tasted the same as the cheeseburgers I had in childhood. I ate at a McDonalds in Japan in the 1980’s and it tasted…_different_. I understand they go to great pains to ensure product consistency, but I know what I experienced was not the same as all the McD’s I had had in the States. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/5 "2023-03-07T18:17:13Z")
They’ve gone through several different fish species over the years for their filet o’ fish due to declining stocks. From Atlantic cod to red cod to hoki (still used in some places) to Alaskan pollock. The changes have definitely brought minor but noticeable variations in flavor/texture. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/6 "2023-03-07T18:19:55Z")
The burgers are about the same as they always have been. the fries were MUCH better back when they were cooked in beef tallow. The pies were better when they are actually deep fried. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/7 "2023-03-07T18:21:35Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > the fries were MUCH better back when they were cooked in beef tallow That’s a good point. The fries were definitely better fried in beef tallow. I had forgotten all about that. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/8 "2023-03-07T18:22:35Z")
Kroc may have been commenting on the burger as served with the standard condiments, not so much the burger itself. I don’t recall them being greatly different in the very early 60s when I first experienced them. I don’t know what Kroc’s experience prior to that was, I would assume he’d had White Castle burgers or something similar from on of the many copycat businesses. He may have experienced all sorts of burgers from various diners where the quality of the meat was lacking. I didn’t start hanging around in bars as a little kid, that would have to wait until I was a teenager, but he must have had the chance to try burgers from a bar and grill operation, but maybe things were different that far back. I do think the quality of meat may have improved since those early days, the success of McDonalds and their competitors reshaped the meat industry in this country because of high demand and consistent quality requirements. Not to say it was better tasting, but processed with more quality control. ETA: No doubt the fries were better as pointed out above. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/9 "2023-03-07T18:23:23Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > I ate at a McDonalds in Japan in the 1980’s and it tasted…_different_ Same experience. I didn’t try another one to see if that difference was consistent within Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/10 "2023-03-07T18:26:25Z")
Just going from the movie; Wasn’t Kroc mostly impressed that what he assumed was a pre-made burger tasted do fresh? Then he finds out, they’re not pre-made, just made very quick and efficiently. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/11 "2023-03-07T18:28:09Z")
Back in the early 2000s in China, the McDonald’s were quite high-scale, a place where you would even take your girlfriend. Not sure how it is now. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/12 "2023-03-07T18:31:57Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Same experience. I didn’t try another one to see if that difference was consistent within Japan. Basing this on a sample size of two (I ate at one other McD’s in Okinawa), I found the difference to be consistent. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/13 "2023-03-07T18:34:02Z")
While I no longer eat at McDonald’s, I certainly consumed my share of their food between about 1968 and 2016. I never noticed any changes, aside from the introduction of new items here and there (I am not sure when the Big Mac came along - in the 1970s some time maybe?). The only variations I’ve ever noticed are the small tweaks in the menu that they make for different countries - saimin is on the menu in Guam; they periodically do a “rendang burger” in Indonesia, and I’m told they serve beer at German McDonald’s. They are also careful to call the burgers “beef burgers” rather than “hamburgers” in Indonesia because of the large Muslim population that doesn’t consume pork. Speaking of tweaks for religious reasons: I’ve never been to Israel - do they have McDonald’s there, and if so do they even offer burgers with cheese? ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/14 "2023-03-07T18:40:08Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > … and I’m told they serve beer at German McDonald’s … They do here in the Czech Republic. Beer is one of the most sought-after local commodities, and there is no taboo about serving it in “family”-oriented places. Was a bit of a culture shock when I came here. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/15 "2023-03-07T19:04:38Z")
The regular burger at McDonalds is flat, thin and approximately 1.6 ounces. Is this what Ray Kroc got when he tried it for the first time? ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/16 "2023-03-07T19:09:31Z")
The current Mcburger is so bland. Markedly better, no. Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I seem to remember when they had some taste to them. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/17 "2023-03-07T19:19:52Z")
> [@themapleleaf](#): > > As I recall, in the film “The Founder”, a biopic about how Ray Kroc discovered the original McDonald brothers’ restaurant and decided to franchise it, in the scene where Kroc comes to the ur-McDonald’s and takes his first meal there, he says to himself that it’s the best burger he’s ever eaten. I haven’t seen that film, but this is the first and only time I’ve seen the claim that the McDonald brothers’ burgers were especially good. If the quality of anything stood out, it was the fries. But everything I’ve been able to find, including [McDonald’s own website](https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us/our-history.html#:~:text=In%201954%2C%20he%20visited%20a,the%20effectiveness%20of%20their%20operation), seems to say that it was their efficiency, not their quality, that attracted Ray Kroc to McDonald’s. > [@themapleleaf](#): > > Burgers that aren’t filling for an adult person (and the McRoyal - I.E., what they call a Quarter Pounder where I now live, has apparently shrunk recently, if not other sandwiches) Hasn’t the Quarter Pounder always been exactly what it says on the tin: a quarter pound of meat? I didn’t think the size of the burgers had ever shrunk. Rather, there has been a tendency over the last few decades for burgers to get bigger, if not at McDonald’s then at their competitors. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/18 "2023-03-07T19:21:10Z")
I suspect they’re just the same as they were in the 60’s and 70’s, but a couple of other things come into play. One, no food you loved as a child seems as good when you’re an adult. For my family, McDonald’s was a huge treat that we could have when my mom worked late or for lunch after church. Now that I’m a grown-up who could just drive over and grab it any time, it’s nothing special. Two, it seems to me that other restaurant foods have improved since the 60’s. At most sit-down restaurants, there’s no such thing as a basic burger anymore; they pay more attention to the beef and how it’s cooked. Quite possibly, I can afford to go to better restaurants now than my single mother could back then, but it just seems like everyone pays a lot more attention to food quality nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/19 "2023-03-07T19:25:06Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > I suspect they’re just the same as they were in the 60’s and 70’s, but a couple of other things come into play. One, no food you loved as a child seems as good when you’re an adult. For my family, McDonald’s was a huge treat that we could have when my mom worked late or for lunch after church. Now that I’m a grown-up who could just drive over and grab it any time, it’s nothing special. Two, it seems to me that other restaurant foods have improved since the 60’s. At most sit-down restaurants, there’s no such thing as a basic burger anymore; they pay more attention to the beef and how it’s cooked. The only thing is, McDonald’s burgers are, and to me have always worse than just about any other fast food place’s burger. Even Burger King has that char-broiled favor. I actually don’t have any need to eat “gourmet burgers”, I don’t even like them, they’re just too full of stuff. For me, a good burger is what you get in any average diner or greasy spoon. The burger is always bigger than, and normally better-broiled, than any McDonald’s burger. In Canada, we have a chain called Harvey’s. It’s fast food all the way, the same model as McDonald’s, yet the burgers are markedly better on ALL counts. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/20 "2023-03-07T19:27:27Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Well, in the past, they may have been better in the sense that they were on par with or superior to their rivals. But, most other burger places have really stepped up their game in the last 60 years. > [@Dorjan](#): > > The burgers are about the same as they always have been. the fries were MUCH better back when they were cooked in beef tallow. Agree with both these points. McDonald’s, at least as a massive chain under Ray Kroc, has always been crap. But the big Baby Boom generation were just youngsters in McD’s earlier days, and either couldn’t tell or didn’t care that it was crap. Today, standards are definitely higher, and that’s at least in part because many of us are older and wiser and can tell the difference. I’ll still occasionally buy a takeout burger (or make a much better one at home) but the takeout is never McDonald’s, unless it’s a bacon and egg McMuffin and coffee for breakfast. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843.md?page=2)