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| McDonald's Korea McChurro |
Consumed on 29 January 2016
Location - McDonald's Samseong-COEX, Seoul, South Korea
Price - 1500KRW = $1.23USD
Calories - 181kcal
Finally some decent travel under my belt for 2016! Last week The Wife and I had to make a trip up to Korea and I was lucky enough to try the McChurros when I was there. McChurros, not to be mistaken with the Patongko in Thailand, were released back in November 2015 as a promotional item (after a short 2014 stint in Japan), but as of 2 days ago have since become a regular menu item! Before our trip to Korea was booked, my original plan was for my mother-in-law to bring me a churro when she visited Bangkok in December, but unbeknownst to me, the McDonald's in Seoul Incheon Airport has since been replaced by it's Korean ripoff, Lotteria, so that plan failed.
The Incheon Airport McDonald's wasn't the only branch to have disappeared since I moved from Korea, but my go to branches in Bundang, and two in the COEX/Samseong area of Seoul had also closed. The branch I did eventually find in Samseong had a Create Your Taste section of the restaurant and ordering kiosk (without table service) but since it's was nearly identical to what I reviewed in Singapore, I gave it a pass and stuck to the churro and the other promotional burger available (review coming soon!)
Initial impression was that the churro looked pretty well done compared to the promo photos (or any other churro I've had for that matter), but it looked a lot worse than it tasted. Yes, it was dark, but that was more likely due to the amount of cinnamon that was topped on the stick, as each bite had a nice cinnamony crunch. Although it didn't really keep its distinct 'churro ridges', the inside was still nice and fluffy. Even though I ordered this at nearly 11pm local time, it was cooked fresh and served hot, exactly all you could ask for.
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| The wife said I had to post this terrible photo of me trying the churro... |
The taste was certainly there, but I did have a few problems with it as a whole, but I think this is a pretty common problem with other Korean promo items. The packaging was churro-sized, but didn't have any special design or branding, just a plain white bag. The other problem I had was the price. The Churro on it's own is 1500KRW and they actually have the gall to try and charge you 500KRW for a small cup of the Chocolate, Strawberry or Caramel syrup from the sundae (which you could just buy outright for 1000KRW). Churros are one of those things that are surprisingly ubiquitous in Korea. Most bakeries (and McDonald's competitors sell them), but they are usually around 1000-1200KRW each, so the McDonald's Korea price point is a bit high. It didn't even need to be dipped in anything as it was flavourful enough on it's own, I suspect the cheap chocolate would have made it worse.
Rating - 4.5/5
Do you want to be a churro-conductor? I know I do...