McDonald's in French Polynesia

Beautiful Tahiti is home to tropical mountains, waterfalls, black sand beaches, light blue lagoons and three McDonald's. In continuing our quest to check out one McDonald's in each country we visit (except for Vietnam, which still doesn't have one... yet), we ate lunch at the location in central Papeete.

Location: Papeete, corner of 0ue du Général-de-Gaulle and rue du Dr. Cassiau

Cost of a Big Mac value meal: 890 French Pacific Francs (about $9.95)

Comparative cost to local food: Everything is expensive in Tahiti and her islands, and food is no exception. A value meal at McDonald's is about as cheap as lunch gets in Papeete, unless you get sandwiches from the central market, which are only around 200 francs (about $2.25). Those sandwiches are the biggest bargain in French Polynesia by a wide margin.

Special menu items: I expected to see pineapple somewhere or something else with a Polynesian flare, but the only unique item on the menu was a Croque McDo, the McDonald's attempt at a croque-monsieur. A French item, but not very French Polynesian. For a country that likes to accuse the US of attempting to achieve cultural hegemony, France sure doesn't mind imposing their fancily named ham and cheese sandwiches on the Tahitians. The menu also had family value meals, which I've seen from KFC and Taco Bell before, but never McDonald's.

Taste test: We both ate a "Royal Cheese", which we all know from John Travolta is a quarter pounder with cheese. It was the least fresh-tasting burger we've had from McDonald's in a while, even dating back prior to this trip. Maybe I'm imagining this, but it seems as though in the past ten years or so, McDonald's made more of an effort to not serve burgers that had been sitting under a heat lamp for thirty minutes. Our burgers seemed like the old-style, extended heat lamp versions. And yes... still delicious. The fries were soggier than most McDonald's fries I've had, home or abroad... and yes... still delicious.

Popularity: The restaurant was fairly full at 2:00pm, which isn't surprising considering most other lunch options in the area besides the city market cost twice as much.

Other comments: The menu was an odd and uneven mix of French and English. I can understand some standard McDonald's items keeping the same name, but the sizes were "medium" and "large". They also had a limited time sandwich called the CBO - chicken, bacon and oignons. Why two thirds of the sandwich is in English and the last third is in French is beyond me.