After a four-year hiatus, our McDonald's Around the World series is back, baby! For some reason, we all stopped traveling in 2020...so the only McDonald's we were eating at were our no longer foreign to us ones in Wales and England. I'll admit I still have a soft spot for McDonald's breakfast (it's fast, cheap, and delicious - the only place you can get proper American sausage around here!) but other than that we don't really eat McDonald's. Our go-to fast food if we are looking for that here, is KFC.
So I was very excited when we went abroad on our EU Road trip and could try some McDonald's in new locations! I am still always surprised at how easy they are to find, pretty much anywhere in the world. You'd think by now I'd be used to that. We weren't even really looking for one when we stumbled across the one on our day in Bruges. We had just eaten waffles, fries, fried meat stuff, and chocolate, but we couldn't resist stopping into McDonald's as well. I love how well they are able to blend into their surroundings when in old historic places - this one was in a gorgeous brick building with just this one, small, rather elegant "M" side to indicate what was inside.
Inside, we were delighted to find some very unique burgers on the menu. I'm not sure I expected to see South American (Chile, Brasil) flavored burgers in Belgium, but as a lover of that kind of food, I will take it! We ordered the Spicy Santiago double cheeseburger, the Brasil chicken sandwich and the Brasil cheeseburger. Then, despite the fact that we had already eaten waffles, gelato, chocolate, and purchased marzipan, we had to get a dessert we had never tried at McDonald's before - macarons.
The restaurant itself was incredibly busy and packed with people, so after hiking up several flights of stairs to use the loo, we decided to take our meal outside. We did not have to wander far to find a nice park bench in a beautiful public square, where we could sit and enjoy our food. First up, the Chicken Brasil. The base was a typical McDonald's chicken sandwich, but it was dressed up with a bun that had bacon bits on it, a special Brasil sauce and something kind of like a salsa. I don't know what it is in that Brasil sauce but it is delicious and has a bit of spice to it.
The Brasil cheeseburger had very melty cheese and excitingly to me, little bits of crispy fried onion! I thought that was a fantastic addition to a simple McDonald's cheeseburger. I think it had more of the Brasil sauce and even a jalapeno or two stuck in there as well. If I lived around here and was craving something cheap and delicious, this would be my go-to. It was still a bit pricey for my taste at €2.40 for a pretty small sandwich, but not bad for the location.
The star of the show was the Santiago burger - two beef patties on a poppy and sesame seed bun with lettuce, Brasil sauce, guacamole (so they said but more like just mashed/creamy avocado) jalapenos, and tortilla chips! This was truly an excellent burger that I would be happy ordering at a much fancier restaurant than McDonald's. The sauce and peppers added a nice kick, while the avocado cooled it down, and the tortilla chips added an amazing crunch. Now that I think about it, I really should try to recreate this one at home!
Last but not least, we tried the macarons! We ordered one of every flavor they had on the menu - chocolate, vanilla, pistachio, raspberry, speculoos (like a cookie butter), and caramel. [I took a picture of the receipt so I could remember all of the flavors!] It was hard to tell which was which between the speculoos and caramel, but they were all delicious in their own way. I'm not a huge fan of macarons, there are other desserts I would pick first, but this is not a bad option if you like them and you are at a McDonald's that has them!
Overall this is one of the better McDonald's we have tried around the world, and the people in Bruges that day agreed because as I said, it was busy! Personally, if I'm ever back in Bruges I will probably stick with fries and waffles from local eateries, but I'm glad we tried it. As with all of the food we had in Bruges, we split it all between the three of us, so we really weren't eating as much as one might think! (I think Steve was also taking a selfie when I took this pic, lol)
It was a good way to re-start our McDonald's Around the World series, stay tuned for two more countries we went to on this trip!
XOXO, Bethany