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| McDonald's Thailand Kurobuta Spicy Namtok Pork Burger |
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| McDonald's Thailand Pop-Up Store December 2015 |
Consumed on 03 December 2015
Location - 5-Day Popup Store @ Centralworld Bangkok, Thailand
Price - 109THB = $3.01USD
Calories - Unknown
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| McDonald's Thailand Popup Store Receipt |
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| McDonald's Thailand - My burger |
First off, the lack of reviews over the last week and a half was because I had to make a last minute trip down to Singapore for work. The backlog of reviews is growing more every week, so I'll do my best to knock out a few over the next few weeks.
The first week of December, McDonald's Thailand opened their first ever pop-up store in the square next to CentralWorld mall in Bangkok. The original plan was to make a visit over on the weekend, but since I had to make that trip to Singapore on Saturday, I grabbed a quick takeaway from the branch mid-week to eat back at home, so I didn't get the full 'pop-up experience'. I will include a few photos of the location after the review.
The popup store menu reminded me of the Singapore/Australia "Create Your Taste" menu, but with a few distinct changes (CYT is also now in Hong Kong & Korea). The biggest change was you didn't place your order at a kiosk but at standard counter. The toppings were also far more limited than the Create Your Taste selections, the "base" price only included standard lettuce, tomato and onion. Strangely there were absolutely no sauce options, not even the regular menu ketchup or mayo. "Premium" toppings for an additional 10THB ($0.39USD) were Red Coral Lettuce, Grilled Onions, Shallots, Grilled Mushrooms (eww), or an Egg. All of which I've had on McDonald's burgers one time or another. For 15THB ($0.59USD) "extra premium" toppings of Black Pepper Cheese or Bacon were also available. There was also one other slightly hidden menu option, and that was that they had BLACK BUNS available. Now, these aren't the first time I've had coloured buns at McDonald's before, but after the "popularity" that the BK Halloween bun had in the US, I've been wanting to try one again...
The other big change was that they offered both Beef and a Spicy Pork Patty. Naturally, I went for the pork, even though I've had pork at McDonald's Thailand before, but this clearly wasn't the same patty. It was massive, thicker than any non-chicken patty I've ever had at McDonald's before. I cut the burger with a knife to try and show how thick it was, and the photos don't really do it justice. The bun is a quarter pounder sized bun, and the meat was just about as thick as the bread! It was also seasoned with the Namtok seasoning that's used on the regular menu Namtok Rice, which still remains one of my favourite regular menu items in the world. To those of you that don't want to go read my 2012 review of the rice, 'Namtok' is made with ground roasted rice, ground dried chillies, fish sauce, lime juice, shallots and mint leaves, and it's just as tasty and flavourful as it sounds. The pork patty was a perfect accompaniment for this.
All in, the patty was good, the namtok seasoning was excellent and actually had a decent kick to it, but together, the burger was a bit of a disappointment. These "premium" build your own burgers need to have some unique topping options to be worth the higher price. The standard toppings are simply boring, and the up-sell for anything interesting is a bit of a low-blow. Also, not offering ANY sauce at all is another glaring oversight. The pork patty was interesting, but if I had the unseasoned beef, I know I would have easily given it a 1 star.
Oh, and the bun didn't turn my poop green.
Rating - 3/5
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| McDonald's Thailand My Burger Popup Store 2015 |
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