Eating at McDonalds

[Kyriakos]

He was quoting a Romanian poster - although I am sure it's been many years since he was here.

 

[amadeus]

He was quoting a Romanian poster - although I am sure it's been many years since he was here.

Ceausescu never had McDonald’s and look where he ended up.

Moral of the story, more Romanians should be eating at McDonald’s

 

[Kyriakos]

Well, clearly it is on a person by person basis? I had interactions mostly with two Romanians on CFC, and they were very different to each other.

Ceausescu never had McDonald’s and look where he ended up.

Moral of the story, more Romanians should be eating at McDonald’s

I never liked McDonald's. In London I did eat some of their food, on occasion (due to price), and even then it was miserable.
Here there are very few of their restaurants. Probably something like one in this city and two in Athens.

edit: google tells me there are actually three in this city - and all of them are at a very safe distance from the city center ^^

 

[H4run]

I already boycott three brands for almost 20 years, I think it's since 2006-7: McD, coca cola and starbucks. It's been decades ago since the last time I ate it, is it good? not really, just normal, I used to eat big mac and fillet o fish, also going to drive-through to buy cheap ice cream, do I miss it? heck no, there are lots better alternative. But boycotting starbucks is the easiest since I never like their coffee to begin with, it tastes cheap.

 

[stfoskey12]

McDonald's is fine, but I never go there on my own. I like the regional fast food chain Braum's much better.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Roman version of fast food (McDonald's) from Herculaneum.

 

[warpus]

I don't remember if I answered this question before, but here is my current McDonald's relationshp status: McDonald's is basically the girl I call up at 4am when I don't really care what's going in my body and I desire that temporary greasy rush. It happens like once every 3-8 months.

Last time I ate there I was walking by and wanted to take a break. I checked their app while I was lounging around and holy crap a big mac for $2.50 WHAT. That hasn't happened here since the 1970s. I used to be a big mac addict, but I restrained myself and only bought two. They were well assembled big macs too, I had a good time eating them and consuming 150% of my daily intake of saturated fats, salt, and sugars, or whatever the going rate is.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Well, clearly it is on a person by person basis? I had interactions mostly with two Romanians on CFC, and they were very different to each other.

I never liked McDonald's. In London I did eat some of their food, on occasion (due to price), and even then it was miserable.
Here there are very few of their restaurants. Probably something like one in this city and two in Athens.

edit: google tells me there are actually three in this city - and all of them are at a very safe distance from the city center ^^

The idea of only 3 McDonald's in the same city does not compute in my Canadian brain.

You have to live in a small town to have that few. I think I've got 3 McDonald's and 3 Tim Horton's relatively close by (two of them aren't within reasonable walking distance, but not a far drive, either). There's one of each at the mall I usually shop at, though they don't have the full menus that a larger sit-down place would have.

That's inconvenient. There are times when I crave a Filet-o-Fish and the mall place doesn't have them.

McD's prices skyrocketed a few years ago, to put it out of reach as a once every few months kind of thing. I used to be able to get about 3.5 cheeseburgers for the amount it costs for just one now. And the A & W that used to be in the food court closed down. No other burger place has opened up in its place.

 

[Zardnaar]

October 2023 last tine I had it. 1/4 pounder with mayo iirc. Nice burger.

Opportunity cost though.


And a beer for around $15 usd.

 

[Lexicus]

 

[warpus]

The idea of only 3 McDonald's in the same city does not compute in my Canadian brain.

Sometimes I walk to the plaza near here just to get some exercise and maybe buy something I need. It's not a bad walk through the neighbourhood and there's a lot of stores there so options exist for stuff to look at and buy, like groceries, legos, painting supplies, shawarmas, furniture, marijuana, and everything in between.

Anyway, there's is a McD's right at the entrance to the Walmart, and if you walk literally for like 4 minutes north, you'll cross a major street and there's a McDonald's right there across the street. I just checked, they are 400 metres away from each other.

I could be wrong, but the closest McD's to each other here in this city are 300 metres apart. There are probably even more extreme examples from denser Canadian cities.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Sometimes I walk to the plaza near here just to get some exercise and maybe buy something I need. It's not a bad walk through the neighbourhood and there's a lot of stores there so options exist for stuff to look at and buy, like groceries, legos, painting supplies, shawarmas, furniture, marijuana, and everything in between.

Anyway, there's is a McD's right at the entrance to the Walmart, and if you walk literally for like 4 minutes north, you'll cross a major street and there's a McDonald's right there across the street. I just checked, they are 400 metres away from each other.

I could be wrong, but the closest McD's to each other here in this city are 300 metres apart. There are probably even more extreme examples from denser Canadian cities.

It's the same for Tim Hortons. The closest one to me is a mall kiosk, but it's enough to get some Timbits. They also do pizza, though I haven't tried that.

There's a waffle cone place across and down from Tim Horton's at the mall, and they always have a plate of samples. They're really good, but are godawful sweet. Still, it's a good way to get a little energy, since I don't eat before going shopping and by the time I get to that part of the mall I've already done Walmart and the dollar store and am getting tired.

 

[EnglishEdward]

I tend to go to Cafe Nero when I am shopping in the city.

 

[warpus]

In the 1990s we occasionally went to McDonald's to buy pimma. That's what we called it at least. It was supposed to say "Pizza", but the z's were cleverly placed sideways arches. Too pretentious for us, we stuck to "Pimma"

From what I remember it was decent pizza, a bit unique. The coolest thing about it is that they gave you these containers, one with pepper flakes, and one with parmesan. Personalizing your pimma with the flakes and parmesan was a big part of the experience. The pimma was always served scorching hot, as if it was designed to burn through human flesh. There was something about it though, they served the pimmas on these elevated circular pimma holders, and the whole meal was just a bit of an experience. This is all of course from the perspective of four or five ex-commie Polish teenagers, who were now in Canada enjoying capitalism up to our armpits. The pimma was priced cheaper than pizza hut IIRC, and for whatever reason we just never got pizza anywhere. We went out for burgers when we went out to eat, and hey, sometimes crazy fry and milkshakes at fast eddie's, and sometimes pimma at McDonald's.

It was good times, honestly.

I'll never forget the time I somehow acquired a coupon for free pizza at Pizza Hut. At the time this was a sit down eatery with semi-pretentious interior design. There was even a salad bar. So naive little ex-commie me wanders into this place, amazed that you could get free pizza just by showing them a piece of a paper that says I am entitled to free pizza. Seems like a scam, but it was totally legit. I sit down and throughly enjoy my pizza, and the guy serving me seemed super excited to be there too. This was the best service I had ever received up until that point in my life, if we exclude all my grandmothers, aunts, mom, and other relatives serving me food. Wow, you just show up, pass over a piece of paper, and get one free amazing greasy capitalist pizza. And they treat you so well for it too. So amazing, like a dream. I savoured every greasy molecule of that pizza and had one of the best meals of my life. Then I did not pay, washed my hands, and exited the restaurant, oblivious to the poor guy inside likely disappointed that he did not get a tip. Unfortunately for him, he was unaware of my communist past and complete lack of understanding about the concept of tipping, especially so tipping for something that you did not even pay for.

During one of my first ever hot lunches in grade 7, the very first year I spent in the Canadian educational system, me and my equally oblivious Portugese friend George witnessed two men in uniform deliver a stack of piping hot pizzas to our classroom. Then they left. We looked at each other and thought the exact same thing: "Holy crap, Canada is as good as we heard, FREE PIZZA FOR LUNCH. We are going to LOVE it here". Me and my Portugese friend had no language in common in which we could communicate, but hand gestures and body language did the trick. Plus, "Free pizza" is something that everybody will understand. So we dug in and George even packed up a whole bunch of slices to bring back to his family. Pizza remittance.

For whatever reason we were never told that what we did was wrong. It just never came up. But that was the last time we had free hot lunch pizza.

A stranger in a pizza land.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I've tried 7-11 pizza, but only because nothing else was open at 3 am. I used to live within walking distance of 7-11 in a reasonably safe part of town (only real things to watch out for at that time of night were wandering skunks, as I had to pass near the trail system that meandered through a patch of forest and the skunks tended to be out at night as well). So sometimes I'd go pick up a Slurpee and whatever else they had that night for fast food, or if it was early enough that the next door pizza place was open, I could get 2 slices and a can of pop for $7.

Nowadays I belong to a loyalty program that entitles me to one free pizza every 60 points, and of course there are other discount coupons. When an especially good deal comes along, I'll take advantage of it, and order several pizzas and freeze them in small meal-size portions. When I want a slice or two, I just defrost them for awhile in the fridge, then reheat in the microwave for a minute, and they taste almost as fresh as when they got here.

 

[Paul in Saudi]

If there was some sort of earthquake or natural disaster and the government needed to feed people cheap, bland food, it would fly in McDonald's.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

If there was some sort of earthquake or natural disaster and the government needed to feed people cheap, bland food, it would fly in McDonald's.

I wonder if the food would be better or worse than was served to people in enforced covid quarantine at hotels? Someone took a picture of the "meal" served to him, and it was literally slop that pretended to have some sort of fast food in it.

 

[warpus]

If there was some sort of earthquake or natural disaster and the government needed to feed people cheap, bland food, it would fly in McDonald's.

It isn't cheap anymore though, is it? All the fast food places around here at least jacked up their prices to a degree you pretty much might as well go to a sit-down restaurant instead.

I mean, there's the apps they push on you, and you can find deals there.. but.. if you're just walking up to the counter... What's cheap at McD's? Yeah, they have what, their tiny mcdouble for like $3.60 plus tax?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Even a basic cheeseburger is more then $3.60 + tax.

 

[Gori the Grey]

It isn't cheap anymore though, is it? All the fast food places around here at least jacked up their prices to a degree you pretty much might as well go to a sit-down restaurant instead.

I saw Applebee's advertising a burger, fries and a drink for $10.99, and I thought to myself, "even with a tip, that works out to what I pay for a Quarter Pounder combo meal at McDonalds."

I think of Applebee's as making its burgers of higher quality beef. So I went to an Applebee's and ordered that meal. What was funny was, for that meal, they used the same quality beef as in a Quarter Pounder. I'm sure that if I ordered one of their more deluxe burgers, they would have used higher quality beef.

It was a wash.

Chili's version includes all the tortilla chips you can eat, so there I would get something McDonalds doesn't give me. But I don't have a Chili's as nearby.