Posted on 07/28/2019 1:29:08 AM PDT by NorseViking
The USSR got its first McDonald's in January 1990. On a recent trip to Russia, I visited the fast-food restaurant in Moscow. I found that the Moscow location of the fast-food restaurant was a step up from its counterparts in the US. The ordering process was streamlined, the food tasted fresher and more flavorful, and the space was cleaner.
On January 31, 1990, more than 30,000 people waited in line in the cold for hours to eat at the very first McDonald's in the USSR.
Now, the American fast-food chain has at least 650 locations throughout the country. McDonald's is thriving in Russia, with the number of restaurants growing 6% last year, as compared to the global average of 1.5%, The Wall Street Journal reported. And most of the restaurants in Russia cook with ingredients that are sourced from local Russian suppliers, according to the Journal.
On a recent trip to Russia, I ate at the first McDonald's to open in Moscow, and it was a step up from the locations I've visited in the US.
Here's what it was like.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Post #33
I can’t quite put my finger on it but there appears to be something in common in all those pictures.
Ditto and try 2 thin burgers sealed together with onions and some ‘cue sauce in the middle...
mmm mmm tasty.
“...food is generally less unadulterated.”
???
Ewwwwe to McDonalds, I’m a Chick-Fil-A cheerleader.
One major difference is smoking. Although there was "no smoking" signs everywhere like in the US. It was completely and utterly ignored and unenforced. People smoked everywhere, the lobby of the Hotel, every restaurant I went to, the office I was working in, shops and grocery stores. It was like the America I remembered from the 1970's. I actually asked a Russian friend about it, he laughed and said about a decade a go the Russian government passed a law "banning" smoking in public under pressure from international organizations. But he said since virtual all the members of the Russian Duma (parliament) were heavy smokers, they purposely worded the legislation so there was a fine for not posting the "No Smoking" signs, but no actual penalty for ignoring them. So he said when you see "No Smoking" in Russia, it's more a suggestion than a rule.
I guess I’m a Pollyanna. I’ve lived and traveled across this nation and found most of the people pretty good - maybe you hang in the wrong places and with the wrong people. I had to make a pit stop to use a bathroom on a 600 mile journey yesterday. We chose McD’s - the bathroom was clean as a whistle as they usually are except when they are at those travel rests with thousands of people marching through every day. Being reasonable, I cut them some slack when things get a bit messy.
On a family vacation, we stopped at a MacDonald’s in some random town in central Sicily many years back. We were on a main highway heading for the coast and I actually slammed on the brakes when I glimpsed the Golden Arches on a side road leading into the town. I’d never seen a McDonald’s in Sicily. For no other reason, I stopped there because they might actually have ICE! Ice in Sicily was a rare commodity...you hardly ever got more than one or two cubes in a drink. It was obvious the place was brand new. The food was great, and yes, we each got a tall, glorious soft drink full of crushed ice. The only odd thing...the restaurant was cobbled with a furniture store that you could enter directly off the McDonald’s counter lobby.
Besides the random McDonald’s on Sicily, I’ve been in McDonald’s in London, Paris and Rome. The one in Rome was in a basement and there were NO LINES...just a large gaggle of diners fighting to get to the counter to order. You had to be pushy to get to the cash register to place your order.
Excellent point!!!!!!!!
P.J. O'Rourke
the USSR was once described to me buy a Readiness and contingency planner as a third world country with a first-class military. So, perhaps Russia does have a lot of locally-produced goods whereas we in America tend to get our food from centrally-located areas and therefore shipped to outlying areas in great quantities.
“I ate breakfast at a McDonald’s in the Czech Republic a few years ago. Immaculately clean inside and out.”
I ate a double cheeseburger at a McDonald’s at a beach in South Carolina a couple of years ago and 2 hours later my bowels completely evacuated...
Cherry picking.
The McDonalds in my town is spotless, efficient, and comfortable. Of course, there is no bus/train service to deliver cheap labor from bad neighborhoods, so they are stuck with local kids and retired folks for employees.
The best Mc D’s I’ve had was in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.
I wrote a comment card and walked to the counter and asked for the manager. All of the employees seemed nervous as to what I was going to say. I handed him my card and they all were trying to see what I wrote over his shoulder.
Five stars for everything and a comment that it was the cleanest (flowers on the table!), best service and perfectly fresh food of any Mc D’s I’d ever been to.
KFC is nasty here. A bunch of grease soaked crust clinging to a scrawny piece of malnourished chicken. Even the cheap chicken in the supermarket has more meat on the bone.
One KFC I unfortunately went to the ladies room looked like someone cleaned a car engine in the sink; a regular pigsty.
Tune: “Back in the USSR” by The Beatles
I took a tour of Europe just the other week
then want on a Russian fling
I want to see the KremlIn and to Pushkin square
and there I saw the strangest thing
Big Macs in the USSR
You don’t know how yummy they are, boy
Big Macs in the USSR
10,000 Muscovites were standing in a line
while others looked at them and scoffed
I thought if Russian leaders had come here to dine
Would Gorby take the pickles off
Big Macs in the USSR
You don’t know how yummy they are, boy
Big Macs in the USSR
If this McDonalds does okay
They’ll give the west some room
There’ll be an Arby’s on the square
And pizza hut by Lenin’s t-t-t-t-t-t-tomb
So when I tell you there’s McDonald’s in red square
you’ll see these French Fries ain’t no joke
And now the politburo take a glass to toast
nostrovje with a diet coke
Big Macs in the USSR
You don’t know how yummy they are, boy
Big Macs in the USSR
Ate at a McDonalds in Salzburg, Austria, it was beautiful. Two stories and had chandeliers. The food was great and they had beer!
While I was stationed in Germany I never went to a McDonald’s. I thought “Hey, I’m in Germany, I should be enjoying local food whenever I eat out”.
Then I spent a weekend in Salzburg and it was quite hot out. I asked for a Coke at a Schnell Imbiss and they handed me a warm can! Seeing my expression the girl said, “You can get ice at the McDonald’s over there”.
Sure enough, a huge cup of ice, free. What a relief!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.