What is McDonald’s like in Bali?

Earlier this year, I visited a KFC restaurant in Bali to see if it was as good, or at least the same, as KFC in Australia. It was not. KFC in Bali is “a substandard product made with cheap inputs drowning in oil,” I wrote. But what about McDonald’s in Bali? The last time I tried it was in early 2020, at the height of the pandemic, at McDonald’s at Kuta Beach — one of the few food outlets on the beachfront that continued to trade. Despite being nearly empty, the kitchen took about half an hour to produce my meal. When it finally arrived, the burger and fries were cold and my drink was warm. For a fast-food chain with a reputation based entirely on serving hot burgers and cold drinks quick-time, they could not possibly have screwed up more.

To order, customers must use a self-service kiosk, which has an option for English on the home page. The menu is quite similar to McDonald’s in Australia but there are also a few significant differences catering to the Asian market. Meal deals can be ordered with sides of steamed white rice or scrambled eggs instead of fries. The breakfast menu includes Nasi Uduk, Indonesian-style steamed rice cooked in coconut milk, and Bubur Ayam, a rice congee with shredded chicken and condiments. The fried chicken has an extra-thick, extra-crispy coating composed of rice flour instead of wheat flour. The drinks menu also caters to local preferences with floats — soft drinks served with big wallops of vanilla ice-cream — iced coffee served with jelly and cream plus six kinds of iced tea, including lychee flavour.

The bill came to $13.26: almost exactly the price of a Big Mac meal in Australia, which makes it significantly cheaper than Australia. But with the exception of the fries and drinks, every item on the menu is smaller than they are in Australia. McDonald’s burgers in Indonesia are about 30 per cent smaller while their apple pies are tiny, about a third of the size of a McDonald’s apple pie in Australia. The self-service kiosk crashed when I tried to pay with my credit card. A staff member who tried and failed to fix the problem led me to the counter so I could pay. She also cleaned and wiped down a table for us, and offered to bring the food directly to our table. It took 19 minutes for our food to arrive. The first thing that struck me was the poor presentation of the Korean soy garlic wings, which were bleeding sauce into a cardboard tray and looked extremely oily. They were served lukewarm but tasted alright. My Big Mac was also lukewarm yet tasted exactly the same as a Big Mac in Australia. The fries were nearly cold and had no taste at all. The apple pie was the only item served hot and was delicious. My bottled water had not been refrigerated, and was also lukewarm. I had to walk to the counter to ask for a cold one.

The pandemic ended three and a half years ago but McDonald’s in Bali still hasn’t figured out how to serve fast food or hot food or cold drinks to its customers.

It gets one star out of five, and that’s only because of the staff. Despite working for minimum wage — about $300 a month in Bali — they were professional, punctual, courteous and kind.