I compared McDonald's to the biggest fast-food chain in Korea, and the 'McDonald's of Korea' has one major advantage

Kate Taylor

Feb 18, 2020, 20:27 IST

I compared McDonald's to the biggest fast-food chain in Korea, and the 'McDonald's of Korea' has one major advantage

Lotteria is the biggest fast-food chain in South Korea, serving burgers, fries, and fried chicken.
On a recent trip to Seoul, I tried Lotteria and McDonald's to see how the two fast-food giants compare.
While McDonald's has a few items you can only buy in South Korea that are worth ordering, Lotteria's superior punches of flavor convinced me that the Korean chain beats out the American fast-food giant.
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SEOUL, South Korea - The biggest fast-food chain in South Korea isn't McDonald's, KFC, or Burger King - though they all have locations in the country.

Instead, Lotteria reigns supreme, with more than 1,300 locations, plus hundreds more throughout Asia.

While it can be reductive to compare every fast-food chain to McDonald's, Lotteria makes the comparison pretty easy. The burger-and-fries-centric menu is similar, as are the prices. Locations look similar, both to each other and to McDonald's back in the US. There is even a McDonald's directly next to a Lotteria at Seoul station, forcing travelers to choose which fast-food chain to ally themselves with as soon as they enter the city.

Instead of making a snap judgement, I decided to try McDonald's and Lotteria back-to-back and see which fast-food chain came out on top. I discovered more similarities than differences, but one chain still managed to eke out a victory thanks to one key advantage.

I visited the Lotteria inside Seoul station. That's right, the one right next to McDonald's.

I ordered at the kiosk and decided to get an array of fast-food classics to see how Lotteria compares to American burger chains. Conveniently, Lotteria offered a "recommended menu."

I got a basic burger, fries, and a chicken wing for 8,700 won, or about $7.30.

The burger was a pretty standard fast-food basic. The meat quality and toppings were not elevated over McDonald's in anyway — and it didn't have the signature oomph of something like the Big Mac.

However, the burger did gain a slight edge with a punch of seasoning that produced a more flavorful patty than the typical McDonald's burger.

The fried chicken was similarly fine. I wrote in my iPhone notes: "It's spicy chicken, it's not rocket science."

Is it better than Popeye's? Nah. Would I order it again? Probably.

Originally, I was convinced the fries were a passable McDonald's knockoff. The unassuming side fell short of McDonald's super-fried flavor.

However, I had ordered the Onion Shake Shake Fries, which come with a flavor packet. I sprinkled the onion flavor into my bag of fries and shook away.

This upgrade elevated the fries from knockoff to a supreme invention in its own right: sour cream and onion fries. I scarfed down the fries, trying to determine how this fantastic menu item might alter the outcome of the fast-food showdown.

I decided that the only possible solution was to go back to the original — McDonald's. I ultimately made two trips to McDonald's in Seoul in an attempt to sort out if the fast-food giant or Lotteria came out on top.

On my first trip to McDonald's in Seoul, I focused on menu items I could not purchase in the US, ordering the egg bulgogi burger, corn chowder, curly fries, the McChicken Mozzarella, a Coke Zero, and a Green Grape Chiller.

The mozzarella-topped chicken sandwich was a massive disappointment. The sweet, tomato-flavored sauce completely overwhelmed any other flavor and the mozzarella quickly grew rubbery and almost moldy in its texture.

The curly fries, on the other hand, were quite nice. They were almost as good as Arby's fries, which I consider to be the gold standard in the field.

Even though the sweet corn chowder will probably never make McDonald's American menu, I found it somehow comforting.

The Green Grape Chiller was a very very sweet Slurpee-esque option. It did leave me wondering why we don't have more green grape-flavored sweets in the US.

However, it was the bulgogi burger that far outshone the other menu items. Made with pork and flavored with a sweet sauce, the burger was created to win over Korean customers.

This version was topped with an egg, which looked like it could have been plucked straight from a McMuffin and did not add much to the burger.

The egg helped convince me I needed to visit McDonald's a second time to better compare it to Lotteria. After all, if I had focused on what made McDonald's in Korea different than the US, could it really serve as a fair comparison to my basic order at Lotteria?

This time, I kept it simple, with a bulgogi burger and fries. And, the fries were just as good as I remembered — a timeless classic, even without the onion-y zip of Lotteria's fries.

As I suspected, the diminutive bulgogi burger is far better without the chalky egg. It's a soft and rich burger, spiked with the sweet, goopy sauce.

But, where does this delightful burger leave us in the McDonald's versus Lotteria showdown? Lotteria also sells bulgogi burgers and based on everything else I had there, one can assume that would be just as good as McDonald's.

Ultimately, I think that McDonald's bulgogi burger is a worthy purchase for any American fast-food lovers visiting South Korea. However, the superior punches of flavor gave Lotteria a slight advantage in the head-to-head competition, allowing the Korean chain to triumph over its American counterpart.

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