When all else fails and you’re so hungry you could eat at McDonalds, the easy thing to do is surrender, go in and order your Big Mac, fries, coke and any other such fatty delights of home that may please you. But what do you do if they don’t speak English and your Chinese is limited to “hello” and “thank you”? Just use the picture menu.
I’ve had problems ordering food in McDonalds everywhere from Hamburg to Beijing to Paris to Los Angeles, with only limited absences of problem in between. In my first visit to a McDonalds in Shanghai I was curious how it would go down, since I know McDonalds isn’t exactly famous for paying top wages, and people paid low wages aren’t exactly famous for speaking foreign languages.
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The solution is so simple it’s silly. Every McDonalds has a picture menu with everything in English for you to order off of. You just point and indicate the number with your fingers, then pay the amount on the cash register’s digital read out, and enjoy.
I’d proposed this article to the editorial staff last month and was told it wasn’t important enough, and I agreed, until this week when I had to bring it up again. Some high traffic McDonalds, specifically the one in the middle of the Nan Jing Road pedestrian area, have such a menu at every terminal and you won’t even have to ask to see it. Well, I hit a McDonalds where I had to ask for it, ask for it a second time (more loudly and slowly) and a manager had to come over before my request was understood.
I took this to the editor and he agreed, we simply must get the word out. People have to know about the picture menus, people need their chicken sandwiches and tasty cheeseburgers.
The menu is less expensive on the surface than it is back home. Not like Starbucks where everything costs as much or more than back home, no, most of the menu is designed to appeal to the locals, who won’t pay what you will and can’t eat as much as you can. But while the prices seem lower, bear in mind that the portions you’re getting for that price are smaller as well. A combo meal there has a small fry and a small drink, as opposed to ones twice the size.
Also, if you have your sandwich customized back home, don’t try to have it customized here unless you speak enough Chinese to make your point clear. They won’t understand you and it will save everyone a ton of grief if you just take the pickles off yourself.
And before you leave, try out some of the regional menu items. Maybe there’s a chicken sandwich more spicy than back home or a dessert you’ve never heard of. It’s not every day you go to China and it’s likewise not every day you can try out something from McDonalds you’ve never heard of and will never see again.
