I don’t love it! Weary Russians are being served MOLDY burgers at their backup McDonald’s restaurants after the chain left the country over the Ukraine invasion
- Russia’s rebranded McDonald’s restaurants are selling moldy burgers
- McDonald’s sold its restaurants and reopened under the Vkusno & Tochka name
- But eaters have complained about mold on the buns and bugs in the burgers
Russia’s rebranded McDonald’s restaurants were caught serving moldy burgers to stuffed customers after the chain left the country for its invasion of Ukraine.
McDonald’s Corporation pulled out of Russia entirely earlier this year, selling all the restaurants it owned to a local licensee in May. Fifty restaurants in and around Moscow reopened in June under the new name Vkusno & Tochka, or “Yummy and Ready”.
However, according to Ksenia Sobchak, a popular TV star and the most prominent politician in the Russian opposition, eaters have complained about mold on the buns of their burgers at several outlets.
Separately, “insect legs” have also been found in the Russian burgers.
Russia’s rebranded McDonald’s restaurants were caught serving moldy burgers to stuffed customers after the US chain left the country over its invasion of Ukraine
Customers have complained about mold on the buns of their burgers at several outlets, said Ksenia Sobchak, a popular TV star and the Russian opposition’s most prominent politician.
Customers at the rebranded McDonald’s were confronted with moldy buns
McDonald’s Corp pulled out of Russia entirely earlier this year, selling all the restaurants it owned to a local licensee in May. Under the new name of Vkusno & Tochka, or “Tasty and Ready”, 50 restaurants in and around Moscow reopened on June 12-13
“Vkusno & Tochka sells moldy burgers,” Sobchak posted on her Telegram channel, adding, “It seems they don’t quite live up to McDonald’s standards, at least as far as the quality control of the products is concerned. At least three cases of burgers with moldy buns being sold to customers have been recorded today.
“Two of them were for my subscribers.”
When it took over the McDonald’s stores, Vkusno & Tochka promised “the same, but better”. Some customers have their doubts.
One said, “I don’t think it’s okay if you find mold.”
Pictures show the sinister mold and Sobchak told management, “Find out guys, you don’t have to poison people.”
Other complaints at the new Russian chain include missing meat in cheeseburgers and past-by-date cheese sauces.
Some eaters posted pictures of “insect legs” in their food.
“Insect legs” were also found in the Russian burgers
Pictures show the sinister mold and Sobchak told management, “Find out guys, you don’t have to poison people.”
Some eaters posted pictures of “insect legs” in their food
A man chooses meals at the new Vkusno & Tochka or “Tasty and that’s it” restaurant (file)
Eaters have also protested that the fries are “sad” compared to the original McDonald’s, which has existed in Russia — then the USSR — since 1990.
New packaging has replaced the old ones, and the gold bows are gone.
Vkusno & Tochka CEO Oleg Paroev said all 850 former McDonald’s restaurants would be open under the new name by September.
More than three decades ago, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first McDonald’s in Russia opened in the middle of Moscow.
It was a powerful symbol of the easing 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 the company comes as other American food and beverage giants, including Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Starbucks, have suspended or closed operations in Russia in the face of Western sanctions.