Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: McDonald’s

  • Bradford – McDonalds Kirkgate

    Bradford – McDonalds Kirkgate

    I very rarely go into McDonald’s in the UK, they’re usually a little superfluous for me given that there are those wonderful things called pubs. However, it’s the McDonald’s monopoly season and I thought I’d see what I could get.

    Anyway, food, drink and stickers aside, I do feel sorry for the staff here. The upstairs of the restaurant was closed off, which really wasn’t ideal for customers, although they had a few seats free downstairs. In came a yell of children (or whatever the collective noun is) who were showing off which was the rudest, all aged around 10 or 11. Fortunately they were nowhere near me, but two of them were vaping in the corner and one of the crew members asked a manager to deal with the situation, which he begrudgingly did. One kid had also managed to pinch an entire cup of ketchup, which ended up being thrown on the floor outside. The crew member battled on though trying to clean the mess up the group had left, but he remained endlessly polite as if this was just another repeat occurrence of annoying customers.

    Then a group of younger women, probably aged around 16, came in and were abusive to the crew members. The same manager went over and threw them out as well, telling them he didn’t want customers like that in the restaurant. He certainly wasn’t in the mood for debate and I quite liked that confidence and authority. It certainly made for a tense atmosphere though, especially as then another customer was rude to a crew member, just what you want at 15:00 on a Sunday afternoon.

    There’s no real point to this post and I’m not going to go down the line about how there are problems with this younger generation, as it’s a small minority and it’s been the same for every other generation. It is though a reminder about just how hard so many staff in hospitality work, often in trying and difficult circumstances and provocation from customers.

    On a more important matter, I got a free coffee from the Monopoly stickers, so that was handy, although I’ll collect that when kids are at school, it’ll be more sedate. That’s the key message, be kind to hospitality workers and there are prizes galore with McDonald’s Monopoly….

  • McDonald’s Town House

    McDonald’s Town House

    I liked this little video, the introduction of computers into McDonald’s, although I like the man with his order pad. And that Big Mac looks delicious, although I don’t know why the presenter plonked himself next to those other customers.

    That Town House part of the logo is for when McDonald’s needed to identify the difference between their drive-thru and urban restaurants. I’d have thought that this was more apparent from a lack of drive-thru lane than part of the logo, but there we go. The words lingered on older signage until just a few years ago, but I think that they’ve all gone now.

  • Montreal – McDonald’s Poutine

    Montreal – McDonald’s Poutine

    I remember spending quite a lot of time in Montreal popping into restaurants for drinks and snacks, as it was so cold outside. Fortunately, Montreal is interlinked below ground, so it’s possible to travel quite long distances without surfacing into the snowy city.

    Back in January 2015, before the advent of self-service terminals.

    I had to try their “world famous” Poutine.

    For my tastes, I still think the cheese curds bit is superfluous, but the fries in gravy were delicious. I’m wondering though what chips, feta cheese and gravy would taste like, I bet it’s delicious.

  • Bucharest – McDonald’s

    Bucharest – McDonald’s

    After a fine coffee experience and before a fine pub experience, I thought I’d ensure that I had a story for Dylan and Leon in case they asked what Romanian McDonald’s is like. And, also, I haven’t tried McDonald’s Spicy Chicken McNuggets and as I don’t go to McDonald’s in the UK, I have to try these things overseas.

    OK, so it might be generic, but they were lovely, although two of them were a bit over-cooked. The Hot Devil sauce, with Tabasco, had a pleasant kick to it as well, so this proved to be a satisfactory afternoon snack….. There’s not much I can add about the Fanta and fries, they were like everywhere else. Price-wise incidentally, it’s not much cheaper than in the UK.

  • Palma – McDonald’s Update

    Palma – McDonald’s Update

    I’d feel very amiss if I didn’t mention some items on the McDonald’s menu in Spain that aren’t on the UK menu. I’ll also admit that the expected readership for this post is two, which is Dylan and Leon, my favourite McDonald’s connoisseurs. And I know Leon is up for trying new menu items, although the cucumber sticks were definitely an adventure too far.

    The chicken burger is probably available in the UK, but potato wedges aren’t usually available in the UK, although they sometimes are. I still prefer fries, but variety is the spice of life.  And the things in the middle at the back are chicken bites, which don’t appear very often in the UK either. But, they’re most lovely. They go really well alongside Chicken McNuggets, to spice things up a bit.

    And a layered coffee. Probably not for the tastes of young Dylan and Leon (not until Dylan is ten), but what is apparently condensed milk at the bottom and then some coffee arrangement above that I don’t understand. It’s particularly lovely. It looks pretty though. I nearly threw the glass in the bin thinking it was plastic, but I think it is actually glass…. It came with a proper teaspoon as well, very exotic for McDonald’s.

    Probably not suitable for children until they’re at least eleven, McDonald’s also do beer in Spain. Won’t be long now until Dylan and Leon can start to begin their lessons, from me, in the delights of craft beer. I’m sure starting them on thirds is fine at the age of eleven.

    Anyway, that’s my McDonald’s post aimed at two particular children finished   🙂    And hello from Palma, Mallorca and Spain!

  • Luxembourg – McDonald’s Closes….

    The end of an era for the McDonald’s near the railway station in Luxembourg city. After 35 years of trading in its current location, the restaurant has just closed with the above poster now in the main window. There is a recently opened Five Guys outlet nearby and the Quick restaurant a few doors down has been rebranded into a Burger King.

  • Hamburg – McDonald’s

    One of the most bizarre juxtapositions involving a McDonald’s that I’ve seen. It’s the McDonald’s located on the Reeperbahn, also known as “the sinful mile”. I didn’t go in (I meant the McDonald’s when writing that, although I also didn’t go in the strip club either).

  • Athens – McDonald’s – Greek Mac

    I thought I’d pop in McDonald’s once during my time in Athens, since it’s the first time that I’ve been to Greece. It wasn’t very well presented, but this is the Greek Mac, one of the items on the permanent national menu. This is one of the McDonald’s which doesn’t yet have panels from which to order and the queue was quite long, but the crew member was efficient in trying to keep everything together.

    The Greek Mac comprises of two burgers in pita bread, with a yoghurt sauce, onions, lettuce and tomato. It tasted of lamb, which I try to avoid eating (I like seeing fluffy lambs in fields and feel guilty otherwise, a rather inconsistent thought process given what else I eat, but there we go) but was beef. I’ve had similar before in other countries, and it tasted fine and as I expected. Nothing exceptional, but perfectly acceptable.

  • Turin – McDonald’s – Asiago PDO and Speck Alto Adige PGI

    And just because I could, I thought it only right to sample an Italian special item on the McDonald’s menu. Asiago PDO is cheese and Speck Alto Adige is lightly smoked and cured ham, and they’re merged together in a crispy coating. It’s an attempt to do something different and the flavours do work well together. In a country without Greggs, this will just have to do…..

  • Malta (Northern Region) – St. Paul’s Bay – McDonald’s

    It’s important for me to visit a McDonald’s in a country that I haven’t been to before just in case Dylan and Leon ask me about it. It’s definitely essential to be able to answer any critical questions about the various features of non-UK McDonald’s…..

    A Big Mac meal, which I’m delighted to say tastes exactly the same as the ones throughout the rest of Europe. Isn’t globalisation marvellous…..

    Of note though in this McDonald’s is the charming view over the local bay and I can’t recall visiting a better terrace in any other restaurant in this chain.

    And another photo from the terrace, although it was unfortunately raining at the time. There’s not much else to say about McDonald’s, the service was efficient, the restaurant was clean, there was working wi-fi, power points for customers and the food tasted as it should. A meal worked out at around £5.50, so marginally more expensive than in the UK.