McDonald’s

Mcdo le plus pourrie de l’idf.
La bouffe est toujours froide (burger et frite).
Je pense que le pain des burgers sont recyclé voir le sandwich en entier. Mention spé, les frites en carton plâtre ou farineuse. Vraiment a éviter

If for some reason you need a summary of this place, it’s an American fast food restaurant in the Chinatown of the French capital. Surely, you’re going to see some blending of cultures here. Even the display of the «McDonald’s» sign here in Simplified Chinese characters is a testament to the mixing of languages that goes on at this restaurant. It surely is wonderful to see the effects of globalization taking place in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, but this McDonald’s is decidedly French at the end of the day, and you’ll see that in the language spoken here and even a bit in the food they serve.
Thanks to a certain iconic scene from the movie «Pulp Fiction,» I was compelled to see whether the names of some of the items are really as John Travolta said they are. The quarter-​pounder with cheese is really not the «Royale with Cheese» but the «Royale Deluxe,» known on the receipt simply as the «Deluxe.» For 3,80 €, this burger is surprisingly decent and exceeds the standard fare you get at fast food restaurants in the United States. It somehow tastes less fattening in France, and feels like more care went into making it. Ironic that the French should treat American food better than how the Americans themselves treat it.
Yet the distinctive American flair to this food is notably absent. You would only know what that is by trying a quarter-​pounder with cheese in America and then one of these in France. It’s simply not there anymore. The ones in America have a richer taste, but I feel that the ones in France use ingredients of a higher quality. I could be completely crazy for all I know, but rather than directly copying the recipe over, it’s almost as if the French McDonald’s started building the idea for their own burger from scratch and imitated the American model piece by piece until they recreated their own version that bore a resemblance to the original but with notable differences. I’m not sure I can call one better than the other, but I do think that going to a McDonald’s for an American is not as big of a waste of time in France as it might seem.
I believe that chicken nuggets and fries are among the most popularly-​ordered items at McDonald’s, and those show up here as well of course. They’re considerably less greasy than their American counterparts. I examined the cardboard boxes they came in and didn’t see the oil stains that I’ve come to expect. The nuggets and fries also feel harder, but only on the outside. It’s not that they’re overcooked; au contraire, they show no signs of being burned and even taste a way that suggests they weren’t made as carelessly as fast food is usually made. Other than that, deviation from the American model is minimal. Pretty good for what the French consider to be «la malbouffe,» or «unhealthy food,» I must say.
When I came here another time, I got the Royal Bacon, also for 3,80 €. As its name suggests, it is your usual cheeseburger with the beef patty, but also with some thin and soft slices of bacon. It’s a saltier sandwich than the Royale Deluxe, as you might expect from a sandwich full of bacon. The admixture of bacon with pickles presented a taste that was a bit too strong for me, although I’m sure someone with more of an appreciation for bacon and pickles would like this sandwich more than I did.
Two more quick general notes I’d like to make. First, fries with mayonnaise and ketchup taste a lot better than they do otherwise. Second, I wish I could have gotten a Big Mac here. If the menu is to be believed, it’s 3,40 € and is just called «Big Mac,» not «Le Big Mac.»