The no mustard on burgers thing is surreal. I grew up in New Jersey and had mustard on my hamburgers and never thought twice about it. To think an hour and a half up the road, they thought that was strange.
I don’t know… I’ve eaten McDonald’s in multiple US locations, and several overseas ones both in airporst and elsewhere (Mexico, UK- Scotland and England, Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy). Everything tasted pretty much the same as it does here- maybe slightly different due to some sort of terroir (!) differences between here and there, like the beef tasting just a hair different, for example. But it was recognizably and clearly McDonald’s food.
Mustard on burgers is standard here at McDonald’s or anywhere else.
Well, I see the question has incited a lot of various observations, and perhaps stirred up some emotions.
Oh, I didn’t mean to debate with anyone and try to convince them of my opinion, it’s just my impression that many people agree that McDonald’s is a mediocre fast food establishment. I could be wrong. And if you have a special appreciation of McDonald’s, who am I to argue?
I didn’t mean this thread to primarily criticize McDonald’s. It’s just that pretty much every other fast food place I’ve been to seems to have had better burgers. I for one like charcoal-broiled meat. Some of what was written above suggests that burgers were considered dodgy food before McDonald came upon the scene. Interesting if McD contributed to their popularity.
Several people above have said that Burger King is worse. I have spoken to one or two people who have confirmed this impression. My observation, though: where I live now (Prague, Czech Republic), Burger King, which arrived well after McDonalds, is better. The burgers are well-cooked in comparison with McDonald’s and the menu has a varied selection. I remember not liking Burger King back in Canada, but that was over 20 years ago, and I can’t say at present whether it has improved there or not (I have vague memories to the effect that it improved there too). I will note this, though: last year, I had a brief vacation in Marseilles, and I had a Whopper at Burger King there, and discovered to my horror that, after I had eaten most of the burger, the remaining part of the patty was made of meat that was turning green! I don’t remember having such an experience anywhere else, if I did, it was so long ago that I don’t remember it.
Anyone else care to comment as to whether they have better experiences with McD or BK?
Consistency of product, yes. Better food safety? Mmm, maybe not so much.
Addressing a prior comment about McDonald’s letting you avoid food poisoning from a burger served at a diner, let’s remember that serious outbreaks involving dangerous strains of E. coli have been traced to fast food burger chains, including McDonald’s.
Safety is a different issue. The mass production of ground meat to supply the fast food business has added the danger of large outbreaks of food poisoning. It is worsened by the lack of quality control at during preparation when undercooked meat may be served. I remember times when people thought nothing of eating raw hamburger and undercooked burgers of unknown quality. It was occasionally difficult to convince people the problem was real.
That’s interesting to me. I knew they came with mustard, but that just meant I never ordered them without specifying a different topping (usually mayo).
Unless you were going to the original McDonald’s, you’re misremembering. McD’s hasn’t used real ice cream in their shakes since Roy Kroc bought the chain. It was the first thing he changed.
My experience is that McDonalds food is good or bad not based on what point in history you ordered, but on how consistent the particular restaurant cooks the food. There’s a place near me that is wildly inconsistent turning out hot, well made food and cold slop in equal measures. You have to be very hungry to go there as you never know which you will end up with.
Worst of all is the box of fries left on top of the warm box waiting while your burger is cooked. The flavour changes markedly with the temperature of the food. Now when I go to a larger town or city where they are used to the volume of custom you get food way quicker and it’s usually edible more often that not. Quality control is hopeless here in the UK which makes McDonalds purely a convenience choice and never a food quality one.
I don’t eat burgers, but on the subject of McDonald’s service and value: my kid, like pretty much all of them, loves the fries (which, granted, are pretty good within about three minutes of coming out of the fryer but quickly become inedible IMO) and shakes. We used to get him cheese sandwiches; three pieces of uncooked cheese on a bun, no condiments whatsoever. I realize special orders are not their forte, but this is literally the easiest possible sandwich to make. They would fuck it up maybe half the time. And we would get charged for a cheeseburger, plus extra for the two extra pieces of cheese.
That seems to be a lot of what’s going on - nostalgia colors our memories a great deal.
My parents swear a Big Mac used to be bigger than it is now. But that’s just in their heads. It’s always been two patties with a correspondingly sized bun and the same assorted fixings. And the McDonald’s hamburger patties have been 10 patties to a pound for longer than I’ve been alive.
But there are more options now and more competition and food safety and overall quality has improved and human memory is fallible.
Agree about the consistency part of the equiation.
There’s a McD near me on I-40 that serves a lot of local business offices as well as the interstate traffic. It is hands-down the fastest McD I have ever been to. They have only the usual single drive-through lane, but I swear you never have to touch your brakes. They do have two menu boards/intercoms working at the same time. Two cars order at once, you idle past the payment window, and your order is bagged and ready at the pick-up. The food is ALWAYS hot and fresh. I doubt they even have to use any of their timers.
TL;DR: Faster is better.
And of course most people make their memories of places like McDonald’s when they are themselves small children.
Sure. Not in my parents’ case (they were adult immigrants when they had their first Big Mac but that was decades ago) but true in general.
I think part of it may be that portion sizes have absolutely ballooned in the last few decades. So they may have remembered being overly full after eating a Big Mac, but now it doesn’t fill the same way.
Yeah, I think it’s that portion sizes have generally increased. From what they’ve said, a Big Mac still fills, but they chalk that up to being older and having less of an appetite rather than the sandwich being the same size.
Big Macs do change a little as the costs of the pile of condiments they use varied from time to time. Also the superfluous middle bun used to come toasted a little so it didn’t get squashed into much. I don’t know if it was McDonalds, but some fast food burgers added a second slice of cheese to burgers in order to justify a price hike when wage and price control regulations were in effect in the early 70s.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, McDonald’s hamburger buns were made by Gai’s Bakery. It seems to me that the buns I get here in Switzerland are missing something. But I haven’t had a McDonald’s hamburger in my hometown in over 30 years, so I don’t really have a comparison.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the tastiness of McDonald’s french fries. If they are just out of the fryer, they cannot be beat, even without the tallow.
Weirdly enough, I can have a grilled chicken sandwich and fries at McDonald’s, and still have the same beefy aftertaste as I would have if I would have a quarter cheese (known here as a Cheeseburger Royal). So it’s probably not the beef itself.
My husband prefers the Whopper over the McDonald’s sandwiches, and he agrees that the McDonald’s fries are much better. The shakes are about the same quality.
When I was in high school, I got mono and didn’t eat much for 3 weeks. When I started recovering, I saw an advertisement for a Big Mac and remarked to my parents that it looked good. My dad promptly went out and got one for me. If we’re in another country and are tired of trying new things, we might stop at a McDonald’s, just for convenience.
As there are no Wendy’s here, when we are in the U.S., and happen to be driving long distances, we prefer to stop at Wendy’s. My normal order is a Spicy Chicken sandwich with a chocolate Frosty. Maybe a small fry.
We never eat at McDonald’s or Burger King in the U.S.
Maybe it was the McDLT? It existed for about a hot minute, but because it took longer to make, it was dropped quickly. It was the only burger I ever ate at McD’s that I could stomach.
Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us…
They did upset McDonald’s. I think i once tried to order a burger without all the crap in it, and it was a regular burger with the toppings scraped off. And it still tasted like all that crap. That was the last time i tried a burger at McDonald’s. I think it’s true that at some point they switched, and would actually make a special order for you. But that was after i swore off their burgers.
I was sure this thread was going to be about their fries. They were much better when I was a kid.