Would you like chips with that Big Mac? (McDonald's in the UK)

When we visited France two years ago, I wrote a post about the local menu options at McDonald's.  I've always been fascinated by how McDonald's customizes their menus to cater to local palates and tastes, so now that we're in the UK for a while, I thought I'd show everyone the different kinds of McDonald's dishes you can order here!

I've always thought that McDonald's in the UK was slightly more upscale than McDonald's in the US, with fresher, higher quality ingredients (i.e. lots of lettuce in their sandwiches, Cadbury's chocolate in their desserts).  Now, even their stores reflect my opinion.  I've been to 4 McDonald's locations in the UK over the last 2 weeks (Salisbury, 2 locations in London, and Windsor), and they all have a chic interior that I associate with an avant-garde cafe.

They have all the McDonald's staples -- Big Mac, McChicken, Quarter Pounder and so on -- but they have a "Deli Choices" menu with lots of fresh fixings.

Two distinctly British offerings are their Cheddar Deluxe sandwich (beef patty with mature cheddar cheese, bacon, grilled onions, chutney and mayo), and Cheese and Onion Bites (breaded and fried cheese).  I haven't tried the Cheddar Deluxe, but the Cheese and Onion Bites are delicious.

I love their healthy Happy Meal options.  Instead of fries, you can ask for a bag of carrot sticks or a bag of fruit (apples and grapes). They also offer a drink called Fruitizz, which is sparkling water flavored with real fruit juice.  Another UK-specific (not-so-healthy) Happy Meal option is fish fingers.

Their current McFlurries featured British candies from Cadbury's -- Wispa Gold and Wispa -- and you can have your McDonald's soft-serve ice cream cone with a Cadbury's flake.  They also have a Rolo flavored (or should I say "flavoured") milkshake.

 Breakfast options are pretty much the same; the only notable addition is a bacon sandwich.  These Brits do love their bacon!

Most of you know that my favorite McDonald's item is oatmeal.  I wasn't expecting to see it here in the UK, so it was a delicious surprise to see that they do offer oatmeal for breakfast!   It's actually called "porridge" here, but like in the US, they source it from Quaker Oats.  It doesn't come with raisins or blueberries here; they offer a choice of porridge with syrup, or porridge with jam.

I had the porridge with syrup one morning, and it was like I was back home.... well, almost.  It comes with a small container of pancake syrup, which I think was too sweet for the amount of porridge they give you (just use about 3/4 of the container, and you'll be fine).  Yummmm.....

On a non-food-related item, they also have donation bins for Ronald McDonald charities.  It's nice to see that they've kept the best things about McDonald's, even across the Atlantic!