McDonald's Korea Fries Review: Distant from the Benchmark

The Fries Blog team this week is traveling to Asia. Our first stop is Seoul, South Korea; an international metropolis with plenty of fast-food restaurants. And naturally we were curious if the Korean establishment of our favorite benchmark - our McDonald's fries - would differ from its American cousin. We were split - some of us thought it would be exactly the same while others wanted a twist. At least the pictures looked identical. We were curious. We had to try it out. Here's our review of McDonald's Korea fries review.

McDonald's at the COEX Mall in Seoul, South Korea.

Texture (3/10)

The texture was overwhelmingly bad. There was barely any crisp and the skin was very weak and thin. The fries themselves were skinny and deflated and if you pair that we the lack of crunch, you have a droopy, soft, spineless fries. The crunchy and soft balance we love to see on fries was absolutely missing. Once you take a bite, the outer skin crumbles and falls apart into shreds. You really struggle to feel the difference between the skin and the innards after the first bite. This was a huge disappointment and couldn't be more different than its American twin.

Spineless fries with minimal crisp and deflated innards.

Flavor (4/10)

The essence of McDonald's fries flavor is the balance between saltiness and the savory balance of the potato and oil. Unfortunately, for the Korean fries, the flavor's blandness came across vividly as the sticks were quite dry. At least they got the salt amount right. In comparison to others we have tasted on this blog, the fries were drab and forgettable to say the least.

Shape (3/10)

The fries are like a cut piece of wrinkled clothing that has been sitting in your closet way too long. They are very short, and we think that they cut their fries in half to make twice the amount that you would normally get in one potato. Also, we saw that most of the fries didn't have closed ends on both sides. We have never seen fries that to not have closed points on both sides, especially if they are cut naturally from potatoes. For some sticks, you can actually see the potato mush on the inside, as if someone took a bit out of most of these fries before shoving them in the carton. Perhaps they were the spineless sticks breaking apart when being packaged post frying. The fries are crippled and deformed, each fry noticeably different from the next. This was a huge surprise as we thought that the shape of the McDonald's fries was part of its success. We are not sure why the Korean version forgot this or missed the quality control. Or could it be that Korean potatoes are much smaller than the American counterpart? Regardless, we were baffled.

Barely any sticks stand up even fresh off the tray. And look at those fries "bits" that were all shoved into the carton. Those are not something that we chewed on.

Presentation (4/10)

Not much to say in this criterion. The fries were dumped into your standard McDonald's carton - yes, thank god for the red cartons and not the paper bags. There was no difference between the cartons in Korea versus those found in America. Due to this, there is not much to note about the presentation. The only call out is again the short fries sticks that are shorter than the backrest of the carton, which makes the presentation slightly less pretty.

Somehow it feels like the carton was not filled completely.

Experience (4/10)

Due to the major flaw of the fries, they did little to complement the burgers or other sandwiches and mostly served as a stomach filler. The experience wasn't particularly bad but also it largely remained forgetaable. If it wasn't for the purposes of the review, we would have forgotten we had even ordered fries in the first place.

Texture	3
Flavor	4
Shape	3
Presentation	4
Experience	4
Overall	3.6 / 10

Conclusion

Though Korea may serve lots of good food, from noodles to ice-cream, McDonald's is not one of the restaurants we recommend you go if you care about delightful culinary experiences, even more so for fries. With a crippled shape, no substantial flavor, and horrible texture, these fries are an embarrassment to the benchmark that their American twins have set. McDonald's headquarters should seriously consider flying out to Korea for investigating the issue as this is creating serious brand damage. There is a lot of room to improve, and we hope they get this fixed soon.