After the salted egg and nasi lemak chicken burgers, McDonald's Singapore is once again trying its hand at whipping up something novel. This time, they have diverted their attention to fish for a change and, as a bonus, decided to introduce throw something savoury in the mix too. How do they fare?
Fish & Fries
The star of the show this time is the Fish & Fries, McDonald's take on Long John Silver's signature combos.
Unfortunately, save for the fact that you get two generous servings of tartar sauce, it was rather disappointing. The fillets themselves were dry and the crisp on the outside was a little too hard to bite on, such that I had trouble using the plastic knife to slice through each fillet. In the end, I used the fork and ate each fillet as though it was a chicken nugget.
While eating, I got reminded of the pre-fried fish fillets that I used to put in the microwave oven when I was younger. It fills your tummy, but is dry and tasteless.
For the price you're paying (about $8 for a meal), you would be far better off eating at the Manhattan Fish Market or even the Fillet-o-Fish.
Sweet Chilli Mayo Fish Burger
I ate the Sweet Chilli Mayo Fish Burger on a separate occasion and it didn't taste any better. The actual burger, too, was far smaller and flatter than it looked on the menu. Once again, you'd be better off with the Fillet-o-Fish.
Chocolate Pie
On to the savoury stuff, the Chocolate Pie was slightly better. There's a huge swath of warm chocolate oozing from the pie, such that you can flick a whole chunk out and still have enough of that chocolatey taste.
On the not-so-bright side, the pie tasted a little bitter, as though it was over-cooked (it felt different from the bitter aftertaste when eating dark chocolate). I ate the pie on two occasions with the same result.
Thai Milk Tea Ice Cream
There are a few different concoctions of the Thai Milk Tea Ice Cream. Apart from the one above (in a cup with hot fudge sauce), there's a traditional version in a cone and a vanilla-TMT fusion in a cone.
Together, these three concoctions are the reason behind the long queues at the various McDonald's dessert kiosks islandwide.
Taste-wise, there's a strong Thai Milk Tea flavour, but this was dampened by the fact that my sundae was already partially melted fresh out from the kiosk. Perhaps the staff didn't ensure that the soft serve was properly frozen before serving them.
In addition, avoid the sundae version, because the hot fudge sauce simply doesn't go well with Thai Milk Tea.
Poor Effort
Overall, I thought this was a rather poor showing from McDonald's. I'm not sure if it's the quality of the underlying ingredients, or just the way these items are being prepared (resulting in the overly dry fillets and possibly overcooked pies), but for now, I'll sticking with my usual–the Buttermilk Crispy Chicken.