Is McDonald's deserting the high street?

[Peter Mugridge]

I always have sausage without egg muffin, and find after that I get bad wind, so not the egg as I don’t eat egg

There is quite a bit of onion powder in their sausage patty mixture; powdered onion is always more potent than normal onion in the wind department.

 

[Be3G]

I notice no-one's mentioned salads yet. Seriously, McDonald's salads are surprisingly good and not too expensive – they're probably the most frequent thing I get from there in fact. Although some branches always used to have a perpetual inability to stock them (or even know what they were, despairingly) but other branches are pretty good.

I actually think it's kind of funny how Subway are advertising their new salads like mad. Mmm yes who hasn't longed for a pile of cheap lettuce, cheap tomato, watery cucumber and a bit of sweetcorn! What I like about the McDonald's salads is that they come with a good variety of more interesting leaves and a decent number of cherry tomatoes so it's altogether a bit tastier.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Subway salads aren't new, they have done them right from the start. I quite like them, though I do have this odd ability to calorie them up somewhat.

 

[richw]

I notice no-one's mentioned salads yet. Seriously, McDonald's salads are surprisingly good and not too expensive – they're probably the most frequent thing I get from there in fact. Although some branches always used to have a perpetual inability to stock them (or even know what they were, despairingly) but other branches are pretty good.

.

When I worked there We used to sell around 20 a week, the raw ingredients came in boxes for 12 salads and had normally 4 days shelf life, so we ordered them for Friday and Monday delivery (came at our store at 7am). Our issue arose occasionally on Thursdays when the Monday delivery had been loaded early and we only got 3 days shelf life, leaving no salad on Thursday. It also became a stock shortage if we sold an unusual number, as we had to order 4 days in advance so if we sold for some strange reason 12 on a Monday we wouldn’t have any delivered until Friday, despite a delivery or two in between!

 

[yorksrob]

All lettuce is pointless. It's either that watery iceburg stuff that acts as a barrier between the food and your taste buds or that horrible bitter stuff.

I prefer gherkins and jalapenos any day.

 

[Bletchleyite]

All lettuce is pointless. It's either that watery iceburg stuff that acts as a barrier between the food and your taste buds or that horrible bitter stuff.

I prefer gherkins and jalapenos any day.

Of course the advantage of Subway is that if you just want a bowl of gherkins and jalapenos you can have that if you like.

 

[yorksrob]

Of course the advantage of Subway is that if you just want a bowl of gherkins and jalapenos you can have that if you like.

I often have a sandwich generously adorned in that way !

 

[talltim]

Few points from throughout the thread. I’d not particularly noticed the decline in centrally located McDs, but had noticed the increase in drive-throughs. Burger Kings seem hard to find now, I sometimes prefer their burgers but not their fries. The Burger King burgers in Barcelona were far better than UK ones.
When I was young the fast food chain of choice was the Wimpy in the Arndale in Luton, can remember going to a party there and giving the poor guy in the Mr Wimpy suit grief. Anyone remember the Hamburglar? We also used to visit one opposite St Pancras when travelling through London. Brown Derbys were my go to pudding.
I can also remember visiting a Wendy’s in London once.
There was a Subway in Brighton for years before they seemed to suddenly explode, seemed great at the time but now, as someone mentioned, the smell puts me off.
Similar with Greggs, horrible smell, don’t like savoury pastries and theirs is particularly nasty

 

[yorksrob]

Few points from throughout the thread. I’d not particularly noticed the decline in centrally located McDs, but had noticed the increase in drive-throughs. Burger Kings seem hard to find now, I sometimes prefer their burgers but not their fries. The Burger King burgers in Barcelona were far better than UK ones.
When I was young the fast food chain of choice was the Wimpy in the Arndale in Luton, can remember going to a party there and giving the poor guy in the Mr Wimpy suit grief. Anyone remember the Hamburglar? We also used to visit one opposite St Pancras when travelling through London. Brown Derbys were my go to pudding.
I can also remember visiting a Wendy’s in London once.
There was a Subway in Brighton for years before they seemed to suddenly explode, seemed great at the time but now, as someone mentioned, the smell puts me off.
Similar with Greggs, horrible smell, don’t like savoury pastries and theirs is particularly nasty

Shame there's not still a Wimpy opposite St Pancras.

 

[Busaholic]

Shame there's not still a Wimpy opposite St Pancras.

Is there still a BK opposite KX/StP at the traffic lights? It used to be an 'interesting' place in the evenings with most of its clients seemingly neither interested in food or drink, but that was before Kings Cross got cleaned up. Another place a couple of doors down was a Pancake House: can't remember whether it was one of the Old Kentucky brand or not, but I liked them. Once I was sat a table down from Tariq Ali and Germaine Greer, and their conversation was very interesting!

 

[GusB]

If only....



All ingredients are on mcds website

Fair enough. To be fair, websites as we know them didn't really exist back then

 

[yorksrob]

Is there still a BK opposite KX/StP at the traffic lights? It used to be an 'interesting' place in the evenings with most of its clients seemingly neither interested in food or drink, but that was before Kings Cross got cleaned up. Another place a couple of doors down was a Pancake House: can't remember whether it was one of the Old Kentucky brand or not, but I liked them. Once I was sat a table down from Tariq Ali and Germaine Greer, and their conversation was very interesting!

If it's where I think it was, it's a Burger King there now. Can't imagine spotting Germaine or Tariq in there !

 

[richw]

There is a wimpy in Barnstaple. Considerably more expensive than its rivals, I had a beer and burger from Wetherspoons for less.

 

[BanburyBlue]

Different markets if you ask me. Wetherspoons is not exactly fast food.



I work in management for a large coffee company. Our high street stores suffer a lot more anti-social behaviour than other stores but, it's not usually 'kids' that are the problem. It's more usually drunk people, substance abusers and people with mental health conditions that cause damage or crime within our stores. The 'kids' are generally polite and respectful- any issues (usually making too much noise) with them are easily solved with a quick word and it usually works.



To get decent BK it needs to be cooked fresh, the food deteriorates very quickly and is supposed to be served within 4 (I think, or it might be 8) minutes of being cooked. Sadly, a lot of their staff don't seem to adhere to these rules and it sits there for a lot longer and then gets served in a sub-standard condition. I nearly always ask for them to cook my food fresh, which they usually don't mind doing.

Out of interest, why doesn't BK food last? Assuming this is saying that McDonald's does?

 

[najaB]

Out of interest, why doesn't BK food last? Assuming this is saying that McDonald's does?

In my experience they use more and fresher vegetables which don't do well under the heat lamp.

 

[nlogax]

Now I'm reminded..ahh, the lukewarm burger-y mists of time of Waterloo station

 

[Iskra]

Out of interest, why doesn't BK food last? Assuming this is saying that McDonald's does?

I don't know the specific answer, but my general food knowledge tells me: food that has been previously frozen deteriorates faster than fresh food (all the fried products are frozen).

They probably deteriorate at the same rate, but the crucial difference is this: McDonalds restaurants tend to be a lot busier with higher volume sales, so the food sits there less, is sold more frequently and then more food is cooked, so the chances of it being fresh are higher.