I don’t love it! Fed-up Russians are served MOLDY burgers at their replacement McDonald’s restaurants after the chain left the country due to the invasion of Ukraine
- McDonald’s restaurants in Russia that have changed brands have been selling flowery burgers
- McDonald’s sold its restaurants and reopened under the name Vkusno & Tochka
- But eateries have complained of mold on buns and bugs on burgers
By Will Stewart for MailOnline
Posted: 08:30, 5 July 2022 | Updated: 8:35 AM, July 5, 2022
Russia’s McDonald’s restaurants, which have changed brands, have been caught serving flowery burgers to fed-up customers after the US chain left the country for its invasion of Ukraine.
McDonald’s Corp left Russia completely earlier in the year, selling all the restaurants it had to a local licensee in May. Under the new name Vkusno & Tochka, or “Tasty and It’s Over,” 50 restaurants in and around Moscow reopened in June.
But eateries have complained of mold on the buns of their burgers at various outlets, said Ksenia Sobchak, a popular television celebrity and prominent Russian opposition politician.
Separately, “insect legs” have also been found in Russian burgers.
Russia’s McDonald’s restaurants, which have changed brands, have been caught serving flowery burgers to fed-up customers after the US chain left the country for its invasion of Ukraine.
Customers have complained of mold on the buns of their burgers at various outlets, said Ksenia Sobchak, a popular celebrity on television and the most prominent politician of the Russian opposition.
Customers at the rebranded McDonald’s have faced moldy buns
McDonald’s Corp left Russia completely earlier in the year, selling all the restaurants it had to a local licensee in May. Under the new name Vkusno & Tochka, or “Tasty and It’s Over,” 50 restaurants in and around Moscow reopened on June 12 and 13.
“Vkusno & Tochka sells flowery burgers,” Sobchak posted on his Telegram channel.
Sobchak added: “They do not appear to meet McDonald’s standards, at least in terms of product quality control. Today there have been at least three cases of burgers with flowery buns sold to customers.
“Two of them were for my subscribers.”
When it took over McDonald’s outlets, Vkusno & Tochka promised “the same but better”. However, some customers have their doubts.
One said, “I don’t think it’s okay when you find mold.”
The pictures show the sinister mold and Sobchak said to management, “Write it down, guys, you don’t have to poison people.”
Other complaints to the new Russian chain are the lack of meat in cheese burgers and cheese sauces with an expiration date.
Some canteens posted images of “insect legs” in the food.
Separately, “insect legs” have also been found in Russian burgers
The pictures show the sinister mold and Sobchak said to management, “Write it down, guys, you don’t have to poison people.”
Some canteens posted images of “insect legs” in the food
A man chooses meals at the new Vkusno & Tochka restaurant, or “Tasty and that’s it” (archive)
The eateries have also protested because the fries are “sad” compared to those at McDonald’s, which has been in Russian – then the USSR – since 1990.
The new packaging has replaced the old one and the Golden Bows are gone.
Vkusno I Tochka CEO Oleg Paroev said the 850 old McDonald’s restaurants would be open in September under the new name.
Russia’s first McDonald’s opened in the middle of Moscow more than three decades ago, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It was a powerful symbol of the reduction of Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.
McDonald’s was the first American fast food restaurant to open in the Soviet Union, which finally collapsed in 1991.
McDonald’s decision to leave comes when other US food and beverage giants, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Starbucks, have halted or shut down operations in Russia in the face of Western sanctions.