Chris Lay
Chicago’s West Loop is one of the most foodie-focused neighborhoods in the Midwest. The stretch of Randolph Street that runs a dozen blocks between Halsted Street and Ogden Avenue is home to Girl and the Goat, Bad Hunter, Au Cheval and others. The most recent addition to that list might surprise you: McDonald’s!
Earlier this year, the burger behemoth relocated its headquarters from Oak Brook, Illinois, to within sesame seed-spitting distance of Chicago’s fast-rising culinary royalty and opened the “McDonald’s Global Menu” restaurant in the lobby of 110 N. Carpenter St.
This is the most technologically sophisticated McDonald’s I have ever set foot in. The ruby-red-tinted doors slide open as you walk past the outside seating. To order, you hunt and peck your way through a touchscreen menu and grab a number to take to your seat while your food is prepared and delivered.
There are lots of bells and whistles, sure, but why would this McDonald’s warrant not only a visit, much less a write-up in Isthmus, a publication located 150 miles away?
It’s because this location serves a handful of items available at international McDonald’s: the Mighty Angus burger from Canada, the McSpicy chicken sandwich from Hong Kong, the Mozza salad from France, the cheese and bacon loaded fries from Australia, and the McFlurry Prestígio from Brazil. This is the only U.S. location with these globetrotters on the menu.
I’m the sort of red-blooded American who will be forever beholden to fast food novelty, and this was worth making a pilgrimage for.
How did it all stack up? Well, if you’re already turned off by the idea of McDonald’s in general, these items are not going to convert you. For everyone else, though, there will likely be at least one thing worth trying.
The cheese and bacon loaded fries were a solid enough starter, though like just about every other “global” menu item, they lack the sort of flavor that might connect the food to its purported country of origin. Cheese and bacon on fries? It tastes great, but it’s not quite shrimp fresh off the barbie now, is it? A sort of poor man’s poutine, it was simple in its execution: a small-ish order of those trademark thin-cut fries coated with a layer of sticky cheese sauce topped with a dash of gummy bacon bits.
Chris Lay
If this is the McFlurry Prestígio, we must be in Brazil. Or the West Loop.
The Mozza salad was described as hailing from France, but showed up on the receipt as being Italian. Calling thick, starchy noodles slipping around in oily dressing a “salad” is only gonna get ya so far. However, the lone but massive lump of mozzarella and a decent helping of roasted tomatoes were the sweet surprise that elevated this to being very nearly worth its quadruple digit calorie count, and that’s with a low-fat dressing.
Of all the items I ate, the Mighty Angus burger was the one I would most immediately recommend. It’s basically just a one-third pound bacon cheeseburger, with the most notable addition being a thin application of “Angus sauce.” What little sauce there was packed a potent smoky flavor.
The McSpicy chicken sandwich has been getting the most press, and it’s well-earned. I have in the past gone to bat for the dollar menu McChicken sandwich as an example of a near perfect fast food item, so the McSpicy chicken comes from a decent pedigree. The breading on the Hong Kong is crispier, not unlike a McNugget, though the “spice” was negligible.
The McFlurry Prestígio was thin and soupy as soon as it hit the table and just got worse as the meal wore on. Maybe McFlurries are different in Brazil? The strawberry sauce and chocolate-covered coconut bites (possibly a specific brand of candy found south of the equator?) made for a complex textural experience, but thicken it up or don’t call it a McFlurry.
This inaugural menu struck me as tame and toned down for American taste buds. McDonald’s should have come out swinging with entrees like Japan’s Ebi Filet-O Shrimp sandwich, Germany’s McNürnburger bratwurst sandwich, and China’s Mashed Potato Beef Burger (WHAT?).
Overall, my trip to McDonald’s Global Menu Restaurant was... fine. Should you stop by and taste the rainbow of saturated fats that have been assembled from around the world? Sure! You should at least scope out the touch screens that will supposedly be installed nationwide over the next few years, and snag a pastry from the case of fancy baked goods.
Me? Before making a return visit, I’m holding out until maybe the Chicken McDo with McSpaghetti arrives from the Philippines or the Spicy Paneer Wrap makes it over from India.