McDonald’s

Had to get up early to catch a Tour of Versailles at Javel station. Had a chocolate muffin and a bottle of OJ. Both were good and pretty standard. Looking at menu items, they were similar to McDonalds in England and the Netherlands.

Vu que rien n’est véritablement prévu pour les voyageurs dans la gare du Nord, je me suis rabattue sur un smoothie au McCafé pour tromper l’attente.
Le lieu est situé juste en face de la gare, il y a de la place pour s’asseoir, et le McCafé offre des possibilités sympathiques pour se désaltérer en attendant son train.

I generally find that chain fast food restaurants have a hard time getting over three stars from me. After all, they’re meant to be all identical — that’s part of the reason why they’re so popular.
So why the fourth star? Well because basically this McDonalds has two distinct ordering advantages that should be rolled out to the busier restaurants in London. The first is the self service ordering system — I didn’t use it myself, but you use a touch screen and then go straight up to a fast collection window and get your food.
What I did was to queue normally. But what happens is that one of the members of staff walks up and down the queue with a handset and takes your order. It the prints out the receipt and you hand it over at the register to pay. So what’s the big deal you might well ask — the kitchen gets your order while you’re still in the queue. By the time you get to the front your food is ready. No waiting. Genius.

Great little McDonalds in the Gare du Nord area.
This McDonalds has self-​service ordering machines at the front (as Nick said in his review). This allows you (as a tourist in a foreign-​language speaking country) to do two things: 1) order food in English 2) skip the queue and pickup your food from a separate (and much quieter) window — brilliant when it’s late at night and you’ve just flown into the country and are looking for something quick and don’t fancy trying out your GCSE level French skills just yet.
As for the food, it’s McDonalds — I’m sure almost everyone knows what to expect and how much they’re likely to be paying.
Top tip: The ‘McChicken Big Mac’! (two southern-​fried breaded chicken burgers in Big Mac buns with Big Mac sauce) — amazing and not available in the UK.

Accueil sympa à toute heure

Probably one of the busiest McDonald’s in Paris. It is right in front of Gare du Nord and is always packed. One good thing to note it that you can use the computers at the front of the store to order your food and pick it up at a special window. Almost no one does this so you can get your food really pretty quickly even though there are huge lines. The machine has multiple different languages, but pay attention because your number will be called in French when your food is ready.
This place gets one extra star from me because they have a McCafé. You have to stand in a separate line for this (and no there is no computer ordering here) and since there is no Starbucks or other decent coffee place in the neighborhood, this is a quality alternative.

Ce fast-​food franchisé fait partie de la chaîné que tout le monde connait.
L’emplacement est très bien situé, juste en face de la gare de Paris-​Nord.
On y trouve les choses habituelles, qui permettent de manger rapidement pour pas trop cher, la présence d’un «McCafé» est appréciable.
La présence de bornes permettant de commander sans faire la queue est un bon plus, surtout quand il y a du monde !
Ce n’est pas toujours bien fréquenté et il y a souvent des mendiants qui viennent vous ennuyer quand vous manger, les vigiles fermant les yeux…
Mais cet endroit est malgré tout une bonne option pour manger quand on a peu de temps devant soi ou un budget serré.