McDonald’s is a well known American fast food chain across the world. It has a huge presence in Japan, particularly in the big cities. The menu is on par with what you expect at other McDonald’s (or Maccas as Australians called it). The prices are on par with Australian prices, but I found the burgers and the serving sizes to be generally on the smaller end.
I admit that McDonald’s would not be my first choice given that there are so many incredible Japanese fast food outlets like Yoshinoya, CoCo Ichiban, Mos Burger and Lotteria. But iff you need a snack and want to see what it is like to try McDonald’s in a different country, I think it is worth a visit.
For me at least, I always feel bad after eating fast food. It doesn’t quite go down well and I always get this lingering weakness for a few hours. Whereas, I don’t know how others do it. Other people seem to stomach it down better than me and walk away feeling all the better. (They must have stomachs of steel.) With McDonald’s in Japan, I can safely say that the feeling bad after eating is less prominent after eating their burgers and snacks.
On one of the occasions that we visited, we picked up a Shaka Shaka Chicken, Chicken Cheese Burger and McPork Burger.
The Shaka Shaka Chicken was a fillet of chicken with a seasoning sachet. You simply put the seasoning into the paper bag, shake the seasoning around the bag and then tear on the dotted line and eat the chicken. There is no guarantee that you will evenly spread the seasoning around the whole chicken, but at least the seasoning sticks quite easily on the chicken. Upon opening the bag, my Shaka Shaka Chicken ended up having seasoning bunched in one section. (It still tasted fine.) The seasoning changes from time to time, including barbecue, pepper and cheese flavors.
The Chicken Cheese Burger was simply a smaller McChicken patty, mayonnaise, lettuce and a slice of cheese. It was a small burger and was similar to the Australian equivalent.
Their Ginger Pork Burger was a special menu item at the time. It had a nice sweet and salty glaze and came with a nice peppery sauce.
McDonald’s burgers in Japan range from 100 yen to 500 yen, whereas in Australia the range is from AUD$2 to $8. The burgers are cheaper than in Australia, but they are also smaller. One thing to keep in mind is that the Australian menu has heaps of beef options, including the thick angus patties, while the Japanese menu has a wider meat and seafood menu.
Their Teriyaki Chicken and Shrimp Burgers are worth a try. The teriyaki sauce definitely hits the mark and it is delicious. You should definitely give it a go. Their shrimp burger was nice, but I don’t remember it as fondly as their teriyaki options.
In Japan in particular, it was also really nice to see new young entrances to the workforce work together with older retirees. It pays to work with people with life experience and at the same time, older people get to see and hear what young people are into nowadays.
One cool perk with McDonald’s in Japan is that when the restaurant is not busy, the servers will actually get you to take your seat and they will bring the food to your table. This happened a few times, so we didn’t think it was a one off.
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