Fine Dining - The Oldest McDonald's Still in Operation (It Has a MUSEUM!!)

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

🍔🏛️ The Oldest McDonald's: Fried Apple Pies, Speedee, and Ray Kroc History 🏛️🍔 We're going back in time! Everyone's favorite recurring guest VyVy Nguyen (@cest_la_vyvy) joins me at the oldest operating McDonald's, the historic Downey, California location that's still rocking the original Speedee mascot, has its own museum, and most importantly, STILL FRIES ITS APPLE PIES. We're also here on official Septemburger 2026 business, finding three burgers worthy (?) of representing the Golden Arches when they face Fatburger. 🏛️ We Explore the Museum at the Oldest Operating McDonald's 👨‍🍳 Speedee Lives! The Pre-Ronald McDonald Mascot Is Still on the Sign 🥧 FRIED Apple Pies Still Exist in Downey! 🍔 Big Mac, Deluxe Quarter Pounder, & the Kid's Hamburger for Septemburger 🍟 McDonald's Fries Are Great...Until Time Passes 🎁 Our Happy Meals Come with BTS-Inspired Toys 🐔 Chicken McNuggets & McCrispy Strips Both Leave Us Wanting More 🤔 VyVy and I Have VERY Different Reads on the Service We Received 💰 We Revisit Just How Cutthroat Ray Kroc Was 💬 COMMENT BELOW: Which McDonald's burger should represent the Golden Arches in Septemburger 2026? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY:🎉 Patreon (Bonus episodes, extended Yelp segments & more): patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Food talk, memes, cursed Yelp): discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes: youtube.com/channel/UCLbraNhL6KhDPkdSWt2yiuw 🔗 All links: linktree.com/finediningpodcast 🎤 Guest: VyVy Nguyen | IG: @cest_la_vyvy Patreon Producers:Sue Ornelas, Joyce Van, & Robert McLaughlin Patreon Subscribers:David Ornelas, Kellie Baldwin, Jeremy Horwitz, Herbert Amaya, Simone Davalos, Scott Bennett, Amy Reinhart, Josef Castaneda-Liles, Travis Langley, & Michelle Elmer Free Patreon Followers:Joe Warszalek, Lauren Cummings, Grace Krainak, Keri Estes, Robert Duran, Patrick Elliott, Dave Plummer, Nicholas Volney, Michael Gerard, Tracy Molino, Phuong Duong, Tyler Robinson, Brandon Gully, Mason Cruz, Michael Milito, Mez, Aaron Hubbard, Steff, Renae Michael, Crystal C., NiZ, Science Broe, Jahid Ahmed, Jewell Hermann, Macky Markar, Morawski4, Kellie Bowes, Debra Ramsey, Jorge Gabriel Méndez Arrambide, & James BacKHouse 👉 NEXT WEEK: It's McDonald's vs. Fatburger in the last first-round match of Septemburger 2026! 🍔⚔️ One burger advances, one goes home, and the bracket gets one step closer to crowning this year's champion.

Is a McDonald's from 1958 better than a modern one? We drove down to Downey, California to go to the third McDonald's ever built, and the oldest one is still in operation. It's a historical landmark that's even attached to a museum, showcasing a stroll-down McMemory lane. But what's it like to eat there? The deep-fried apple pie is served year-round and is delicious compared to its baked counterpart, but the menu is still literally modern McDonald's food, which is to say, not a good. Not exactly impressive.

The historic museum reminded me of all the positive ways McDonald's has influenced my life, but the lack of air conditioning had us melting faster than our Oreo McFlurry. The Golden Arch frame around the building got the fast food nerd and me to jump out of my seat before I even parked the car, but the McChrispy Chicken Tender was one of the worst fast food products I've ever tasted. This week on the show, I'll sneak an extra bun of knowledge between your already two buns burger of curiosity so that you two may know everything I've learned about this historic McDonald's. Then we'll give it a full review covering everything that was good, not good, and just there about it before seeing if it advances on in the September Ger tournament.

This is the Fine Dining Podcast. Look at the Milbus Burger. I can see that hunger. It's in your... Hello, and welcome to the Fine Dining Podcast, the quest to compare all restaurants to Chili's. I am your host, Michael Ornellis, and this is the podcast where we dive deep into the history of your favorite restaurants and then thoroughly review them by comparing them to Chili's, the pinnacle of mediocrity. This week, we're covering the number eight seed, the underdogiest participant in this year's September or tournament, McDonald's. But not just any McDonald's, the oldest one's still in operation. And joining me to evaluate it is one of my favorite recurring guests on the podcast.

You know her, you love her from her rapping on the Chili's episode of the show. And she's the human equivalent to the feeling of all you get when you see fireworks for the first time as a young child, it's Vivi Nguyen. Aw, that's so nice. What a welcome back. I hated fireworks when I first. Oh, yeah, yeah. You had fear.

Blow your hand up. How are you doing? I'm good. Thanks for having me back. I've missed you all. Thank you for doing a road trip with me. Oh, thank you. Thanks for driving.

It wasn't too far. It wasn't too bad. What is your history personally with this brand? I have a deep history with McDonald's. And when you reached out to me being like, do you want to do September with me and you gave me some options, I was actually really excited when. You were stoked. I was like, you're like, McDonald's if no one else is taking it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wasn't sure if anyone else would be as excited as I was. But yeah, I love McDonald's. Growing up, my parents and I, whenever we did a road trip, we stop at McDonald's. I was really into the patini, beanie craze. Yeah. That was huge for me. And just even now when I travel internationally,

I like to try all the different menu items in different countries. Yeah, I had McDonald's in a European country. I don't remember which one, but I did like a kind of a whirlwind tour as part of a band, like a high school concert band. Okay. In 2005, or 2004. I was 15. Okay.

And just went through a bunch of countries. I think we did like eight countries in three weeks or something like that. Okay. And I remember going into McDonald's and I expected it to be the same and it wasn't. So I didn't like it. Okay. But that doesn't mean it was worse. It just means it wasn't what I was expecting.

I think the thing people like about fast food is the fact that it's consistent from location to location. Sure. That's the promise that it makes. And when it isn't, it's upsetting. And it often doesn't. because like there's good locations. Like there's a good McDonald's. There's a bad McDonald's.

There's good Wendy's. I feel like it's also consistent for their palate out there. They've probably adjusted. Sure, sure, sure. I'm talking about me as the diner, my expectation and why I wouldn't have liked it. Okay. I'm not saying that they're wrong for doing it the way they did it. I'm just saying it tasted different and therefore I checked out.

Okay. Yeah. I'm all about trying the unique food items from the respective country. So when I was in Thailand, instead of apple pie, they have corn pie, which is delicious. I am not surprised about that. Okay. I love corn off the cob. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like cream corn, but in an apple pie crust, so good. They also had pineapple pie, which I feel like is a little more on brand in terms of if you're growing like tropical fruit in a pie. It makes me think of Jolly Bees mango peach pan pie, which is also a delight. Totally delicious. Yeah. But when I was in Italy, they had fried shrimp. which was not in a pie not in a pie okay although that would be I would try that just out of novelty I would stay so far away from that okay there's there's got to be a reason it's on the menu

sometimes people ask why not and they just try something yeah yeah so I love to do that I feel like there's also fun sauces in Portugal they have like a mayonnaise with garlic okay That just seems like aoli. But we don't have that at our McDonald's. No. But I love trying. American corporations historically care about their clientele less than any other country. Fair enough.

Yeah. Both our well-being and our enjoyment. Yeah. And then my history with McDonald's is it used to be my reward. Like I loved McDonald's and I would ask like, mom, I was good this weekend. Can we get McDonald's? She was like, you were good like four days this week. And I was like, yeah.

Wait, what were you doing the other three days? I was just, uh, I stood my ground always. That's a nice way to put it. And so I would argue when stuff doesn't make sense to me and my parents would default to because I'm your parents a lot. And for a young inquisitive mind trying to understand the inner workings of the world, sometimes you want reason. And when you're not given reason, that angers you. Your mom's going to be listening to this. And you rage.

No, she knows. Okay. Okay. These are not discussions we haven't had as adults. Yeah, yeah. There's going to be some major conversations after this. Yeah. Okay.

No, I just, I don't think because I'm your parent. And like, now as an adult, I'm like, that's all you need to give the kid. But if they're asking for more in the interest of fairness, just explain yourself. Yeah. And be ready for them to, like, argue back if your reason is, I just don't want to. I just don't want to. you to the movies tonight. I just don't. I'm tired. You know? Yeah. You'll accept that. No, I wouldn't have. I would have been like, come on, rally.

Drink some coffee. Anyways, that's my history with McDonald's. Your history. Do you want to hear the history? Not just of McDonald's, but of this McDonald's. Oh, in that case. Yeah. This specific one we wanted. Dang. Okay. All right, we're going to jump into this week's Eat Deeps. Eatery Detail. Richard and Maurice McDonald turned their original San Bernardino drive-in into the stripped-down, speedy service system in 1948 with walk-up service, an assembly line kitchen, and 15-cent hamburgers. As they began franchising, Roger Williams and Burdette, Bud, Landon, opened the Downey stand on August 18, 1953, the third restaurant in the Young Chain and second franchise licensed by the brothers.

It is now the oldest operating McDonald's in the world. Speedy with four E's. Speedy. D. Yeah. What was it that made misspelling stuff charming? They still do it. They still do it.

And it bothers me so much when I see apostrophe Z because I just hate that stylistic choice so much. It's just giving like X games 2001. Yeah, you're so energy. We're extreme. So we're doing it with X's and Z's. And I'm just like, it's dumb. I don't like. We're not doing that anymore.

Yeah. But I like Speedy, the mascot. I think he's really cute. Really big head. Oh, yeah. I mean. He's got a very large head. That's kind of all he is.

He's like 80% head. Well, you dressed up for the McDonald's breakfast episode as Ronald McDonald's. Yeah. And I was kind of curious initially if you were going to dress up for this one. Nah. Nah. Nah. That's okay.

Probably for the best. But I'm sure I made jokes that made you grimace. Wow. Wow. Like that one. Yeah. Hey. Successful. Yeah. Or I could have just had like a big baby head and been the hamburger. Oh yeah, because they changed him to look more young, huh? They changed them to be less anti-semitic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that too. That old thing. Yeah. And they had a doll in the museum of the hamburger and it was the pre-baby. Oh, I don't think I saw that. Yeah. It was interesting. Ray Kroc, we all know who that is, didn't create McDonald's. He was a milkshake multi-mixer salesman who became. became fascinated with the Brothers operation in 1954, then became their national franchising agent, and eventually bought them out for $2.7 million in 1961, although they got to keep the original store.

He did, however, forced them to rename it after a bitter legal dispute, and eventually it became the Big M. The Downey Locations franchise agreement predated Crocs Company, so it remained outside the McDonald's corporate system until 1990, a major reason it escaped decades of mandated remodeling. The Big M. Yeah. Imagine if that. That was my nickname in high school.

Oh, I like it. Also not true. The little V. Little V. The Big M. Yeah. We're like a little duo now. Superhero duo.

Letter-based names. Yeah. Yeah. There is more to the story, though, of not only did he force them to change their name like because the restaurant was called McDonald's and he was like um excuse me i own McDonald's now you can have the restaurant you can't have the name jeez which is so cutthroat and crazy and then to make matters worse he opens up an actual McDonald's now like a block away to drive them out of business oh my gosh and it succeeded wait but they still exist those that they went out of business

The San Bernardino one. The original. Oh, got a guy. The original. Not the downy one. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Got it. So the original one owned by the brothers. Hence why they're the third oldest. Hence why this one, the third location is the oldest still in operation. Yeah. The OG is gone. Yeah. And then it was able to keep its architecture because it wasn't in the McDonald's corporate system until 1990.

So they didn't have to abide by the remodeling. Which worked out great. Yeah. And now it's, we'll get into it. But now it's important. It's noteworthy. It's historic. Yeah.

The golden arches on the McDonald's building began as an architectural choice, not a logo. The brothers wanted architect Stanley Clark Meston's red and white googie stand to catch the attention of speeding motorists. Dick McDonald pushed for giant parabolic arches, which a sign maker illuminated with yellow neon. Downey still has the original building design, plus its spectacular 60-foot 1959 roadside arch topped by speedy. the winking chef who was McDonald's first mascot and personified the speedy service system years before Ronald the clown existed. It's a really lovely McDonald's, the architecture. Something about the charm of that era. And it's like I wouldn't love it if everything from that era stayed around and it's just like society just kind of still looks that way.

But having little pockets of it here and there is so cool to be able to go escape to. Like it's a vibe where like I love like a 50s themed diner. Totally. And I've seen pictures too of this location at night. And the way it's lit up also looks gorgeous. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah.

We went during the day. So we didn't get to see that part of it. But at night it's lit up with all the neon. And it feels of a different time for sure. The museum is like in 1980s McDonald's fever dream. Its memorabilia gives context to oddities like the McDLT. the mid-80s burger whose enormous two-compartment polystyrene box kept the beef hot and the lettuce and tomato cool until customers assembled it themselves. A pre-Sinfeld Jason Alexander famously sang and danced in its ads and the packaging became a symbol of McDonald's environmental headache over foam.

Then there's Mack Tonight, the sunglasses wearing literal moonheaded pianist created in Southern California to boost dinner traffic, whose Mac the Knife-inspired campaign proves successful enough to go. National in 1987 and get him featured in 27 ads. McDLT. McDilT was a shorthand, and this is how I learned about it. My high school physics teacher, Mr. Massage, was teaching us an equation that was either M equals C delta T or MC equals delta T or something like that. Clearly didn't teach you well.

This was so long ago. I'm kidding. I know. I don't remember anything for physics. I have not been applying physics. We live physics. In a equation form in my life. Okay, all right.

And then he showed us the McDilT commercial of Jason Alexander dancing as a way for it to like sink in and to remember it. Oh, that's great. He also would pass judgment on people by saying, I bet you eat sun chips. As like an insult? Yeah. Like you seem like the type two enjoy sun chips. I love sun chips. Yeah.

Makes sense. Says a lot about you. That's fine. Yeah. And do you remember Mac tonight? Yeah, I do. I don't at all. You were a baby.

Or did you even exist? He came from 87. I don't know that young. I was born in 88, but also. Yeah. I mean. Why would you remember that? I vaguely remember it because he was just so distinct looking.

Well, and he was Southern California. Yes. I am from Southern California. I was born in Chicago and then raised in Austin. So I didn't come out here until 2012. Sure. Yeah. There's no reason why you would know him.

Yeah, they had the ads out here to promote McDonald's. McDonald's late night go buy food after dark. So he was like he was the the then equivalent of Taco Bell pushing fourth meal. Yeah, exactly. Okay. But he was. But he did it with jazz. Yeah.

He played the piano, I think. And he had a big crescent moon face, which was just so memorable. Yeah. A little unsettling, but I guess that works too. I mean, you look at the iconography in like children's books. It's no further from stuff like. that. Yeah.

But the problem was he was targeting adults. Like, it is specifically like adults go out and eat. Sure. Yeah. Don't have your child come McDonald's at 1 a.m. McDonald's after dark. What happens there? Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.

Like, that's where we cut. That's good. That's good. The museum also features the fabled teeny beanie happy meal toys. McDonald's ordered roughly 100 million teeny beanie babies for its 1997 happy meal promotion and was already running short within days. Happy meal sales doubled during that first promotion, and the 1998 sequel got so chaotic

that police were summoned to at least one store. Oh, man, I was such a sucker for Beanie Babies. I was in that craze. Me too. And I'm from Chicago where TY was from. Wait, TY, are we supposed to say TY? I was called TIE. I heard it both ways.

Okay, all right. But, oh, my God. I feel really bad because I convinced my parents it was a good investment opportunity to buy all these Beanie babies. And they believed it? Apparently, and they should not have been taking financial advice from an eight-year-old. So that's kind of on them. But you had a little briefcase, so they trusted you.

But you had like one of those like 80s cell phones with like the huge brick cell phone. I wish. That was cool. Listen, mom, we got to talk stock. Look at it. Got to invest. But I still have my teeny beanies in their original plastic bags too. I feel like in the bags might be worth something. Maybe. I never took them out.

I never even played with them, which is such a sad thing because I was like, we're going to sell these someday. And we're going to be rich. It's going to pay for my colleagues. We're going to scrooge McDuck into a vault full of gold coins because of these teeny beanies one day. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, McDonald's closed the Downey location and sought to demolish it. The L.A. Conservancy, Downey Historical Society, National Trust for Historic, prevention and California Governor Pete Wilson joined the preservation fight. McDonald's ultimately restored it and reopened it in December 1996,

adding the neighboring museum designed as a replica of the McDonald's brothers' old San Bernardino stand. As of 2026, the Lakewood Boulevard McDonald's is still a functioning restaurant, essentially a working piece of fast food archaeology rather than a museum facade with a fake kitchen behind it. That's a lot of people fighting to preserve this. Yeah. They rallied the troops. That's nice. And they were like, all right, I guess we'll rebuild it. And like genuinely, I think they're better off for having it.

I think so. It's not like, it's just an interesting piece of history. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely stuck in a moment in time. And it's great. It's a really cool visit. Yeah. It's a cool stop. Don't expect the food to be great. And just don't go on a 93 degree day. Yeah. And that'll do it. For this week's eat deeds. Let's talk about, first off, the things we liked.

Let's jump into everything that was good. I mean, undeniably so, the historic nostalgic vibes were just cool. I got genuinely excited pulling up and seeing the sign from afar. Yeah, pulling in with the car. And you're just like, oh, this giant arch. That doesn't look like every other McDonald's arch, but it's, it's its own, unique thing. It's got speedy on it. It is towering. It is a massive piece of real estate takes up the entire corner and it should, you know? It deserves it. It deserves it. It outlasted all the

other McDonald's. Yeah. It defied Ray Kroc. It defied corporate mandates. Take that Kroc. It survived an earthquake that it didn't survive. It had to overcome a lot. And. Adversia. City. Yes, we love an underd-a-N-Vercity. That just sounds like school you go to to learn how to work at McDonald's. How to make patties. Yeah. I also, I love the architecture so much.

And the museum was really cute as well. Yeah. It had a lot of cool displays and their old menu, the original menu from back in when the burgers were 15 cents. Yeah. Also hurt me to see those prices. You're like, man, what a time. What a time. They have like the original machine that Ray Crock would sell to like multi-mixer.

What was this position? Milkshake multi-mixer salesman. Wow, that's a mouthful. Yeah. I think just multi-mixer salesman. I added the word milkshake for context. Oh, but I like it. Yeah.

Little eleration. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And for this location being not that affiliated with Ray Crock, there was still a lot of Ray Crock in the museum. I feel you can't avoid that.

You can't, yeah. Yeah, it was like a cool little space. walk through and they had, it's kind of two separate areas. There's the dining area where they have the recreation of the stand. Yes, a little cashier, two cash, yeah, dressed in the old uniforms. With like the old cash registers, they have classic McDonald's pins. They've got magazine covers. That's where they have the teeny beanies. They've got a bunch of very sun. Sun faded, sun worn. Those are not worth money. No, those are not a good investment. Take it from her. My briefcase. Child investor. They had a lot of like mugs that I was like genuinely, I would love that. Sure. I would have that little grimace mug. I was like, if we broke this glass. They know. And they do know because they had a sign that was like constantly under surveillance. Yeah, the downy police are with a phone call away. So you cannot really, I feel like we could do a heist. I feel like it would be possible. Let's not plan it on video.

Okay, we'll do it off video. I've got the blueprint. You're going to see some news report later. There's a vent here. You can fit an event. Yeah, I would get Winnie the Poohd. I'd get stuck in that. I'd be all legs.

I thought for a second, you were just going to lose your pants. I thought that's what you went first. I don't know if I would have worn pants in the first place. So you would have been Winnie the Pooh and then been Winnie the Poohed. Yeah. God, that is, when you think about Winnie the Pooh being naked from the waist down and getting stuck from the waist up in a tree. Anyone recreating that IRL is making a haunting discovery for whoever finds them.

That's just, all right. Yeah, no comment. Then there's a second area that's in back that has a bunch of glass cases and some more, like, written either articles, newspaper clippings or some context that they've added to what. you're looking at. This is where they have Ray Crock stuff. This is where they have the McDilT container. Yeah, the little container is still there. They have like a separate room that looks almost like a humidor, like a wine cellar with Mack Tonight. Yes. He looked like he was in a little recording booth. And it looked the most pristine as a result of being stored out of the way. Because apparently that was the original suit he wore. Yeah. The doors that you walk through are from the

Elk Grove location of McDonald's and it was like custom carved wood. Yeah. Where the McDonald's logo was in little probably like six by six squares repeating. It felt very kind of medieval almost. It was really neat. Put some real care into those doors. Yeah. Although in the corner, do you remember there was in a corner display?

Empty. It was completely empty. Someone else had heisted. Yeah, they beat us to it. But we didn't know what was there. We were really curious. Yeah. What's going on over there?

No. No. That's dead. No. I want to bring it back. No. I'll play the song, but not the video for it. You don't even have to. I'll play the song, not the video, but the song, but we have to create the video that goes on. So three, two, one. We killed that. Yeah. That was great. Although crazily, that's not the first McDonald's museum I've been to. Have you been to the one in San Bernardino? Or is there another one?

There's another one in Pennsylvania. It's actually a Big Mac museum. Oh, how specific. Because I guess the Big Mac was started at a franchise out in Pennsylvania. And so the McDonald's there has a mini museum chronicling the history of the Big Mac, which is cute. And they have a giant Big Mac like statue. Oh, okay. They claims the biggest Big Mac in the world, I guess. That doesn't count.

It's probably as tall as you are, but it's kind of fun. That doesn't count. What do you mean? It has to be a working, it has to be a edible Big Mac. Yeah. I mean, I'm thinking in terms of like when people try and enter the Guinness Book of World Records and it's like largest pizza, it has to be an edible. I don't think they're claiming it's the biggest edible. In terms of world records, yes.

Maybe we could try eating it. But that also, if it's only as tall as me, that seems beatable. Yeah, I feel like we could just construct one. Because I'm a short king. Are you? I don't think so. I'm an average king. Yeah.

I'm 5'9. Yeah, that's already above average. I think the average American male is 5.7? I don't know. Okay. I don't keep trying. That's okay. The fried apple pie was... Oh, my God.

That goes in the good, right? Yeah, it was cool, too. So when we showed up, we did ask, there was a woman mopping. She was an employee, not just a random woman, imagine. And we asked her what was maybe unique about the menu here. And she said that the apple pies here were still fried because they had stopped doing that in the States in 92. Is that correct? Something like that, yeah.

Yeah. So it's baked now if you go to a McDonald's. Yeah, which I do love the baked apple pie. And it was interesting because I was insisting that, oh, the fried apple pie, that was my favorite thing. That's what I grew up on. And then I realized they just continued it in 92. And I don't remember having it pre like 95. And so what I do have nostalgia for is the baked apple pie. But they have changed it. Like it used to be all encompassed. And now they have like, I think because people have gotten burned biting into it. They have like a lattice cut pattern on it now. So to get some. It errs out, but it does affect it. And then obviously, like, ingredients and stuff like that have changed out the years in terms of, like, the specific providers they use for certain ingredients. I feel like there's less filling. Everything used to be better. Yes.

We're in the process of, like, the mass ciscoification of everything. Yeah. Yeah. But the fried apple pie was delicious. Yeah, back to that. Fried apple pie was truly a delight. And the way the crust is, too, because the baked apple pie feels flakier and a little messier. And this one just, it bites.

This is like bubbly. Yeah. It's got like the bubbles from like being burned. It blistered, essentially. A little bit. We created little pie crust blisters. It tasted like county fair food. In the best way.

In the best way. Delicious. I went eight out of ten for the fried apple pie. I give the fried apple pie a nine point two four. Nine point two four. Yeah, pretty dang high. Wow. I think I maybe would have gotten a little higher, but the only thing is we ate all the savory things first, mostly.

And I'd like to save sweet for the end. And by that point, it had cooled. And I, the first thing I took a bite of was the apple pie. This is true. Yeah. Yeah. Which I probably should have done. Well, but, yeah, so I just really, really liked it.

Yeah. It's delicious. Yeah, it was good. I want to go back just to get more. I think fried apple pie is also available abroad still. But we, and then I think they did recently bring it back for a little promotion. For, yeah, they did it as part of like the 250th anniversary of America. They did like a.

That's so random. I know. I'm like, that has nothing to do with McDonald's. I guess American is apple pie and fried stuff. I mean, that is kind of the, that is the tie in that my brain connects. So it does make sense. Yeah. I have the French fries in two sections.

Oh, before and after time has passed. Because it's kind of like how do you score the aggregate of the McDonald's fry? It is good when it's hot. Yes. They're amazing when they're hot. And it's really sad when it's not. So the hot McDonald's fry, right out the thing, so addictive. I'm just grabbing like fingerfuls.

Not handfuls. I'm not putting it in my palm. But I'm- I'm claw machining. The happy meal size fries in your palm. That was cute. Yes. There were adorable little happy meal fries.

The portion sizes in the happy meal. So cute. Yeah. especially in Michael's hands. Because I got big man hands. Yeah. Literally, Joyce the other night told me like, you have small hands. Oh.

I'm like, no guy wants to be told that. Did that come out of nowhere? Or was it related to something? She was just like looking at him. She's like, our hands are the same size. I'm like, you're starting yours halfway up my palm. It's crazy. So what did you rate?

Eight out of ten warm. Oh, and then are you going to save your rating? That's in a different section. Okay, so we're not going to talk about that. So I'm not going to talk about the cold fries now. I gave them a 7.35 because it's a good fry. Just for hot or is this like your aggregate? An aggregate because I probably would rate them higher if they consistently stayed.

Warm. Amazing. But yeah, unfortunately, when they cool and you give it 20 minutes, no longer the same flavor profile. Yeah, and it's a good flavor that it starts with. And I feel like McDonald's has like the perfect amount of salt. Yeah. I think they're very consistent about that. Mm-hmm.

I just think that they're fry. Well, at least on the fries. I have comment about, yeah, saltiness for some of the other menu items. Yeah. But I liked it. The cashier was nice. Oh, funny. You liked her.

She was nice. Okay. So she's in your good. She's not perfect. But I'm a big fan of like, I've started prefacing before I order anytime I'm at any of these places with. I'm probably going to order a lot of food right now. Yeah. And depending on how they react, sometimes it's like a, well, honestly, usually they're all nice, but there is room for them to be like, can you kind of even know everything you want?

You know, like could you, could you let other people order? Which I getcha. Yeah. And I thought she was friendly about it. She was friendly, but I mean, should I bring this up later? You can bring it up later if it's stuck with you that much later. And even though this doesn't spoil me thinking that she's nice, there was an element that I didn't like. and then a context where I ended up being like, oh, I get it.

So when we finished the transaction, she's just like, if you could fill out the survey, that'd be great. I can get you a free apple pie or McFlurry. Then we go sit. She later, not that much later, five minutes, ten minutes, comes to our table and like reminds us. Like, do you have your receipt? And I'm like, yeah, if you fill this out, you'll get a free. You can get that free thing. it only takes a minute and I'm like, damn, she's being pushy.

Uh-huh. And that kind of thing really rubs me the wrong way. But I'm like, I don't hate the idea of getting an extra pie. Of course. There's three of us. We only ordered two. So getting a third, not the worst thing. Especially the fried apple pie.

I start filling out the survey. And it's like, did this meet your expectations? Did this happen? Did this happen? one of the questions was to make sure did the employee follow up with you once you were at your table. Oh. So that is corporate policy. They want them to come to you, maybe not to push the survey, but to check on you or see if you need anything.

That's interesting because I feel like, not that I really ever eat a McDonald's, but I feel like I've never had anyone come up to me being like, it's everything okay? It might be recent. Okay. I don't know. But I don't think it's a bad policy. but if it's pushing the survey. No, she was so insistent. Hey, could I take some trash or can I get you anything else or, you know, anything like that?

But even then, get me anything else. I can't order at the table. I would have to go back up anyways if I wanted more food to pay. Yeah, because Joyce ordered chicken nuggets and she didn't get her sauce. And so she had to go back to the counter to get it. But I just thought that like, okay, it's a little bit more forgivable that she followed us to do it when it is corporately mandated to. do so. She just came on real strong. She did come on real strong, but I think that she was just trying to make do with what her job is. Yeah, I'm sure there's something, there's some sort of

like reward you get if you get a certain score. A certain amount of surveys. And I did drop, she then gave her name and I put her name in the comments. And I was like, she was good. Everything else. Come on. It's McDonald's. You know what you are. Like that was kind of the, you write that. I wish you wrote that. I did. I mean, you know what you are. I don't know if I did those exact words, but I was like, it's McDonald's. We all know what to expect. Okay. Yeah.

And that's just honesty. Anyways. So I thought she was nice, but I do think some of those things are egregious, but I'm not going to put her in Not Good or just there. I put her in Not Good. To be fair, I understand that a lot of this was not necessarily. Now it sounds like it was kind of mandated. But I just her out. I'll explain later to be continued.

TBD. What's something you have in the good? something we haven't talked about. So I know you've been ordering water at these meals. Yeah. I got a sweet tea with mine. Yeah. And I love a McDonald's sweet tea.

Yeah. It's just delicious, sugary, amazing, refreshing. It really hit on a hot day like it was. So I was very happy with the sweet tea. I gave it an 8.68. I've never had sweet tea in my life. Yeah, it's super, super sugary. Yeah, I mean, I have sugary things all the time.

Yeah, yeah. That's not the deterrent. Okay. I think honestly, that's why I dock it down because I know it's not good for me, but I love it. I see, I see. So I, and I did want you to try it, but you were like, no, no, no. Is it a McDonald's sweet tea? Is it like an in-house made thing or is it like a, like, is it brisk or?

Yeah, I think it is a McDonald's version. I don't, I don't remember it being like Lipton or brisk, but. Yeah. Like, I know, I think Chick-fil-A, because they're like a Southern company, I think Chick-fil-A has their own sweet tea. I think a few of these places have their own sweet tea that they're known for. Also, it's not a very common drink option at a lot of fast food places. So that's also a nice bonus. Sure. Yeah.

I had the Oreo McFlurry in the good. It's just hard to go wrong with Oreo and ice cream. Totally. Even if this wasn't the optimal version of the McFlurry, it was still good enough. I agree. They didn't mix it in. We got the Oreos and they weren't mixed in. It was just thrown on the top.

Also, the container was different. And like, as someone who does care about, the environment. I'm like, okay, putting it in a paper thing is objectively better than the plastic thing. But I think the plastic gives them the freedom to like do like their little mixer thing that like infuses the Oreos throughout. And this was like vanilla ice cream with Oreos on top. Yeah, because and we didn't realize it at the time. So we were kind of scooping, enjoying the top part. And then we realized within there was no Oreo anymore. And then we're like, oh, man, we should have mixed it better ourselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that shouldn't be on us. And it's kind of the

promise of the McFlurry. That is like what they advertise it to be. Yeah, it's a flurry of flavor and Oreo and that was, it was just kind of the top. Yeah. So still good. Seven out of ten. Ooh, I gave it an 8.76. Because it was also really nice on this hot day.

The only bummer was, yeah, we got it at the top of the meal and then it melted pretty quickly because it was so hot. And I don't hate a melted milkshake. I like it when ice cream becomes drinkable. I don't. prefer it. I don't want it to come to me in that form already. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're okay that it's evolved. Well, I brain freeze so easily. Oh, I know. So I'm usually waiting. It was amazing how quickly he got brain freeze. I've never seen a person brain freeze that quickly. Maybe I have

neurological damage. I don't know. No, no, no, no. Yeah. You're very sensitive. You're a sensitive soul. Sensitive brain. Do you have anything else in good? Ooh, sweet tea apple pie, McFlurry, French fries. Nope, that's it. All right. I have one other thing. Go on. I'm glad that Happy Meal packaging is still what it is for my childhood, little cardboard box, McDonald's arches for the handle, like a little lunchbox. The Happy Meal toy was BTS, the K-pop group. Yep. And they're all like, I don't know if they each represent one of them, but they're seven members of BTS and seven little animals. And then there's just this one extra little space critter that's like a rocket that looks half dead, half alive.

And we're going to unbox our toy. Yeah, we saved it. Vivi, I'll let you do the honors. But it looks like we got that half dead, half alive creature. Well, based on the box, it looks like it could be. Or is he's just showcased. I don't know. Because he's special.

But his name is Van. Also, what's crazy is the side that has an X for an eye, which usually indicates it's dead, has its arm raised. While as the other one just looks like brainwashed? Like the living half looked like it's not even really living, but the dead half looks like it's actually alive. So, I don't know, maybe a metaphor for something deeper in life. But I'll let you open this. And if we end up with a different toy, that'd be crazy.

If this is not van. Okay, let's see. Have fun. Oh, it's not. Oh, it's wrapped in paper. Who is? Oh, yeah, we got him. We got van.

Cute. Yeah, it is cute. Oh, it's like a keychain? What is this? Oh, man. Maybe. Yeah, that looks like a little keychain. Oh, you pushed down on it and it has like little rocket booster on bottom.

Oh, adorable. That's cool. Okay. Nice. Perfect. Chop to do. We did it. All right, that's everything that was good.

Let's jump into negativity and talk about everything that was not good. This is not so good. I'm not quite sure about. It's something that brings down the... So, Helen, I didn't vibe with Helen as a... Not your big... Not, you're not her biggest fan. No. Although, again, she was nice.

It was just, okay, when you said... It was pushy. I get it. But also, when we, you preface that we were going to have a big order. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we were kind of figuring stuff out. But at the same time, no one else in line. Yeah. So it's not like we're holding anything up.

So when we were finished, she went, I've got a lot of patience. And I was like, that was such a bold thing to say. say because I didn't think we were that hard to deal with. I interpreted it as being playful relative to me saying, hey, this is going to be a lot. Braced for it. And she was like, I've got a lot of patience.

But she didn't say it like that. But not everyone nails their joke delivery. People say people are awkward. I read it as an attempt at joking that fell flat. It felt like she hated us and was like, you're lucky I've got a lot of patience to deal. with this. I heard it. I didn't read it that way, but I, maybe it was. Okay. Yeah, I felt like it was a little sassy. And Joyce was with me on that as well. And then, yeah, the whole survey thing. And when we were

in the museum kind of exploring the things, we heard her aggressively come to another table being like, hey, the survey, you should do the survey. And it was like, oh, okay, wow, wow, she's doing it to more people. And so, yeah, it's not in a gentle manner. Like, I would love it if she kind of came by, how is everything? Also, just letting you know that we have this survey. But it was like, she was like, shouting at us. But it's also one of those things where it's corporations will use stuff like those surveys to justify continuing funding to certain locations and figure out which ones are higher performing and which ones aren't. So there's a lot of pressure. And then if management puts that on the employees, it just creates this like ripple effect of stress. I'm not here to defend her.

I'm only here to speculate the reasons. And unfortunately, that is part of the game. That said, This location is preserved. Yeah. So I don't know if it's bulletproof from ever going out of business. But I do think there is a world where if they underperform enough, McDonald's could pull the plug and maybe the museum stays, maybe the building stays. But maybe it doesn't operate as a McDonald's. I could say that. And I don't think they want to lose that license.

Okay. No air conditioning is miserable. That was rough. Like even if it's not like temperature managing, get a fan in there. Mm-hmm. Just a breeze. Yeah, because, I mean, to be fair, the counter was just a regular outside kind of deal. We're standing there.

Then we went to sit down in the little museum area, which was shaded. It had a roof, but it kind of had like a greenhouse effect going on. Yeah, like the glass windows that were like plexiglass or something like that where it had trapseat. Exactly. So it was warm in there. And then I thought, because the adjoining museum is just right next to it. We're like, oh, okay, maybe that'll be air conditioned because you want to preserve these. items. No, they don't care.

Paper. It's just newspaper products. And honestly, there wasn't a lot of care with that either. Like, some of the articles. One of the glass cases had trash shoved in the crack of it. Yeah, someone had thrown trash in there. And then like some of the displays had like pins on them, but the pins had fallen out. And so they were askew and and haphazard. I don't expect them to do like a daily check. You would think, but it was very kind of a little bit neglected. Yeah. I was still excited to see the stuff. I like the museum as a whole. No, I agree. But the condition of that whole room, a little dirty, greasy, could have been better.

I agree. Yeah. And I also didn't like that they didn't have any trays. Oh, yeah. And they had all these trash cans that had the little area on top for the trays. For a trade deposit. But there were no trays. This is like a, we're being punished.

Yeah. We had it taken away. We used to have it. No longer. But you've been bad. But like, especially when you see trash on the floor and the surfaces are a little sticky or greasy. And then it's like, go.

eat off that table. I was like, I want a layer of protection. So we ended up asking for like a couple paper to go bags and we like made a makeshift mat, which just isn't elegant at all. Also, just try and keep the place a little cleaner. I get that it's tough to do if you're high traffic, but it was, it was pretty grimy. Yeah. And there were pigeons and stuff hanging out inside. And you were like, can I feed it a fry? And I'm like, that's insane. No, no, no, no. I didn't say if you feed it a fry, I was like, do you think it'll eat some lettuce? Because the lettuce was just falling out of our burgers. And you want to give it cyclospora? Cyclospora, whatever it is. Yeah, I wanted to have explosive diarrhea. No, I was just kind of like, well, maybe it's like a healthier

alternative for this pigeon that clearly wants to eat something. And it didn't even want that. Yeah. I think they. Give me fries. I know what they have here. I came here because of the arches. I know what they're serving. Give me a fried apple pie. I thought the chicken McNuggets were not good. Bad or not good. I thought they tasted like literally nothing. I kind of tasted and I was like, well, it doesn't really taste that much like chicken. The breading is unseasoned. It just tastes like a texture of McNugget.

I went three and a half out of ten. It's not super far into the not good, but it's still, I don't think it's good. I think I know what to expect with the McDonald's chicken egg. I know what to expect. That doesn't make it better. I actually read it. If I tell you I'm going to punch you in the face and then I punch you. you in the face. You knew to expect it. It's still not good. I could kind of like brace myself for it.

I guess. I would never punch you in the face. Thank you. Got it on camera. It's called an alibi. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Okay. I'm not a violent person. I would punch you. I know. In the face? Yeah. All right. If you deserved it. Oh, we're doing it. Don't tempt me with a good time. I'm mildly curious, but I won't. I'm like, how much do I want to commit to that? I had the chicken McCrispy strips, not just in not good, but like these were terrible. I hated it. They were unseasoned.

They were a higher portion of chicken that felt like low quality. So like the McNugget is like the perfect size for like, I can stomach how not good it is. when you draw that out into something like three times the mass, I don't want any part of it. It tasted like such low-grade chicken, and the breading was uninspired, and the barbecue dipping sauce wasn't very good. The sweet and sour dipping sauce was not very,

like it wasn't salvaging anything. They didn't really compliment to them very well. I went one out of ten on the chicken-a-crusties. Wow, you really hated it. Yeah. I thought they were okay. I put them in just there. You're allowed to think that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I am. But I thought they were terrible. don't get the chicken strips. Dang. I think it's crazy that I came out of this thinking that the McNugget is a better option for chicken.

You like the random chicken bits put together into a nugget. I don't like either of them. But you like it a little more. This is probably the last time I ever have a McNugget. Wow. Well, because like when I,

if I go to McDonald's, usually if it's not for the podcast, I'm going to go for breakfast. So they're already not serving the chicken. Yeah, fair enough. But that is all of my not good and that's all for you. Okay, well, before we go into the just there,

I want to talk about something that might stir up some negativity. Negativity. Neativity. Vee, you're into controversial opinions. You're my only friend who thought InfoWars was better before Alex Jones lost custody of it. And if the notes app and your phone is any indicator, you've brewed up some hot takes of your own.

So it's time to hear them in my next segment, The Heat Lamp. He'll ham. Give you my hottest thing. Hot sticks. So hot right now. Vivi, I'm salivating. What is your food hot take? I think American pizza is better than Italian pizza.

Ooh. Okay. You're coming for a fight. Yeah. And it's not one I'm going to give to you. That's okay. Because my. my experience is the same, but also I've eaten so many more American pizzas.

Sure. Compared to like two or three Italian pizzas. Or are you even considering Italian style pizzas in America? Are you saying only pizzas you've had in Italy? I think I'm mostly saying in Italy. Okay. Elaborate. I just feel that the bread quality is better.

It's rich. The bread is what we're saying is better. in America. I think so. I love the variety of toppings we have. I love that we loaded on to the pizza. You and I are not cheese people, but I know those who do enjoy cheese, love a good cheesy pizza out here. Yeah. And. For what are they doing in Italy? It's so light and it's crispy and it just feels minimalistic. I will say the ingredients feel really fresh. But it's just not for me. To be fair, I will also say Italian pasta, I think, is way better than what we have out here. Italian pasta is incredible.

It's the best. There's also, I mean, there's really good pasta here too. But like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think pasta is just great. But yeah, Italian pasta is. Yes, supreme. So when I did that trip where I had McDonald's in Europe, I ate pasta in all of the European countries. I probably had some version of spaghetti.

for dinner. 12 of 21 nights. It's good. Yeah. It's freshly made. Yeah. Sources are nice and fresh as well. The pastas are sometimes, you know, hand.

Crank. Yeah. Yeah. So good. There's a place in Venice called Felix. Have you ever heard of it? I've heard of it. I've not been.

They have a window in the middle of the restaurant where the people are handmaking the pasta. and then like sorting it. And then so, so you can sort it. It's kind of like Dintai Fong where they have like the people zoo. As I call it, person behind glass. It's like, don't tap the glass or else to like get aggressive. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but I love what we're doing out here.

I and even our variations on it too. I love a Chicago style pizza. Well, there's two Chicago styles. There's deep dish and tavern style. Oh, okay. Well, they're both good. Yeah. I just have no complaints with American pizza.

Sure. Even the bad American pizza. No, there's bad pizza. Oh, okay, fine. But, like, I like pizza hot a lot. Oh, you mean like the cheap American pizza. Okay, yeah. All right.

Sorry, what constitutes bad for you? Gross. Taste bad. Well, but, like, who makes a bad pizza? Other than like... Papa Johns. Oh, yeah, I don't go to Papa Johns. Even, like, the school lunch pizza, those sad little kind of rectangles we used to get,

those were awful. But cheap pizza? Domino's stepped up their game. Okay. Sorry. Italy hates me now. Absolutely. I'm not going to be allowed back.

Wild take. But you defended it. Thank you. Did I? I don't know if I really did defend it that well. I just feel like well. I never said well. Oh, geez.

I'm not the one you need to convince. Okay. Because I do like American pizza a lot. Yeah. And would prefer it over like, hey, do you want to go to an authentic Italian place for pizza? Nah. I'm okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Give me pasta. Or give me death. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, we can cool the temperature a little bit and now just talk about things that don't move the needle one way or another. All the things that we notice that are just there.

This is a weird one. I sure what to say about it. The stuff that is. I got apple slices. Oh, I was going to say apple slices too. In the kids meal. Yeah. Happy meal.

Excuse you. And the happy meal. And these were not happy. I mean, one, they were just apple slices. But also, they didn't have the skin. And I'm like, I kind of like the crunch. I like the texture you get from having the skin. But I know some people don't like that.

So maybe that's why they err on the side of it. And it does get stuck in your teeth. They used to give you caramel dipping sauce. Oh. I know. And I was like, that's a nice treat. But I understand why they took it away. It's just your sugar.

Yeah. And why do you want to put that in Kids Meal and encourage that? But I knowing and having had that, I'm like, oh, man. I miss that. It's like trays. We used to have trays. And these apples are kind of really tart. They're not on the sweeter side.

Yeah. They're tart. So I feel you need to offset them with something sweet to make them delightful, but they're not. They're just there. I was also surprised that the kid's meal came with fries and apple slices when the menu has or. It's one or the other. Oh, I feel like. So again, I collected a lot of happy meals to get the squish mullos.

And they've always put them both. Yeah. Okay. But I like it. It's cute because you get a little. bit of the bad and you get the good tiny little tiny little french fry box yeah that's not from yesterday i actually already had that up there oh adorable tiny adorable little french fry box it's definitely not enough to satiate you as an adult uh i put the macrispy strips why i can't say it wrong

that's okay i thought they were very um tough too because we tried splitting it and and it was like trying to tear it apart was hard yeah and i'm like oh i don't think it should be that difficult to Yeah. But I didn't think they were that bad. Oh, I thought they were terrible. They were an abomination to the chicken that gave its life for. Oh. And I felt the same way about the chicken nuggets, too.

Yeah. Just there. Yeah. Not going to write home about them, but not the worst thing I've ever had. Have you ever written home about a food? Have you ever taken out pen and paper? Dear mother. You know what?

I did write about pasta, but only enough. I was in Italy. My boyfriend and I have a thing about we love peas and we fight over peas and dishes who gets more. And I was in Italy eating an amazing pasta dish and it had a lot of peas. And I wrote, I'm thinking of you because I have so many peas all to myself. So that pasta is, that's actually crazy. Peas are the dish that is worth writing home about it. Well, because it's an inside joke.

I get it. I had a little illustration too. I can send you a picture of the postcards on our fridge. You made circles? Well, I didn't draw, I drew the little pasta plate with peas on them. I don't know why I'm being so aggressively giving you a hard time. Because you're upset about the pizza. You're like, how dare she say this?

No, but I agree. Wait, I thought you said you didn't agree. About American pizza? I thought. I said, I'm the one you don't, I'm not one you have to convince. Oh, you know what? I misinterpreted what you said and thought you were against me. No.

Oh. That's why I said you don't need to defend yourself. I think I'm really tired. And this is why Helen was actually nice. Oh, maybe she was and I was like, that bitch. I can't understand tone right now. All right. Kind of outside of category, McDonald's is in the Septemberger tournament.

Yes. I want us to talk about the burgers. None of them made it into the good for me. But let's talk about the first round burger, the Big Mac, which I did have in just there. This is the number one on the menu, so it's what they get in the first round. I was actually expecting a more pared down hamburger to be the first option, and it wasn't. I thought the Big Mac would be like the number three that said, it makes sense that it's the number one. It's what you hear about when you think McDonald's.

So this has lettuce, three buns, onion, secret sauce, two patties. The patties are so thin. Yes, very disappointing. So thin. So disappointing. But then we saw that ad in the museum of, a. Big Mac on display. And they had pretty thin patties of those.

Even then, yeah. So I was like, oh, I guess this is just how it's been. Yeah. But really, you're kind of getting a regular size patty and you just split it. But it's not thin in a way that a smash burger is. No. So it's like, it's just disappointing on so many levels. The secret sauce is good, I thought.

It felt a little more on the sour side than I remember. I don't think it was bad, but from my memory of the sauce, from having had big Macs in the past. I feel like the recipe has changed for the worst a little bit. Yeah, maybe. But I didn't hate it. I haven't had a lot. My first Big Mac was like three years ago or four years ago. Oh, okay. So I didn't grow up on the Big Mac. Yeah, yeah. I didn't either. But you know, you see the ads. You want to try it? I thought just this whole burger was unsubstantial, unimpressive. I went 4.3-1 on the Big Mac. Oh, I went 4.42 on the Big Mac. We're pretty close. So that means for the Substantial thing, we're pretty close. So that means for the Septemberger tournament, the score to beat that Fat Burger will have to topple next week is a 4.37

for the Big Mac. However will they be that? However will they do it? Fat Burger, you've got to live up to some big competition. And here they are calling you out. Hey, everybody, Mickey D's here calling out Fat Burger. It already sounds like I'm bullying you, but I'm just saying your name. wants to wait eight to 12 minutes to get grease all over their shirt. Nobody wants a juicy

burger. They want dry. And at McDonald's, we provide that. We even give you an extra bun in the middle to make sure there is no chance of moisture. Billions and billions served. Well, today, I am going to serve billions and billions plus one because I am serving you fat burger. Bap-bba-ba-bba-bub. I'm crushing it. That's the only burger we're going to score. If it advances to the semifinals and the finals, you're right. If it does, you're right. We'll give those scores when we talk about them then. But let's still talk about the burgers that we got.

It's just going to get worse from here. The quarter pounder deluxe with bacon, I had actively in the not good and the kids meal hamburger because we were looking for three varieties of hamburger. And McDonald's pretty much just has hamburger, Big Mac, or kids meal. Let's talk about the quarter pounder deluxe with bacon. We also didn't do cheese. Also didn't do cheese. We both don't do cheese. Too messy.

Totally messy. Way too saucy. Had lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, mayo, ketchup. And I wrote B. Bacon. Bacon. Yeah. Oh, that bacon was salty.

Didn't have a clear identity. It was too tomato forward. Yeah, huge tomatoes. Lots of lettuce too. Lettuce was just falling out of the burger. Yeah. I used so many napkins. Yeah, I did not like this.

I actively really disliked it. I wrote hated it. Yeah, I didn't hate it. It was just there for me. I felt like it wasn't really cohesive in its flavors. And I feel like you generally can't go wrong with a mayonnaise ketchup burger. And it just didn't work. Yeah, it just didn't work.

I feel like maybe if we had just done a standard quarter pounder, it might have been a little better. Yeah, but I mean, I'm also like, they have bacon on the menu. Let's see if they can kind of hold up. It did not work together for me. Yeah. And then the other burger was the kid's meal hamburger. This is so simple and tiny, kind of cute.

Kind of cute. I got a little video of me kind of holding that being adorable. It just had onion pickle ketchup mustard. Mm-hmm. So simple. Really diced up onions in a way where it adds a texture that I'm not fond of. Oh, I didn't mind it. And I like that you kind of like throw a little veg in there.

you like trick the kid. Sure. It always ends up on the outside of the bun. There always ends up being like little bits on the- Oh, because we can just like throw it in there. This was more streamlined than the others. It was very simple with its flavors. Totally.

Didn't have the opportunity to be too saucy. So it was way- I feel like it needed more sauce. Yeah. But I do- Because they just kind of put like a splotch in the middle of the bun. I do appreciate a simplicity. Hmm.

And that it wasn't an ordeal where I had to keep wiping my beard or whatever. Yeah. You don't want that for your kid either. for their beard Yeah To me This one was just there Oh that was not good for me

It's enough to feed you Feed a child Get them through the day But or lunch But I would not Willingly choose this for anyone Yeah No not a good burger

And that's what McDonald's Has to offer for burgers It's just kind of a slew Of like average To underwhelming burgers But the meat Disappointed across the board Yeah their patty is just

sad. And the sauce ratios all over the place. All over the place. The extra bun in the Big Mac where it's just like genuinely, it does make it drier. It has a literal choke point where it's like, oh, is there enough saliva in my throat to get this extra bun down? And it was just really small too. Because you would think with all those layers, it would kind of be a fatter burger. But it just was very deflated.

Overall. Not looking good. Not looking good. Do you have anything else about this dining experience to bring up? That was basically it. Okay. Well, before we go on to rating it, it is time to turn our attention to other people and hear what they thought about the classic McDonald's that we visited.

And this week's Yelp from Strangers. We need a little Yelp, a little Yelp, a little Yelp from strangers. A one star, two, star, three, star, four, or bye, aye. So get a little yelp, a little yelp, a little yelp from strangers. A little yelp, a little yelp. Give us those complaints while you literally whited. This is Yelp from Strangers, our segment where we turn to Yelp and read out our favorite. One.

Oh, seeing if you could get on board. Two, three, four. Say it with me. I don't want to. And fine. You're never going to make me. Do you mind if I start with the first one? Just say it's fine.

Every time you're like, yeah, what? Whatever. Fine. You go. Four star review. This is a four star review from Sin Yis from Fremont, California, September 7th, 2024. Fried apple pies available here, the only place in the continental U.S. to enjoy them. So I obviously bought five and inhaled two before I even got back on the five, the freeway.

My deep abiding love for these fried apple pies is such that I used to be a contributor to a nationwide fried apple pie locator website, now defunct, and have been known to truck them back not just from Hawaii, but also Peru, Japan, etc. It has been the source of more than one embarrassing moment during luggage inspections at the airport. I didn't know that they had fried apple pies in Peru, Japan, and Hawaii, but apparently they offer. the fried version as well. Yeah. So I guess only the contiguous. Yeah. The United States does not get to enjoy it.

The lower 48 as we call. The ones here seem smaller than I remember, with fewer bubbles in the crust, but still very enjoyable. Also checked out the museum, the throwback moments galore are worth perusing. We'll be sure to stop by on every Bay Area to Orange County trip. Makes sense. Wow. I love it.

I love how passionate she is. is about. Enthusiastic. Yeah. Respect. But I love the idea of, I'm a smuggler for this product. Yeah, TSA, pulling you over,

just being like, please explain this. I'm a pie mule for the cartel. I wonder if they like, asked to have one too, just be like, yeah, you can go if I can have some apple pies. What do you mean I can go?

I didn't commit a crime. We just need to check that there's not like cocaine in this. Be crazy if there was. Five star review. Ooh, okay. We have a five star review. from Crystal G from Downey, California. So she's from the location.

Boy is she. Born in the location. Wait to you here how much Downey pride there is in this review. Oh, okay. I'm excited. Growing up in Downey, there's always been the important claim to fame Downey comes with. Number one, the oldest McDonald's. Not the first one. The oldest one.

The other one would be the Carpenters, the band, are from Downey. One makes you fat. One makes you anorexic. Go figure. Do the carpenters make people anorexic? Well, Karen was, she had an eating disorder. But that doesn't mean it rubs off on your audience. But if you are so inspired by her, maybe you're like, oh.

Interesting. Okay, of course, have other things. Not too many people know this, but she does not use punctuation. But the first Taco Bell was from Downey, too. Weird Al Yankovic grew up in Downey, and one of the band members from Metallica was from Downey. Other fascinating things from Downey is that half an hour to 45 minutes away from everything. This isn't a review of McDonald's.

This is just a tourist ad for Downey. I mean, she loves it. It's very centrally located. Desert mountains, beach, all 45 minutes away in every direction. A lot of freeways go through Downey. Okay. The L.A. Times called Downey the Beverly Hills of Latinos. What?

Why would they call it that? I don't think they did. I mean, she got it from somewhere. Most recently, let's not forget how Travis Scott came to the old McDonald's, caused a riot, and the city of Downey sued him for not getting proper permits and causing a riot. Way to go, Downey, for welcoming famous people.

I don't know if that's sarcastic or real. Oh, yeah. But it does, you read it sarcastic, and I was like, oh, yeah, I guess it was that. Unless it's another Helen situation. Yeah. You don't know how to read people. Now I don't.

No, I don't. That one just tickled me so much because it just pivots away from McDonald's so fast. and then it's just like, here's all the things that Downey has ever done. Yeah, she's just wrapping Downey. Yeah. That's cute, though. Downy Pride.

I didn't know Weird Al was from Downey. No, you do. Hey there, it's me, Michael. And now that we're in season four, I'm adding more content to my Patreon. Not only can you hear the extended Yelp from Stranger's segment with three more reviews. And not only can you get an exclusive full episode covering an extra chain restaurant on the last day of each month. month, but I've added an extra chat with my guests where we discuss their go-to fast food and chain restaurants and talk about why they love them so much. I hope you'll come

check it out and you can get your first week completely free of charge. That's patreon.com slash fine dining podcast. I appreciate and love you all. Back to the episode. All right, Veev, it's time to put McDonald's to the Chili's Test. It's time to set scale with the worst. We got to score this. We got to see if it's better than or not as good as Chili's. This is not just McDonald's. This is the oldest still operating McDonald's. Does that get at any points so that it can soar above the 4.28 that McDonald's originally scored the first time I did it? For my money, I'd say yes slightly.

Yes. It is just so marginally bad. better. The fried apple pies are a fun offering. The architecture was like, oh, this is neat. This is a cool little vibe. And the museum was fun to look at. But everything else about this was McDonald's. A standard McDonald's. It was a standard McDonald's. So for me, it's a little higher, but it's a 4.64. I'm very close as well. Okay. Totally in agreement with everything you said. I think the museum and the architecture bumped it up way more than a regular McDonald's for me. But the food was still. pretty mediocre other than the fried apple pies. So I gave it a 4.8. Okay. When you put our scores together, the OG McDonald's goes up on the Chotchkey of Mediocrity at a 4. No way.

0.72, which ties with McDonald's breakfast. So a museum is just good enough to compensate for the difference between. standard McDonald's and McDonald's breakfast. Wow, that's a fun surprise. That is funny. So if anyone just even asked about McDonald's, you could just be like 4.72. 4.72 or 4.28 if you're getting lunch. Not at a museum.

All right. Well, that means McDonald's, the OG, is officially not as good as chilies. Not as good as Chili's. Objectively not so good. All right. Well, next week, Septemberger continues on. McDonald's is going to go up against the number one seed in the bracket, Fat Burger, to see who could advance for an opportunity to get their name immortalized on the Septemberger Championship Belt. Vee, thanks so much for doing this little day trip with me. Thank you.

For coming back on the podcast, it's always fun to have you. It is my honor. Tell people where they can follow you on socials. I am Selah V-V-E-V-E-S-T-U-A-U-Y-V-Y on Instagram. And you can follow the podcast at Fine Dining Podcast on Instagram and TikTok. You can go to my Discord and chat with me. You can go to my Patreon if you want to support the show. I do have an exclusive episode that drops on the last day of every month.

This month for September, you can get the finals and semifinals episode a couple days early, but that will be free available to everyone, both on the standard YouTube channel, the regular podcast feed and the Patreon. This is the only month where you get my Patreon episode essentially for free. So go check that out. But if you want it early, just go join the Patreon. And you can get a week free and check out other stuff. There's no financial commitment for the first seven days.

So that is another one in the books. I will see you all next week for Fat Burger. Thank you so much for listening. Have a fine day. You said that like you were like, falling off a cliff. Maybe I did. Maybe I did.

McDonald's. Well, there's another one in the folks. We judge the service up to the cooks. And while we may have gotten a couple of dirty love from the bottom down to the top, we got a new things on lock. And that's because chill is good. We forgot the ribs. We got to be the lock for what we use when we put things up on the charge game. There's another one in the foot.

Yeah, there's another one in the books, and we will see you next week and next week, baby.