McDonald’s Offering Table Service, New Menu At California Restaurants

Walk in to just about any McDonald’s in the country and you’ll be faced with the same process: wait in line to order your meal, recite your desired order to the person manning the register, wait a bit longer at the counter for your food to be prepared, and amble around the restaurant to find seating. While this tried-and-true method has worked for decades, the Golden Arches is apparently ready to change things up and show its fancier side by testing table service at hundreds of locations in California. 

The Los Angeles Business Journal reports that 600 restaurants in Southern California will serve as testing grounds for the table service experiment, which comes with yet another new menu.

If you’re expecting McDonald’s table service option to rival that of any full-service restaurant, you’d better think again.

Under the tests, customers will still order at the counter, the only change is their meal will be brought to their table by an employee.

In addition to changing its ordering/delivering procedure, the 600 SoCal McDonald’s locations will also test the newly expanded Taste Crafted Burgers and Chicken menu.

The fast food giant previously tested a similar version via kiosks at 2,000 restaurants around the country. That program was first called “Create Your Taste” and then renamed to “Chef Crafted.”

The expanded offering, just the latest in the fast food company’s many meal and menu revamps this year, allows customers to customize their beef or chicken sandwich.

Options on the menu include a beef patty, and grilled or buttermilk chicken paired with either a sesame seed, potato, or artisan roll. The sandwiches can then be finished with “bundled toppings” like “Buffalo Bacon” – which includes blue cheese spread, spicy buffalo sauce, applewood smoked bacon, tomato and shredded lettuce.

Clay Paschen III, President of McDonald’s Operators’ Association of Southern California tells the L.A. Business Journal that the menu was created in an effort to respond to customer demand, but that it’s too early to tell whether the menu would make its way to McDonald’s stores nationwide.

McDonald’s Latest Offer: New Burgers, Table Service [The Los Angeles Business Journal]