Growing up, a visit to McDonald’s fast food restaurants meant something special to celebrate, like the last day of school, a birthday or a treat from Grandma.  Later on it represented responsibility and a bit of freedom as I walked or biked down the hill with my brothers (and no parental units). Somewhere along the way it became a dare – OK obsession – to visit each new location I could, and a quality assessment exercise to see how each one measured up.

In college I studied in Chile (South America, y’all) and I managed to eat at McDonald’s for 30 days straight. Mind you this was before Super Size Me but unlike the movie I didn’t eat every meal there. I was on a cultural exchange after all and sampling exported American culture abroad doesn’t count. The real challenge was finding new McDonald’s locations by intuition and gut feel (inside big box stores like WalMart, along major thoroughfares, inside food courts) while traveling about the continent (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile). This was before smart phone era and asking people for directions was verboten.

All in all I’ve been to over 100 locations (and that’s probably enough):

South Korea
Gumi – inside the eMart
Seongnam – at Yatap Station

Chile
Santiago – Vitacura Mall – a decent walk from my host family’s house
Santiago – downtown
Santiago – by bus station – quick last meal before a long bus ride
Santiago – Tobalaba station – eventually gained a decent rapport with the security guard there, after he thought I was a suspiciously frequent diner
Santiago – food court
Valparaiso
La Serena – inside WalMart
Puerto Montt – ate there on Christmas Day, on our way back from Patagonia

Rest o’ South America
La Paz, Bolivia – hyper-ventilated a bit walking around looking for it in this high altitude place. berry pie was totally worth it
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lima, Peru
Asuncion, Paraguay – eventually found this one via bus and foot. Went past the presidential palace which had a crashed/burned out car in a fountain on the front lawn (bizarre). gave the hungry looking kids some of my dinner
Foz do Iguazu, Brazil – hard to find, almost gave up. It is on Avenida Jorge Schimmelpfeng – obviously! had a small panic over which currency they’d accept but eventually we got our meal
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 2 locations – had a heck of a time ordering chicken McNuggets, even pointing to the menu wasn’t helping. Nobody understood me – I thought I was being punked. To be fair, what I was saying sounded nothing like the correct words: ‘frango’ (pronounced ‘fran-goo’) for chicken and ‘eff-ee’ for the letter F – I did not know this then
Salvador, Brazil

Mexico
Guadalajara – my brother Mike may have gotten sick from eating here
Mexico City
Puerto Vallarta
Cancun
Playa del Carmen

California (extended bay area)
Gilroy – Outlets
Gilroy – 152
Half Moon Bay
Hayward
Milpitas
San Jose – 1st street – this is where Grandma Bernabe would take us
San Jose – by SJSU – dinner after the Mariachi workshop at SJSU in high school
Fremont
San Francisco – by PacBell park – dinner on the cheap before a Giants game
San Francisco – Market
San Francisco – VanNess

California (San Mateo County)
San Carlos – my home location; probably been here the most
Belmont
Redwood City – El Camino north of Woodside
Redwood City – Woodside Rd
Redwood City – Whipple
Foster City
San Mateo – Hillsdale
San Mateo – El Camino
Menlo Park – a snack break while waiting to take the train home in high school
Daly City
Millbrae
Serramonte
Tanforan shopping center
San Bruno

California (Santa Clara County)
Stanford Shopping Center
East Palo Alto – University Ave
East Palo Alto – by IKEA
Palo Alto – near Page Mill
Mountain View – WalMart
Mountain View/Los Altos – El Monte
Mountain View – Rengstorff – may be the second most visited location

Airports
Denver – dared Joe Brady to pull a Seinfeld and go up to strangers, strike up a conversation and start eating their food
Dallas Ft. Worth Airport
Miami Airport
LAX
Juneau – took a cab from the airport and then walked back … in the winter
Phoenix

NorCal
101 Corte Madera
Rohnert Park
Redding
Eureka – the city of a thousand smells, so named on a particularly fragrant family summer road trip
Davis
Hwy 80

MidCal
Los Banos – 2 locations
I-5 Lost Highway
I-5 Harris Ranch
I-5 Grapevine
I-5 South of Flying J

SoCal
Hesperia – where my cousins at?!
Pismo Beach
Santa Barbara
Long Beach
Garden Grove
Buena Park
San Diego
National City

Sierras
Placerville
Truckee
South Lake

South/Southwest
Vegas – 2 locations
San Antonio – first stop on a business trip
Richmond Hill, Georgia – at Love’s travel stop on the way to Fort Stewart. Fox News playing on the TVs (Jan 2018 program topic: “has the #metoo movement gone too far?”)

Oregon Territory
Roseburg
Ashland
Portland
Seattle
Redmond – before and – let’s face it – after my unsuccessful interview at Microsoft

East Coast
Burke, Virginia
Albany, New York
Pittsfield, Massachusetts – route 20
Pittsfield, Massachusetts – route 7
Portland, Maine – lobster roll
Boston
New York City – Broadway – fanciest store, with a piano player
West Point, New York – inside the gates; I won’t say it wasn’t a factor in me applying for admission

Misc
Eleele, Kauai, Hawaii – Saimin noodle soup (savory and hot)
Honolulu, Hawaii
Kansas City, Missouri
Montreal, Quebec, Canada – post-game action after Giants played the Expos (remember them?)
Tel Aviv, Israel – old Tel Aviv port; fried corn sticks, mint lemonade and “rustic” fries (sort of a dugout canoe shape)

Updated 26 Nov 2018 – added Israel