Sunday, July 8, 2012

Danish McDonalds

I am not one that regularly attends McDonalds, but on the few occasions I do go, i tend to enjoy it. I remember in high school driving in old red to the nearest Mcdonalds to buy the nugget and french fries toonie deal, and driving between Vancouver and Calgary, stopping at McDonalds first thing in the morning to buy egg mcmuffins for the famous breakfast sandwich comparison (i like MdcDonalds the best, i think Ben may prefer Starbucks or Tim Hortons...)

That said, there are McDonalds in Denmark. And funnily enough, since we have moved to the suburbs, to a community called Søborg, I now live within a 2 minute walk to a McDonalds. I have though only been to the local McDonalds a handful of times - they do not offer my favourite item, the egg mcmuffin, on the menu. They still open at 9am in the morning, at which time you are welcome to buy a burger, etc. So, i have gone for chicken mcnuggets once and a happy meal another time...that is all.

So why the blog post today on McDonalds? I just ran 16km this morning - longest post CFA II run en route to the Berlin marathon at the end of September. 16km is nothing compared to what I was running before the Rotterdam marathon, but I was still feeling pretty proud.... like I owed myself something. So i decided I would treat myself to a Daim McFlurry. I walked the two minutes to McDonalds, ordered my McFlurry only to be told that they were sold out of that flavour. I did not care for smarties or magnum flavours so i just left.

No big deal you think....but it turns out that almost every time i go to a McDonalds in Denmark there is a problem. Here is a short history (almost all at unique locations).

1. Mcflurry. I REALLY wanted the Daim McFlurry today. And of course they are sold out. I don't think they have ever been sold out of a McFlurry type any time I have ordered one in Canada.

2. Coffee. We ordered some cappuccinos there once....10 minutes into waiting, the McDonalds service representative told us the machine was broken and we had to order something else. 10 minuets to tell us that? and broken?

3. Egg Mcmuffin. The main McDonalds at the busy Nørreport station had been rumored to have breakfast sandwhichs (Ben had one once), so one saturday morning we decided to make the trip down to get one. We arrived at about 9am, and were told that on that particular day, no, Mcdonalds was not serving breakfast. Apparently only certain staff were trained at preparing breakfast and none of them were working that day. Huh? Let me back there - i can make my own egg mcmuffin if you give me the supplies!

side note - i have been to mcdonalds and stockholm and helsinki for breakfast and have enjoyed an egg mcmuffin there....i am not sure what Danes have against the egg mcmuffin. it really is delicious.

4. McChicken sandwhich. I ordered a McChicken sandwhich - no big deal right? It took the staff 15 minutes to prepare it. After about 5 minutes I asked what the problem was. I was told that the 'McChicken' was the most complicated of the sandwhiches and required extra time to make. Really? the McDonalds staff in Canada seem to have it down pretty good.

5. Also I would like to comment on the long lineups at all of the McDonalds in Denmark. Especially Nørreport. They definitely lack a level of efficiency that is present in Canada.

6. One more difference between Denmark and Canada - no honey mustard sauce! My favourite for chicken mcnuggets! And all sauces, including ketchup, cost extra. There are no free flowing ketchup dispensers around the restaurant. And if any of you are familiar with the Big Mac Index, you will know that the Big Mac in Denmark is the fifth most costly Big Mac in the world at $5.37 US. Canada's Big Mac is not much cheaper - coming in at $4.63 in 8th place. But compared to some of the other Big Mac prices in the world - hot damn is Denmark (and Canada I guess) expensive!

At least i get ketchup included in Canada. 

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