I've had a 'Create Your Taste' burger once. Costed $18 for a combo. And amazing presentation.

I'm not a huge McDonald's fan but like @Geektastic it's a good option for road food. I drive up to Auckland to see family a few times a year and will usually stop at one for breakfast, lunch or dinner, depending on departure time for the particular trip. It's not my favourite restaurant in the world, but places like that serve a purpose, and:

(1) it's going to be quick - unless you hit a store somewhere big like Taupo at 12:30pm you can be in, order, eat, out, and back on the road in 20 minutes or so.
(2) it's going to be clean - I've never got food poisoning at McD's, and don't know anyone who has, and if you need a toilet stop it's usually a safer bet than a council toilet block or gas station. 
(3) you know what you're going to get - I've stopped at many randomly chosen places and picked something that looked good on the menu but was seriously disappointing when it arrived.
(4) it's not bad, if you order the right thing - not all stores have the build your own burger option so I have a couple of standard "go to" orders.
(5) the coffee is OK, although it's usually too hot to drink straight away.

Back on the "all day breakfast" thread topic though, like others I'd prefer to be able to order a Clubhouse Angus at 9:00am than a Massive McMuffin at 9:00pm, but if they do a deal where I can order a burger combo and swap the fries for hash browns, I'm in.

Yabanize:

 

I've had a 'Create Your Taste' burger once. Costed $18 for a combo. And amazing presentation.

 

 

That almost looks like one of their promo shots.

I have had a few Create Your Taste burgers, and they have all been good (I like that I can get beetroot and jalapenos and caramelized onion). Yum.

It still baffles me why they don't offer chicken for their create your taste burgers. I'm not a beef fan.

I was in the Gold Coast 2 months ago and they offered chicken on their create your taste burgers there and it was by far the best burger I've had in a long time! Hurry up NZ

I have seen chicken on the CYT screens. I'm sure Albany had it a few months ago (they were one of the first stores to get CYT). I had one at Sndringham the other day, and they didn't have chicken.

Yabanize:

 

I've had a 'Create Your Taste' burger once. Costed $18 for a combo. And amazing presentation.

 

That does look nice! I can't wait until they roll out the gluten-free bun option to other stores. Currently it's only available at the Greenlane one. And apparently they liaised with Coeliac New Zealand when coming up with their gluten-free option, so it is totally safe for us Coeliacs to eat, with excellent cross-contamination processes in place.

richms:

 

I find the food that people who dis maccas to eat to be vastly inferior.

 

Its a good thing you have a choice, if you dislike maccas then butt out of this thread perhaps and go back to never touching the stuff.

 

Something that sticks in my memory from when I was a kid was some old guy really bagging McDonald's, saying how rubbish McDonald's was and that all the food there was garbage. He then proudly went on to say that he had NEVER eaten there...

As I was younger, I didn't have the nerve to tell him how much weight I attached to the opinion of someone who had never eaten there.

Also - would rather have all day burger menu.

andrew027:

 

I'm not a huge McDonald's fan but like @Geektastic it's a good option for road food. I drive up to Auckland to see family a few times a year and will usually stop at one for breakfast, lunch or dinner, depending on departure time for the particular trip. It's not my favourite restaurant in the world, but places like that serve a purpose, and:

 

(1) it's going to be quick - unless you hit a store somewhere big like Taupo at 12:30pm you can be in, order, eat, out, and back on the road in 20 minutes or so.
(2) it's going to be clean - I've never got food poisoning at McD's, and don't know anyone who has, and if you need a toilet stop it's usually a safer bet than a council toilet block or gas station. 
(3) you know what you're going to get - I've stopped at many randomly chosen places and picked something that looked good on the menu but was seriously disappointing when it arrived.
(4) it's not bad, if you order the right thing - not all stores have the build your own burger option so I have a couple of standard "go to" orders.
(5) the coffee is OK, although it's usually too hot to drink straight away.

 

Back on the "all day breakfast" thread topic though, like others I'd prefer to be able to order a Clubhouse Angus at 9:00am than a Massive McMuffin at 9:00pm, but if they do a deal where I can order a burger combo and swap the fries for hash browns, I'm in.

 

 

 

+1 on the hash brown/burger idea!

I quite like the Massive McMuffin though I always order it sans ketchup as I can't face ketchup with my breakfast. If they offered HP Sauce I might have that though!

The eggs can be variable: sometimes you get the order at just the right moment and get that great slightly firm/slightly runny zone that is just right - the goldilocks egg - but too often it is almost the equivalent of hard boiled.

Back in the olden days when they pre-cooked everything and stored it under heat lamps in styrofoam boxes (I do miss those boxes!) I always used to order a Quarter Pounder + Cheese with no pickles and no onion. This is because I detest raw onion and pickle on the one hand and on the other it meant they had to cook it from scratch so it was always fresh and hot! The new system is not as good - the burgers are often a bit lukewarm.

tdgeek:

 

ludez:

 

We eat mcdonalds maybe 3 or four times a year, it's very nice but man that stuff makes me feel so crap afterwards. Is also bloody expensive when you are paying for 3

 

 

Its a change, but remember to be near a food place 2 hours later, it just doesnt fill. 

 

I find breakfast does. If I have a Massive McMuffin, hash brown and OJ at 930 I usually need nothing more until supper time.

Of course, that is probably a million calories, a kilo of fat and a kilo of sugar...!

Geektastic: I quite like the Massive McMuffin though I always order it sans ketchup as I can't face ketchup with my breakfast. If they offered HP Sauce I might have that though! 

Hmm, I might have to try that no ketchup option - the Massive McMuffin is my usual breakfast order as it's tasty enough, and very good value compared to other options. And a MMcM+hash brown is "only" 699 calories, 41.9g total fats, 15.1g saturated fat and 5.2g sugar (according to McD's website).

They're trialing chicken at a few, hopefully it won't be too long. If you ask them nicely they might be able to make it with chicken for you.

While they don't have a gluten free bun, they offer a lettuce wrap option.

@geektastic I also cannot stand raw onion. The little ones they use on cheeseburgers are okay though

andrew027:

Geektastic: I quite like the Massive McMuffin though I always order it sans ketchup as I can't face ketchup with my breakfast. If they offered HP Sauce I might have that though! 

Hmm, I might have to try that no ketchup option - the Massive McMuffin is my usual breakfast order as it's tasty enough, and very good value compared to other options. And a MMcM+hash brown is "only" 699 calories, 41.9g total fats, 15.1g saturated fat and 5.2g sugar (according to McD's website).

Yabanize:

 

While they don't have a gluten free bun, they offer a lettuce wrap option.

 

Thanks. But without a gluten-free bun option, I'd be hesitant to eat it, for fear of cross-contamination. The staff at the Greenlane store were trained in correct handling procedures, and the burgers are prepared in a seperate gluten-free area. 

Burgers for breakfast would be my choice.

As for the quality of burgers a lot seems to depend upon the "chef". If they rush the cooking of the filling then the burger is usually terrible. Beef patties look microwaved - grey, soggy and tasteless - instead of hot, brown with a sheen of fat on the outside, and not overcooked in the middle.

In the last month I've had two fast food burgers:

• The worst McDonalds burger ever 11pm at night at the outlet at Taranaki St, Wellington, BP service station. It looked like it had been jumped on with very flat, stale bread. The chicken was unevenly cooked and the sauce not to my taste. The staff were sullen and the place needed a good clean.
• The best Burger King burger last week at midnight from the outlet at the Z service station by Wellington Airport. The tomato slices, lettuce and onion were so fresh. The beef patties were beautifully cooked. The bun was very good too. It was a good surprise after I hadn't been to BK for over a year because Turangi made me wait ~24 minutes for chips.

andrew027:

 

(2) it's going to be clean - I've never got food poisoning at McD's, and don't know anyone who has, and if you need a toilet stop it's usually a safer bet than a council toilet block or gas station. 

I worked at McDonalds for 4 years through highschool and university and this is very true, we were trained pretty thoroughly in cleaning and safe food handling procedures. It still amazes me how some people don't understand these basic concepts, like handling money with gloves on and then going back to handling food with those same gloves - THEY'RE NOT THERE TO PROTECT YOUR HANDS! I've even seen this sort of thing at big franchises like Muffin Break (and reported them to the council and their head office).

andrew027:

 

(3) you know what you're going to get - I've stopped at many randomly chosen places and picked something that looked good on the menu but was seriously disappointing when it arrived.

 

I very rarely eat McDonalds but it's usually when I first go away somewhere that I do for this exact reason, I know what I'll get - and then start trying other things once I've had a good look around.