McDonald’s & KFC Food Items I’ve NEVER Tried Before in Costa Rica

Hey guys, Mike Chang here in San Jose, Costa Rica. Today, taking it kind of easy, just going to wander around the city. So I figured I'd make today a fast food day. And most of the fast food chains are represented here in Costa Rica. And the biggest difference I noticed is that if you look at the reviews for fast food chains here, they're really, really high. And I found some really unique food items on the local menus. So we're going to get started with breakfast at McDonald's. This McDonald's is beautiful. It's so clean, it's spotless, it's decorated well, it's modern. It's so nice. This is my McDonald's breakfast here in Costa Rica. Let me show you what I got. This is a deluxe breakfast platter with gallo pinto, which is the national food of Costa Rica. Fried plantains, scrambled eggs, sausage. Can't wait to dig into this. That came with some tortilla. Then I got a really thin little cheese sandwich. Look how thin this is. I mean, this is about as thin as a coaster. Some hash browns, also a McDonald's cheesecake pie. But I got to get started with this. This is called, this is a guayabita McFlurry. Guayabita is a Costa Rican chocolate that has guava inside. Oh, also, I got a crunch shake. The McFlurry is a little melted already, but on top is these chunks of chocolate. There's guava inside. I'm assuming this is some guava syrup on the side as well. This is so awesome. First of all, that chocolate's really good. Very chocolatey, but once you bite into it, you get a burst of that sweet and sour guava. There's also chocolate syrup in here as well. A solid Mc10 out of 10. Also, I never had a milkshake at McDonald's before. This is a crunch candy bar milkshake. Oh, that stink is really thick. How do you not absolutely love this? Crunch bar, one of the best candy bars ever made. One of my favorites growing up. Into a milkshake. This is so interesting. A McDonald's grilled cheese sandwich, basically the size of a pancake. I mean, this thing is really simple. It's a piece of cheese in between what looks like a compressed, and I mean really compressed, burger bun. I mean, that is a really clever way of reusing the food. I mean, McDonald's the king of doing this. In this case, take a burger bun, squeeze the living daylight out of it, slap a piece of cheese inside, brand new sandwich. I'm really excited about this stuff. The deluxe breakfast platter is one reason I love going to fast food restaurants around the world. There's always a food item that represents local country and nothing represents Costa Rica more than this. Again, like I mentioned, this is the national dish of Costa Rica. Rice and beans, usually seasoned with celery, red peppers, cilantro, and onions. If you don't know, gallo pinto means speckled rooster, which is really interesting because a lot of the local Costa Rican dishes are named after, well, different types of chickens. I already tried out this dish yesterday when I had it for the first time. And at McDonald's, I should really have done it justice. The beans have a nice texture. It doesn't just all mash together. It actually has a really nice chew. You can definitely taste the celery, the cilantro. The best way I could describe the seasoning, it's fresh, it's very herby, and a bit cumin-y. Basically, it's another one of those dishes that the more you chew, the more flavor releases, especially from the beans. Mix that together with some of the fried plantains. Oh, the fried plantains are so good. Egg is surprisingly really fluffy and soft. This is really cool. McDonald's tortillas. Two tortillas. What you can do is they give you some butter. So I assume, add some butter to the tortilla. Add the rice and beans. Sausage. Eggs. I'm gonna make a little breakfast burrito or breakfast taco out of it. I'm not sure if I was supposed to add the butter, but I mean, they gave me a lot of butter, so I assume that's what you do. This is so much better than plain old pancake. Chase it with a bite of hash brown. That is a sensational bite. Tortilla is nice and sweet. As I said, the egg's really, really fluffy. My only regret is I just realized I didn't add the plantain. That's one of the best bites of McDonald's breakfast that you'll ever have anywhere in the world. The seasoning for the gallo pinto, that's some magical stuff. Also, after tasting this, it's not butter. This is some sort of sour cream. This thing goes really well with the gallo pinto. A little sourness, very creamy. So when you wrap everything up with the tortilla, it's savory, it's sweet, it's eggy, it's creamy. And all the herbs in the gallo pinto just kind of ties everything together. No wonder fast food in this country is rated so high. After breakfast, I still got dessert. Oh, cheesecake pie. It always boggles my mind how everywhere you go in the world, different McDonald's all have their own unique flavors of pie, and it's always better than that apple stuff we have at home. It's basically a melty cheesecake in the most flaky, crusty, toasty pie crust. That's so good. Again, so much better than the apple version. We're about 10 minutes away for lunch, so let's see what they got for lunch. Lunchtime. So I got a couple of burgers, a three-piece fried chicken, bacon cheese fries, and I'm so excited for this pineapple pie. Yeah, they got a different pie for breakfast and a different pie for lunch. Ooh, this fried chicken smells so good. Mm. Oh, this is so good. This is some of the juiciest fried chicken I've ever had, and it's from McDonald's. And you can see the meat glistening under this layer of super crunchy skin. This is a juice-filled piece of chicken. It's juicy, it's crunchy, the flavor is perfect. I'm gonna chase it with some of the cheesy fries. Mm. The bacon's crunchy, the fries are obviously pretty good. I don't know if the cheese sauce is supposed to be cold like this, but this is a completely cold cheese sauce. Oh my gosh. The McDonald's fried chicken, though. The breast piece is usually the driest piece. Not here at all. Loaded up with juice and flavor. Mm. This thing is better than some of the chicken I've had at KFC. Very surprisingly delicious. This is a double tikka burger. So it looks like a couple of hamburger-sized patties with onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and gooey gooey cheese. The meat patty here in Costa Rica, it's so good. This meat patty is juicy, it's so, so tender, loaded with nice beefy flavor. This whole burger is delicious. Crunchy bits of onions, toasty sesame, gooey cheese. Mm. This is a delightful burger. All the vegetables fresh, the texture's fantastic. The meat patty, again, it doesn't taste like a typical McDonald meat patty. Tastes way better. Also, I got a premium bacon burger. Beautiful bun, giant, thick burger patty, and ginormous cuts of bacon inside. I say this all the time. Fast food just tastes better outside of the US. It really does. Again, this is a juicy, juicy patty. It's something probably I've never said about McDonald's back in the US. And the patty is really thick as well. If McDonald's always tasted like this, I'd be eating it a lot, lot more. Finally, dessert, pineapple pie. Sweet and tart pineapple, again, in that perfectly toasty crust. Little sweet, little sour. That was a delicious and really fulfilling McDonald's brunch. I'm gonna go walk around and see you guys for dinner. Took a little rest. It is already dinner time, and dinner is gonna be at Costa Rica's Burger King. So Burger King here is really interesting. First thing I noticed is they got something called a dog purr, which is a bone that you can order for your dog. That's supposed to have that classic signature char-grilled flavor that Burger King is known for. And I got a bunch of interesting burgers here. First of all, I just wanted to try a typical Whopper. So I got a Texas burger, a rodeo burger that comes with a crispy onion ring. I think I might have had this in the U.S., I'm not sure, but I don't think it's there now. They also have a BK Trio. This is where you can get fries, tater tots, and onion rings. I also got some chicken fries, and gonna dip that in some buffalo sauce. And with the BK Trio, they give you a package of ranch. I got a couple different pies. One thing I'm really excited about is that they had a pineapple pie that's supposed to be absolutely mind-blowing. But now, they have an apple, and they have a blackberry cheese. And this is the most interesting thing. Yucca fries. Starting out with a Tejano burger. So this thing, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, barbecue sauce, beef patty, sesame bun, and you can add a slice of ham in here as well. Besides the fact that the bottom bun is a little cardboardy, this is a delicious burger. And adding that ham inside, such a fantastic move. Patty is juicy, it's saucy, it's cheesy. It's got that iconic Burger King flame broiled flavor, and the layers of thinly cut ham adds even more smokiness and more flavor to this burger. Having the ham is such a delicious addition. Also, this is from their premium burger line, so that means these patties are half-pound patties. Man, this is a hefty, hefty sandwich. This is really interesting. These are for the indecisive people out there like me, who can't really decide between fries and tater tots and onion rings. Get all three. I've never really done this before, ranch dressing with onion rings and fries and tater tots. Add that on the side, and also, they gave me a lot of mayonnaise. I've never done this, but mayo with ketchup. Put the mayonnaise in, mix it together with a fry. This is so ingenious, because usually I just get fries in my burger, but just being able to have the option of all three, magic. And because they taste different, the texture's different, it just makes it so much more interesting. Also, dipping it in a ranch, ridiculous. I never had this before, yucca fries stunk it in some ranch dressing. Oh, this is awesome. This is so good. It's definitely more dense and starchier than a typical fry. It's richer and definitely more flavor as you chew. Also, this is fried so well. Such a light crunch on the outside. Inside, all that delicious yucca. This is the XT burger. It's pretty much like a typical Whopper, again, with a half a pound giant patty. Look at the size of this thing. I love this so much. Fast food beef patties, whether it's McDonald's or Burger King, anywhere, it just tastes better outside of the US. You really get a lot of that smoky, flame-grilled, beefy flavor in every single bite of this burger. This is just so satisfying. Chicken fries, I know we have these in the US. I just really like them. One last burger to try. This is the Rodeo burger. It's pretty much a hamburger with barbecue sauce and onion rings on top. I think this is a secret menu item back in the US. If you've never tried it before, onion rings in a burger, you can't go wrong with that. I am so excited for this. Again, still wish I got a hold of the pineapple pie, but this blackberry and cheese, this is so freaking good. The blackberry is sweet with a little bit of tartness to it. The outside crust, it's just so flaky and toasty. So you get that nice tart flavor with the rich creaminess of the cheese, all inside that perfectly toasty pie. I'm gonna like this more than a Whopper. That was really good dinner. This Burger King is so clean and nice. And what's also really cool is there's a mall right next to this Burger King with a KFC inside. So, winner, winner. Let's go grab some chicken dinner. So another sandwich I missed out on, there was a tropical spice chicken sandwich. That's why I wanted to come here. They don't have that anymore, unfortunately. But what they do have is a new crispy barbecue chicken burger. Inside the toasty bun is fried onions, bacon, cheese, barbecue sauce. Piece of what looks like very, very crispy chicken. Just like the name suggests, this is a very, very crispy chicken sandwich. Fresh out of the fryer, it's crunchy, it's tender, it's cheesy. I think flavor-wise, it tastes like you would expect. Really good piece of hot, juicy fried chicken with barbecue sauce and fried onions. Everything's executed very, very well. Every bite you take, you're gonna get a lot of crunch. This is the other reason why I wanted to come here. KFC in Costa Rica sells a tres leches cake. And a bite of this will make you borderline emotional. This is one of the best dessert items to ever appear on a fast food menu. It's utter perfection. I mean, it looks like something that was made not by KFC, by maybe a Costa Rican local. The cake is soaked in the milk. The cream is delightfully light on top. Every bite, you taste that spongy cake. Again, just saturated with that sweet, sweet milk. Oh my gosh. I mean, this is a dessert to end all dessert cravings. Come to KFC and get yourself one of these. This has been such a fun fast food day. Everywhere I go in the world, I love seeing the local unique items at fast food restaurants in Costa Rica. They got some good stuff. And as always, thank you all so much for watching. Until we eat again, see you later.