My favorite new piece of info from this is knowing Russia Burger King basically went rogue. What a world we live in where part of a fast food chain just… declares independence.
Shrimp was actually a thing in russian mcdonalds long before all of this happened. My husband used to only basically go there to eat some tasty tried shrimp
Very small nitpick: the McFLurry was rolled out in 1998. So Russians weren't introduced to them til minimum 8 years after McDonalds started operations in Russia
Wrong Sam said they had McFlurries so it must be true. I get all my historical information from random videos on the internet. The internet is never wrong. >:(
The first McDonald's in Russia was actually organized by McDonald's of Canada. On opening day they put out Canadian and Soviet flags, not American ones. (And McFlurry - another Canadian innovation - did not exist then.) Another sign of the Canadian restaurant: On the sign there is a little Soviet flag at the base of the M where the maple leaf is.
McFlurry cracks me up. Blizzard did it first. Canada invented nothing, just a pale imitation of a Southern DQ who did it earlier and better. Also, their machines aren’t broken every other day.
@@bluepurplepink people like to say that, but it’s worse in almost every way. The only good thing in Canada is socialized healthcare, and even then it’s horribly underfunded to the point your waits for an appointment can be months-long. Indigenous rights are close to as bad if not worse than in the US, and their government tacitly supports white Canadians attacking First Nations (see the current lobster wars). Add onto that that if you want to live in a Canadian city that isn’t an oil town, you’re looking at paying >50% more rent than Americans outside NYC/SF/LA/Miami/Austin. Housing costs also reflect the absurd prices you see in America’s most expensive cities due to Chinese foreign investment, a “cheap” home in GTA is $1.2m+
@@Pantsinabucket I know GTA is Greater Toronto Area, but I found it amusing that $1.2 Million is the cost of a house in both Toronto and Grand Theft Auto
It’s literally the same full office executives team from McDonalds Russia (even the CEO) & most of the pre-war usual staff. And around 99% of food supplies were already Russian since even before the 2014. A small number of some numerous chemical ingredients & additives had to be replaced. Also the concentrated orange juice was imported and is now disappearing as the stock of it is coming to an end. So, not really different; mostly the same. Trust me, I’ve been visiting them for 3-4 times a week since 2015, mostly at the different stores of Moscow and another big city (with 1 mln of population). It’s WAY better and cheaper than the local branches of KFC or Burger King, and twice or more as old and settled. Burger king is extremely overpriced and tastes like shit. KFC prepares all it’s chicken items by hand in-store from the raw chicken, and that results in a very widely varying sizes of chicken tenders or fillets, and slows down everything. Unlike McDonalds and this new re-branded chain, where all of the items come factory pre-made & frozen, so everything is of high quality standards, tastes the same and looks equally sized across the whole chain of the country. But of course there are some local premium-quality burger chains. I’d like to point out that the McDonalds of Belarus and Kazakhstan had shared most of the menu items and even packaging with the Russian McDonalds. All those shared things were produced in Russia. Also, AFAIK, all McDonalds stores of Belarus and Kazakhstan are owned by the same franchisee than owns around 125 ( every 1 out of 6) of Russian McDonalds stores (now re-opening under the new brand). So the genuine McDonalds of these countries and the re-branded “Tasty,Period” chain still have some ties from what I see. And the McDonalds Corporation has secured rights to buy out all the Russian stores back during the next 15 years at their first demand/inquiry to do so. So, all things above considered, I’d like to believe that the reality behind this whole circus of hypocrisy is that the McDonalds Corporation still has a veeeeery small backdoor insight or oversight over what’s happening in the “independent” Russian chain. I mean, it’s in their (Corporate) best interest that the local Russian chain lives “as is” and thrives during the next 15 years, otherwise they wouldn’t wanna buy back something that’s trashed or turned into a shawarma kiosk or whatever else. Thought of course I may be wrong at it. The time will tell.
The addition of shrimp is probably for a similar reason to a new lack of fries: the ease of sourcing ingredients. If they can source shrimp easily and cheaply within Russia, then it makes sense why they would add it to the menu. Also, not to say that shrimp at McDonald's isn't a bit odd, but the McDonald's menu can be very inconsistent from country to country. They've put in a lot of effort over the years to conform their menu to local cultures. The Thailand McDonald's will serve a traditional Thai rice pudding. India's McDonalds lean heavily away from beef and use more common Indian spices. It doesn't necessarily even have to be totally different menu items. Sometimes, the same menu items are just prepared differently, as I found out in an Italian airport when I tried to get a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit and saw that the egg was not the scrambled (weird patty version I was used to) and was actually running out of the wrapping paper into the bag.
As someone who has visited hundreds of McDonalds around the world, almost all of them are consistent. The only thing that would be different are the specific different dishes like the corn soup in Taiwan or the Hawaiian breakfasts
Most people don't realize that the McDonald's menu also varies even regionally in the U.S. For example some places offer Biscuits and Gravy while other don't and when I was working in Maine you could find lobster rolls seasonally on the menu.
They did a similar thing in Iceland in ~2008 where McDonald's pulled out of the country because of economic reasons so the McDonald's franchise holder in Iceland rebranded all the stores with a new menu and different prices. I believe the reason McDonald's pulled out of Iceland is because of import problems caused by a crash in the value of the Icelandic Kroner on the international market making it much more expensive to import foodstuffs...
@@itchylol742 Have you ever been to Iceland? A hamburger is about $15 USD minimum regardless of where it's purchased. The prices of almost everything, but especially food, is astronomical there. McDonald's operates on cheap, familiar food, and if it's generally impossible to sell cheap, familiar food, it's not worth operating the chain.
Is it even worth profitable opening large scale fast food chains in a country whose whole population is equal to just few millions? Most major cities in the world has population more than the whole population of Iceland
As someone who was in Russia last week, I can confirm it's the exact same thing. The Big Tasty for example, was just called the Big Special, but the sauce was exactly the same.
@@brunowskijr half a Wendover, half a Sam, the same great content to watch in the pooper at work. Edit to the youtube police deleting my jokes about the bots eating hotdogs and mcribs... Feels a little communist.
Great story but as an American who lives in Russia let me correct a few things: 1. Both Coca-Cola and Apple can be easily purchasable at any previous location. Coke hasnt closed any of its 10 Russian factories and sold at every supermarket as well as goes with combo meals at V&T even now. Same for almost every other Western company that "left" Russia except for Ikea and some clothing brands. 2. Fried shrimp were sold in Russian McDonalds for like 5 years already but they really added some new things on the menu in V&T that are KFC like chicken wings and strips (All KFC joints are working in Russia as before too). 3. No problem to buy fries at any Russian V&T. Cmon fries are being sold at any Russian beer pub do you think they will not get them for the new version of McDonalds? What is really happened is that Russian McDonalds has its own potato manufacturing company. Because almost all their restaurants were closed for 3 months that company has made contracts for their produce with other buyers. So when V&T reopened they simply couldnt get enough fries for their restaurants and stated that some can run out of those by evening hours but the situation will be resolved in a few weeks which is very different from "completely taking fries off menu for an indefinite period of time". 4. I ve been to V&T like 5 times already and havent had a single complaint about their food everything exactly the same as in McDonalds. Everything else is true. Regards!
@@mobilecyclop7329 Well because Russia irl is a dozen times better than all that propaganda bs our media tells us. I ve been to like 40 countries and from my pov Moscow and Saint Petersburg are among the most vibrant and culturaly rich cities not to mention that those places are squeaky clean, safe and pretty affordable. To live in the central part of Saint Petersburg (where I am living) is like to live in the best parts of Manhattan for a quarter of price.
A minor correction: shrimp has been a hit in Russian McDonalds for years Also, something that didn't make sense to clarify pacing-wise: Burger King didn't go rogue in legal terms. The American company owns only 49% of the Russian subsidiary, so they had no say in whether BK Russia stays open or closes. A much more fun example would be OBI, where the genuinely rogue Russian management decided to reopen and had their PoS billing locked by the parent company within two hours. The Russian subsidiary did end up buying itself out a couple of months later.
I live in Moscow and can confirm that a lot of items are missing from the menu, but we always had and still have shrimps. My favourite french fries really do cost A LOT. You can get a decent mccombo for the price of two big sized french fries. Prices went up around 20% on everything else. My favourite part is that they really did paint McDonald's logo black on the sauces, but you still can see it, and all the other items including cups don't have any branding at all
@@DarkNexarius Absolutely. If they aren’t in a revolt to stop the genocide being gleefully done in their names then yes, I’m disappointed, because it’s clearly not enough.
@@DarkNexarius Errrrrrrrr yes.... The Russian people are complicit in this war - if only a tiny minority are going to make any attempt to stop it, then they need to be pressured until the rest of them do so.
I tried it the other day and to be honestly it was indistinguishable from any McDonald's I've had in the past. And yes there were fries, though I've never considered McDonalds fries to be good in any country I've visited.
Funnily enough, the only fast food chain that has made no claims regarding the situation so far is Subway, as far as I can tell. Considering the number of Subways, I guess they have forgotten that they have a market presence over here.
Your forgot to mention there is no Big Mac anymore in Russia. Also buns taste differently since they started to source them from another vendor (same as Burger King, probably very tasty for birds). And unfortunately McDonalds is still closed in Ukraine from the beginning of this war. They are still assessing the situation.
As a russian myself, I can say that here in Russia we still call Mcdonalds a... Mcdonalds and it still tastes the very same like an original Mcdonalds did.
@@arseniiabregov8477 I have yet to meet a SINGLE PERSON who calls it "Vkusno i tochka". Every. Single. Person. I know, calls it "MacDuck" or something along those lines. Including myself. Although there's one thing that HAS changed, although I doubt a lot of people noticed it or care - the breakfast. The hashbrowns are gone. No big breakfast, no big breakfast roll... Oddly enough - similar with KFC. They no longer have the "cheese pillows". Which were quite delicious I may add.
And there also still exists several restaurants which didn't sold their franchise and still operating under the name of McDonald's, but I heard that those are really short with menu items and they also serving...an alcohol beer?
What were they thinking, coming up with a hard-to-pronounce fast food chain name... which can only be simplified as "Vkus ochka"??? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??? P. S. To Inglish spikas: "Vkus Ochka" = "Taste of a Butthole"
I'm sorry but I'm going to have to "um actually" you here: McDonald's Russia already sold shrimp in certain markets such as Saint Petersburg before the pull out. So now they've just been standardized. Also, they are amazing and every McDonald's should sell them 🤤
I think the reason people (largely Westerners) are skeptical about a McDonald's selling shrimp, is because things like burgers and fries are seen as inexpensive junk food, and shrimp as a healthy delicacy. Salad gets to be a sole exception because it's not a delicacy, but who is really going to McDonalds for salad, anyway? I think fast food places need to rid themselves of the "solely junk food" label here before people would be comfortable with the idea of McShrimp
@@prim16 I think it might also be a "health quality" thing - yes, food born pathogens can come in anything, but take something as potentially dangerous as "bad shellfish" and multiply it by "cheap junkfood" and you've got a marketing Everest to try and overcome. Then again, fried shrimp poppers have been a thing at various fast food chains since forever, so maybe I'm just underestimating the appeal, and it could work far more readily than anyone suspects.
@@prim16 shrimp are far from being a delicacy, the real problem is that they spoil insanely fast compared to potatoes or anything else served at a McDonald's. Someone found a 30 year old McDonalds hamburger that didn't have a speck of mold on it due to all the preservatives. I would not want "fast food" shrimp. Never.
Actually, we had shrimps in every local Russian McDonalds even before that rebranding. Sadly, every cafe except like 10 major and most well-known ones based in Moscow and St.Petersburg significantly lowered in quality of service and food.
@@yglnvbrs I haven’t come across any low quality food in Moscow’s rebranded mcdonalds’ , however I can clearly feel the difference in service as the staff became more rude and problems with your orders now take place way more often
At 3:48 you mentioned that Vkusno i Tochka added Shrimp 🍤 to the menu. Now as someone who has lived in Russia for 7 years, I can confirm that “McDonald’s” had shrimp 🍤 the whole time I have been here. They originally had Shrimp wraps then deep-fried shrimp in recent years, before Burger King. Just thought this fact needed correction as I can tell you have never been to the original Russian McDonald’s before it was Vkusno i Tochka.
Just to clear the air for people that didn’t visit Russia before McDonald’s had shrimp for a very long time in Russia. Basically the mold and potatoe part is true but it depends on where the restaurants are. Some places have a few problems here and there but some operate just like they used to 😅
Hello, I'm from Russia, Moscow 🇷🇺 and I also run a RUclips channel where I shoot about politics and history. I would be interested to hear your opinion about my activities
I wasn’t able to eat there yet, but we had shrimps for like 10 years now. I doubt that these are different. The same thing is with Coca-cola actually. The beverage itself, Sprite and Fanta are now sold under different name. Probably the company had no time to make a good design so now these sodas look like bootleg. But taste is basically the same as before.
Oh yeah I remember watching nfkrz and had a youtube video about Russian Mcdonalds that pre-dated the operation were he essentially just bought every single item off of the menu.
@@jadelock302 Crap I was about to say that I like the story behind it because Germany lacked the raw ingrediates to make Coca Cola so the owner of Coca-Cola in germany encouraged his employees to "use their imagination"
As a russian I can't see alot of differences between old Mac and new one, at least in my town, and fries is still on menu, and it's still soggy... The biggest difference is that hamburger and cheeseburger cost about 55 rub and 59 rub, it's really cheap, coz same burgers cost about 89 rub in KFC and BK. (59 rub is about 1 dollar according to russian inner currency exchange rate)
When you hear, “because of a bad harvest.” Being an issue today, it’s kind of shocking. Makes you realize how important global trade is to the human race.
I just bought 3 kg of potatoes from dept. store in Moscow area just recently, I don't think anyone except those fast food chains heard of harvest issues?
@@jwhite5008 You are aware that department stores have back up items, right? What's on the shelves isn't all they have. Those potatoes of yours are probably from one or several harvests ago.
Ok, as a Ukrainian, I need to speak out. Most of the footage you've used of McDonald's is actually from Ukraine (the visible text was in Ukrainian). And the pronunciation of Vkusno i tochka is wrong on so many levels. It's pronounced something like fkoosna ee tochka. Oh, and we had shrimp in Ukrainian McDonald's as well, before they closed because of the war. That said, love your content, and thank you for talking about this
@Zaydan Naufal There is a degree of similarity, but no, those are two different languages with slightly different alphabets. It's sort of like spanish and italian - there's a lot of similarities, but a ton of unique words and rules too. It's just that a sizable chunk of ukrainian population knows and uses russian language daily and until a few years ago it was one of the two official country languages and was taught in schools.
@@DesolateFields Russian has not been an official language in Ukraine since the fall of the USSR. It was taught in school and was used by people, but on state level only Ukrainian has ever been official
Cyrillic is just a writing system. For example, Mongolian uses Cyrillic, and it's not related to any other major language. As does Taijk, which is basically a dialect of Persian. The only connection of these to Russian is that the countries were once under Soviet influence.
Ever since I heard the translation “Tasty and that’s fine” and “tasty and that’s it” I’ve been convinced that is the most Russian brand jingle possible.
Direct translation is "Tasty and full stop" Literal full stop, "." but in word version instead of a dot. Kinda like "decisively tasty" if indirectly translated
@@phoule76/videos I believe this is the best translation (am Russian, I think the restaurants didn't change much, but like most Russians I don't visit those often. And don't support wars. But no-one really asks us, ever.)
I tried it for the first time at an airport in Moscow a few weeks ago. I didn't think the food tasted any different, still passable and it was by far the cheapest option there. The table stands you get after you order from the kiosk that has your order number on it, had covered over the McDonald's logo with what appeared to be whiteout paint.
2:07 people who understand russian here, it literally says "a decree on changing of method of evaluation of amount and order of payment to patent holder in case you decided to use patents without permission " (Ps, i shortened a bit)
As a Russian who attended opening of the new McDonalds i would like to thank you deeply for making this video. Funny thing is there is some evidence that apart form Alexander Govor there also is one more party standing behind the purchase. It highly like is tied to the bank that is related to the Russian government (Sovkombank). Moreover, a few officials from russian Parlament were seen at Mcdonalds grand re-openin wich occurred on an state-wide “Russia’s day’ holiday wich makes things even more hideous. But it is not even the best part. A few day ago it was confirmed thar a rapper Timati (basicaly russian Kanye West) purchased all of 220+ STARBUCKS cafes in the country. He is well know to people for poor restaurant maintenance as he already opened 3 restaurants chains and all of them are pretty shit as well as stealing beats from western rappers. He is a good friend of chechen head Kadyrov as well.
Well, his food chain "Black star burger" in par with Mc, BK, KFC, etc. Which means it's shit in most categories. Smaller, local burgers places always better then mainstream big chains.
I mean no disrespect to you at all but "Russian rapper stealing beats and opening poorly maintained restaurants" is shockingly close to what I would imagine a stereotype for a Russian rapper would be. To cancel out the shitty dude, got any GOOD Russian rappers we should know about?
If somebody is interested: I am Russian, and I can say that nothing changed, except for the logo. If the problems described in this video do even happen, nobody I know had ever noticed them
@@annoyedcat9291 But they totally are, and the same scenario is happening to many other companies. Western propaganda definitely overestimates the power of sanctions
@@mynil That's right. The West loves to push their propaganda especially when it comes to Russia and China but don't worry, many people from around the world are sick and tired of US meddling and threatening attitude, even their own allies. Someday when BRICS have their own reserve currency and worldwide interbanking and financial telecommunication like SWIFT, many more people will move away from the West for Russia and China👍
I believe it is important to note that all McDonald's in Russia sold shrimp and shrimp wraps way before the invasion. And they were, in fact, my favorite meals there. Now they don't sell the wraps, but I think it's only temporary
I believe that Yugoslavia was the one mentioned because the “theory” was devised after the opening of a store in the Soviet Union and the fall of said Union. Maybe the idea at the time was: “Now with no Cold War, economy takes precedent over politics”, which clearly didn’t hold up.
This video made me wonder whether Aergentina had a McDonald's during the Falklands War in 1982. EDIT: Looked it up. Argentina got their first McD's in 1986, so no.
You forgot about the part where the news McDs is literally taking a sharpie to the old McDs ketchup packets and blurring out the arches on the packet….one by one
@@G.A.C_Preserve >big resturant company pulls out >thousands of food and supplies must be thrown away >oh_no.jpg >Russia says "I have an idea on how not to waste all this food that the company didn't bother to take" >reopens the locations of the restaurant under a different name, workes must mark off the logo to avoid any trouble, thus saving all the 'wasted' food and supplies How can you spin this off as something bad.
I recalled reading something last year or so that McDonalds in Japan was having a french fry shortage since many if not all McDonalds source their fries from certain McDonalds owned/affiliated production facilities, their shortage was due to pandemic related logistical issues IIRC. So the RU McDonalds chains probably also relied on those french fry production facilities as well and had no pre-existing sources in Russia for fries.
It makes sense since I bought 3 kilos of potatoes from a department store just yesterday without any issue. And the store offered store-branded locally-made fried potatoes (that look and taste quite differently from fast-food ones). Avocados are seemingly gone, at least in my area, but potatoes - not so much. P.S. I don't support any wars and never did
Relative to its population, Japan produces few potatoes domestically. It imports potatoes from North America (both Canada and the US are major potato exporters) and many (most?) of these shipments go through the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia. Pandemic-related issues combined with major flooding in Southern B.C. around November 2021 caused delays at the Port and as such many shipments of potatoes to Japan were stalled. The downstream impact on McDonald's in Japan lasted just one week at the end of December during which time they continued to sell fries, but only in small sizes. On the other hand, Russia itself is one of the world's largest producers of potatoes, growing more than even the U.S., and keeps most of this for domestic consumption. The video notes Russian potato producers seem to be having a bad crop this year, and if that's indeed the case, that's probably the main issue. Russia normally also imports some potatoes. Primarily, these come from Egypt, which to my knowledge has refused to apply sanctions on Russia, and so this trade is probably unaffected. Other partners include, to a much smaller degree, China, which is by far, far, far, the world's largest potato producer, and also continues to trade with Russia. It might take a little time (and have impact on cost and/or quality) to ramp up potato imports from China or Egypt if necessary, but it'd probably be possible. The actual "production" of the fries -- turning raw potatoes into french fry shapes -- is relatively trivial, and I would guess (but it's just a guess) that usually happens domestically, since it'd be cheaper to transport potatoes in their raw form than as processed fries, in which case they'd probably need to be frozen, and taxes/duties could be higher.
Hello from Moscow! I’ve been to Vkusno I tochka 4 times in past month Generally it’s the same McDonald’s that it was before the war but without few positions in the menu and with bigger prices
When I first saw the new logo I immediately thought “Marriott” of hotel fame. After checking a little it appears to be closer to the logo for a Portuguese company MatosMix, who produce animal feed.
3:51 "If you wish your local mcdonalds sold shrimps then maybe you should declare war on an european country." I didnt leave my room for about a year but last time I checked german mcdonalds offers shrimps . . .
i´m from russia, i ate there earlier and there was a glitch with the interface where it wouldn't let you order fries, it would take you straight to sauces instead for some reason, though maybe it wasn't a glitch after all all in all yeah pretty accurate video, i'll personally mention that i didn't notice any taste difference at all
Considering the reason their icecream machines are always broken, it wouldn't suprise me if they just made it impossible to order fries via the interface instead of removing it from the menu.
Interestingly, there are enough potatoes in local department stores, including locally-made fried potatoes (otherwise there probably would be a civil war), but all fast food chains I/my friends visited recently are out only offer small portions. Not that it is that bad considering how bad are those for your health though.
The phrase at 00:45 accurately describes the decor at the McDonald's I visited in Beijing in 2003 (except there were also saxophones mounted on the wall next to the Elvis picture)
Great video, something to note is McDonalds in Russia did alredy sell shrimp under the name of the McShrimp, it used to exist on the McDoanlds site not sure if it's been removed now
To russians it sounds like a cheap knock-off (which do exist here, although less so than in China), it would greatly deter customers. A lot of international businesses now operate locally, but with a clause of possible buyback by previous owners for $1, I guess they hope the situation evens out itself (which I doubt)
Missed opportunity for Russia to re-name the brand: McDowells, “I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds.”
3:32 There is a japanese burger chains called MOS burger, which might have "inspired" that logo. The theme color of MOS burger is, coincidentally, green as well.....
Congratulations Sam, you somehow managed to pronounce Вкусно и точка so badly that it has to be your worst attempt at pronouncing a foreign name ever 😂 that's no easy feat
Shrimps are sold at McDonald's in some European countries even without declaring war on anyone ;) (By the way, despite what the video says multiple times, Russia still didn't declare a war, they don't even have balls to do that.)
1:07 As much as NATO's actions were unjustified like it's bombing campaign in Libya, remember the the Serbs were committing genocide on Bosnian Muslims which is what brought the west into the war
I am Russian, and I did not notice any kind of difference except people. Nowadays there are lots of loud people around 15 years old. And nothing is done with them. They are not getting kicked or at least getting some kind of warning
Yeah, here in russia is no such thing as always broken ice cream machines. I was pretty surprised when i heared that in U.S. even map of restaurants that do not serves icecream right now exists.
Shrimps were there years before. And no, grocery stores shelves aren't empty at all, in fact, variety is way more wide compared to let's say, Canadian grocery stores (I am a Canadian living in Moscow right now). Russia banned grocery import from US/EU itself, I believe after 2014, which actually boosted the local agricultural and food producers, which before couldn't keep up with the competition.
Потому что все ингредиенты для блюд в русском маке и до этого изготавливали в России, ничего толком не завозили. Рабочие места тоже сохранили, работают одни и те же люди. Технологию приготовления все знают. Этот тот же макдональдс, только название поменяли, все.
I actually went to the new Russian McDonald’s. (I go to school in Moscow) The new McDonald’s was actually quite tasty and incredibly similar to the original. I don’t think I could tell the difference to be completely honest. Also the place was packed absolutely packed. Russian people love McDonald’s in a way that is incredibly hard to understate, they sold beer there and it was very much a social gathering place not just a fast food joint. McDonald’s shutting down was a much harder blow then I think anyone who hasn’t lived in Russia would realize.
It's funny how you talk about russian McDonalds but a large chunk of the footage is from Ukrainian McDonalds, as the labels and writings are in Ukrainian.
if he makes videos about Russia, you can bet he'll make 0 research about it, just make the country the meanie guy,you know,your usual Sam doing his usual things, good editing,0 research
It's "TASTY, PERIOD". If you're more than half as interested in this kinda stuff, I'd recommend "NFKRZ" - Roman your friendly/favorite (honestly I'm never absolutely sure which one he's saying, sorry Blazer) neighborhood Russian, currently living in Georgia, who really shows how things are for an average Russian with things as they currently are. He's genuine and as honest as he can be (and he points when he can't be) and it really helps to get an everyday Russian's point of view for these things. And, boy of boy, does he make the whole adventure of "TASTY, PERIOD" hilarious to learn about.
Why is it terrible? Did the Russians just have to abandon the buildings in the city center and put hundreds of thousands of people out of job or smth?? They did everything right with this transition atleast in my city
New Russian McDonalds is basically the same as the old one. The products, service, most of it is literally the same. Whether you like that quality or not is another issue, but it existed way before McDonalds had to bail. I suppose the rumor of "new terrible quality" comes from sources which have private interest in spreading such information. Particularly its many competitors (local and doing business nation-wide) who essentially sell the same food.
Companies left Russia because they were forced to leave by US sanctions, not because they cared about what Russia was doing to Ukraine. These are corporations, they have no morals or feelings.
Its not like McDonalds wiped the employees's memories clean after leaving russia. They can simply keep making the shitty burgers they made before the war lol.
They know what to do. As in, they know how to put french fries into hot oil. But they don't know where all that stuff should come from. They want to replace one of the most influential fast food franchises in the world (and the most important in Russia) WHILE losing their entire transport network AND their contacts. The least problem you have is to emulate the quality of having people knowing how to cook these things. Like, that's miniscule at best.
McDonalds sells logistics and networks, they might be even more valuable than anything else in there - the quality and consistency are hard to achieve on such scale and with such variety of geographic locations
Also also, Russia has never relied on any kind of "global supply chain." McDonalds in Russia was always operating on Russian agriculture, and nothing has changed in that regard. And the "moldy food" is just an outright lie
I am in Poland, you do not understand the amount of anti-Russian propaganda I say everyday even before the war... Russia does have some anti-Poland propaganda typically revolving around their old crimes they already admitted to but somehow took back again
exactly. “terrible” is a strong word for him not fucking asking a single russian what they think of the food. you can hate putin and realize that this is some american washed bs
It's kinda surreal to see a place you've seen IRL in a video, lol. Especially since these off-brands only existed for a bit. I could've been in a youtube video for half a second if I went outside more
The Japanese McDonalds has a fried shrimp sandwich, the Ebi Filet-O, which is actually pretty good for fast food shrimp. Maybe the Russian ones are buying those too. The US ones should
I've been there a couple times. It's hardly terrible, it literally tastes exactly the same. Of course, human nature being what it is, some people will still say it's better and others will say it's worse. And in Russia, most will say it's worse 😀
New McDonald's is cool, especially since my favorite big tasty got back on the menu. I find it quite pleasing that now all this money goes only in our domestic economy and I don't see why people complain.
One of the smaller companies to pull out of Russia this year was the Finnish coffee brand Paulig. Weirdly enough though, it looks like a Russian knock-off has already sprouted up called 'Poetti', which looks strangely familiar to Paulig. Also 'poetti' isn't really a proper Finnish term, it's kind of like adding 'o' to the end of an English word in Spanish, shrugging your shoulders and just hoping it's right. Sure...I guess in modern English-influenced Finnish slang people would understand the word 'poetti', but it's not popping up in any Finnish dictionaries any time soon
with cocacola pulling out we got a flood of belarussian clones and you wouldn't believe how tasty those are coke for years wass removing sugar flavourings adding salted water etc like for last 10 years coke fanta and sprite was literally tasted like piss and belarussian fanta knockoffs taste like oranges
@@tsartomato Or maybe wherever you’re from was selling you fake shit cause no where in the world have I ever tasted fake coke. I wouldn’t be surprised if Russia had it
McDonald's higher ups wiping the sweat off their brows after pulling out of a warcrime-ridden country, whilst sitting in their towers in another warcrime-ridden country
The new logo is basically the MOS Burger logo from Japan. Also, you don't need to invade an European country to get shrimp on the McDonald's menu. There has been shrimp related items all over the world. A few years ago, there was a limited time Pineapple Shrimp Croquette sandwich. Also the Filet-O Shrimp Burger in Japan and Cyprus. Popcorn Shrimp in Switzerland.
So... Why is it terrible? So far it's working as it should even though the menu is smaller(gets bigger over time), the prices are a bit higher but not that crazy compared to Burger King, the food is good, people are still on their jobs. Only thing missing rn is delivery but it'll be back soon, i'm sure. Is it "terrible" just because it's a restaurant that doesn't send money to the owners in another country? Because it's the only choice you left us with? Why is Vkusno I Tochka terrible?
![[금요 경마] 2024년 11월 22일 금요경마 하이라이트](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xvivx9A1kiU/mqdefault.jpg)
![Eminem - Fuel (feat. JID) [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t5H_CewqpKA/mqdefault.jpg)
My favorite new piece of info from this is knowing Russia Burger King basically went rogue. What a world we live in where part of a fast food chain just… declares independence.
ARM china also declared independence
@@__dm__ The CEO of ARM China straight up stole the company and because he has the stamp so no one can stop him.
It is a monarchy after all
@@__dm__ "Revealed they were just Chinas patent theft ministry."
Independence, in Russia of all places. What a time to be alive! LOL
Shrimp was actually a thing in russian mcdonalds long before all of this happened. My husband used to only basically go there to eat some tasty tried shrimp
When? I never noticed
@@jwhite5008 u were in russia?
Since forever, i think at least for 10 years MC here have shrimps.
To Russia or Maccas (what Australians call McDonald’s)?
how dare you point out this American propaganda!
Russian Burger King going rogue is obviously the highlight of this video and deserves its own video
Very small nitpick: the McFLurry was rolled out in 1998. So Russians weren't introduced to them til minimum 8 years after McDonalds started operations in Russia
Very small
i think you mean the Milkburger
Bruh lmfao
@@b1battledroid963 so was his comment
Wrong
Sam said they had McFlurries so it must be true.
I get all my historical information from random videos on the internet. The internet is never wrong. >:(
The first McDonald's in Russia was actually organized by McDonald's of Canada. On opening day they put out Canadian and Soviet flags, not American ones. (And McFlurry - another Canadian innovation - did not exist then.) Another sign of the Canadian restaurant: On the sign there is a little Soviet flag at the base of the M where the maple leaf is.
Canada is if US was done better
McFlurry cracks me up. Blizzard did it first. Canada invented nothing, just a pale imitation of a Southern DQ who did it earlier and better. Also, their machines aren’t broken every other day.
@@bluepurplepink people like to say that, but it’s worse in almost every way. The only good thing in Canada is socialized healthcare, and even then it’s horribly underfunded to the point your waits for an appointment can be months-long. Indigenous rights are close to as bad if not worse than in the US, and their government tacitly supports white Canadians attacking First Nations (see the current lobster wars).
Add onto that that if you want to live in a Canadian city that isn’t an oil town, you’re looking at paying >50% more rent than Americans outside NYC/SF/LA/Miami/Austin. Housing costs also reflect the absurd prices you see in America’s most expensive cities due to Chinese foreign investment, a “cheap” home in GTA is $1.2m+
@@Pantsinabucket I know GTA is Greater Toronto Area, but I found it amusing that $1.2 Million is the cost of a house in both Toronto and Grand Theft Auto
@@bluepurplepink canada has a dictator and the USA does n....nevermind they both the same
It’s literally the same full office executives team from McDonalds Russia (even the CEO) & most of the pre-war usual staff. And around 99% of food supplies were already Russian since even before the 2014.
A small number of some numerous chemical ingredients & additives had to be replaced. Also the concentrated orange juice was imported and is now disappearing as the stock of it is coming to an end.
So, not really different; mostly the same. Trust me, I’ve been visiting them for 3-4 times a week since 2015, mostly at the different stores of Moscow and another big city (with 1 mln of population).
It’s WAY better and cheaper than the local branches of KFC or Burger King, and twice or more as old and settled.
Burger king is extremely overpriced and tastes like shit.
KFC prepares all it’s chicken items by hand in-store from the raw chicken, and that results in a very widely varying sizes of chicken tenders or fillets, and slows down everything.
Unlike McDonalds and this new re-branded chain, where all of the items come factory pre-made & frozen, so everything is of high quality standards, tastes the same and looks equally sized across the whole chain of the country.
But of course there are some local premium-quality burger chains.
I’d like to point out that the McDonalds of Belarus and Kazakhstan had shared most of the menu items and even packaging with the Russian McDonalds. All those shared things were produced in Russia.
Also, AFAIK, all McDonalds stores of Belarus and Kazakhstan are owned by the same franchisee than owns around 125 ( every 1 out of 6) of Russian McDonalds stores (now re-opening under the new brand).
So the genuine McDonalds of these countries and the re-branded “Tasty,Period” chain still have some ties from what I see.
And the McDonalds Corporation has secured rights to buy out all the Russian stores back during the next 15 years at their first demand/inquiry to do so.
So, all things above considered, I’d like to believe that the reality behind this whole circus of hypocrisy is that the McDonalds Corporation still has a veeeeery small backdoor insight or oversight over what’s happening in the “independent” Russian chain.
I mean, it’s in their (Corporate) best interest that the local Russian chain lives “as is” and thrives during the next 15 years, otherwise they wouldn’t wanna buy back something that’s trashed or turned into a shawarma kiosk or whatever else. Thought of course I may be wrong at it. The time will tell.
Mans putting HAI out of a job
Nice one bro
Right. Its not even the new chain, it basically re-named Mcdonalds, so why would the author of the video call it terrible?
@@ДарьяЗолотко cause the channel wants those redditor clicks on their video
@@Drend329 true
The addition of shrimp is probably for a similar reason to a new lack of fries: the ease of sourcing ingredients. If they can source shrimp easily and cheaply within Russia, then it makes sense why they would add it to the menu. Also, not to say that shrimp at McDonald's isn't a bit odd, but the McDonald's menu can be very inconsistent from country to country. They've put in a lot of effort over the years to conform their menu to local cultures. The Thailand McDonald's will serve a traditional Thai rice pudding. India's McDonalds lean heavily away from beef and use more common Indian spices. It doesn't necessarily even have to be totally different menu items. Sometimes, the same menu items are just prepared differently, as I found out in an Italian airport when I tried to get a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit and saw that the egg was not the scrambled (weird patty version I was used to) and was actually running out of the wrapping paper into the bag.
Yes, a lot of countries use real eggs on the McMuffin. The scrambled stuff is powder.
In what country is the egg on McDonald's breakfast sandwiches scrambled?
That was a lie. Shrimp was not introduced by Vkusno i Tochka. Shrimp was there in Russian McDonalds menu long before the events.
As someone who has visited hundreds of McDonalds around the world, almost all of them are consistent. The only thing that would be different are the specific different dishes like the corn soup in Taiwan or the Hawaiian breakfasts
Most people don't realize that the McDonald's menu also varies even regionally in the U.S. For example some places offer Biscuits and Gravy while other don't and when I was working in Maine you could find lobster rolls seasonally on the menu.
They did a similar thing in Iceland in ~2008 where McDonald's pulled out of the country because of economic reasons so the McDonald's franchise holder in Iceland rebranded all the stores with a new menu and different prices. I believe the reason McDonald's pulled out of Iceland is because of import problems caused by a crash in the value of the Icelandic Kroner on the international market making it much more expensive to import foodstuffs...
Why don't they just raise prices
@@itchylol742 Have you ever been to Iceland? A hamburger is about $15 USD minimum regardless of where it's purchased. The prices of almost everything, but especially food, is astronomical there. McDonald's operates on cheap, familiar food, and if it's generally impossible to sell cheap, familiar food, it's not worth operating the chain.
@@VisibilityFoggy I hope salaries are adequately high in Iceland
Is it even worth profitable opening large scale fast food chains in a country whose whole population is equal to just few millions? Most major cities in the world has population more than the whole population of Iceland
@@coldplayfan7357 few millions? Try few hundred thousand.
As someone who was in Russia last week, I can confirm it's the exact same thing. The Big Tasty for example, was just called the Big Special, but the sauce was exactly the same.
Russian Burger King took “have it your way” a little too serious 😂
Yo 🔥ruclips.net/video/rdJ9bsN7JAw/видео.html.
No gay kisses for the Burger King in Russia tho LOL
Have it your way?
Нет, comrade
Have it *our* way
@@ShoeTheGreyCat is your last name literally "pretty villager"?
@@NewPaulActs17 More like "Clean Hamburger"?
This might be a new record for Sam uploading to the right channel
Or the lefties uploading the wrong side.
Wait, this isn't wendover?
@@brunowskijr half a Wendover, half a Sam, the same great content to watch in the pooper at work.
Edit to the youtube police deleting my jokes about the bots eating hotdogs and mcribs... Feels a little communist.
@@derrekvanee4567 the trick is to alter text with symbols to avoid detection, brother
Great story but as an American who lives in Russia let me correct a few things:
1. Both Coca-Cola and Apple can be easily purchasable at any previous location. Coke hasnt closed any of its 10 Russian factories and sold at every supermarket as well as goes with combo meals at V&T even now. Same for almost every other Western company that "left" Russia except for Ikea and some clothing brands.
2. Fried shrimp were sold in Russian McDonalds for like 5 years already but they really added some new things on the menu in V&T that are KFC like chicken wings and strips (All KFC joints are working in Russia as before too).
3. No problem to buy fries at any Russian V&T. Cmon fries are being sold at any Russian beer pub do you think they will not get them for the new version of McDonalds? What is really happened is that Russian McDonalds has its own potato manufacturing company. Because almost all their restaurants were closed for 3 months that company has made contracts for their produce with other buyers. So when V&T reopened they simply couldnt get enough fries for their restaurants and stated that some can run out of those by evening hours but the situation will be resolved in a few weeks which is very different from "completely taking fries off menu for an indefinite period of time".
4. I ve been to V&T like 5 times already and havent had a single complaint about their food everything exactly the same as in McDonalds.
Everything else is true. Regards!
Why would an American live in Russia
@@mobilecyclop7329 working here?:)
@@mobilecyclop7329 Well because Russia irl is a dozen times better than all that propaganda bs our media tells us. I ve been to like 40 countries and from my pov Moscow and Saint Petersburg are among the most vibrant and culturaly rich cities not to mention that those places are squeaky clean, safe and pretty affordable. To live in the central part of Saint Petersburg (where I am living) is like to live in the best parts of Manhattan for a quarter of price.
@@mobilecyclop7329 I'm also an American living in Russia. Life here is pretty good. Been here since 2013.
@@mobilecyclop7329 why not
A minor correction: shrimp has been a hit in Russian McDonalds for years
Also, something that didn't make sense to clarify pacing-wise: Burger King didn't go rogue in legal terms. The American company owns only 49% of the Russian subsidiary, so they had no say in whether BK Russia stays open or closes.
A much more fun example would be OBI, where the genuinely rogue Russian management decided to reopen and had their PoS billing locked by the parent company within two hours. The Russian subsidiary did end up buying itself out a couple of months later.
I live in Moscow and can confirm that a lot of items are missing from the menu, but we always had and still have shrimps. My favourite french fries really do cost A LOT. You can get a decent mccombo for the price of two big sized french fries. Prices went up around 20% on everything else. My favourite part is that they really did paint McDonald's logo black on the sauces, but you still can see it, and all the other items including cups don't have any branding at all
Too bad it’s not 200%.
Maybe some day soon.
@@liesdamnlies3372 Are you really unhappy that people don't suffer more?
@@DarkNexarius Absolutely. If they aren’t in a revolt to stop the genocide being gleefully done in their names then yes, I’m disappointed, because it’s clearly not enough.
@@DarkNexarius Errrrrrrrr yes.... The Russian people are complicit in this war - if only a tiny minority are going to make any attempt to stop it, then they need to be pressured until the rest of them do so.
@@liesdamnlies3372 yes, thanks. If peoples life become even more shittier it's definitely will help everyone (no, it's not).
I tried it the other day and to be honestly it was indistinguishable from any McDonald's I've had in the past. And yes there were fries, though I've never considered McDonalds fries to be good in any country I've visited.
Funnily enough, the only fast food chain that has made no claims regarding the situation so far is Subway, as far as I can tell. Considering the number of Subways, I guess they have forgotten that they have a market presence over here.
На самом деле они "приостанавливали деятельность" одновременно с макдональдсом в марте, но франчайзи забили на это и продолжили работать как обычно
Also KFC seemingly continues without issue?
@@jwhite5008 Yes, was there just yesterday
@@МаксимСтепанов-м6ч why do you support Western Nazi companies? Jk
@@jwhite5008 KFC has stopped any investments, only existing franchisees restaurants are staying in the country, as far as I understand.
Your forgot to mention there is no Big Mac anymore in Russia. Also buns taste differently since they started to source them from another vendor (same as Burger King, probably very tasty for birds). And unfortunately McDonalds is still closed in Ukraine from the beginning of this war. They are still assessing the situation.
Your unfortunately might be the world health’s fortunately, then again I don’t live in ‘Salem
You know western chauvinists are deluded when they think no Big Macs is a bad thing lol
@@dajjukunrama5695 what?
@@dajjukunrama5695 godzilla had a stroke reading that
Rumour has it that Mc'D will reopen in Ukraine sometime in August, but that's just a rumour
As a russian myself, I can say that here in Russia we still call Mcdonalds a... Mcdonalds and it still tastes the very same like an original Mcdonalds did.
can confirm I think they made this new name hard to remember just so we would continue calling it McDonalds instead.
@@arseniiabregov8477 I have yet to meet a SINGLE PERSON who calls it "Vkusno i tochka". Every. Single. Person. I know, calls it "MacDuck" or something along those lines. Including myself.
Although there's one thing that HAS changed, although I doubt a lot of people noticed it or care - the breakfast. The hashbrowns are gone. No big breakfast, no big breakfast roll... Oddly enough - similar with KFC. They no longer have the "cheese pillows". Which were quite delicious I may add.
And there also still exists several restaurants which didn't sold their franchise and still operating under the name of McDonald's, but I heard that those are really short with menu items and they also serving...an alcohol beer?
@@olegvelichko1659, I call it "vkus ochka". But if someone asks like "what?", I'd rather call it "mac" than "Vkusno i tochka"
What were they thinking, coming up with a hard-to-pronounce fast food chain name... which can only be simplified as "Vkus ochka"??? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???
P. S. To Inglish spikas: "Vkus Ochka" = "Taste of a Butthole"
I'm sorry but I'm going to have to "um actually" you here:
McDonald's Russia already sold shrimp in certain markets such as Saint Petersburg before the pull out. So now they've just been standardized. Also, they are amazing and every McDonald's should sell them 🤤
I think the reason people (largely Westerners) are skeptical about a McDonald's selling shrimp, is because things like burgers and fries are seen as inexpensive junk food, and shrimp as a healthy delicacy. Salad gets to be a sole exception because it's not a delicacy, but who is really going to McDonalds for salad, anyway? I think fast food places need to rid themselves of the "solely junk food" label here before people would be comfortable with the idea of McShrimp
@@prim16 oh they're absolutely not healthy. They're battered and fried and served with chili dipping sauce haha
@@prim16 I think it might also be a "health quality" thing - yes, food born pathogens can come in anything, but take something as potentially dangerous as "bad shellfish" and multiply it by "cheap junkfood" and you've got a marketing Everest to try and overcome.
Then again, fried shrimp poppers have been a thing at various fast food chains since forever, so maybe I'm just underestimating the appeal, and it could work far more readily than anyone suspects.
@@prim16 shrimp are far from being a delicacy, the real problem is that they spoil insanely fast compared to potatoes or anything else served at a McDonald's. Someone found a 30 year old McDonalds hamburger that didn't have a speck of mold on it due to all the preservatives. I would not want "fast food" shrimp. Never.
@@rumham7631 and you would want a burger thats filled with so many preservatives and chemicals that it doesnt spoil in decades?
Actually, we had shrimps in every local Russian McDonalds even before that rebranding. Sadly, every cafe except like 10 major and most well-known ones based in Moscow and St.Petersburg significantly lowered in quality of service and food.
Bs, quality of food is the same(at least in saintpetersburg), but the magic is gone
@@yglnvbrs I haven’t come across any low quality food in Moscow’s rebranded mcdonalds’ , however I can clearly feel the difference in service as the staff became more rude and problems with your orders now take place way more often
that's great
I was in one in Novosibirsk yesterday, everything is as in the old days.
No changes in Moscow area that I noticed.
At 3:48 you mentioned that Vkusno i Tochka added Shrimp 🍤 to the menu. Now as someone who has lived in Russia for 7 years, I can confirm that “McDonald’s” had shrimp 🍤 the whole time I have been here. They originally had Shrimp wraps then deep-fried shrimp in recent years, before Burger King.
Just thought this fact needed correction as I can tell you have never been to the original Russian McDonald’s before it was Vkusno i Tochka.
Just to clear the air for people that didn’t visit Russia before McDonald’s had shrimp for a very long time in Russia. Basically the mold and potatoe part is true but it depends on where the restaurants are. Some places have a few problems here and there but some operate just like they used to 😅
Hello, I'm from Russia, Moscow 🇷🇺 and I also run a RUclips channel where I shoot about politics and history. I would be interested to hear your opinion about my activities
They use the mold as a way to get one at Russia to make it look bad while ignoring how it happens more frequently in the US.
I wasn’t able to eat there yet, but we had shrimps for like 10 years now. I doubt that these are different. The same thing is with Coca-cola actually. The beverage itself, Sprite and Fanta are now sold under different name. Probably the company had no time to make a good design so now these sodas look like bootleg. But taste is basically the same as before.
Oh yeah I remember watching nfkrz and had a youtube video about Russian Mcdonalds that pre-dated the operation were he essentially just bought every single item off of the menu.
t's not like war is new for brands. Sprite was only created because germany wasn't allowed to import coca-cola.
@@DarkNexarius don't you mean fanta?
@@jadelock302 Crap I was about to say that I like the story behind it because Germany lacked the raw ingrediates to make Coca Cola so the owner of Coca-Cola in germany encouraged his employees to "use their imagination"
@@jadelock302 Oh right it was Fanta not Sprite. ^^
As a russian I can't see alot of differences between old Mac and new one, at least in my town, and fries is still on menu, and it's still soggy...
The biggest difference is that hamburger and cheeseburger cost about 55 rub and 59 rub, it's really cheap, coz same burgers cost about 89 rub in KFC and BK. (59 rub is about 1 dollar according to russian inner currency exchange rate)
1 dollar a burger ? Way cheaper than here
@@sotch2271 Wages in Russia are way less than in America, so that's unsurprising
When you hear, “because of a bad harvest.” Being an issue today, it’s kind of shocking.
Makes you realize how important global trade is to the human race.
What can you expect. It was either make fries or vodka.
@@ColinTherac117 lmao well at least they have their priorities set
Climate change and supply chain breakdowns are a deadly combination.
I just bought 3 kg of potatoes from dept. store in Moscow area just recently, I don't think anyone except those fast food chains heard of harvest issues?
@@jwhite5008 You are aware that department stores have back up items, right? What's on the shelves isn't all they have. Those potatoes of yours are probably from one or several harvests ago.
Ok, as a Ukrainian, I need to speak out. Most of the footage you've used of McDonald's is actually from Ukraine (the visible text was in Ukrainian). And the pronunciation of Vkusno i tochka is wrong on so many levels. It's pronounced something like fkoosna ee tochka. Oh, and we had shrimp in Ukrainian McDonald's as well, before they closed because of the war.
That said, love your content, and thank you for talking about this
@Zaydan Naufal There is a degree of similarity, but no, those are two different languages with slightly different alphabets. It's sort of like spanish and italian - there's a lot of similarities, but a ton of unique words and rules too.
It's just that a sizable chunk of ukrainian population knows and uses russian language daily and until a few years ago it was one of the two official country languages and was taught in schools.
what DesolateFields said. Ukrainian is actually closer to Polish in many regards, it's just that we use Cyrillic alphabet
@@DesolateFields Russian has not been an official language in Ukraine since the fall of the USSR. It was taught in school and was used by people, but on state level only Ukrainian has ever been official
Cyrillic is just a writing system. For example, Mongolian uses Cyrillic, and it's not related to any other major language. As does Taijk, which is basically a dialect of Persian. The only connection of these to Russian is that the countries were once under Soviet influence.
Why shrimp?
Four weeks later, Gorbachev has died.
Dead he is
Rip bozo
Shrimps were in the Russian McD's menu even before it was De-Arched
Ever since I heard the translation “Tasty and that’s fine” and “tasty and that’s it” I’ve been convinced that is the most Russian brand jingle possible.
Yo 🔥ruclips.net/video/rdJ9bsN7JAw/видео.html.
Direct translation is "Tasty and full stop" Literal full stop, "." but in word version instead of a dot. Kinda like "decisively tasty" if indirectly translated
@@bafljhalsdfj I would translate it as, "Yummy, period", or "Just Yummy".
Yes, there are already a lot of jokes about it like "shut up and eat" or "chew and don't complain"
@@phoule76/videos I believe this is the best translation
(am Russian, I think the restaurants didn't change much, but like most Russians I don't visit those often. And don't support wars. But no-one really asks us, ever.)
I tried it for the first time at an airport in Moscow a few weeks ago. I didn't think the food tasted any different, still passable and it was by far the cheapest option there. The table stands you get after you order from the kiosk that has your order number on it, had covered over the McDonald's logo with what appeared to be whiteout paint.
2:07 people who understand russian here, it literally says "a decree on changing of method of evaluation of amount and order of payment to patent holder in case you decided to use patents without permission "
(Ps, i shortened a bit)
As a Russian who attended opening of the new McDonalds i would like to thank you deeply for making this video.
Funny thing is there is some evidence that apart form Alexander Govor there also is one more party standing behind the purchase. It highly like is tied to the bank that is related to the Russian government (Sovkombank). Moreover, a few officials from russian Parlament were seen at Mcdonalds grand re-openin wich occurred on an state-wide “Russia’s day’ holiday wich makes things even more hideous.
But it is not even the best part. A few day ago it was confirmed thar a rapper Timati (basicaly russian Kanye West) purchased all of 220+ STARBUCKS cafes in the country. He is well know to people for poor restaurant maintenance as he already opened 3 restaurants chains and all of them are pretty shit as well as stealing beats from western rappers. He is a good friend of chechen head Kadyrov as well.
any friend of russian president can have any western capitalist business they want (kickback to russian president not included)
Well, his food chain "Black star burger" in par with Mc, BK, KFC, etc. Which means it's shit in most categories.
Smaller, local burgers places always better then mainstream big chains.
I mean no disrespect to you at all but "Russian rapper stealing beats and opening poorly maintained restaurants" is shockingly close to what I would imagine a stereotype for a Russian rapper would be.
To cancel out the shitty dude, got any GOOD Russian rappers we should know about?
@@Tinil0 what’s played in gta 4 radio?
@@Tinil0 OXXYMIRON MORGENSHTERN MUTKO?
If somebody is interested: I am Russian, and I can say that nothing changed, except for the logo. If the problems described in this video do even happen, nobody I know had ever noticed them
It's just propaganda to make it seemed like Western brands and companies are not replaceable
@@annoyedcat9291 But they totally are, and the same scenario is happening to many other companies. Western propaganda definitely overestimates the power of sanctions
@@mynil That's right. The West loves to push their propaganda especially when it comes to Russia and China but don't worry, many people from around the world are sick and tired of US meddling and threatening attitude, even their own allies. Someday when BRICS have their own reserve currency and worldwide interbanking and financial telecommunication like SWIFT, many more people will move away from the West for Russia and China👍
Yeah, because you totally know everyone that has ever gone to one of these places... are all russians this stupid?
@@annoyedcat9291 The west is nothing compared to russia and china. But ok, war crime defender.
I believe it is important to note that all McDonald's in Russia sold shrimp and shrimp wraps way before the invasion. And they were, in fact, my favorite meals there. Now they don't sell the wraps, but I think it's only temporary
Actually, USA invaded Panama in 1989, 18 years after the first McDonald's opened in the country, and a decade before the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
I believe that Yugoslavia was the one mentioned because the “theory” was devised after the opening of a store in the Soviet Union and the fall of said Union. Maybe the idea at the time was: “Now with no Cold War, economy takes precedent over politics”, which clearly didn’t hold up.
ACKSHULLY
Well, ya'know, if that's USA, it doesn't count
This video made me wonder whether Aergentina had a McDonald's during the Falklands War in 1982.
EDIT: Looked it up. Argentina got their first McD's in 1986, so no.
NATO bombing of serbia was justified and based
I bet their ice cream machines work
You forgot about the part where the news McDs is literally taking a sharpie to the old McDs ketchup packets and blurring out the arches on the packet….one by one
There were paid for. Better to use sharpie than just throw away food.
@@retroas2683 can they just make their own customized logo
That's lazy, incompetent not something good to cheer about
@@G.A.C_Preserve >big resturant company pulls out
>thousands of food and supplies must be thrown away
>oh_no.jpg
>Russia says "I have an idea on how not to waste all this food that the company didn't bother to take"
>reopens the locations of the restaurant under a different name, workes must mark off the logo to avoid any trouble, thus saving all the 'wasted' food and supplies
How can you spin this off as something bad.
I recalled reading something last year or so that McDonalds in Japan was having a french fry shortage since many if not all McDonalds source their fries from certain McDonalds owned/affiliated production facilities, their shortage was due to pandemic related logistical issues IIRC. So the RU McDonalds chains probably also relied on those french fry production facilities as well and had no pre-existing sources in Russia for fries.
It makes sense since I bought 3 kilos of potatoes from a department store just yesterday without any issue. And the store offered store-branded locally-made fried potatoes (that look and taste quite differently from fast-food ones). Avocados are seemingly gone, at least in my area, but potatoes - not so much.
P.S. I don't support any wars and never did
Relative to its population, Japan produces few potatoes domestically. It imports potatoes from North America (both Canada and the US are major potato exporters) and many (most?) of these shipments go through the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia. Pandemic-related issues combined with major flooding in Southern B.C. around November 2021 caused delays at the Port and as such many shipments of potatoes to Japan were stalled. The downstream impact on McDonald's in Japan lasted just one week at the end of December during which time they continued to sell fries, but only in small sizes. On the other hand, Russia itself is one of the world's largest producers of potatoes, growing more than even the U.S., and keeps most of this for domestic consumption. The video notes Russian potato producers seem to be having a bad crop this year, and if that's indeed the case, that's probably the main issue. Russia normally also imports some potatoes. Primarily, these come from Egypt, which to my knowledge has refused to apply sanctions on Russia, and so this trade is probably unaffected. Other partners include, to a much smaller degree, China, which is by far, far, far, the world's largest potato producer, and also continues to trade with Russia. It might take a little time (and have impact on cost and/or quality) to ramp up potato imports from China or Egypt if necessary, but it'd probably be possible. The actual "production" of the fries -- turning raw potatoes into french fry shapes -- is relatively trivial, and I would guess (but it's just a guess) that usually happens domestically, since it'd be cheaper to transport potatoes in their raw form than as processed fries, in which case they'd probably need to be frozen, and taxes/duties could be higher.
Hello from Moscow!
I’ve been to Vkusno I tochka 4 times in past month
Generally it’s the same McDonald’s that it was before the war but without few positions in the menu and with bigger prices
Sam, McDonald’s was serving shrimp before this whole Vkusno & Tochka so they didn’t add anything new
When I first saw the new logo I immediately thought “Marriott” of hotel fame. After checking a little it appears to be closer to the logo for a Portuguese company MatosMix, who produce animal feed.
3:40 the McFlurry → Milkburger ACTUALLY made me fall to the ground from laughter
3:51 "If you wish your local mcdonalds sold shrimps then maybe you should declare war on an european country." I didnt leave my room for about a year but last time I checked german mcdonalds offers shrimps . . .
i´m from russia, i ate there earlier and there was a glitch with the interface where it wouldn't let you order fries, it would take you straight to sauces instead for some reason, though maybe it wasn't a glitch after all
all in all yeah pretty accurate video, i'll personally mention that i didn't notice any taste difference at all
Considering the reason their icecream machines are always broken, it wouldn't suprise me if they just made it impossible to order fries via the interface instead of removing it from the menu.
Which city were you in?
@@ВикторФирсов-е9ф moscow
No fries
only sauce
Interestingly, there are enough potatoes in local department stores, including locally-made fried potatoes (otherwise there probably would be a civil war), but all fast food chains I/my friends visited recently are out only offer small portions. Not that it is that bad considering how bad are those for your health though.
I tried the new Mcdonalds in Russia and it still tastes the very same like an original Mcdonalds did.
The phrase at 00:45 accurately describes the decor at the McDonald's I visited in Beijing in 2003 (except there were also saxophones mounted on the wall next to the Elvis picture)
That's because Elvis always was a sax cymbal. 😩
Great video, something to note is McDonalds in Russia did alredy sell shrimp under the name of the McShrimp, it used to exist on the McDoanlds site not sure if it's been removed now
It's so Terrible it uses the exact same ingredients sent from Georgia
.
They should've opened a mobronald or wcdonald instead, I hear they're the most popular chain in Japan.
or a McDowell's
morbin land
MgRonalds. The devil is a part timer, there.
To russians it sounds like a cheap knock-off (which do exist here, although less so than in China), it would greatly deter customers.
A lot of international businesses now operate locally, but with a clause of possible buyback by previous owners for $1, I guess they hope the situation evens out itself (which I doubt)
WhackArnold's
Missed opportunity for Russia to re-name the brand: McDowells,
“I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds.”
burgerburger 3:41
3:32 There is a japanese burger chains called MOS burger, which might have "inspired" that logo. The theme color of MOS burger is, coincidentally, green as well.....
3:45 The german McDonals also sells Shrimps. I guess we already attacked enough european countrys for that Upgrade
You guys attacked and occupied enough European countries for the remainder of your existence you guys already reached your quota
Congratulations Sam, you somehow managed to pronounce Вкусно и точка so badly that it has to be your worst attempt at pronouncing a foreign name ever 😂 that's no easy feat
1:00 Actually the US attacked Panama in 1989, which was before the theory even started.
"That is until russia started doing that a couple of months ago..." Omg, dying. The intonation. Beautiful. I love you Sam.
I can't lie, this is actually pretty cool!
The fact that the buns could mold is probably a sign it's better for you
Shrimps are sold at McDonald's in some European countries even without declaring war on anyone ;) (By the way, despite what the video says multiple times, Russia still didn't declare a war, they don't even have balls to do that.)
Vietnam war moment
Nobody really declares war anymore, the idea is a bit of a hangover from the 19th century.
sPeCiAl mIlItAry oPeRaTiOn
err I mean we support a civil war
..
wait what do you mean with we are contradicting ourselves?
Did the US declare a war against Irak, Syria, Libya, Yougoslavia and others countries who discover democracy with bombs?
+For the people who want to have a McRib, in German McDonalds there is the felt always permanently the whole year.
Dang that's crazy. I thought it was a complete different knockoff, not a partial McDonalds (technically)
i remember coming to mcdonalds with my friend and we were casually picking out some food but then i was like "where are the fries?..."
They called a burger “burger burger” what a madlad.
No:) it's still hamburger
1:07 As much as NATO's actions were unjustified like it's bombing campaign in Libya, remember the the Serbs were committing genocide on Bosnian Muslims which is what brought the west into the war
There are so many genocides we help or deliberately ignore.
The difference is oil.
@@TheGrinningViking yep. Two ongoing are the Uighur and Rohingya Muslims
@@TheGrinningViking I think RUclips has shadow banned us
@@user-op8fg3ny3j I couldn't see this reply without clicking on the notification for it, you probably have
I am Russian, and I did not notice any kind of difference except people. Nowadays there are lots of loud people around 15 years old. And nothing is done with them. They are not getting kicked or at least getting some kind of warning
Its pronounced fkusno e totchka and it means ”tasty period” like the punctuation. It obviously works better in russian.
Yes, I heard that from another channel. I also heard that people are joking about the other meaning of period in regards to the restaurants.
There's no way they were able to get a McFlurry. You know damn well the ice cream machine didn't work, even at the grand opening.
ice cream was working every single day for 30 years
Yeah, here in russia is no such thing as always broken ice cream machines. I was pretty surprised when i heared that in U.S. even map of restaurants that do not serves icecream right now exists.
"What should we change the McDonald's logo to?"
"I dunno, the Mos Burger logo?"
"You're a genius Vlad!"
The logo is just two fries and ketchup(disgusting)... nothing big.
0:38 Russia got a working McFlurry machine?!?
Shrimps were there years before. And no, grocery stores shelves aren't empty at all, in fact, variety is way more wide compared to let's say, Canadian grocery stores (I am a Canadian living in Moscow right now). Russia banned grocery import from US/EU itself, I believe after 2014, which actually boosted the local agricultural and food producers, which before couldn't keep up with the competition.
Часто бываю в новом маке. Никаких изменений помимо меню. Абсолютно никаких
Такая же история
Потому что все ингредиенты для блюд в русском маке и до этого изготавливали в России, ничего толком не завозили. Рабочие места тоже сохранили, работают одни и те же люди. Технологию приготовления все знают. Этот тот же макдональдс, только название поменяли, все.
imagine being that employee storing hamburger buns outside and your boss finding out what all those birds where doing there
In Russia it would be something like "Wipe that bird shit with a rag and serve immediately, suka blyat!!!"
I actually went to the new Russian McDonald’s. (I go to school in Moscow) The new McDonald’s was actually quite tasty and incredibly similar to the original. I don’t think I could tell the difference to be completely honest. Also the place was packed absolutely packed. Russian people love McDonald’s in a way that is incredibly hard to understate, they sold beer there and it was very much a social gathering place not just a fast food joint. McDonald’s shutting down was a much harder blow then I think anyone who hasn’t lived in Russia would realize.
Also to note: I only went to one location one time and that specific experience was positive. I’m not claiming they are doing well across the board.
Beer?
Wait you can just legalize patent theft? That's hilarious we should do that.
It's funny how you talk about russian McDonalds but a large chunk of the footage is from Ukrainian McDonalds, as the labels and writings are in Ukrainian.
if he makes videos about Russia, you can bet he'll make 0 research about it, just make the country the meanie guy,you know,your usual Sam doing his usual things, good editing,0 research
@@nickjayr0 he’s just jumping on the I hate Russia bandwagon
@@connorbauer4403 to secure those views
@@nickjayr0 he literally tried to make the russian mcdonalds look bad but instead made it look better lmao
@@spidersaremean8917 not even close , no matter what you write . Mc was much much better, now is like bullshit
It's "TASTY, PERIOD".
If you're more than half as interested in this kinda stuff, I'd recommend "NFKRZ" - Roman your friendly/favorite (honestly I'm never absolutely sure which one he's saying, sorry Blazer) neighborhood Russian, currently living in Georgia, who really shows how things are for an average Russian with things as they currently are. He's genuine and as honest as he can be (and he points when he can't be) and it really helps to get an everyday Russian's point of view for these things. And, boy of boy, does he make the whole adventure of "TASTY, PERIOD" hilarious to learn about.
He is always entertaining and brutally honest!
@Zaydan Naufal Country lol.
@@solracer66 I couldn't agree more and he just seems like a genuine guy which I can only respect more being in the position he is in.
Why is it terrible? Did the Russians just have to abandon the buildings in the city center and put hundreds of thousands of people out of job or smth?? They did everything right with this transition atleast in my city
Да этот видос просто галимая пропаганда
Doesn't sell fries, I'm out!
0:27 “When the first McDonalds opened in Russia in 1990”
Me: But I thought it was still the Soviet Union in 1990
New Russian McDonalds is basically the same as the old one. The products, service, most of it is literally the same. Whether you like that quality or not is another issue, but it existed way before McDonalds had to bail.
I suppose the rumor of "new terrible quality" comes from sources which have private interest in spreading such information. Particularly its many competitors (local and doing business nation-wide) who essentially sell the same food.
Companies left Russia because they were forced to leave by US sanctions, not because they cared about what Russia was doing to Ukraine. These are corporations, they have no morals or feelings.
This is how capitalism works. That's why I embrace socialism.
База и точка
@@DmitryySergeevich even bigger cringe
i'm so glad that the russian burger king went rogue
Its not like McDonalds wiped the employees's memories clean after leaving russia.
They can simply keep making the shitty burgers they made before the war lol.
@FNAF 🅥 ye click it
A month later, the impossible happened.... it progressively got shittier 😂
They know what to do. As in, they know how to put french fries into hot oil.
But they don't know where all that stuff should come from. They want to replace one of the most influential fast food franchises in the world (and the most important in Russia) WHILE losing their entire transport network AND their contacts.
The least problem you have is to emulate the quality of having people knowing how to cook these things. Like, that's miniscule at best.
McDonalds sells logistics and networks, they might be even more valuable than anything else in there - the quality and consistency are hard to achieve on such scale and with such variety of geographic locations
@@Invizive the food is ass dude.
I can confirm after flying to Finland, then legally flying from Finland to Russia that the ripoff is better than american.
The new Russian logo resembles the Marriott hotels logo, don’t you think!?
Also also, Russia has never relied on any kind of "global supply chain." McDonalds in Russia was always operating on Russian agriculture, and nothing has changed in that regard. And the "moldy food" is just an outright lie
Fuck... it didn't occur to me that we'd be subjected to an absurd amount of anti-Russian propaganda...
I am in Poland, you do not understand the amount of anti-Russian propaganda I say everyday even before the war... Russia does have some anti-Poland propaganda typically revolving around their old crimes they already admitted to but somehow took back again
exactly. “terrible” is a strong word for him not fucking asking a single russian what they think of the food. you can hate putin and realize that this is some american washed bs
It's kinda surreal to see a place you've seen IRL in a video, lol. Especially since these off-brands only existed for a bit. I could've been in a youtube video for half a second if I went outside more
The Japanese McDonalds has a fried shrimp sandwich, the Ebi Filet-O, which is actually pretty good for fast food shrimp. Maybe the Russian ones are buying those too. The US ones should
The new logo doesn't only look suspiciously like an M, it also looks suspiciously similar to the Japanese burger chain Mos Burger's logo.
3:41 - NuggetBurger, MilkBurger and BurgerBurger? LMAO XDDD
I've been there a couple times. It's hardly terrible, it literally tastes exactly the same. Of course, human nature being what it is, some people will still say it's better and others will say it's worse. And in Russia, most will say it's worse 😀
Terrible? It's fucken better than it was before
Bro, this logo and company name SUCKS.
Considering how they had a logo ready to go makes me think this was some backup contingency McDonalds had planned for long ago
New McDonald's is cool, especially since my favorite big tasty got back on the menu. I find it quite pleasing that now all this money goes only in our domestic economy and I don't see why people complain.
One of the smaller companies to pull out of Russia this year was the Finnish coffee brand Paulig. Weirdly enough though, it looks like a Russian knock-off has already sprouted up called 'Poetti', which looks strangely familiar to Paulig. Also 'poetti' isn't really a proper Finnish term, it's kind of like adding 'o' to the end of an English word in Spanish, shrugging your shoulders and just hoping it's right.
Sure...I guess in modern English-influenced Finnish slang people would understand the word 'poetti', but it's not popping up in any Finnish dictionaries any time soon
with cocacola pulling out we got a flood of belarussian clones and you wouldn't believe how tasty those are
coke for years wass removing sugar flavourings adding salted water etc like for last 10 years coke fanta and sprite was literally tasted like piss and belarussian fanta knockoffs taste like oranges
@@tsartomato Or maybe wherever you’re from was selling you fake shit cause no where in the world have I ever tasted fake coke. I wouldn’t be surprised if Russia had it
Paulig sounds suspiciously close to Keurig, the famous coffee company.
@@temper44 Well in that case Keurig must be the thief considering Paulig was founded in 1876.
@@tsartomato, не расскажешь, чего такого можно попробовать на замену этой разъедающей зубы дряни?
We have already had shrimps before the war in Russia.
McDonald's higher ups wiping the sweat off their brows after pulling out of a warcrime-ridden country, whilst sitting in their towers in another warcrime-ridden country
The new logo is basically the MOS Burger logo from Japan.
Also, you don't need to invade an European country to get shrimp on the McDonald's menu. There has been shrimp related items all over the world. A few years ago, there was a limited time Pineapple Shrimp Croquette sandwich. Also the Filet-O Shrimp Burger in Japan and Cyprus. Popcorn Shrimp in Switzerland.
Yup. Just a different colorof the Japan burger chain Mosburger.
Renaming the bullcrap things on the menu is actually a great move, wish they would do that everywhere..
So... Why is it terrible? So far it's working as it should even though the menu is smaller(gets bigger over time), the prices are a bit higher but not that crazy compared to Burger King, the food is good, people are still on their jobs. Only thing missing rn is delivery but it'll be back soon, i'm sure. Is it "terrible" just because it's a restaurant that doesn't send money to the owners in another country? Because it's the only choice you left us with? Why is Vkusno I Tochka terrible?
The logo is genius. Allows them to just rotate existing logos sideways and save on rebranding.