Open: By location/Sometimes 24 hours
My review on TripAdvisor:
McDonalds in the Paris Rail Station.
I have to give McDonald’s credit. Their Marketing & Sales Department really has the pulse on the nation right now. Jobs are pathetic, salaries have not risen with inflation or not at all and people are looking for something cheap and quick but still want quality. I think over the last four years I have seen a real improvement in McDonald’s food but again that depends on the individual restaurant and at what time of the day you go. For the most part I have seen an improvement in taste, speed and quality across the board.
The McDonalds in Punxsutawney, PA was open 24hours for the Groundhog’s Day festival.
The McDonalds in Union Station Washington DC is always busy.
When McDonald’s food has been sitting around, you can taste it but when a restaurant is busy the food is really hot and fresh and you can really taste it. When the fries are freshly cooked out of the fryer and salted properly, they are the best.
McDonald’s French Fries are the best
When a burger just comes off the grill and is still sizzling, the taste of the ground beef comes out. The best time to order a Sausage McMuffin with Egg is at 8:00pm.
The McDouble is always a treat
During Pre-Pandemic times, their new $1, $2 & $3 Menu, the latest promotion that has been rolled out, is marketing genius. People are really stuck these days with having to stay on a low budget but still want to go out to eat or need something reasonable on lunch hour. This new promotion is a great way to build the customer base and trade up. It has since replaced by the $3.99 Bundle promotion in select McDonalds.
Classic McDonald’s Hamburger
At the $1.00 level, you have a choice of a drink of any size (big deal in that the cost of soda is .03 cents a gallon), a Sausage Burrito, four chicken McNuggets (vastly improved) and a Cheeseburger.
At the $2.00 level you have a choice of a small McCafe drink (good deal) , two Buttermilk Chicken Tenders, a Bacon McDouble (really good) and a Sausage McGriddle (bypass).
At the $3.00 level, you can get a Happy Meal, a Sausage McMuffin with Egg (my favorite), a Classic Chicken Sandwich and a triple Cheeseburger.
The Double Cheeseburger Bundle is great!
Currently though I have noticed that the program is changing especially in New York City and the local surrounding suburbs.
The double cheeseburger makes a great snack.
The drinks have pretty stayed put on the $1.00 and $2.00 levels but sandwiches have replaced most everything on the $3.00 menu and new $3.00 bundles have been the replacement where you can get a double cheeseburger, a chicken sandwich or a fish sandwich with a small French Fries. Still reasonable but the menu has gotten much altered since 2019.
The new Promotion 2 for $3.00 bundles as the $1. $2 and $3 menu is phased out(this is now the $3.99 bundle).
They did raise the price of French Fries which may I add has one of the highest markups in the industry and everyone still order fries.
During the COVID pandemic era upon us, the bundle now has gone up to $3.99 for either a Double Cheeseburger, Six Chicken McNuggets (all white meat now) or a Chicken Sandwich with small fries. The drinks are still a dollar for any size, but I recommend the medium because how much soda do you need to drink.
Having been to about a dozen McDonald’s since the promotion has started I have noticed it has been a huge hit with the customers. I know that McDonald’s has taken some of this as a ‘loss leader’ and traded down but the one trend I have seen is that people are buying more items. I see myself doing it as well as I say “Wow, for $5.00 guess what I can buy and I will be filled up.” This is a slippery slope when you are trying to loose weight.
At a busy time though, everything tastes so good, it does not matter. When people are on a budget, you have to do what you need to do when getting something to eat. Not everyone can ‘brown-bag’ it to work and the average lunch in New York City can run between $10.00-$12.00 a day at the average restaurant. Add the fries into this mix and McDonald’s is doing what the supermarket industry has been doing for the last ten years, bundling up all the cheap items and making them look they are on sale (when they have always been that price).
Two Cheeseburgers with Medium Fries and a Coke at $7.99
Another good thing about the value menu is that you can taste a lot of their food items for a reasonable price and that is smart marketing. You can have small sample of the their Buttermilk Chicken Strips or their newly minted Chicken McNuggets with all white meal.
The best is the McCafe beverages which are only $2.00 for a small beverage. McDonald’s just brought back the ‘Shamrock Shake’ for St. Patrick’s Day and that minty green drink is really refreshing on a hot day as is the smoothie drinks in strawberry and mango. It gives a customer an opportunity to try them all.
I have to say that overall the food at McDonald’s has gotten better over the last five years. I don’t know if their purveyors have changed or just that they have put more emphasis into the quality of their food, but it does taste better.
The chicken sandwich ($1.00) is a very fair price for a meal item that is crisp and has a very nice spicy taste to it. I tried it in the River Edge, NJ McDonald’s and they did a nice job with it. It was very fresh and the bun was toasted properly. The sandwich is crisp on the outside with a little spice in the breading and is is juicy on the inside. When the sandwich is fresh, it has a nice bite to it.
I have had the Bacon McDouble in three separate McDonald’s in both New York and New Jersey and everyone has cooked it well. It has just the right amount of bacon on it and it is a fair price ($2.00) for a sandwich this size. The Cheeseburger is always consistent as well.
The regular McDouble and/or the Double Cheeseburger with a small French fry ($3.99) on the new $3.99 meal bundle was really good this afternoon. The burger just came off the grill and was still sizzling and the cheese was melted perfectly. I have noticed a consistency in the flavor of the burgers and over several McDonalds and the burgers have been very good.
The $3.99 Double Cheeseburger bundle
The fries just came out of the fryer and were super-hot and you could really taste the saltiness of them. The restaurant was really busy, and the food kept being made. I have tried this now at four different McDonald’s and the results were the same. It was fresh, hot and really good.
The Double Cheeseburger/McDouble
The McDouble is a great item in the $3.99 Bundle menu.
The Chicken McNuggets ($1.00 for four) are a vast improvement from when they were created. They are all white meat now and you can taste the difference from when they were ground up meat. When you bite into them you can see the meat. When they are cooked fresh, they are crisp and have a delicious flavor. Even the coating is not that thick and there is a good ratio of chicken to breading.
Chicken McNuggets are now all white meat
The $3.99 Six Piece Chicken McNugget meal was wonderful at the West 23rd Street restaurant in Manhattan
McDonald’s has also introduced a new version of McNuggets called the Spicy McNuggets and they really have nicely spiced flavor. They are better enhanced by their new Spicy Hot Sauce which does have some fire to it. Dipping the Spicy McNuggets into it and it adds to the heat.
Spicy McNuggets with the hot sauce
The Spicy Chicken McNuggets are now on the $3.99 bundle for a limited time and they are really good.
The Spicy Chicken Mc Nuggets taste really good with the barbecue sauce
I was recently in Pennsville, NJ and visited their McDonalds and they had a $3.99 mix and match. So, I ordered the four-piece chicken nuggets with a McDouble and a Medium Coke. It was more than enough food for lunch.
The $3.99 Mix and Match meal of a McDouble and four Chicken Mc Nuggets
I stopped in after class one night to the Union Square McDonald’s in New York City and the food is really good at this McDonalds. The manager is out front and she looks like she really cares. I had the McChicken Sandwich Bundle with French Fries and the meal was perfect. The chicken sandwich had just been fried and was crisp and juicy and the French Fries just came out of the fryer and were hot and salty when I bit into them. It is my late night favorite.
The McChicken and French Fries with a Coke makes the best late night snack
I was eating dinner at McDonalds the other night using a coupon that our local McDonalds had on a special, I had the new Fried Chicken Sandwich (to compete with Chick-fil-A), which was a nice sized fried breast on a soft roll with pickles. It was delicious and could compete with the chicken sandwich at its competitor.
The Fried Chicken Sandwich at McDonalds
The Sausage McMuffin with egg ($3.00) hands down my favorite item at McDonald’s when cooked properly is one of the best food items on the restaurant’s menu and one of the best breakfast items.
The $6.99 Sausage McMuffin Breakfast with a Hashbrown and Hot Tea
The Sausage McMuffin with Egg is my favorite item on the McDonald’s menu!
High in fat and cholesterol yes but still tastes the best when it is fresh. Their pork sausage is delicious and well spiced.
With beverages, a soda of any size is very fair and the small McCafe with its smoothies and coffee drinks is the perfect way to try all their drink selections at a very fair price ($2.00). Go for the Mango smoothie on a hot day. It is the best!.
One of the specialty drinks that I really enjoy, and it is seasonal is the Shamrock Shake (Small $2.99 and Medium is $4.29). It is pricey for a milkshake, but it is always fun to get when St. Patrick’s Day comes around. I like the mint flavor and the consistency has changed since they went to using yogurt as a base instead of ice cream. It has a creamy consistency as all of their milkshakes have and the sweet minty flavor puts you in the holiday mood.
The Shamrock Shake is worth the trip when it is in season.
The Shamrock Shake is great with a McBundle meal.
The Shamrock Shake is a much anticipated treat every year.
Another shake that recently came out in 2023 was Grimace’s Birthday Shake, a creamy blend of berries and yogurt that makes the purple shake. It is matched with several combination meals, but I had to try it on its own. On a hot day, it hit the spot. It’s not cheap with a medium being $4.99 but for a limited time it was worth it.
The Grimace’s Birthday Shake, a purple berry shake
Whether it be a strawberry or a vanilla shake, McDonalds has improved on their shakes since I was a kid. When I have an upset stomach, the McDonald’s Vanilla shake cures all. They are the best!
The Vanilla Shake is also wonderful and very refreshing
Another item while not on the Dollar Menu or the Bundles that is served at certain times of the year is the McRib sandwich. I swear I had not eaten one of these in over twenty years. The sandwich is a boneless piece of pork shaped into a rib like appearance and then smothered in barbecue sauce, pickles and onions. A little on the pricey side at $5.95 for a sandwich it was not bad. The barbecue sauce had a nice sweet flavor to it.
The McRib Sandwich
I was recently in Abu Dhabi for a class I was taking at NYU and tried an item not available in the states, the McArabia Chicken Sandwich. It is two baked chicken patties with lettuce, tomato and sauce tucked into a pita bread studded with parsley. It was delicious and could be a big hit if it ever came to the States.
The McArabia Chicken Sandwich available in Abu Dhabi.
The McArabia Chicken Sandwich meal at McDonalds in the Middle East.
McDonald’s has also now introduced a new line of breakfast baked items. There are cinnamon buns, apple fritters and blueberry muffins. The apple fritter I had at an upstate McDonald’s was really good. The pastry was studded with small pieces of apples and had a nice sweet glaze. It will be fun to try the other items soon.
On a recent trip to the McDonalds in Manhattan, I tried one of their new Blueberry Cream pies for dessert ($1.79) and I thought it was pretty good. I wish it had been a bit fresher but still the taste was delicious. The Classic Hot Apple Pies I still love but I miss them when they were fried. They tasted so good!
The new baked Blueberry Cream pie is worth the visit
The classic Baked Apple Pie is still wonderful and reminds me of my childhood. Then it was fried and was delicious back then as well.
McDonald’s came up with another new sweet dessert that has been featured aboard and that is the new Chocolate Cream pie. It is a really good. It tastes like a Devil Dog or Ring Ding. It is a chocolate cake fill with a rich cream filling and topped with sugar granules. It was sweet and delicious.
The ‘new’ Chocolate Cream pie was introduced as a tester in the United States.
The cream filled chocolate pie is delicious.
What was really good for the holidays is the limited edition ‘Holiday Pie’ that they created for Christmas. This sweet cream filled pie was delicious and was filled with a vanilla cream and topped with a flavorful level icing with sprinkles on top. It is nice way to start the holidays.
The limited edition ‘Holiday Pie’
The Yum factor!
My hats off to McDonald’s, the only national chain for making the cut in “DiningonaShoeStringinNYC”. The food at most of the McDonalds I have tried is consistent and the flavor and quality of the food has gotten better over the last five years.
They are doing a good job to adapting to the customers needs.
Dining on a Shoestring in the New York City area and beyond. 