McDo is what they call McDonalds in the the Philippines. Here’s our take onthe fast food chain here.
Is McDonalds in the Philippines number 1?
There are few countries in the world where McDonalds is not the Big Kahuna when it comes to the fast food world. China has KFC, and Dicos, in the Philippines they have Jollibee.
I have written a lot about Jollibee, but its size and importance give it almost religious like properties to the masses, and despite being VERY Filipino have now expanded to other places that have expat Filipino workers, such as Hong Kong.
Now the reason to go off on one about Jollibee is that they not only have quite an interesting history, which you can read about here, but predate McDonalds entering the market by quite a few years. This has meant where in other countries companies mimic McDonalds, in the Philippines McDonalds has has to copy Jollibee.
What does copying Jollibee Mean?
It essentially means copying Filipino fast food style, which manifests itself mostly in Filipino Spaghetti. Jollibee spaghetti is a famously sweet style spaghetti that is somewhat infamous. There’s even a Jollibee in Italy, one wonders exactly what the Italians think of their spaghetti…
To read about Jolibee click here
It is so popular that you cannot have a fast food restaurant without it, so in the Philippines they have McDo spaghetti. It is hard to say which one is better, or worse, perhaps they equally as bad? Regardless it is very much the copycat dish.
And theres the Yummy Burger. When The Philippines was an American colony the locals learnt how to make their own version of the hamburger. It is sweeter than your average burger has a smaller patty, lots of sauce and squeezey tope cheese. I actually quite like the burger, but again it is quite an acquired taste, and again another in which McDonalds have copied Jollibee.
McDonalds Philippines Spaghetti
As previously mentioned McDonalds in the Philippines went all out by copying the most famous dish, or at least most infamous dish of Jolibee, sweet spaghetti. In the interests of blogging I have tried both. How to describe McDonalds Philippines Spaghetti? Not great, but kind of an acquired taste. Not as good as Jolibee though.
Rice dishes at McDonalds
Jollibee has rice dishes, so McDonalds in the Philippines has rice dishes. I fall under the rice doesn’t go with fast food school of thought, but hey each and all to their own…
But, the weirdest part of McDonalds in the Philippines is that it has all the standard menu items, but they hidden away into a small box in the corner, with the “local” dishes taking pride and place on the menu. It almost as if they are ashamed of a Big Mac. Like seriously?
To read about which countries do and don’t have a McDonalds click here.
To read about which countries do and don;t have Jolibee click here.
In my humble opinion if you need a truly western fix when you’re in the Philippines, head to KFC (gravy station), you can McDo much better than McDonalds (see what I did there).