Over February break, the Michael W Travels family headed to Greece and Cyprus.

While we rarely dine at McDonald’s at home, we had to pay a visit to the fast food chain in each country.

After landing in Athens, Greece we had around 10 hours to kill before catching our flight to Cyprus. We headed into the city to the busy Syntagma Square and decided to grab lunch at McDonalds Greece.

I’ve previously written about McDonald’s we’ve visited in:

• Russia
• Japan
• Serbia
• Germany
• Romania
• USA (Mozzarella Sticks)
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Canada
• Poland
• Costa Rica
• Ireland
• Korea
• Fiji
• Samoa
• American Samoa

(I’ve also visited McDonald’s in many other countries that I haven’t written about.)

We went inside and I hoped to see some local items on the menu like a McGyro but I have to say that I was generally disappointed. (There was one local item which Kim tried.)

Here are the items that we tried at McDonalds Greece.

Chicken McBites:Most McDonald’s around the world offer some sort of fried cheese bites but in Greece they offered Chicken McBites. I expected something like popcorn chicken but they were a bit bigger.
McDonald’s chicken options are pretty hit or miss. While their Chicken Selects (not sure if they even still sell them) are pretty good, the McNuggets are nothing to write home about.
When I bit into a McBite I found the chicken to be similar to that of a McNugget- ground up and relatively tasteless. The McBites had an odd taste and a harder texture making them probably worse than the nuggets. From what I recall, Lucas didn’t mind them so much. A friendly worker suggested that Theo (18 months old) not eat them, since they were so hard.

Overall, I would not order this item again if I were to see them on a menu. (OK, maybe I’d try them in a different country!)

Onion Rings:

Onion Rings sounded like a good side-order option which we were happy to see being offered.The size of rings as well as the portion offered were a bit smaller than what I’d expect to get in a restaurant. The onion rings had a nice color to them from being fried and I expected them to be a bit crispier but this didn’t really hurt the item.You can see real onion inside the rings but the breading was more noticeable than the onion. Flavor-wise, they were pretty good. We all enjoyed them and I found them to be a good item to put on top of the burger I ate. (Add BBQ and you have a Texas burger!)

If I see onion rings on a McDonald’s menu again, I’d definitely order them.

Greek Mac:Kim ordered a McGreek and (sadly) this is the only photo I got of it.

I didn’t taste this special, local burger, but it was basically two burger patties in a pita with lettuce, tomato and tzatziki sauce.

This might be the first time that Kim ever ordered a McDonald’s burger and she actually enjoyed it. I’m pretty sure this was due to the Greek interpretation of the sandwich. She said the tzatziki tasted pretty authentic.

Final Thoughts:

McDonalds Greece was a bit of a let down in terms of what unique items were offered. I don’t recall seeing onion rings before at a McD’s but I can’t say for sure. I would’ve liked to have seen a Greek cheese item offered to add some local flavor. This was one of the weaker McD’s that we’ve visited internationally. It was also very busy and it took forever to find a table!

Do you like to visit McDonald’s when you visit new countries? If so, do you have a favorite menu item that you’ve come across?