When in Italy, McDonald's is unlikely to be something one would even consider, but this restaurant on Borgo Pio, is in an ideal location, right outside the Vatican, so I felt it was a pretty safe stop on my way back to my hotel.
It is fairly busy, but I did manage to get a table. I ordered on the kiosk with an English language option.
I was surprised to see the McRoyale / Quarter Pounder with Cheese NOT on the menu here, which is usually a common staple of McDonald's worldwide. There is a gluten-free burger here, but it is not customisable and I decided against it after a bad experience with the same burger at McDonald's in Milan - as it is virtually dry and reheated in a bag.
Considering this, I decided to order a Big Mac without the bun, with the Le Ricche fries Cheese&Bacon.
My food arrived in a reasonable timeframe, the staff seemed friendly and called me before preparing my food to ensure that I wanted my burger without a bun.
My burger was OK, they could have placed the Mac sauce more carefully, rather than all on the side of the box, but it was hot and I liked the generous portion of lettuce.
The star of the show was the fries - I paid extra to upgrade to the Le Ricche fries Cheese&Bacon and they were so good! They were piping hot and the cheese and bacon were so good with them.
Prices were reasonable, perhaps a touch more than the UK. The fresh juices were particularly expensive though, especially as my pear juice wasn't fresh and was just poured into a glass from a larger bottle.
Due to EU laws restricting single-use plastic - all my packaging was cardboard, with my pear juice being served in a real glass from the McCafe area - again cardboard cutlery is terrible but is much better than the paper cutlery which they have in the UK which is pretty much unusable.
A clean and fast McDonald's serving hot food in busy, touristy surroundings - as far as McDonald's go this isn't too bad but there are certainly hundreds of better options for lunch in Italy but if you're looking for a familiar taste or a break from Italian cuisine, you can't go wrong. 4* read more