Who misses the old McDonalds?

[roadman65]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/U9aBnzK6DpKBLbjQ9
I grew up with all McDs looking like this building. From a distance you could easily tell what establishment it was.

Now you get this.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/js5FVabwYz8ssfev9

Same restaurant, but different year.




It seems not only McDs are going for the box look but Taco Bell, Long John Silvers, and even Burger King are going this way.

[Max Rockatansky]

I miss dark meat McNuggets.  Why people got obsessed with white meat being the only thing in them in the early 2000s is beyond me.  The egg shaped nuggets were the white meat whereas the boots were dark.

[Stephane Dumas]

You're not the only one who miss the old McDonald's look. I miss them too and the "before and after" photos served to inspired a good meme about it.
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1911176-mcdonalds

[Road Hog]

The old McDLT was my favorite burger of theirs. The closest thing they have to it now is the Deluxe Quarter Pounder with pretty much all the same fixings, but the mayo isn't as good as it used to be.

[dlsterner]

I miss the days when their fries were cooked in beef tallow.  They're just not the same now.

What I don't miss was if you wanted customized toppings, it took longer to make than handing you a pre-made burger.

I also remember McDonalds which look like this (although my memories are a bit newer than that picture):

[epzik8]

The first McDonald's I remember setting foot in was one of those mansards, and it also had a massive playplace, I'm talking one you could get lost in. I was extremely upset when they tore it down and built the store that currently stands there. I saw the tiny playplace at the McD's I currently live closest to and shook my head at the realization that today's kids won't get to experience those massive ones.

Oh, and when the honey packets had the bees on them (and the honey itself tasted better) AND the pancake butter pats had the golden arches on them...

[lepidopteran]

I've mentioned it here before, but there's what I called the "Welcome to Delaware" McD's in the median of US-40 in Newark.  The old location had a rather large outdoor play area, along with outdoor seating under a canopy.  The signature light bars on the mansard roof were actually yellow instead of white, possibly to match the tops of the (original?) large arches still present.  Today, the place looks kind of... sterile?

Here's the before, and after.

[Road Hog]

I miss the days when their fries were cooked in beef tallow.  They're just not the same now.

What I don't miss was if you wanted customized toppings, it took longer to make than handing you a pre-made burger.

I also remember McDonalds which look like this (although my memories are a bit newer than that picture):

Would have been a good vintage photo, except for the photo-bombing boxy 80s sedan in the background.

[XamotCGC]

When did mansard roof McDonalds go from brown to red?

[ozarkman417]

I miss when my local McDonalds had the red roofs, playgrounds (thanks covid), and most importantly, Nintendo 64s.

[kphoger]

I dislike McDonald's, so I don't care one way or the other.

What I miss are real menus above the counter, where everything is just listed with a price.

[GCrites]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/U9aBnzK6DpKBLbjQ9
I grew up with all McDs looking like this building. From a distance you could easily tell what establishment it was.

Now you get this.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/js5FVabwYz8ssfev9

Same restaurant, but different year.




It seems not only McDs are going for the box look but Taco Bell, Long John Silvers, and even Burger King are going this way.

It's so that if the place closes it can be turned into a credit union or ethnic food place without people being able to tell what it was before. The old assumption was that a fast food place would never close or get torn down after closing but that didn't happen.

[GCrites]

I miss the days when their fries were cooked in beef tallow.  They're just not the same now.

What I don't miss was if you wanted customized toppings, it took longer to make than handing you a pre-made burger.

I also remember McDonalds which look like this (although my memories are a bit newer than that picture):

Would have been a good vintage photo, except for the photo-bombing boxy 80s sedan in the background.

Almost looks like it's the one on Agler Road (US-62) in Gahanna Ohio before the lot was reconfigured to add a drive-thru 20-25 years ago. Otherwise it still looks basically the same today:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0189898,-82.8901367,3a,75y,100.86h,80.72t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLuFD-1cxiEsc2zCM3nVwbA!2e0!7i3328!8i1664?entry=ttu

I had the beef tallow fries and nuggets several times in Europe where the lawsuit that ended them in the U.S. doesn't apply. Magnifique! I was 8 years old again.

[wanderer2575]

[GCrites]

Well they also don't want you going inside now. They wish they were a ghost kitchen.

[roadman65]

Have to admit, the old look was more festive looking than the current.

[Rothman]

They were indeed more fun back then.

https://images.app.goo.gl/VuaAuzNQqVkuae1g8

[Scott5114]

The McDonald's here in Las Vegas that I went to yesterday had a Glory Cash Recycler hooked up to the ordering kiosk so you can pay cash without having to flag someone down to take it like you do in Oklahoma. That was pretty cool, and I got a $5 back in change in a series that I don't have yet, so even better.

While I was ordering some older couple came in and loudly complained to nobody in particular that they won't eat anywhere with kiosks because they don't like that they take people's jobs away, then they left. I was busy paying or else I would have piped up that when I worked at BK we hated having to stop what we were doing to take customer orders, since we had enough work to do without standing there while someone took an hour and a half to decide whether they wanted lettuce on their burger or not.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I miss when McDonald's had self-serve drink machines. 

Mind you, not every single one has removed theirs yet, but I think 3 of the 4 closest to my house already have.

I miss playgrounds (thanks covid)

COVID accelerated some things like eliminating the few remaining play places that had been in the works for a while but I think a lot of McDonald's descent into suckage began with Super Size Me. That documentary was a major PR headache for McDonald's and in particular got a lot of people asking "what the fuck am I feeding my kids?" and "why are they mareking their crap to my kids?" Practically, they were also time consuming and difficult to clean.

[GCrites]

That movie had the strange side effect of thinking they could eat anything they want and as much of it as they wanted as long as it was made it at home. "At least it's not McDonald's!"

[Rothman]

That movie had the strange side effect of thinking they could eat anything they want and as much of it as they wanted as long as it was made it at home. "At least it's not McDonald's!"

*citation needed*

[dlsterner]

I miss when my local McDonalds had the red roofs, playgrounds (thanks covid), and most importantly, Nintendo 64s.

I'm at what you might consider the other end of the spectrum, where by the time McDonalds started putting in playgrounds, I was past the age to enjoy them.

[GCrites]

That movie had the strange side effect of thinking they could eat anything they want and as much of it as they wanted as long as it was made it at home. "At least it's not McDonald's!"

*citation needed*

The sit-down restaurant equivalent of this line of thinking is what necessitated the need for the "Eat This, Not That!" series of books in the late 2000s.

[Rothman]

That movie had the strange side effect of thinking they could eat anything they want and as much of it as they wanted as long as it was made it at home. "At least it's not McDonald's!"

*citation needed*

The sit-down restaurant equivalent of this line of thinking is what necessitated the need for the "Eat This, Not That!" series of books in the late 2000s.

That series was hardly necessitated.

[thenetwork]

I miss the days of Micky D's when:

• All employees wore a full uniform (Now people with ripped jeans are flippin' burgers)
• All the seats/booths were filled Friday Nights with school kids as this was their "malt shop" of the 70's and 80's)
• There were no less than half a dozen trash cans in the parking lot.  (now you're lucky to find one past the drive-thru window)
•  (And this goes way back:)  employees having to write down the order and physically calculate the total on a pad of paper befire ringing it up in the manual cash register!!!