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| PaNas Spesial - McDonald's Indonesia April 2016 |
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| The portions were actually considerably larger than the promo photo |
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| Fish Bites - McDonald's Indonesia - April 2016 |
Consumed on 05 April 2016
Location - Jakarta, Indonesia
Fish Bites Price - 12,000IDR = $0.90USD. PaNas Special Price - $2.72USD
Calories - Unknown
This is going to be a 2 item review simply because I only sampled a small portion of each item, and neither are really suitable for a review of their own. I tried both these items through McDelivery together when I had the Fish & Fries. The first up are the new Fish Bites variant of the now regular menu Spicy Chicken Bites. When I tried these 'fresh' my last visit to Jakarta in 2015 I didn't enjoy them, I mean, I really didn't enjoy them, so I didn't really expect the Fish to be any better, but seeing how cheap they were, and the bites being something I could share around the office, I still gave them a go. Something similar appeared back in Singapore in late 2012 I believe, but I never gave those a try. Whereas the Fish from the Fish & Fries probably would have been pretty good if they weren't delivered through McDelivery, these clearly would have bad been even if I ordered them fresh. Everything I didn't like about the original Chicken Variant was back again with the Fish, and eating them ice cold via McDelivery made them absolutely horrific. You could tell these were made LONG before they were delivered, as they were rock hard once I ate at them. I popped one in my mouth and just like the chicken, it was more batter than meat, and the minuscule piece of fish inside didn't come through all that batter whatsoever. Sadly I didn't get a "cross bite" photo but that same thick outer layer of batter surrounded an inner layer of doughy mess. The Fish from the Fish & Fries was cold, but at least the fish inside was still soft and you could taste fish, this was completely tasteless, you could have said it was Chicken and I honestly wouldn't have any idea. Even though they provided 6 balls, I didn't eat a single other, but rather "shared" them around with some colleagues with the forewarning that these were one of the worst items I've ever tried. Not a single one disagreed with me.
Rating 0/5
After finishing the fish items I had to run for a conference call. That call took about an hour, and when I got back there was still a "PaNas Spesial" that was ordered, but left completely untouched. To be completely honest, I didn't eat the cold fries from my Fish & Fries, and since I only had a single Fish Bite, I was still quite hungry. I wasn't in the mood for the giant hunk of chicken thigh, so I donated it to another hungry colleague, but felt the rice and eggs from the PaNas Spesial would fill me up. New readers might be a asking why I didn't try the McDonald's fried chicken to begin with, but it's a regular menu item in pretty much every country in Asia outside of Korea and Japan, and is very popular in South East Asia. I've had it before it's just not my favourite, so I only eat it when they have a limited edition seasoning. Indonesia is the only country that serves it together with Rice and Eggs, and strangely enough the exact same dish, including the fried chicken is a regular menu breakfast item as well, that's how popular it is.
I threw a little chilli I had stashed in my desk on the eggs it actually was better than both of the two items I ordered TO review. The rice was wrapped in a special McRice wrapper, which allowed the rice to retained all the moisture so it wasn't dry at all, and the eggs, although cold, were just fine. No doubt they were no different than the scrambled eggs you get for breakfast, but it's probably been well over a decade since I've had a Big Breakfast at McDonald's so I was impressed by how creamy they were. McDonald's Indonesia has since released 2 new limited edition Rice Bowls, similar to the
ones I've tried in
Hong Kong, and when I have to head back to Jakarta next week, they are squarely in my sights for a proper full review.
Rating - 3/5
