Now here's a tough question: why is the #1 chain of sit-down restaurants in France the American Western themed 'Buffalo Grill'? (www.buffalo-grill.fr)

-- it's not cheaper than an ordinary French restaurant
-- it doesn't serve French food
-- the decor and style are hideous

As a small consolation to the French, at least they can now say that it is US-owned, since the French founder sold the company:

<i>Buffalo Grill serves up a Wild West dining theme for French steak lovers. The company operates and franchises about 290 family-style steakhouses that offer a variety of grilled beef along with such dishes as bison steaks, chicken wings, and ostrich meat. The restaurants are designed to resemble saloons of the American Old West, complete with oil lamps, totem poles, and paintings of scenes from the Old West. Buffalo Grill also supplies its franchisees with fresh meat through its Districoupe operation. The operates about 180 of the restaurants, while the rest are franchised. US-based investment firm Colony Capital owns about 83% of the company.&lt;i/&gt;



</i>

Travelbuzzing - good post. That's why I don't eat at McDonalds and other like places, either in the US or elsewhere.

Just a personal preference of course. I knew a chef long ago who instilled in me the idea to not eat a lot of food with ingredients I couldn't find in a good home kitchen. You know, the REAL food movement. ;-&gt;

Girlspytravel - Here are the ingredients, as copied from McDonalds OWN website, just now, for one of those &quot;healthy wraps&quot;:

Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap™ with Grilled Chicken:
Grilled Chicken Breast Filet: Chicken breast filets with rib meat, water, seasoning (salt, sugar, food starch-modified, maltodextrin, spices, dextrose, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed [corn gluten, soy, wheat gluten] proteins, garlic powder, paprika, chicken fat, chicken broth, natural flavors (plant and animal source), caramel color, polysorbate 80, xanthan gum, onion powder, extractives of paprika), modified potato starch, and sodium phosphates. Prepared with Liquid Margarine (see ingredient statement below). CONTAINS: SOY AND WHEAT. Flour Tortilla: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, vegetable shortening (may contain one or more of the following: hydrogenated soybean oil, soybean oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, hydrogenated cottonseed oil with mono- and diglycerides added), contains 2% or less of the following: sugar, leavening (sodium aluminum sulfate, calcium sulfate, sodium phosphate, baking soda, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), salt, wheat gluten, dough conditioners (sodium metabisulfite, distilled monoglycerides). CONTAINS: WHEAT. Lettuce. Shredded Cheddar/Jack Cheese: Cheddar cheese [pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, annatto (color)], Monterey jack cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), potato starch, corn starch and powdered cellulose (prevent caking), natamycin (natural mold inhibitor). CONTAINS: MILK. Chipotle BBQ Sauce: High fructose corn syrup, water, tomato paste, honey, distilled vinegar, molasses, food starch- modified, natural (plant source) and artificial flavors, salt, chipotle peppers*, natural smoke flavor (plant source), chili peppers*, soybean oil, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), onion*, garlic*, caramel color, propylene glycol alginate, spice. *Dehydrated. Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservative), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).

Per Padraig &quot;Seek advice from other people whose opinions you trust. Read restaurant critics' reports. Use trusted guidebooks.&quot;

Exactly - or just post either here or on tripadvisor - has to be better than shovelling in poor quality 'food' - then complaining afterwards.

Take a look at resources like http://www.ireland-guide.com/ - although food may not be the focus of your trip, well presented and or healthier options at a varity of budgets are available, and will enhance any visit.

NorCalif: do you eat airline food?

Oh I will give a thumbs up...grudgingly for the Mc Cafe they are starting to install at some of the larger ones in Europe. On Grafton st in Dublin They have a separate cafe section with Coffe and cakes and a window looking out to grafton st. I went very early twice and had a pretty nice latte and bun. I still go to other coffee places and sit outside when the weather permits but it was an improvement on the Burger and cips side of the establishment and probably gets the parents in when the kids want a happy meal. Still food that tastes so sweet and moreish that is not freshly prepared gives me the creeps...subway I can smell a mile away from the sugary smell of their bread rolls. Yuck!

NorCal - the long list of ingredients in McDs thing is probably similar to 99% of the foods on supermarket shelves and that served in school cafeterias, etc.

why single out McDonalds?

PalenQ - not usually, but sometimes.
Do you?

I just don't like the taste of most foods that have been majorly chemically ... modified? enhanced? adulterated? ... so choose otherwise when possible.

But it isn't a religious issue with me, so I'm not proselytizing. ;-&gt;

Besides, if everybody had my preferences, how would all those sodium metabisulfite farmers make a living anyway?

I'm just spoiled living in rural Sonoma County where I can get fresh eggs from my neighbor's backyard chickens, buy fresh duck breast down the road, grow my own lemons, figs, plums, pomegranates, and choose from many local artisanal cheeses, farmers' markets, etc. It's not that I'm a food snob - I'm just trying to make you jealous!

I don't buy foods like that from the grocery store either.

We don't eat @ McD's anywhere, regardless. We typically avoid fast foods altogether except when traveling (via car) as oftentimes, options are limited. Then we are more apt to visit a Wendy's or Arby's.

NorCalk - i'm a lot like you and i eschew prepared foods as much as possible.

I grow my own veggies or buy at local farmers market as much as possible.

I don't eat meat except rarely and meat i think takes the cake for potentially detrimental additives

so we're on the same page. I do think that folks like to single out McDonalds at times as a whipping boy when they are normal in the food industry, unfortunately.

In fact it seems they may be trying harder than others - replacing trans-fats, etc. but probably due to the scale of operations need preservatives, etc. as ingredients.

And i mainly drink coffee or eat ice cream at McDs and think these are mainly natural it seems.

Pal - I know what you mean.

I actually wasn't trying to single out McDonald's - it's just that they were the topic of the thread. From which I sort of tangentially rambled on anyway ...

&gt;&gt;&gt;upgraded their menu selections with lots of healthy fresh salad and wraps choices -there is nothing artificial or &quot;chemicaled&quot; about that food-if you wish to believe that, because of your inherent food snobbery, fine, but such silliness has nothing to do with the reality of the situation&gt;&gt;&gt;

right actually girlspy, its the principle of macdonalds as a corporation, the cover up, the processes they run and cheap/labour land that they are destroying in the third worlds, without any concern for the future planet, that inspires my snobbery towards them.

to look at it simply as upgrading their menu to healthy salads, the reality of the situation is that this is pure marketing and PR, not because they have actual concern about what they feed people.

you think they dont use pesticides to control the lands in which they mass-produce your lettuce? you think that they don't over-farm?
you think that they are concerned and active towards the environment?

do you know that cancer has leapt up to 1 in 3 people since the 50's, when corporate farming and bodies started putting chemicals in our fields and foods?

The only reason that macdonalds have been &quot;singled out&quot; here is because it's what the thread is about.

i would stay away from eating there because i dont think its doing anyone any good, on the global scale.

theyre not the exception, they're the rule.

Like cigarettes or Nicotine causing cancer where irrefutable studies say it does - i don't blame the tobacco companies except for perhaps secretly manipulating the Nicotine content to hook more, i blame the consumer

After it's common knowledge that additives are harmful and i don't think we've reached conclusive evidence on that yet it's up to the consumer then to take action about their own health

Right now McDs and their ilk are just giving the customer what they want. Great tasting if not healthy food.

After reading some of the posts (I admit never reading more than a handful in any thread! except those by that gentleman with at the end of each of his posts ), it is amazing to me that McD stock is one of the best performing stocks of the last four decades, the company's market cap is $70+ Billion and runs over 30,000 stores in the world. Clearly they are providing some value added services It may be around your waist or may not be but they are adding value somewhere, believe me

So the only conclusion I have, perhaps wrong, is that I think some of us are closet-McDonalds customers and partial to the taste of sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate and propylene glycol alginate, and just don't want to appear &quot;uncool&quot; Or may be not?

Either way, consider this http://tinyurl.com/353l72

post script: I do eat fast food couple times a month. I also visit the gym five days a week.

If you want to really know about McDonald's nutrition facts-then go to the website that sets out their nutrition and food quality, then judge for yourself:

http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/eat/quality0.html

And don't go saying this can't be accurate, I can assure you there are numerous alphabet groups that monitor truth in advertising, and particularly the Govt. agencies, FTC, CPSC, etc.-if it isn't accurate, with a company as megalithic as McD's -you'd hear about that immediately.

The government agencies you mention are not interested in food safety or protecting the consumer. They are interested only in promoting the interests of Big Agriculture. The USDA is the only government agency specifically charged with promoting industry; it's their brief.

It is also true that very little of the important nutritional information is captured in government statistics. Percentage of fat, protein, and carbohydrate, sure. They even show saturated fats nowadays. But careful detail about the additives found in cattle feed, for instance, is strictly prohibited.

The USDA works for ConAgra and ADM, not for the people of this country.

Even the word &quot;organic&quot; doesn't mean anything any more, since Agribusiness has taken over the definition. There are dozens of industrial additives that are allowed in supposedly &quot;organic&quot; food that no not have to be mentioned on the label.

The reason for McDonalds success is obvious: people like the taste of fried fat and sugar, and McDonalds has smart management and good processes. It's stupid to get all worked up about how evil they are. They are what they are.

I offer a reason for not eating at McD's that seems -- well, almost beyond the ken of some participants in this discussion: I dislike the stuff they serve.

fnarf-unfortunately, you provide absolutely no basis for your cynical conntention about said govt. agencies other than your own opinion, which, quite frankly is not good enough, nor does it take into account the statutory mandate of these agencies to examine what megacorporations like McD's are doing-Govt. agencies like the FDA actually do quite a bit more research and investigation than you know, or realize, into matters involving the nutritional content of food franchises such as McD's, etc., most particularly, their representations to the public concerning nutritional content-and the FTC has gotten involved several times in fining restaurant chains for making false claims about their food-you can't do that, because you'll face an enforcement action from the FTC for false claim advertising.

McD's particularly is under scrutiny precisely because so many billions of people around the world are consumers of their food items, and thus it becomes a matter of worldwide, not just local or even national importance, how they present their food items to the public.

And by the way, did you actually look at the website I provided aabove, and SEE what McD's has done to improve the nutritional quality of its food items? This was done in response to a huge public awareness campaign about the dangers of fat and the American diet going back several years now. If you don't want to know, that's one thing, but to simply take the kneejerk response, because you WANT TO BELIEVE that McD's food items are nothing but fat and chemicals, is just your own personal, and unfounded bias, nothing more. There is a big difference there between someone who refuses to look at the evidence because of their preconceived notions as opposed to the reality of the situation. McD's has come a loooong way since even the 90's-when the spotlight on fast food items and their nutritional content became a real issue with both the Government and the consuming public-and I think their website showing the nutritional content of their food items, bears that out-it is evidence directly contrary to what so many believe about McD's food-and McD's honesty in putting out such fact based information is a hellofalot more transparent than most other fast food chains, even those that like to hold themselves out as being fresh and organic, considering the number of items that are on the McD's menu-there is something for everybody now.

Girlspy - Did you see my earlier post where I copied the list of ingredients from the McDonald's website of one of their chicken wraps? It contains a whole lot of chemicals, artificial ingredients, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils (the dreaded &quot;transfats&quot etc. So I'm really confused about your drawing the conclusion that &quot;there is nothing 'chemicaled' or artificial about that food&quot;.

A person could perhaps argue that those chemicals and artificial ingredients may not be known to be extremely harmful, but to say they aren't there??

Don't forget that each country has different health rules, so McDonald's is prevented from putting poison in the food in certain countries. No chicken wraps in France. (However, KFC in France has them, whatever they call them.)