McDo Manila 2017

I've been eating at McDonald's Philippines since I was 12 (when they opened their first restaurant there), so this is not the first time I've blogged about McDo in the Philippines. Yup, we even have our own local nickname for it. Please note, it's not pronounced Mc-Doo or Mc-Doe or McDoh. The best I can come up with is Mc-Daw (rhymes with saw), except the vowel sound in "Daw" is extremely short (glottal stop), not drawn out the way it usually is in English. 

A few observations I've made over decades of eating and enjoying McDo:

1) Over the years, the menu has evolved from purely American burgers/fries/soda/milkshakes to more local menu items. My theory: in the beginning, McDonald's American-ness is what attracted customers, but over time, McDonald's had to keep up with local competitors.

2) Serving sizes are much smaller. A small size soda in the US would be a large size soda in the Philippines. A small size fries in the US would be a kiddie size fries in the Philippines.

3) Prices are much cheaper than in the US. A lot of that is due to the exchange rate, but I think McDonald's Philippines has to keep their prices lower in order to remain affordable for the masses. Most of their menu items are about 50 pesos or 1 US dollar, and I don't think there are any single items above PHP100 ($2), or any combo meals above PHP200 ($4). A plain soft serve ice cream cone is PHP10, or 20 cents!

Here are some of the menu items we saw on our latest visit to a McDo in Metro Manila:

McSpaghetti is alive and well at McDonald's Philippines. Burgers definitely do not take center stage in this country. Top billing goes to Chicken McDo (fried chicken, rice, and unlimited gravy that's so good, we eat our fries with them), then McSpaghetti for the kiddie meals. Rice is so popular in the Philippines that McDonald's has had to adjust their menu in order to keep up with their main local competitor, Jollibee. Currently they're also offering hamburger steak and chicken a la kiev with rice.

Just like in Hong Kong and Bangkok, the Manila restaurants offered icee-style drinks. Bring on the brain freeze!

Minions are all over the restaurants due to the recent release of Despicable Me 3. We passed on the Honey Banana McFloat but Jammy tried and loved the Banana Pie a la Mode.

Yes, banana pie has been added to the McDonald's Philippines menu, and you can have it with vanilla soft serve ice cream and caramel sauce! It tastes as good as it looks.

The dessert menu here is quite extensive. In addition to the usual ice cream cones, sundaes, and special Minion-themed desserts, they also offer ice cream cones with a hard candy shell in 3 flavors: chocolate, strawberry, and ube, a native purple yam. This bears repeating: a plain vanilla cone is just 10 pesos, which is just over 20 cents! Now that's a McDeal.