If my kids piss me off enough begging for a soft serve, I ask for a soft serve in a cup with toppings. Total of $2 for a still reasonable amount of icecream. Usually however, you’re better off buying the shittiest colesworth tub of vanilla ice confection and sticking a bunch of topping on that
Had one the other day and put it in the freezer for later, forgot about it, and when I tried it the next day, it was like frozen frosting. Not even like ice cream anymore, just sickly sweet Betty Crocker pre-made vanilla frosting in flavor, looks, and texture. It was gross tbh.
I've heard of brands doing that, it's labeled as "frozen desert" or something. Creeped me out when I first saw it, I try to avoid generically described food products in general.
Remember 'soft serve' isn't called icecream either. Totally agree with you, it's creepy that the companies spend so much to figure out how to make fake food to sell us, rather than selling us real food.
From what I remember, the company that made the machinery to actually mix the mcflurrys bailed. Personally I bailed when I tasted whatever the fuck that caramilk mcflurry was
Yeah, for the machine that did the mixing.
And it's too hard to get the kids to at least stir the thing once or twice. They don't even have the decency to pretend.
Lie to me, Ronald, lie to me!
They have zero brand identity now. They were once fun and magical, then they tried being a fancy burger joint now they are just a soulless calorie dispensary
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who experiences that. I had maccas for the first time in a long time last year, after a Big Mac meal I ended up with the worst indigestion, it stretched all the way down to my stomach… I threw up and instantly felt better. At that point I realised I was done with Maccas. I haven’t been back and have no regrets.
The chocolate soft serve was pretty good though.
In April, I said to my wife this cheeseburger tastes like cardboard. Googled it. They changed meat supplier's. No seasoning on the meat, just bland nondescript protein.
Surely they are gonna die soon.
They also recently changed their OJ on the breakfast menu to 'Orange fruit drink' and it is the most horribly overly-sweet beverage. My teeth were screaming after my first sip.
Last time I had a quarter pounder, my go to basic burger, I nearly vomited. Not only did it taste like cardboard, it also had a weird texture similar to that of wet cardboard. I couldn’t finish it, and I’ve not bought anything from there since!!
Same! I hadn’t had Macca’s for ages.. got my ol mate the quarter pounder and fries and a 6 pack McNuggets. I always liked the taste of the ketchup, mustard, onions and the patty all together and I would always want more... However, this time I had to get some ketchup and some mustard from my fridge because I couldn’t taste any sauce after 3 bites. Wondered what was in the patty because that was a new sensation in my mouth and it didn’t identify as a burger (pro noun was probably cardboard) Couldn’t finish it. Then the nuggets (I thought they were ALWAYS good) but, they were dry as the burger bun. Was going to give the rest to my dog but I didn’t want to give him permanent diarrhoea. The fries had no salt and no taste. I too have now broken up with McD’s. Blocked them on my phone and I have promised myself to never ‘drunk dial’ them again!!
That and they became cheap pricks with the sauce. i remember when i did not need to grab an extra sachet of tomato sauce for my cheese burger yet just before i stopped eating burgers i was doing just that. Thats if they remembered to pack it when i asked for it.
Die? That's what I assumed since they're so expensive now. Checked their financials. Stock is at an all time high, revenue is up year over year. Even when the whole world shut down due to covid, their revenue only dipped 20%, followed by a big rebound.
Sometimes I crave hungry Jack's or maccers, then after I wonder why I even bothered.
A corner store burger with the lot. 100% better, as expensive as maccers but fills you up. Maybe I don't get a drink with that, but comparing the burgers you can instantly understand what your getting for your money.
HJs has still got it. I just stick to the one option always. Occasionally it has been crap but it’s mostly fine.
I haven’t had a good burger from Maccas in donkey’s years. Even if you go through the Maccas app and make it how you want, still mediocre.
Given how much they are charging, why wouldn’t I just go to a local burger joint and get a way better burger?
The best Whopper meal I ever had was in Thailand of all places, about 7 years ago..
The meat was juicy, the bread fresh and had a good amount of salad. Even the fries were perfectly cooked and salted.
I’ve never recaptured the feeling since.. :sob:
Yeah burger king in thailand absolutely wipes the floor with hungry jacks in australia. And the dining areas over there are clean. The food comes out fresh and looking presentable
You’ll pay for the burger shop owner’s kids to go play footy as opposed to some American tycoon getting an extra dollar on their pile of trillions.
I cbf with corps now. I’m feeling very corner store/local business energy now in my mid-30s. I don’t get satisfaction from corps so why go there?
>HJs has still got it. I just stick to the one option always. Occasionally it has been crap but it’s mostly fine.
Fresh HJs is God tier. On Australia Day I went at about 9pm. Late night HJs is a gamble - have they shut most things down so they need to cook fresh or are they trying to use the cooked stock before it goes.
I lucked out and had the most amazingly fresh food. Haven't had it that fresh since I worked there.
Not only that but they actually put the right amount of ingredients on the burger - I get extra mayo, and normally I end up asking for some burger with my mayo. Not this night, the mayo was spot on, the lettuce was actually green and crisp. The bun was perfect, the chips were hot and fresh and perfectly seasoned.
> A corner store burger with the lot. 100% better, as expensive as maccers but fills you up.
Seriously, what the shit is with that? It's like $15 for a burger from HJ's now. Burger+chips+drink from HJ's will run you over $20.
Subway now charging $15 for a footlong too. I can get a gourmet conti roll from a local deli for less than that. It's an absolute joke.
Corner stores, lunch bars and other nondescript grease pits generally haven't ramped their prices as much with the same greedflation as the fast food places, supermarkets etc.
They've become even better value.
A brand. Its power of a brand and it can last for decades.
But the good news is that unless they change for the better they will inevitably die as the legacy brand allegance fades away.
felt the same when i was working at liquorland and prices kept going up, and seeing customers struggle to break away from the "standards" (4X, VB, tooheys etc) that are meant to be cheaper, but are encroaching on the prices of slightly to much fancier beers
For such a long time I’d walk to any drinks fridge in any shop and just grab a coke by default without even looking at the rest. Then one time I was sitting there drinking it and I realised, I don’t even like coke that much. And it tastes funny without Jack Daniels in it. So now I browse the drinks and usually get something different every time.
Does anyone else HATE their fucking TV advert menus?
I feel rushed looking at the menu waiting for all the adverts to disappear so I can see what is on the menu.
You give up, and order the same damn thing, every single time...
Must be like meth, you know it's fucked and your gonna end up hating yourself, but you go back for more, every single time!
Macca's has always been shit, people are just more aware now.
I'm convinced they're set up to only show the items with the biggest margins. It's the only borderline logical explanation I can come up with to explain why they wouldn't just show the whole menu and instead try to direct you towards a certain small subset of things.
That’s a really interesting idea. Totally believable too. If you’d like to look at the concept in more detail it’s called “nudging”. Yes, there’s a *name* for it. There’s even a whole marketing conference called “nudge” held every year. Where tricks such as the one you describe (the menus) to gently push or nudge customers into making choices the business, not the customer, prefers, are talked about. On the same vein, but without the the evilness, check out Rory Sutherland on YouTube. Trains are the best place to start.
My brother works at Maccas and wait until you get a load of this. When you're learning how to make the food items, the staff also have TV menus that regularly swap so sometimes they can't even see the ingredients for the items they need. So they either have to wait for it to phase or they guess and what do you think happens 90% of the time because of time pressure?
Ha I got shit on here for complaining about the changing menu boards at the freaking drive thru. I’m trying to order for a car full of family and the bloody board changes every 4 seconds.
Apparently I should know what the car full of kids wants before I drive in, and also have preordered via the app before hand. Crazy shit, won’t go there as it’s too stressful.
I mean it feels good to pre order and drive past other vehicles. Less stress for you too. 100% agree that boards shouldn't change at the drive thru though
I am a fan of walking in and ordering off the self service menus, because otherwise ordering gives me such anxiety!
I am a very infrequent visitor to fast food chains, so I’m sorry but I don’t know that a chicken burger is a McChicken Delight or whatever, and my shortsightedness means I can hardly read the tiny menu behind the counter, but the bored teenager looks at me like I’m an idiot if I don’t immediately know what it is I want to order.
I grew out of maccas. Used to love the mcgangbang - chicken and cheese inside a double cheese burger. But im just a fat cunt haha
Now my goto take away is red rooster. I always thought red rooster was always dead and never knew how they survived. But after going there I just realise its where all the old people go 😅😅😅
Red rooster not trying to be better or fancier than they are.
Day old Chook, spoon full or Mayo, whack it in a bun and it a day. Trashy takeaway food, like it's supposed to be.
Woukd argue that their fried chicken is better than KFC on all but the holiest days where you get perfectly cooked fresh chicken from the colonel.
Fucking Thank you. Someone else who knows. The new strips are fantastic outside of the Rippa. You need thay artificial, heavily processed crumbed lump of something resembling chicken to withstand the sauce and survive the ride home while remaining crunchy.
Yess we’re on the red rooter vibes again. They’re actually pretty fresh everytime we have gone since there’s no one there and they don’t cook anything “just incase”
It’s always been shit. It’s just that in the last 5 years it has become literally inedible prison food. I will sometimes buy the their chips on their own and their breakfast is acceptable even if it’s very overpriced. Other than those two things though, literally nothing else is worth buying as it’s dogshit tier. None of the other major fast food chains are any better either.
It’s just unreal to me that anybody would pay $15 for a meal at Maccas these days. It’s also strange how there are always Uber Eats guys hanging outside which must mean that plenty of people are still buying it.
It was never *great*, but at least it was *reliable*.
OP summed it up nicely, and the only advantage it has over anything else now is the 24hr trading hours.
Not reliable here (Western VIC)
The other day my missus and the kids requested maccas for tea so I stopped through on the way home (I work two towns away), and I made the mistake of not checking the bag when I got it, if they forget a burger I cbf going back to get it, but this time they forgot three wraps, that shit is expensive!
So I drove the 30km back to town to retrieve my wraps, the manager gave me a handful of meal coupons to which I said to myself "I bet is I use these they're probably gonna fuck up these too". A few days ago I used a couple of them to get some meals....missing a burger 🤦
Yeah it has changed immensely. As a kid the food and dine-in ambience was absolutely 5 out 5 star (kid rating). As a teen/20’s stoner the McFlurrys were stirred and the cones were 30c. The state of it now makes me sad. OPs post hits home hard.
Perhaps we should all stop for a moment and focus not only on making our AI better and more successful but also on the benefit of humanity. - Stephen Hawking
I'm holidaying in Japan at the moment and on a lazy off day decided to grab Macca's for brekky with the Mrs.
Sausage mcmuffins were twice the thickness and half the cost.
Japanese just refuse to get ripped off the way Australians always do. I swear, the more Australians get ripped off, the more of it they buy. You couldn’t get away with selling the quality of food Maccas sell in Australia these days in Japan with so much good and relatively cheap food around.
to an extent, we kick up a stink if it's obvious but when it's a slow decline we mostly go with it
dominos failed hard their first attempt, then they came back around and massive increased their quality for v2 and just slowly reduced it back down over the years and seem to still be doing well
90% of the time Domino's is the cheapest game in town, almost across fast food genres, so it's hard to argue. I regard it as a good step up from frozen and half the time frozen pizzas are more expensive now! If I want *better* pizza, there's usually about 6 different options. Their $/calorie is insanely low
I always wonder what the Japanese think when they holiday here, and they see a 7-11 and just go ‘oh thank god, some good quality, cheap food!’. Sorry my friend. Lukewarm pie, $7, cheers sport.
I dunno. Lotteria was traditionally their gutter tier option, held together only by ridiculous limited time heartstopper gimmick items. For a real wow moment, Japanese Subway is good. Imagine that. That's another fast food chain with woeful inconsistency here.
Was talking to a manufacturer about different markets. They singled out Japan as the country where if the shirt had a little crease in it the consumer would return it - and their sizings had to be the most exact. Small flaws that the rest of the world might accept are simply rejected by Japanese consumers.
I got sick once 5 years ago eating a sausage&egg muffin and now just the \*thought\* of maccas breakfast items puts me at risk of dry-heaving. Clearly my body had had ENOUGH.
The hotcakes and hashbrowns don't make me sick, but they're so off planet expensive that I don't even get tempted.
Last house I lived in (for 7 years) had the same neighbours in one house across the road the whole time.. from the minute maccas delivery was available, they were getting a bag Every night, around midnight. Only noticed because I could see the camera monitor from the couch and the drivers would use my driveway to turn around, and I kept thinking who tf is that in my drive way at this time XD
It’s weird. Like I think ordering any burger through a delivery service is questionable as they usually go cold in under 5 mins. They will always turn up lukewarm at best. Can’t think of anything worse than eating a lukewarm Maccas burger 🤮
The reason people are still buying it is because they’re literally addicted to it. Even when they know it is objectively shit, they still crave it because the ingredients used in the burgers, fries and nuggets are addictive.
The happy meal toys are crap. It’s sooo expensive now. I went to order an iced coffee the other day and it was $7! I said, don’t worry about it. Hashbrown - now $3.15 each. It used to be my cheap treat for my kids. No longer…
They are litterally garbage BUT before they changed to cardboard ones, the plastic toys they had were terrible. The ones from the 90s were made of cast iron in comparison! At least when these cardboard things get chucked, it's much less of an environmental impact.
Only good thing about the happy meal is that it's MUCH cheaper than a small cheeseburger meal. Probably the only meal on the menu that's decent value still, even if the toy is trash.
Left 12 months ago when I got parked for 15mins and They gave my order to someonelse and I waited another 5mins before the one who gave my order away came and asked if I was waiting for anything else... yeah all my fucken food
Haha. Maybe it was me. I once ordered a couple of small things for the kids, and they gave us this yyyuge bag.
One of the kids were like...."this isn't our" and I hit the pedal to the metal.
I once received another person's uber order without realising and when I read the receipt on the side, one of the items ordered was a cheeseburger, with cheese removed and sauce removed.
I must have stared into the distance for 5 mins just pondering the idea of someone ordering meat and bread.
Haha. I ordered a tonne of food for 4 people. Guy came out with two bags went to the car in front of me and handed them a bag and checked it was correct, they drove off, then he gets to my car and is like here's your food, and it's a single serving. Car in front obviously knew it wasn't his, but took a tonne of food for himself. They had to remake my order and I was stuck there another 10 minutes.... and I always thought what sort of cunt takes someone else's order on purpose...
I recently ate Maccas for the first time in about 25 years. I won't make that mistake again. Even worse than I remember it being and the burger was tiny compared to how they used to be. Overpriced flavourless gut luggage
It seems like the small town ones are much better on average. I feel like I hit the jackpot with my local maccas. The chips are always fresh, the double quarter still hits in all the right places, surprisingly above average coffee.
But then I go to another one on a trip and it's fucking ghastly. Trash everywhere, no one cleaning, shit service, ancient decrepit burgers...
McDonalds (and fast food chains in general) is a real crapshoot out in the sticks. You either get an absolutely immaculate place with the last manager in Australia who still gives a damn or you get an absolute shithole, and nothing in between.
It sure as shit wasn’t the one at Gundagai on the Hume. That one is seriously horrible. The toilets haven’t been cleaned in decades. Didn’t bother getting anything, just bailed out and got a packet of burger rings from the servo.
Naa I live in a small town, more often than not the chips are cold, I remember going in there once to get my partner a coffee and saw 3 full bags of delivery food just sitting on a cold counter for a full 15 minutes before someone took them out to delivery. I've found the best maccas are in the airports these days.
I did notice the other day that the st Kilda one seemed to taste a lot more normal / like I remember than the south Melbourne one, which has gone to shit
The most frustrating part of the McDonalds experience in Australia in 2024 is their staffing situation and the customer service that is a result of this.
Every store in under-staffed so the workers who are there are constantly getting smashed but on top of that I'm positive that staff are instructed from higher up and as part of their training not to serve customers at the counter now. There are a few stores that I frequent as an Ubereats driver and there's no-one at the counter to assist me or any other customers who are in the store.
I get it, they want us to all use the self-serve so that they can hire less people and churn out the same amount of Big Macs but if you're in the business of serving customers and you don't have anyone there to serve customers it's not a good look.
I say all of this without directing any of it at the staff who work in-store. Like all big chains and franchises it's pretty clear that head office don't care and it's left to staff and customers to have a below average in-store experience.
Just gotta vote with our feet and go to Red Rooster I guess. Because The Rooster is criminally underrated.
I was born in 79 and McDonald’s was a treat, a rare one but truly amazing experience when it occurred, in the past ten years it has become just awful, it should now by called by teens for teens, because that’s the only people that are suckers enough to enter that place
You're definitely right about the 'not filling up' correctly part. They're constantly doing it now, like they're trying to save on syrup or something? Same with the chips. Order a large, get less than a medium and slightly more than a small in a large container. I ordered a (used to be $1) large frozen coke many times and they fill it up nicely, but the last couple of times I went they half fill them on purpose.
You go back and ask them to fill them to their supposed portions. You get dirty looks because they know you caught them out, but they still do it for you because they cannot refuse service otherwise you might 'wont come back ever again'. They know you will be back. Even YOU know you will be back after telling yourself not to. It's too convenient. So they can get away with anything. It's not like they're making a huge loss or anything by losing you.
The penny pinching/shrinkflation is real
At the Maccas' I work at the drinks not being filled correctly is due to the machine. When it's busy we have it set to automatic mode where it moves the drinks along and fills them up, but the machine is so inconsistent with how much it fills. One drink it will fill to the top and the next it might only fill half.
They’ll be around long after you and probably your kids have departed from this life. It’s been overpriced garbage for a long time and it’s still making them insane money so they have zero incentive to improve.
Lol it’s maccas mate its the biggest corporate fast food chain in the world it’s absolute slop served up by kids being paid peanuts that would literally rather be doing anything else. Your post makes it sound as if maccas was ran like ritz or had integrity at one point.
As someone who used to work at Macca's, you're right. It's an absolute hellhole. The food is ridiculously overpriced, yet is still terrible quality. I was definitely not Mclovin' it there.
I'm glad you were able to escape the clutches of good ol' Ronald Mcdonald
Beautifully sad poetry is this Maccas review, I hope this reaches the executive level of McDonalds management. If they wanted a clear, current illustration of a typical experience at the Golden Arches, here you are. Spot on and thanks for the emotional rollercoaster that is your tale of woe
I worked at McDonald’s for 1 years in early 2000s. Although I still like to eat a Big Mac, the overall McDonald’s experience is so shit now.
Staff have no idea and are really just flesh robots making mistakes, the prices are insane and I totally agree that the soul has been sucked from the franchise. People really only go there for the name and apparent simplicity, if it was a new place starting up now as it is, it wouldn’t last long.
I went to one of those McDonald's "Express" shops in a shopping centre food court a few years ago. I had given up on their burgers a long time before then and only went there because there were no other customers in line and I wanted a drink because it was a hot day. The young girl serving got my drink, which was listed as being $1.95. I gave her two bucks which she put into the till before just looking at me with a stupid expression on her face. When I asked for my change she just replied "Oh, sorry, we're out of 5 cent pieces at the moment." When I told her to give me 10 cents then, she said she couldn't because the till wouldn't balance at the end of the shift. She didn't understand what I meant when I said that the till would also not balance if she didn't give me my change, but the difference is it would be out of balance by 5 cents in their favour. I know it was just 5 cents, but out of principle I asked for a manager. The bitchy manager came up and when I said I wanted my change she said "Gawd, it's only five cents" before reaching into her pocket and miraculously finding a five cent piece. It seems petty, but for fuck's sake, what kind of a shop can't be organised enough to ensure they have enough change and then expects the customer to make up the shortfall?
Yeah I had one a few years ago again and the quality was SHIT went down to my local fish and chip place and never looked back, guess it's even worse now.
Unsurprising that they don’t work with pride when working in fast food is so stigmatised. Back when I was at school “you’ll be flipping burgers if you don’t work harder” was seen as a threat
You can create multiple MyMaccas accounts and claim free birthday fries/cheeseburgers/nuggets each month, been claiming a free large fries and cheeseburger for lunch several times
Maccas sucks but it often is the cheapest. I don't know any pub or restaurant that sells a burger, chips and drink for like $13.
Even take away burger joints $13 will get you their cheapest burger (obviously better than Macca's) at best and no sides.
Spent like $25 getting a burger, chips and drink at burgertory a few weeks ago.
Local pub charges like $26 or $28 for their burger meal.
McDonald’s was my first job and we were hounded on procedures throughout my time there. They obviously don’t train to the same extent these days and I can tell you first hand the quality has gone down. They aren’t following proper food procedures or making items properly anymore. Even to how the cheese is placed on muffins is wrong. The amount of pickles on a quarter pounder is wrong. It definitely used to be better and the amount of hoops we had to jump through with head office just to not have them come into store and not breathe down our necks.
American here, chiming in from r/all. It's the same way here, too. Terrible service, cold shitty food, and the ones around where I live are usually dirty as well. At least they're consistent, I guess.
Everything is worse but I really knew they were taking the piss when they stopped flurrying the mcflurrys.
Bought one the other day and was thinking, this just seems like a Sunday with topping???
And costs $6 somehow
If my kids piss me off enough begging for a soft serve, I ask for a soft serve in a cup with toppings. Total of $2 for a still reasonable amount of icecream. Usually however, you’re better off buying the shittiest colesworth tub of vanilla ice confection and sticking a bunch of topping on that
Had one the other day and put it in the freezer for later, forgot about it, and when I tried it the next day, it was like frozen frosting. Not even like ice cream anymore, just sickly sweet Betty Crocker pre-made vanilla frosting in flavor, looks, and texture. It was gross tbh.
The shittest colesworth ice cream is so shit it isn't even legally allowed to be called ice cream so be careful
I've heard of brands doing that, it's labeled as "frozen desert" or something. Creeped me out when I first saw it, I try to avoid generically described food products in general.
Remember 'soft serve' isn't called icecream either. Totally agree with you, it's creepy that the companies spend so much to figure out how to make fake food to sell us, rather than selling us real food.
From what I remember, the company that made the machinery to actually mix the mcflurrys bailed. Personally I bailed when I tasted whatever the fuck that caramilk mcflurry was
Apparently they lost a patent battle and had to stop making them that way
I read it was because it would have cost too much to get the exclusive machines that flurried them maintained/replaced.
And they don't give you plastic spoons anymore, which they use for flurying. I don't think it would work with the shit they give you now.
Yeah, for the machine that did the mixing. And it's too hard to get the kids to at least stir the thing once or twice. They don't even have the decency to pretend. Lie to me, Ronald, lie to me!
In New Zealand they’ve removed the hot fudge sauce from m &m mcflurries 😒
Their burgers are objectively terrible even for fast food If they're not cheap anymore, what do they offer?
Broken dreams…
And heartburn.
Hello reflux my old friend
I’ve come to burp with you again.
Because cholesterol slowly increasing , Ruins my veins while I am sleeping
And the saturated fat gains, will remain
Amongst the sounds, of flatulence.
Your my boy blue
They don't even have a mascot for the kids anymore after everyone decided that Clowns suck
They have zero brand identity now. They were once fun and magical, then they tried being a fancy burger joint now they are just a soulless calorie dispensary
I think you nailed it 'soulless calorie dispensary'. They lost their colour, and then their fun.
I’ve seen it joked that they’ve basically hit middle age - the childlike wonder is gone. All the buildings are grey
The old Maccas got a job in corporate.
They have a brand, it's called Ikea left overs.
You’re so right, I had maccas yesterday for the first time in ages and couldn’t workout why I’d had heart burn for the last 24 hours
That cholesterol build up will last a lifetime ❤️
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who experiences that. I had maccas for the first time in a long time last year, after a Big Mac meal I ended up with the worst indigestion, it stretched all the way down to my stomach… I threw up and instantly felt better. At that point I realised I was done with Maccas. I haven’t been back and have no regrets. The chocolate soft serve was pretty good though.
Farting for 10 minutes afterwards sounds pretty grim. Probably want to get that checked?
Agree, should be more like 80-90 minutes.
Not the only thing that needs checking.
In April, I said to my wife this cheeseburger tastes like cardboard. Googled it. They changed meat supplier's. No seasoning on the meat, just bland nondescript protein. Surely they are gonna die soon.
Omg. I knew it. The meat tastes crap now and my tastebuds can’t have changed that much
They also recently changed their OJ on the breakfast menu to 'Orange fruit drink' and it is the most horribly overly-sweet beverage. My teeth were screaming after my first sip.
To be fair, though, their "OJ" has been orange flavoured water for years now.
Its much worse now. Trust me
Last time I had a quarter pounder, my go to basic burger, I nearly vomited. Not only did it taste like cardboard, it also had a weird texture similar to that of wet cardboard. I couldn’t finish it, and I’ve not bought anything from there since!!
Same! I hadn’t had Macca’s for ages.. got my ol mate the quarter pounder and fries and a 6 pack McNuggets. I always liked the taste of the ketchup, mustard, onions and the patty all together and I would always want more... However, this time I had to get some ketchup and some mustard from my fridge because I couldn’t taste any sauce after 3 bites. Wondered what was in the patty because that was a new sensation in my mouth and it didn’t identify as a burger (pro noun was probably cardboard) Couldn’t finish it. Then the nuggets (I thought they were ALWAYS good) but, they were dry as the burger bun. Was going to give the rest to my dog but I didn’t want to give him permanent diarrhoea. The fries had no salt and no taste. I too have now broken up with McD’s. Blocked them on my phone and I have promised myself to never ‘drunk dial’ them again!!
That and they became cheap pricks with the sauce. i remember when i did not need to grab an extra sachet of tomato sauce for my cheese burger yet just before i stopped eating burgers i was doing just that. Thats if they remembered to pack it when i asked for it.
12% of the patty is cellulose. AKA cardboard.
Die? That's what I assumed since they're so expensive now. Checked their financials. Stock is at an all time high, revenue is up year over year. Even when the whole world shut down due to covid, their revenue only dipped 20%, followed by a big rebound.
Definitely right on that, no flavour at all, although if you're unlucky it'll be overly salty or overly peppery but still taste like dry cardboard
Sometimes I crave hungry Jack's or maccers, then after I wonder why I even bothered. A corner store burger with the lot. 100% better, as expensive as maccers but fills you up. Maybe I don't get a drink with that, but comparing the burgers you can instantly understand what your getting for your money.
My bro dropped the hard R
I don’t think I have ever seen anyone call maccas “maccers”
Maccas with the hard r
I think this Every. Single. Time. after a McDonald’s meal.. And I’m almost there with Hungry Jacks too..
HJs has still got it. I just stick to the one option always. Occasionally it has been crap but it’s mostly fine. I haven’t had a good burger from Maccas in donkey’s years. Even if you go through the Maccas app and make it how you want, still mediocre. Given how much they are charging, why wouldn’t I just go to a local burger joint and get a way better burger?
The best Whopper meal I ever had was in Thailand of all places, about 7 years ago.. The meat was juicy, the bread fresh and had a good amount of salad. Even the fries were perfectly cooked and salted. I’ve never recaptured the feeling since.. :sob:
Yeah burger king in thailand absolutely wipes the floor with hungry jacks in australia. And the dining areas over there are clean. The food comes out fresh and looking presentable
Please do you'll be appreciated and cared for so much more -burger shop owner*
You’ll pay for the burger shop owner’s kids to go play footy as opposed to some American tycoon getting an extra dollar on their pile of trillions. I cbf with corps now. I’m feeling very corner store/local business energy now in my mid-30s. I don’t get satisfaction from corps so why go there?
HJ's vege and plant-based patties slap
>HJs has still got it. I just stick to the one option always. Occasionally it has been crap but it’s mostly fine. Fresh HJs is God tier. On Australia Day I went at about 9pm. Late night HJs is a gamble - have they shut most things down so they need to cook fresh or are they trying to use the cooked stock before it goes. I lucked out and had the most amazingly fresh food. Haven't had it that fresh since I worked there. Not only that but they actually put the right amount of ingredients on the burger - I get extra mayo, and normally I end up asking for some burger with my mayo. Not this night, the mayo was spot on, the lettuce was actually green and crisp. The bun was perfect, the chips were hot and fresh and perfectly seasoned.
> A corner store burger with the lot. 100% better, as expensive as maccers but fills you up. Seriously, what the shit is with that? It's like $15 for a burger from HJ's now. Burger+chips+drink from HJ's will run you over $20. Subway now charging $15 for a footlong too. I can get a gourmet conti roll from a local deli for less than that. It's an absolute joke.
Corner stores, lunch bars and other nondescript grease pits generally haven't ramped their prices as much with the same greedflation as the fast food places, supermarkets etc. They've become even better value.
They’re usually open 24/7 - that’s about it
Terrible and smaller than ever big mac is a kids meal now
Consistency. Consistently shit but sometimes it's the only place open, quick when they want to be too
A brand. Its power of a brand and it can last for decades. But the good news is that unless they change for the better they will inevitably die as the legacy brand allegance fades away.
felt the same when i was working at liquorland and prices kept going up, and seeing customers struggle to break away from the "standards" (4X, VB, tooheys etc) that are meant to be cheaper, but are encroaching on the prices of slightly to much fancier beers
Step one: build customer base Step two: monetise the shit out of customer base guess which stage we're at
Totally agree. Was OK quality back in the day but now it just is horrible
Banking on nostalgia
Same as coke. It’s a default choice where you don’t have to think because you know what they serve and it’s always the same.
For such a long time I’d walk to any drinks fridge in any shop and just grab a coke by default without even looking at the rest. Then one time I was sitting there drinking it and I realised, I don’t even like coke that much. And it tastes funny without Jack Daniels in it. So now I browse the drinks and usually get something different every time.
Does anyone else HATE their fucking TV advert menus? I feel rushed looking at the menu waiting for all the adverts to disappear so I can see what is on the menu. You give up, and order the same damn thing, every single time...
why they have them is beyond me, they barely display anything! i don’t know why i always go back, they piss me off before i even order
You couldn’t be more right . I got sick of maccas so long ago but my partner is a big take away fan. Not sure why. It’s all crap.
Must be like meth, you know it's fucked and your gonna end up hating yourself, but you go back for more, every single time! Macca's has always been shit, people are just more aware now.
I reckon they do that on purpose so you can’t see just how much that bollocks is going to cost you.
Yes always bugs me, it’s like they expect you know every menu item and price before you get there
They want you to download the app
I'm convinced they're set up to only show the items with the biggest margins. It's the only borderline logical explanation I can come up with to explain why they wouldn't just show the whole menu and instead try to direct you towards a certain small subset of things.
That’s a really interesting idea. Totally believable too. If you’d like to look at the concept in more detail it’s called “nudging”. Yes, there’s a *name* for it. There’s even a whole marketing conference called “nudge” held every year. Where tricks such as the one you describe (the menus) to gently push or nudge customers into making choices the business, not the customer, prefers, are talked about. On the same vein, but without the the evilness, check out Rory Sutherland on YouTube. Trains are the best place to start.
My brother works at Maccas and wait until you get a load of this. When you're learning how to make the food items, the staff also have TV menus that regularly swap so sometimes they can't even see the ingredients for the items they need. So they either have to wait for it to phase or they guess and what do you think happens 90% of the time because of time pressure?
That is mind-bogglingly stupid.
Ha I got shit on here for complaining about the changing menu boards at the freaking drive thru. I’m trying to order for a car full of family and the bloody board changes every 4 seconds. Apparently I should know what the car full of kids wants before I drive in, and also have preordered via the app before hand. Crazy shit, won’t go there as it’s too stressful.
I mean it feels good to pre order and drive past other vehicles. Less stress for you too. 100% agree that boards shouldn't change at the drive thru though
I am a fan of walking in and ordering off the self service menus, because otherwise ordering gives me such anxiety! I am a very infrequent visitor to fast food chains, so I’m sorry but I don’t know that a chicken burger is a McChicken Delight or whatever, and my shortsightedness means I can hardly read the tiny menu behind the counter, but the bored teenager looks at me like I’m an idiot if I don’t immediately know what it is I want to order.
I grew out of maccas. Used to love the mcgangbang - chicken and cheese inside a double cheese burger. But im just a fat cunt haha Now my goto take away is red rooster. I always thought red rooster was always dead and never knew how they survived. But after going there I just realise its where all the old people go 😅😅😅
Red rooster is not deserving of the 25 year break I gave it. They’re really good now
Red Rooster has changed nothing, the rest cut corners and now they are below the big chook. Chicken and Chips are my god at red rooster now.
Spicy box is my thing. Change the fried for cheesy nuggets and a pineapple slice on the side 😍😍
The Mayo chicken roll is still amazing! Gross but yum!
Red rooster not trying to be better or fancier than they are. Day old Chook, spoon full or Mayo, whack it in a bun and it a day. Trashy takeaway food, like it's supposed to be. Woukd argue that their fried chicken is better than KFC on all but the holiest days where you get perfectly cooked fresh chicken from the colonel.
They fucked up their rippa rolls by changing the chicken to the new tenders
Fucking Thank you. Someone else who knows. The new strips are fantastic outside of the Rippa. You need thay artificial, heavily processed crumbed lump of something resembling chicken to withstand the sauce and survive the ride home while remaining crunchy.
OG Rippa Sub was incredible. They're OK now but definitely a step down from the original
Apart from the switch to cabbage from lettuce during Covid. That lost me. Made a sub par wrap even worse. Their chips however are the best! Always!
everyone did that during the great lettuce shortage unfortunately, did they never swap back?
Best chips in the business too when they’re done properly.
the nuggets were always good and i say that as a vego, i have nostalgia for those crumbed bastards
Red Rooster, the lowkey king of fast food dining in Australia.
A real McGangbang was a whole McChicken between the 2 patties in a Half Pounder. It sounds bad until you realise how flat Maccas burgers are anyway.
Agree. Red rooster is a dark horse and well kept secret for sure.
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I’m a rare soul who LOVES red rooster but they recently switched over the pepsi and i’m a coke girl and i’m devastated
Yess we’re on the red rooter vibes again. They’re actually pretty fresh everytime we have gone since there’s no one there and they don’t cook anything “just incase”
It’s always been shit. It’s just that in the last 5 years it has become literally inedible prison food. I will sometimes buy the their chips on their own and their breakfast is acceptable even if it’s very overpriced. Other than those two things though, literally nothing else is worth buying as it’s dogshit tier. None of the other major fast food chains are any better either. It’s just unreal to me that anybody would pay $15 for a meal at Maccas these days. It’s also strange how there are always Uber Eats guys hanging outside which must mean that plenty of people are still buying it.
It was never *great*, but at least it was *reliable*. OP summed it up nicely, and the only advantage it has over anything else now is the 24hr trading hours.
Not reliable here (Western VIC) The other day my missus and the kids requested maccas for tea so I stopped through on the way home (I work two towns away), and I made the mistake of not checking the bag when I got it, if they forget a burger I cbf going back to get it, but this time they forgot three wraps, that shit is expensive! So I drove the 30km back to town to retrieve my wraps, the manager gave me a handful of meal coupons to which I said to myself "I bet is I use these they're probably gonna fuck up these too". A few days ago I used a couple of them to get some meals....missing a burger 🤦
Yeah it has changed immensely. As a kid the food and dine-in ambience was absolutely 5 out 5 star (kid rating). As a teen/20’s stoner the McFlurrys were stirred and the cones were 30c. The state of it now makes me sad. OPs post hits home hard.
Perhaps we should all stop for a moment and focus not only on making our AI better and more successful but also on the benefit of humanity. - Stephen Hawking
I'm holidaying in Japan at the moment and on a lazy off day decided to grab Macca's for brekky with the Mrs. Sausage mcmuffins were twice the thickness and half the cost.
Japanese just refuse to get ripped off the way Australians always do. I swear, the more Australians get ripped off, the more of it they buy. You couldn’t get away with selling the quality of food Maccas sell in Australia these days in Japan with so much good and relatively cheap food around.
to an extent, we kick up a stink if it's obvious but when it's a slow decline we mostly go with it dominos failed hard their first attempt, then they came back around and massive increased their quality for v2 and just slowly reduced it back down over the years and seem to still be doing well
90% of the time Domino's is the cheapest game in town, almost across fast food genres, so it's hard to argue. I regard it as a good step up from frozen and half the time frozen pizzas are more expensive now! If I want *better* pizza, there's usually about 6 different options. Their $/calorie is insanely low
I always wonder what the Japanese think when they holiday here, and they see a 7-11 and just go ‘oh thank god, some good quality, cheap food!’. Sorry my friend. Lukewarm pie, $7, cheers sport.
I dunno. Lotteria was traditionally their gutter tier option, held together only by ridiculous limited time heartstopper gimmick items. For a real wow moment, Japanese Subway is good. Imagine that. That's another fast food chain with woeful inconsistency here.
Was talking to a manufacturer about different markets. They singled out Japan as the country where if the shirt had a little crease in it the consumer would return it - and their sizings had to be the most exact. Small flaws that the rest of the world might accept are simply rejected by Japanese consumers.
Prison food is way better than Macca's these days.
"And that's how prisons and McDonalds teamed up to help curb reoffending."
I got sick once 5 years ago eating a sausage&egg muffin and now just the \*thought\* of maccas breakfast items puts me at risk of dry-heaving. Clearly my body had had ENOUGH. The hotcakes and hashbrowns don't make me sick, but they're so off planet expensive that I don't even get tempted.
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Last house I lived in (for 7 years) had the same neighbours in one house across the road the whole time.. from the minute maccas delivery was available, they were getting a bag Every night, around midnight. Only noticed because I could see the camera monitor from the couch and the drivers would use my driveway to turn around, and I kept thinking who tf is that in my drive way at this time XD
It’s weird. Like I think ordering any burger through a delivery service is questionable as they usually go cold in under 5 mins. They will always turn up lukewarm at best. Can’t think of anything worse than eating a lukewarm Maccas burger 🤮
The reason people are still buying it is because they’re literally addicted to it. Even when they know it is objectively shit, they still crave it because the ingredients used in the burgers, fries and nuggets are addictive.
Because at 2am in some places we don’t have many options or cbf with options. You go with what’s easy and what you know.
The happy meal toys are crap. It’s sooo expensive now. I went to order an iced coffee the other day and it was $7! I said, don’t worry about it. Hashbrown - now $3.15 each. It used to be my cheap treat for my kids. No longer…
Happy meal toys are just cardboard paper “toys”
They are litterally garbage BUT before they changed to cardboard ones, the plastic toys they had were terrible. The ones from the 90s were made of cast iron in comparison! At least when these cardboard things get chucked, it's much less of an environmental impact. Only good thing about the happy meal is that it's MUCH cheaper than a small cheeseburger meal. Probably the only meal on the menu that's decent value still, even if the toy is trash.
I bet you end up texting them when you're drunk and having weird breakup Big Macs.
Left 12 months ago when I got parked for 15mins and They gave my order to someonelse and I waited another 5mins before the one who gave my order away came and asked if I was waiting for anything else... yeah all my fucken food
Haha. Maybe it was me. I once ordered a couple of small things for the kids, and they gave us this yyyuge bag. One of the kids were like...."this isn't our" and I hit the pedal to the metal.
Someone I knew done that once, and it was all fillet O fish burgers 😂
I once received another person's uber order without realising and when I read the receipt on the side, one of the items ordered was a cheeseburger, with cheese removed and sauce removed. I must have stared into the distance for 5 mins just pondering the idea of someone ordering meat and bread.
Haha. I ordered a tonne of food for 4 people. Guy came out with two bags went to the car in front of me and handed them a bag and checked it was correct, they drove off, then he gets to my car and is like here's your food, and it's a single serving. Car in front obviously knew it wasn't his, but took a tonne of food for himself. They had to remake my order and I was stuck there another 10 minutes.... and I always thought what sort of cunt takes someone else's order on purpose...
Ah yes, teaching the kids thievery and dishonesty. The true r/Australia way.
That sounds like bakery hill to a tee but I also know could be half the maccas in the state
Do that in coorparoo and they’ll sting you a parking ticket while you wait aswell.
They died when they refurbished all the restaurants to look like public toilets.
You know, I've been trying to put my finger on what the new look resembles for ages, fucking finally. Lol thank you
You have moved me with your eloquent summary of what we are all feeling, I stand with OP! #I'mLeavingIt
I recently ate Maccas for the first time in about 25 years. I won't make that mistake again. Even worse than I remember it being and the burger was tiny compared to how they used to be. Overpriced flavourless gut luggage
“gut luggage” 😂😂
I am 100% adding the term 'gut luggage' to my daily vocabulary.
It is actually worse. I can tell they’ve changed the patties and someone else in this thread says it’s because they changed meat supplier
It seems like the small town ones are much better on average. I feel like I hit the jackpot with my local maccas. The chips are always fresh, the double quarter still hits in all the right places, surprisingly above average coffee. But then I go to another one on a trip and it's fucking ghastly. Trash everywhere, no one cleaning, shit service, ancient decrepit burgers...
McDonalds (and fast food chains in general) is a real crapshoot out in the sticks. You either get an absolutely immaculate place with the last manager in Australia who still gives a damn or you get an absolute shithole, and nothing in between.
I had the best KFC ever in some rural country town! Can’t remember where, but damn it was good!
It sure as shit wasn’t the one at Gundagai on the Hume. That one is seriously horrible. The toilets haven’t been cleaned in decades. Didn’t bother getting anything, just bailed out and got a packet of burger rings from the servo.
Naa I live in a small town, more often than not the chips are cold, I remember going in there once to get my partner a coffee and saw 3 full bags of delivery food just sitting on a cold counter for a full 15 minutes before someone took them out to delivery. I've found the best maccas are in the airports these days.
I did notice the other day that the st Kilda one seemed to taste a lot more normal / like I remember than the south Melbourne one, which has gone to shit
I hear ya, i'm so done with the brand...
I hate the new weird sundae containers with a passion
I don't have a problem with the cardboard containers, but the wooden spoons totally ruin it. You can taste the spoon more than the ice cream.
And the wooden spoon
The most frustrating part of the McDonalds experience in Australia in 2024 is their staffing situation and the customer service that is a result of this. Every store in under-staffed so the workers who are there are constantly getting smashed but on top of that I'm positive that staff are instructed from higher up and as part of their training not to serve customers at the counter now. There are a few stores that I frequent as an Ubereats driver and there's no-one at the counter to assist me or any other customers who are in the store. I get it, they want us to all use the self-serve so that they can hire less people and churn out the same amount of Big Macs but if you're in the business of serving customers and you don't have anyone there to serve customers it's not a good look. I say all of this without directing any of it at the staff who work in-store. Like all big chains and franchises it's pretty clear that head office don't care and it's left to staff and customers to have a below average in-store experience. Just gotta vote with our feet and go to Red Rooster I guess. Because The Rooster is criminally underrated.
I much prefer hungry jacks. I have never understood the maccas hype 🤷♀️ the hj diet coke with ice just hits different
Hungry jacks always makes me sick in the stomach. No matter what I eat. I think it’s the oil they use.
I find that HJs actually has satisfying portion sizes. If I'm eating garbage I at least want to be full afterwards.
I was born in 79 and McDonald’s was a treat, a rare one but truly amazing experience when it occurred, in the past ten years it has become just awful, it should now by called by teens for teens, because that’s the only people that are suckers enough to enter that place
You're definitely right about the 'not filling up' correctly part. They're constantly doing it now, like they're trying to save on syrup or something? Same with the chips. Order a large, get less than a medium and slightly more than a small in a large container. I ordered a (used to be $1) large frozen coke many times and they fill it up nicely, but the last couple of times I went they half fill them on purpose. You go back and ask them to fill them to their supposed portions. You get dirty looks because they know you caught them out, but they still do it for you because they cannot refuse service otherwise you might 'wont come back ever again'. They know you will be back. Even YOU know you will be back after telling yourself not to. It's too convenient. So they can get away with anything. It's not like they're making a huge loss or anything by losing you. The penny pinching/shrinkflation is real
At the Maccas' I work at the drinks not being filled correctly is due to the machine. When it's busy we have it set to automatic mode where it moves the drinks along and fills them up, but the machine is so inconsistent with how much it fills. One drink it will fill to the top and the next it might only fill half.
Its weird that anyone has brand loyalty
These days I’ll get some chips and sausage McMuffin nothing else is really worth it
Maccas 'Lovin it' slogan really should be "I'm regrettin' it".
You'll be back. They'll all be back
Based on my nearby McDonald’s everybody is already back
They’ll be around long after you and probably your kids have departed from this life. It’s been overpriced garbage for a long time and it’s still making them insane money so they have zero incentive to improve.
Jokes on them, their decline in quality is a reflection of larger systemic issues in the world which mean I’ll never have kids.
Lol it’s maccas mate its the biggest corporate fast food chain in the world it’s absolute slop served up by kids being paid peanuts that would literally rather be doing anything else. Your post makes it sound as if maccas was ran like ritz or had integrity at one point.
As someone who used to work at Macca's, you're right. It's an absolute hellhole. The food is ridiculously overpriced, yet is still terrible quality. I was definitely not Mclovin' it there. I'm glad you were able to escape the clutches of good ol' Ronald Mcdonald
Beautifully sad poetry is this Maccas review, I hope this reaches the executive level of McDonalds management. If they wanted a clear, current illustration of a typical experience at the Golden Arches, here you are. Spot on and thanks for the emotional rollercoaster that is your tale of woe
I worked at McDonald’s for 1 years in early 2000s. Although I still like to eat a Big Mac, the overall McDonald’s experience is so shit now. Staff have no idea and are really just flesh robots making mistakes, the prices are insane and I totally agree that the soul has been sucked from the franchise. People really only go there for the name and apparent simplicity, if it was a new place starting up now as it is, it wouldn’t last long.
Last time I ate maccas I got so horribly and violently ill that I thought I might actually die. That was enough to turn me off from them forever.
I went to one of those McDonald's "Express" shops in a shopping centre food court a few years ago. I had given up on their burgers a long time before then and only went there because there were no other customers in line and I wanted a drink because it was a hot day. The young girl serving got my drink, which was listed as being $1.95. I gave her two bucks which she put into the till before just looking at me with a stupid expression on her face. When I asked for my change she just replied "Oh, sorry, we're out of 5 cent pieces at the moment." When I told her to give me 10 cents then, she said she couldn't because the till wouldn't balance at the end of the shift. She didn't understand what I meant when I said that the till would also not balance if she didn't give me my change, but the difference is it would be out of balance by 5 cents in their favour. I know it was just 5 cents, but out of principle I asked for a manager. The bitchy manager came up and when I said I wanted my change she said "Gawd, it's only five cents" before reaching into her pocket and miraculously finding a five cent piece. It seems petty, but for fuck's sake, what kind of a shop can't be organised enough to ensure they have enough change and then expects the customer to make up the shortfall?
Times that by 1000 customers a day… nice little tip for the staff
Yeah I had one a few years ago again and the quality was SHIT went down to my local fish and chip place and never looked back, guess it's even worse now.
Stealing other people’s orders is a dog act mate, you don’t fuck with people’s food
Unsurprising that they don’t work with pride when working in fast food is so stigmatised. Back when I was at school “you’ll be flipping burgers if you don’t work harder” was seen as a threat
Forget Maccas, that is some quality writing.
You can create multiple MyMaccas accounts and claim free birthday fries/cheeseburgers/nuggets each month, been claiming a free large fries and cheeseburger for lunch several times
Local pub or restaurants is cheaper and always better quality, no plastic after-taste either.
Really? My local pub charges $25+ for a main.
$18 for a burger that doesn’t come with chips. 🤬
We're over $45 for a steak at my local, parma sitting around $30.
Up until 2 years agoi could get dinner for 15 bucks at pub. Cheapest now is 28.
What pub serves food cheaper than maccas,show me the menu
Maccas sucks but it often is the cheapest. I don't know any pub or restaurant that sells a burger, chips and drink for like $13. Even take away burger joints $13 will get you their cheapest burger (obviously better than Macca's) at best and no sides. Spent like $25 getting a burger, chips and drink at burgertory a few weeks ago. Local pub charges like $26 or $28 for their burger meal.
just blantant lies. ain't no pub or restaurant doing a burger under $15
Can get a slap up, fresh veggie, delicious Thai for less.
Sorry to break it to you mate, but you just grew up.
McDonald’s was my first job and we were hounded on procedures throughout my time there. They obviously don’t train to the same extent these days and I can tell you first hand the quality has gone down. They aren’t following proper food procedures or making items properly anymore. Even to how the cheese is placed on muffins is wrong. The amount of pickles on a quarter pounder is wrong. It definitely used to be better and the amount of hoops we had to jump through with head office just to not have them come into store and not breathe down our necks.
QCS&V! Pretty sure they don’t bother with that anymore. It used to be somewhere I worked and wanted my kids to work when they grow up. Not anymore.
I haven't worked there in 20 years and I could still put together 6 perfect quarter pounders, cheeseburgers etc.
Omg cheeseburgers never come with onions and rarely pickles like wtf
This hurts me on a deep level you don’t understand how much I would pride myself on correct placement.
Nah it's objectively shitter and not worth the current prices
I went in the other day, 24 nuggets, a big mac, and two large fries was $30. Hilarious.
only drop in for dessert after eating out, it's a bit of a crap shoot how they'll fill your sundae
American here, chiming in from r/all. It's the same way here, too. Terrible service, cold shitty food, and the ones around where I live are usually dirty as well. At least they're consistent, I guess.
Been over maccas for a few years now, only go there occasionally for a frappe or a shake but never for food anymore.