# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/81 "2023-03-08T00:57:52Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I think they called them ‘grill’ orders. You could wait a long time when they were busy. They were taking order on paper back then, and sometimes little boxes to check for the condiments you wanted. Yes. It was a grill when I worked there. You’d get a little slip of preprinted paper from the cashier with codes on it for what to leave off and what to put extra. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/82 "2023-03-08T01:00:52Z")
McDonald’s food has **absolutely** improved in one aspect. The McNuggets used to come in a mix of white and dark meat pieces. The dark meat pieces were juicy and flavorful, while the white meat pieces were dry and you had to thoroughly douse them in whatever your dipping sauce of choice was before you could choke them down. Then at one point they swapped to all white meat, and I thought, well shit, now they’re going to be completely awful. But what they did when they swapped to all white meat is they made the white meat taste good. I seriously don’t know what they did, whether they changed the breading, changed how they were cooked, injected them with flavoring, I don’t have any clue. But the white meat pieces are as juicy and tasty as I remember the old dark meat pieces being. And now you get an order of equally delicious nuggets. Between that and the expanded menu, I think McDonald’s has gotten better over my lifetime. Maybe they seem worse compared to their competition, as fast food has diversified and improved to outpace McDonald’s, but their menu and items seem better on their own. As far as the fries… I never liked their fries as a kid, they seemed bland, but later I fell in love and could eat them by themselves as a snack, and don’t even need ketchup. It could be that my tastes matured over the years, or I just like them better than when they were cooked in tallow. By the way, don’t mistake me as being a McDonald’s evangelist. I don’t think they even crack my top 10 or even top 15 for favorite fast food places. I just think that they’re better than they used to be, when considered in isolation. ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/83 "2023-03-08T01:28:44Z")
> [@Mortimus](#): > > I inhaled the Big Mac before we got out of the parking lot and all of the fries before we were on the on-ramp to the highway home. I hope you were close to a home. Gonna need a bathroom soon. I know! ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/84 "2023-03-08T01:46:56Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I still don’t understand why Kroc didn’t just glean enough info about the operation, and go start his own burger place. As the Gladwell article I linked to above tells in great detail, he really wanted to acquire their French Fry cooking operation, and to do that, he had to get the McDonald brothers on his team. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/85 "2023-03-08T01:53:00Z")
I only have had McDonald’s going back to the early 1980’s and I would say the hamburgers and cheeseburgers are identical to back then. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/86 "2023-03-08T02:11:53Z")
I remember a lot of small towns only had Sonic and maybe a mom & pop place. Eventually McDonald’s would come. Then maybe BK and Wendys in the larger towns. I ate a lot of Sonic burgers. My complaint was the lettuce and onion were already chopped and mixed. There was no way to remove the onion unless you scraped off the lettuce too. Todays Sonic burgers are totally different. I don’t eat there very often anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/87 "2023-03-08T02:17:08Z")
We’re all overlooking something. McDonald’s business model is [QSC&V - Quality Service Cleanliness & Value.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QSC%26V) It doesn’t say anything about taste. It wasn’t that long ago, certainly within my parents’ lifetime, that prevailing wisdom was “never order a hamburger in a cheap restaurant.” McDonald’s wasn’t the first chain to try to break through that thinking - both White Castle and Steak and Shake predated McD, and both chains painted their walls white (so the customer could see they weren’t dirty) and put the kitchen in full view of the dining room to make the customer more comfortable. McDonald’s carried it one step further with its relentless mechanization of fast food, right down to their mixing lean beef and fat together together so that every patty had the same fat/lean ration. Eventually McDonald’s hamburgers ended up tasting like, well, themselves. And they taste pretty much the same everywhere. They aren’t supposed to taste good, or bad, or distinctive. They’re supposed to taste like **McDonald’s** , and they do an excellent job of that. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/88 "2023-03-08T02:20:27Z")
Wendys redesigned their menu a few years ago. They seem more like McDonald’s now. They lost the unique Wendys vibe. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/89 "2023-03-08T02:30:43Z")
The nation’s 121st McDonald’s (the 3rd one in Wisconsin) opened up 16 miles from my home (but only a half mile from my aunt’s home), in June 1958. It was a drive in/walk up operation, and offered hamburgers with the works for 15 cents, cheeseburgers with the works for 20 cents, and french fries for a dime. They also sold soda and milk shakes and coffee. It was an instant hit in town and I remember loving the trips there, mainly for the fries and the shakes. I thought the burgers were gross because they insisted on putting raw onions on them. After the early 1970’s, the fries were never as good as I originally remembered them. Same for the shakes. Back then they were made with real ice cream from local dairies. So yes, there was a time when McD’s food was markedly better, at least for me. ---
**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 8, 2023, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/90 "2023-03-08T02:48:08Z")
Just as an incidental side note, all this talk about McD’s and Happy Meals caused me to feel a sort of nostalgia for old times, and in need of a snack anyway, I ventured out to a nearby McD’s and picked up a few cheeseburgers – the kind that are in kids’ Happy Meals. As I said earlier, they’re not really hamburgers in any real sense of the word, but they’re tasty little things. I have two observations to make from this little trip. One is, it never ceases to amaze me the amount of business this place does. It’s 9:00 PM and there are multiple cars in front of me at the drive-thru, and due to a delay in whatever the guy at the front had ordered, he was sent off to the waiting area. By the time I got to the pickup window there were four cars in the waiting area and five cars behind me. By the standards of a quiet Tuesday night it was a madhouse – and this was **absolutely typical**. At busy times there are two drive-thru lines that extend up to and beyond the parking lot. WTF is the appeal of this food? Do they put drugs in it? There are at least three burger places nearby that are much better, and at least a dozen more fast-food places of other kinds within a stone’s throw. So I got my cheeseburgers, and they were … McDonald’s cheeseburgers, just exactly as they’ve made them for the past 50 years and just as unremarkable. Tasty imitation food, like barbecue flavoured potato chips. I’m fine with waiting another two or three years before I have any more. As for the greasy quarter-pounders and the like, no thanks. I’ll go to Burger King, Wendy’s, or make my own. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/91 "2023-03-08T03:49:00Z")
Although my Mom was a decent cook, I guess, she utterly failed at fixing some items, like hamburgers. To her, a hamburger was an overcooked patty served on a single slice of white bread, nothing else. You could eat it with a knife and fork. If I complained, she would add mayonnaise (!) and a single, flat lettuce leaf. (A single, flat lettuce leaf topped with a scoop of cottage cheese was her idea of a salad.) So when I discovered fancier commercial burgers like BK or at any decent coffee shop, I knew what food could be – something I could never get at home. A Whopper was a gourmet dish. But back up a bit…when I was in high school, there wasn’t any McDonalds _anywhere_ nearby. There was a Parkmoor, both sit-down and car-hop drive-in, but that was usually too pricey for my crowd. Instead, we went to Sandy’s, which was a clone of MacD’s, but we didn’t know that. Dynamite French fries. Sandy’s even had the outside ordering window like the original McDonalds, but in the Missouri winter, no less! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/92 "2023-03-08T04:53:28Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > But what they did when they swapped to all white meat is they made the white meat taste good. I seriously don’t know what they did, whether they changed the breading, changed how they were cooked, injected them with flavoring, I don’t have any clue. I bet they just stopped overcooking it. White meat can be delicious and juicy, it’s just often overcooked. And dark meat needs to be cooked longer, so if you are cooking nuggets of both, the white meat nuggets will be overcooked and dry. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/93 "2023-03-08T06:02:22Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > White meat can be delicious and juicy, it’s just often overcooked. And dark meat needs to be cooked longer, so if you are cooking nuggets of both, the white meat nuggets will be overcooked and dry. Good call. That makes perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/94 "2023-03-08T13:57:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > If I end up at BK,I order anything but the burger products. Same. The Spicy Ch’King was actually pretty tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/95 "2023-03-08T14:11:24Z")
When was it, the 80s maybe, that McD’s got embarrassed by their (what I guess they considered) child-centric menu, and tried to introduce burgers “more adult”, with weird mustards and other things not associated with McD’s. About that time McD’s (at least around here) were redoing their stores to be less gaudy, getting rid of a lot of the primary colors and shrinking the arches. Personally, I have a Pavlovian response wherever I drive through a city and come across an old fashioned burger place all decked out in red, white and blue like a carnival. I gave in recently and tried one of those places- disappointment. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/96 "2023-03-08T14:28:34Z")
The Ch’King was awesome! So of course it left the menu soon. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/97 "2023-03-08T14:44:46Z")
Really didn’t understand that - I mean they made a Spicy Chicken sandwich to rival Popeyes… and they just took it away… huh? ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/98 "2023-03-08T15:00:28Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > The husband of a friend of mine has eaten nearly 33,000 Big Macs since 1972. He’s said they taste about the same to him now as they did in the beginning [Don Gorske?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Gorske#:~:text=A%20resident%20of%20Fond%20du,22%2C477%20Big%20Macs%20(2008).) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/99 "2023-03-08T15:12:36Z")
Yeah. And it was more consistent than Popeye’s a Popeye’s on its best day edges out the Ch’King on its best for me, but I’d go to BK for a chicken sandwich more often because they almost always got it right (80% hit rate) Vs Popeyes’s (like 20% hit rate for me.) ---
**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 8, 2023, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/100 "2023-03-08T15:16:27Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > Really didn’t understand that - I mean they made a Spicy Chicken sandwich to rival Popeyes… and they just took it away… huh? Large menus lead to higher costs. It makes sense to cut items that aren’t selling well, or at least not well enough to justify their cost. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843.md?page=6)