Whenever I am in foreign country (in my case those are all countries that are not Croatia) I usually get my first touch with any food at McDonald's. I definitelly cannot say that they are best possible choice. I cannot even call them cheap choice. But I always counted on them as being safe one.
I always valued McDonald's as place where I can get same food no matter in which country I am in and I could always count on that food to be of certain quality.
I am sorry to say that my belief has been quite shaken lately.
I made an error when I went to Berlin east train station. It was late and I figured that McDonald's is better choice than some local fast-food stand. To make long story short – I got cold Big Mac, with cold fries and cold Cola – at least they were consistent. I was hungry and I ate it. That was my mistake. My stomach wasn’t well to begin with, after 5 hours of train, 2 hours of airplane and few hours of waiting in-between, this was last straw of patience.
In my town of Osijek there is also one McDonalds. They got me used to fresh hamburger, good fries and clean environment. I cannot remember that I ever ate stale food there.
With little care you can avoid making too much things in advance and still serve all your customers without too much waiting. I am sad that their coworkers in Berlin haven’t learned the same lection.