Fast Food Watch: McDonald's "Tea Time" Menu a Late Winter Treat

McDonald's usually presents some of its best new items during the Chinese New Year period, but it seems that this year, some of its better, and least expensive items have been saved for the doldrums of March. Four new menu entrants, dubbed the Tea Time Set, are RMB 6 each and include the Meatball Burger, Golden Fish Bar, Chocolate Flavored Pie, and Milk Tea.

The Meatball Burger looks the most enticing. However, a McDonald's meatball parmigiana it is not. Our portion offered two and a half meatballs and a slice of American cheese on a standard hamburger bun, with lettuce, diced tomato, a bit of tomato sauce, and some mayonnaise. McDonald's is consistent this way. For RMB 6, we got what we paid for. It's not enough for an adult meal, certainly not as a standalone item. 

The Golden Fish Bar is more like a fish cake, something found at a buffet that offers Thai food. Each order contains two fish bars, and that's it. They are indeed golden, fried, not terribly salty but not particularly seasoned, either. This item cries out for some kind of sauce, either served on top or on the side, but instead, it's just two fish bars. It's slightly better than if the Filet-o-Fish were served undressed, but really needs something else.

The "flavored" in Chocolate Flavored Pie puts us off, but the pie itself doesn't. Think of this is as a store-bought pain au chocolat that you reheated a bit too long in a toaster oven, and the chocolate melted. In other words, don't think of it as some kind of ganache. A flaky croissant is filled with melted chocolate (or chocolate flavor, apparently). Why McDonald's doesn't do more with its pie menu, we'll never know, and they are still not forgiven for removing apple from the China menu years ago. This is a good one, and at RMB 6, buy two. 

The Milk Tea is milk tea. Served hot, it is overly sweet, however, the tea is actually quite good. There are no taro balls, so it's not that kind of milk tea. Of all the items, it's probably the most overpriced of the RMB 6 set.

These are properly positioned as an afternoon tea snack, either individually or in some combination. One can easily envisage grandma picking up a grandchild at school and swinging by McDonald's on the way home. Grandchild noshes on the fish cakes and grandma takes two sips of tea before declaring it too sweet and not finishing the rest. We hope that with a bit of tweaking, they all find their way onto the permanent menu: a bit of sauce here, more meatballs, and a higher price there.

READ: Local Gem: Eat Like an Emperor... for Lunch!

Images: Steven Schwankert