Walk into a McDonald’s anywhere else in the world and you know exactly what you’re getting. The smell of fries, the corporate red and yellow glow, the same menu you could order in London, Bangkok, or New York. Then you come to the Philippines and see something called McDo. Not McDonald’s. McDo.
It looks the same, it smells the same, but something’s gone a bit sideways. McDo is a parallel universe version of McDonald’s. A strange, friendly clone that tried to fit into Filipino life so deeply it stopped being American at all. In fact, it’s so different that most foreigners come away thinking McDo is copying Jollibee, not the other way around.
The Jollibee Effect
Jollibee is the king here. The absolute monarch of Fast Food Restaurants in the Philippines. McDonald’s has been in the country since 1981, but it never stood a chance of being the dominant force. Jollibee got there first and hit all the right notes sweet style spaghetti, burger steaks, rice meals, and the glorious chickenjoy. When McDonald’s arrived, it had to play by local rules or die trying.
And so McDonald’s Philippines became McDo. A name that sounds local, looks familiar, and tastes just enough like home to not scare anyone. The irony, of course, is that Jollibee originally borrowed heavily from the American playbook fried chicken, burgers, fries, the works but did it with sugar, rice, and joy. Now the American original has ended up imitating the imitation.
The Menu A Mirror of Jollibee
Let’s start with the spaghetti. In most countries, the idea of spaghetti at McDonald’s would sound insane. In the Philippines, it’s normal. The McSpaghetti is sweet, red, loaded with sliced hotdogs, and sprinkled with cheese. It’s comfort food for every Filipino kid who grew up on Jollibee’s version.
Then there’s the fried chicken. McDo’s Chicken McDo looks suspiciously like Jollibee’s Chickenjoy. It even comes with rice and gravy, and yes, you can order extra rice if you like. Try finding that option in New York or Manchester.
And the burgers? They’ve gone local too. The McDo Cheeseburger and Burger McDo are noticeably sweeter than the standard McDonald’s versions. It’s as if someone dropped sugar into the patty mix and called it a day. Even the iconic Big Mac feels sidelined, taking a back seat to local combos that taste more like Jollibee knockoffs than global classics.
The Rice Obsession
One of the biggest shocks for first timers is the rice. McDo serves rice meals as a core part of its offering. Not a novelty. Not a side. A full staple meal with chicken, gravy, and soda. It’s not just there for show either people order it constantly. Breakfast rice plates, burger steaks with rice, even fried chicken with rice and spaghetti on the side.
In fact, if you walk into a McDo and order a Big Mac meal, you’ll look like the foreigner who didn’t get the memo. Rice is life here, and McDo learned that lesson quickly.
The Price and the Crowd
McDo targets the same market as Jollibee families, students, workers, and anyone looking for cheap comfort food. It is not seen as premium or foreign. In the West, McDonald’s has this weird reputation for being both cheap and slightly exotic. In the Philippines, McDo is just another local hangout.
The prices are similar to Jollibee too. A chicken meal with rice costs around ₱150, spaghetti sets are cheaper, and combos are built for local taste buds, not tourists. Even the drinks are sweeter. Coke here is like liquid syrup.
It’s McDonald’s, But Not Really
What makes McDo fascinating is that it’s still globally run. This is an official McDonald’s franchise, with all the corporate polish that comes with it. But the branding, the taste, and even the spirit feel deeply Filipino. You can sit under the golden arches and be served a meal that tastes nothing like one from Hong Kong or the States.
It’s almost as if the McDonald’s you knew got lost somewhere in the South China Sea and came ashore wearing a barong.
The Verdict
So is McDo worth it? Absolutely if only to see what happens when the world’s most famous fast food chain surrenders to local taste. The spaghetti is sweet, the rice is ever present, and the burgers feel like they’ve been dunked in syrup. But it works. It’s fun, strange, and very Filipino.
If you want a Big Mac come here, if you want Flipino burgers and Spaghetti then do away with the foreplay and just go to Jolibee.