fast food

Germany likes to call itself the "Land of Ideas" - and over the centuries it has certainly had plenty of them. It was Germans who invented the aspirin, the airship, the printing press and the diesel engine.

But Germany has surely never produced anything quite as weird as the automated restaurant.

I say "restaurant" - but it actually looks more like a rollercoaster, with long metal tracks criss-crossing the dining area.

The tracks run all the way from the kitchen, high up in the roof, down to the tables, twisting and turning as they go. And down the tracks - in little pots with wheels fixed to the bottom - speeds food.

McDonald’s Corp’s plan to expand the beverage lineup at its U.S. restaurants with cappuccinos, lattes and other drinks is expected to add $1 billion to annual sales, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

The espresso-based drinks, which are currently in 800 of McDonald’s nearly 14,000 U.S. locations, mark the newest effort by the world’s No. 1 restaurant company to upgrade its coffee offerings and take on rival Starbucks Corp.

McDonald’s has even added a “barista” position in its restaurants and dedicated a section of counter space to the automated espresso machines so customers can see the drinks being made, spokeswoman Danya Proud said. Those details were first reported Monday in the Wall Street Journal.

How did this stupid little girl not know she was pregnant? Did she not notice she wasn’t getting her period for nine months before she happened to pop a baby out in the bathroom of a McDonald’s? I have a tough time buying this story but I don’t think even McDonald’s is evil enough to pull a retarded publicity stunt like have a 16 year old part time employee give birth in their toilets.

Motorists who park at McDonalds are being fined for outstaying their welcome in some of the burger chain's car parks.

An increasing number of motorists are being fined by third-party car park management companies for exceeding the time limits placed in some McDonald's car parks.

We’ve seen already fake gas stations, now they have fake McDonalds, like this one, called “McDuck”, in Russian city Petrozavodsk. They used the exact “M” trademark logo but also added some duck face for it..

The awful, horrible, detestable things girls do today to get their hands on the toys for kids that come for free with a Happy Meal from McDonalds.

Many Americans will be wagering on this week's baseball World Series. For Taco Bell, the stakes are a free taco for everyone in the United States.

The fast-food chain on Monday unveiled a promotion it is calling "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco," which will run through the best-of-seven matchup.

"Millions and millions of people will be watching the Series and hopefully tuning in to see when they are going to get their taco," said Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch.

A new survey shows more Americans can name the seven ingredients in a McDonald's Big Mac hamburger than the Ten Commandments.

The survey of 1,000 Americans, by Kelton Research, showed 80 percent could name the hamburger's primary ingredient – two all-beef patties – but less than 60 percent recalled the commandment "Thou shalt not kill," the Catholic News Service, or CNS, reported.

Proletarian fryhouse McDonald's has announced it will offer free Wi-Fi in its 1,200 UK burger outlets by the end of the year.

The move will make McDonald's the country's largest public hotspot provider, and pits it against Starbucks' pay-as-you-go T-Mobile service for high street internet supremacy.

It's all part of a company-wide drive upmarket and away from the traditional McDonald's experience: scary clowns, mechanically-recovered beef, and screaming infants.

A jury awarded $6.1 million today to a woman who said she was forced to strip in a McDonald's back office after someone called the restaurant posing as a police officer.

Louise Ogborn, 21, had sued McDonald's Corp., claiming the fast-food giant failed to warn her and other employees about the caller who already struck other McDonald's stores and other fast-food restaurants across the country.

Ogborn had been seeking $200 million. McDonald's Corp. attorneys argued the company was not responsible and contended the company was being sued because of its deep pockets.

As America gets fatter, policymakers are seeking creative approaches to legislating health. They may have entered the school cafeteria -- and now they're eyeing your neighborhood.

Amid worries of an obesity epidemic and its related illnesses, including high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease, Los Angeles officials, among others around the country, are proposing to limit new fast-food restaurants -- a tactic that could be called health zoning.

The City Council will be asked this fall to consider an up to two-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South L.A., a part of the city where fast food is at least as much a practicality as a preference.

A McDonald's worker in Union City, Ga., was arrested and jailed Thursday night for putting too much salt and pepper on a police officer's hamburger.

Kendra Bull was mixing hamburger meat when, she said, too much salt and pepper accidentally spilled into the bowl. Bull said her manager was working with her, and continued to make patties out of the meat. Bull grilled and ate one of the over-seasoned burgers for her dinner break and grilled the remaining burgers from the batch.

A police officer purchased one of the salty burgers and became sick. The police accused Bull of purposely pouring the salt and pepper on the burger and charged her with reckless conduct. The police photographed the burger, took the sick cop to the hospital, and carted Bull off to jail.

Jamie Oliver's crusade against unhealthy school dinners has led to 400,000 pupils deserting the service, it was claimed yesterday.

Demand for lunches has slumped almost 20 per cent in scondary schools since his campaign to banish junk food.

The TV chef inspired a Government drive which replaced canteen staples such as Turkey Twizzlers, burgers and chips with pasta, fresh vegetables and fish.

But politicians say the dinners service is in 'meltdown' because the changes have been brought in too quickly.

Mary and Lee Humphrey have eaten a meal at their local fast-food outlet McDonald's in the southern English town of Eastbourne every weekday for nearly 17 years, Britain's the Guardian reported on Wednesday.

The couple first "fell in love" with the restaurant after their arrival to Britain from Canada in 1990.

Sharing nearly the exact same order for all that time, the Humphreys point to the friendliness of the service and the youthful atmosphere and conversation as the draws that keep them coming back for more at the venue they have come to refer to as their "office".

A Morgantown man, his mother and his friend are suing McDonald's for $10 million.

The man says he bit into a hamburger and had a severe allergic reaction to the cheese melted on it.

Jeromy Jackson, who is in his early 20s, says he clearly ordered two Quarter Pounders without cheese at the McDonald's restaurant in Star City before heading to Clarksburg.

After devouring a Big Mac, a royal cheese, and paprika-flavored potato wedges dipped in mayonnaise, Romain Bertucca, a shaggy-haired 22-year-old drama student wearing a beret and ripped jeans, explained why he eats McDonald's.

"It's quick. The food is hot. It's not like a sandwich. It's McDonald's," he said, sitting on a stool with a friend on Thursday afternoon, overlooking Avenue de Wagram, two blocks from the Arc de Triomphe.

Mr. Bertucca is not alone in his endorsement of McDonald's, or MAKdoeNAHLDS, as it's pronounced here. In this land of haute cuisine where American tourists are customarily greeted with Gallic scorn, the world's largest fast food company is more popular than ever.

Who doesn't know McDonalds? It is the world's largest chain of fast-food restaurants, primarily selling hamburgers, chicken, french fries, milkshakes and soft drinks.

Check out several parts of a McDonald's Factory in Moscow, and understand what effort goes into their hamburgers. From the buns and beef to how they processed everything in the factory.

Via A Welsh View

In this German hamlet 15 miles south of Munich, McDonald's Corp. is conducting an experiment that counters the fast-food, drive-through image of the world's biggest restaurant company.

The McDonald's restaurant here has a fireplace, leather sofas, wooden floors, vases with plastic flowers and a McCafe, where it serves pastry, tiramisu and cappuccino on china.

The eatery is what the company calls one of its best examples of weaving together ambience, convenience and food. The experiment is part of McDonald's Europe's strategy to create a more restaurant-like, sit-down eating experience.

Health inspectors closed a Pizza Hut restaurant in east Raleigh after a worker found live mice inside it. The employee who notified the health department about the mice says she was fired for reporting the problem.

The restaurant scored a 90 during an inspection on Monday, but the inspector noted rodent droppings behind an ice machine. The inspector says the droppings weren't enough to close the restaurant because she didn't see any live animals inside during the inspection.

For many Americans, spam is a four-letter word for unwanted e-mail. In Hawaii, Spam is a beloved comfort food, with cans of the gelatinous pork bricks found in virtually every cupboard.

Hoping to cash in on Hawaii's love affair with the pinkish meat product, Burger King last month began offering Spam for breakfast - going head-to-head with rival McDonald's, which has been featuring Spam in the islands for years.

Burger King is offering the Spam Platter, consisting of two slices of Spam nestled between a bed of white rice and scrambled eggs. The fast-food giant also offers the Croissanwich or Biscuit Sandwich with Spam.

A McDonald's restaurant in Brevard County was evacuated Monday night after several workers were overcome by toxic fumes.

Firefighters and HAZ-MAT crews were called to the restaurant on US-1 in Port St. John after the workers started having trouble breathing. Firefighters quickly found the source of the fumes.

"We poured kitty litter back behind the fry mat and, apparently, you're not supposed to do that because it makes toxic fumes when it gets heated up. It gets toxic and a lot of people were going home sick," said Matt Hoff, an employee.

The workers were using the kitty litter to clean up grease.

A police officer who claims his chicken sandwich was slimed by two teenage employees at a McDonald's restaurant is suing the fast food company.

Officer Josh Douglas said he was working nights two years ago and went through the McDonald's drive-thru in Charles City. He ordered a chicken sandwich, which came with lettuce and tomato.

Not liking vegetables, Douglas said he went to remove the toppings and discovered what he described as a mucousy substance holding them together.

Sure, you probably know in France that McDonald’s serves the Royale with cheese (thanks to the famous scene in Pulp Fiction) but did you know that McDonald’s all around the world offer a number of different items catering to their cultures?

Ok, you might’ve known. But you might not know exactly what they serve. Here’s some of your McDonald’s options in countries all over the world.

fastfood.startingiseasy.com is still available

"Daddy, I got two toys in my happy meal!"

We realize that you have to disguise your stash when you go to work, but hiding your pipe, marijuana and lighter in a happy meal box is a dangerous idea. Why?

You might hand your stash right out the drive through window. That's what one McDonald's employee in Ottawa, Illinois did, and as you might imagine, everyone—even the police chief — is laughing at him. The employee is a 17 year-old high school senior, he's been arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia

As controversies go, this one isn't exactly a whopper. It's more of a - well, let's just say it's about a wopburger and what happens when the menu at an iconic Louisville restaurant collides with ethnic sensibilities and political correctness in the 21st century.

And, essentially, what happens is the icon blinks first. Which is why the menu at the Blue Parrot restaurant will soon offer an "Italian burger" instead of a you-know-what burger.

How, you ask, could something as benign - to say nothing of tasty - as a "sausage patty with melted cheese served with sauce" ignite an ethnic flap? Well . . .

Customers who visit Saratoga Springs' new McDonald's could get a "super-sized" shock when they set foot inside the new coffee shop-like restaurant. And when it comes time to throw the trash away, look out.

A motion-detecting, automatic-opening garbage receptacle and a robotic voice saying "thank you" and "please wait" might make you wonder where you are.

The three-week-old restaurant in Saratoga Springs is the first of its kind in Utah, but as a prototype of a McDonald's image revolution that will soon be sweeping the world, the atmosphere could soon become familiar.

The UK arm of McDonald's is planning a campaign to have the dictionary definition of a McJob changed.

The Oxford English Dictionary says it is: "An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector."

But Lorraine Homer from McDonald's said the firm felt the definition was "out of date and inaccurate".

The fast food chain is planning a public petition to try to get the definition changed.

A woman who was injured while holding open the door for customers at the Edwardsville Pizza Hut filed a personal injury suit against the restaurant and the man to whom she extended the courtesy.

Amanda Verett claims she was walking out the door of Pizza Hut on Feb. 12, when she held open the door to allow herself and co-defendant Clarence Jackson to exit.

"Jackson grabbed the door in such a fashion that it caused the door to suddenly and sharply move," the complaint written by Edwardsville attorney Tom Maag states.

Verett claims she was injured as a result of the sudden and sharp movement of the door.

Fast-food chain McDonald's is testing a bigger high-end Angus burger that costs a little bit more for the extra weight, according to a published report Wednesday.

The Chicago Tribune said the new Third Pounder is currently available only in about 600 restaurant locations in Southern California. At one-third of a pound, the burger is the biggest on the McDonald's (Charts) menu at outlets where it is being tested.

It is also the most expensive sandwich, priced at $3.99, the paper said.

The newest addition to the menu at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub is one whopper of a burger. The Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger weighs in at 123 pounds, a meaty monstrosity that its cooks maintain shatters the world record of 105 pounds shared by two restaurants in New Jersey and Thailand.

The sizable sandwich features an 80-pound beef patty, along with a pound each of lettuce, ketchup, relish, mustard and mayonnaise, 160 slices of cheese, up to five onions and 12 tomatoes.

It's topped with a couple of pounds of banana peppers, then sandwiched into a 30-pound bun. Don't forget the garnish of 33 pickles.

There's a pretty hefty price tag, too: $379.