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First look at McDonald's 'create your own gourmet burgers' in Australia

The fast food chain is bringing table service to its restaurants Down Under

Lizzie Dearden
Friday 17 October 2014 16:41 BST
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A McDonalds 'gourmet' burger in Sydney, Australia
A McDonalds 'gourmet' burger in Sydney, Australia

One of McDonald’s first “gourmet” make your own burgers has been filmed in Australia – and it looks pretty good.

The fast food chain is ditching its plastic trays and counter service for the wooden boards and mini chip baskets usually seen in trendy, smaller, burger joints.

A branch in Castle Hill, Sydney, is trying out the new format before it is rolled out across Australia.

A customer filmed his experience negotiating the new digital kiosks, where people can choose their own burgers and toppings from a 19-ingredient list.

The following array of individually-priced options offers cheese, sauces, salads and toppings including bacon, beetroot and fried eggs.

When the order is completed, customers choose to sit in the restaurant or outside and the food is brought to them by serving staff.

A McDonald's branch in Castle Hill, Sydney, is trialling the gourmet burgers

The impressive list of extras chosen in the video included an extra beef burger, four kinds of cheese slices, an egg, two sauces, tomato, gherkins, lettuce, red onion, grilled onions, mushrooms, pineapple, guacamole and tortilla strips.

The meal, with medium fries and a drink, came in at $15.95 (£8.70) and footage showed a towering burger arrive on a wooden board with chips in a wire basket.

“I know it looks a bit big because I ordered everything to try it but it was really nice, and something different,” the customer said.

Many McDonald’s fans are excited about the change but others have criticised the world’s largest fast food chain for moving in on the territory occupied by smaller businesses and independent restaurants.

“McDonald’s is innovating and changing again to meet the needs of our customers,” McDonald’s Australia CEO Andrew Gregory said.

“What we’re really doing here is simply what our customers have asked us to do.”

The move comes after the company attempted to banish rumours of “pink slime” and unappetising additives in its burgers by allowing cameras into a factory.

But in the same week, a Canadian man claimed to have found a dead mouse in his “McCafe” coffee.

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