Ah Trini Travelogue Trinidad & Tobago's most travelled blogger through 99 countries. Create and Re-Engineer your life for travel.
I’ll preface this post with a video. I am not a fan of McDonalds regardless of their marketing campaign about the quality of food.
That being said, I am a fan of great location, great service and an experience and the Antigua Guatemala McDonald’s location is easily the best McDonald’s I’ve seen on the planet. It is one of the best fast food locations I’ve seen on the planet … and I’ve seen a lot of fast food joints.
I really debated on whether I would shed spotlight on one of the world’s most terrible corporations, but this location is a franchise and the owners clearly know what Guatemalans want.
- Ridiculously scenic view and central location …
- Low prices and good service …
- Large kid friendly environment to indoctrinate your children …
In North America, we heap tons of scorn on McD’s for their ridiculous menus, shit food and poor service. In Latin America, this is not the case … They will come out to sing on your birthday, serve you gourmet Alfajores and very, very good Guatemalan coffee. I would actually recommend McD’s here as somewhere to see once on your tour of Guatemala. The backdrop with the Agua Volcano doesn’t do it justice on a sunny day.
For your information ….
The alfajor was brought to Latin America from Spain, where it is still eaten as a traditional Christmas cookie. It’s believed to have been introduced to Spain with the invasion of the Moors (because Spanish words beginning with “al” are believed to have Arabic roots.) Today, the name is the only similarity left between the Spanish and Latin American version of the cookie. The alfajores enjoyed in Spain are made with honey, almonds and spices — a delightful mix to be sure — but they have got nothing on the melt-in-your-mouth cookie that’s sandwiched with dulce de leche (a milk-based caramel).
These cookies are so good, that for our wedding, we were fortunate enough through a good friend to find the maker of the McDonald’s cookies and get her to make stacks of these.
As for the Cafe’s prices … we had 3 Alfajores, a double latte, a double espresso, bottle of water and that view for three hours for about $10 CDN. Let me know when you can have anything in Toronto for that price … a double latte in Trinidad will set you about $5USD alone.
This post was not sponsored by McDonald’s but rather is a reflection of how crappy they actually are in the rest of the world. When you have something that stands out so much … it deserves a little bit of love.
