A typical McDonald's in downtown Santiago.
The outside ice cream booth, next to the regular McDonald's.
The impressive food selection at a Starbucks in Santiago.In all my travels, I have realized one universal truth: American chains are always nicer overseas. Not only are they cleaner and more modern, they offer a variety of things that we in the U.S. do not. Take McDonald's for instance. In Amsterdam, they give you an insane amount of mayonnaise on everything (because they just love their mayonnaise over there!) In France, they offer Heineken as a beverage choice (to the adult's delight). In Australia, they have an Indian McChicken Tandoori Sandwich on the menu. Here in Chile, everything comes with a generous amount of avocado. I mean, a lot. Like, it's oozing out of every porous of every sandwich. They call this style "Italiano" for no apparent reason.
The McDonald's here have separate entrances just for ice cream. Because there is such a high demand for it, they create booths just for the "dulce" items. It does make things easier. Every chain here-- Burger King, KFC, McDonald's, they are always packed. This isn't such a shocker. Chileans aren't the most healthy eaters, what with their over the top completos, their enormous sandwiches, their love of drinking three huge, fatty drinks with a meal.
Other chains, such as Starbucks, are also considerably nicer. The one pictured above is in bustling downtown Santiago, and has 3 levels, with plenty of couches and comfortable lounge chairs. All the businessmen come in during their breaks, and the place always has a long line. What's most impressive about the Starbucks is their food selection. They have the regular coffee cakes and muffins, but they also have an amazing "pie de berry" (raspberry pie, with walnuts) as well as a lemon meringue pie, not to mention dozens of original, Chilean sandwiches (all with avocado, of course!)
We obviously didn't come here to eat the same crap food we have in the U.S. But I always like to check out the chains in other countries, for perspective, to see what's on their menu, and to compare and contrast to others I've seen. And the ones here in Chile are pretty damn nice, not gonna lie. But I'm not about to start a McDonald's binge any time soon, don't worry. This is for research purposes only!
That's funny, avocados basically don't exist in Italy. Your starbucks looks so nice!!
ReplyDeleteAneya, I do wonder, are the American fast good chains any better in the UK?? In your opinion. Great post as always.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Arianne! You know i can't really recall fast food in the UK which makes me think it wasn't very memorable! I think it was about the same as in the US, probably a little nicer, though (they always are!)
ReplyDelete-A.F.
3 years later but whatever xd
ReplyDeleteI'm from Chile and I think is called "italiano" because of the colours (it is suposed to be like the flag of Italy: avocado=green, tomato=red and mayonnaise=white)