East Coast’s McDonald’s is coming back. Here’re 10 “OMG” reasons to visit it

To many Singaporeans, the McDonald’s outlet in East Coast Park holds a lot of memories: from teens’ first outing to their first kiss, it’s just as iconic as the ones in King Albert Park and West Coast Park. Closed in 19 March 2012, it had then been in operation for 30 whopping years—and was then the first outlet to be open twenty-hours a day.

Opened on 20 January 1982, it was also the first outlet to offer drive-in orders. National Parks Board, the landlord, had then wanted to redevelop the area which led to its closure.

Come 2 July 2016, this iconic outlet will be back. Still located in Marine Cove, McDonald’s Singapore has been publicizing about the opening, with cyclists and rollerbladers around East Coast Park during the weekends to promote it.

So, other than for memories’ sake, what are some other convincing reasons for us to visit it?

It’s unlike any other McDonald’s
If you’ve read this article by The Straits Times, you’ll know that on first glance, it doesn’t look like a McDonald’s outlet. In fact, it’s more like those hipster cafés that are peppering all over Singapore. If that doesn’t convince you to visit it, I don’t know what else can.

It has a salad bar
Saying that it’s a healthy McDonald’s is like an oxymoron, but it really isn’t. The outlet will have a salad bar that allows you to customize your own salad: think Subway without the meat and the bread. Now, we can finally makan in McDonald’s without sinning!

It has a dessert bar
Think that you can indulge in some sugary dessert after burning so many calories in the beach? Here’s one for you! Once again, you can customize your toppings—a total of 17 different toppings. So forget about waiting for a new McFlurry to be out. “Create” your own McFlurry!

New exclusive burgers. Yeah.
There’ll be new burgers exclusively for this outlet, and according to The Straits Times, one of them is Spicy Chicken with Apple Slaw. The McDonald’s website describes them as “premium proportions”, so I guess it’s not going to be like the weird-tasting-yet-very-Instagrammable Angry Birds burgers.

Exclusive McCafe menu
What’s the hottest thing to do now? Café-hopping. You hipsters out there know where to go next month.

There’re going to be wireless charging stations. OMG
Okay, maybe not all phones support this, but if you’ve got one that can be charged wirelessly, this is a Godsend. Lest you don’t know how it works, here’s how simple it is: you put your phone on the pad and it charges by itself.

It’s large. Like, really large.
The drawback about the old outlet was the size—finding a seat in that outlet, even at 2:00 a.m., is like finding a seat in a food court at 7:00 p.m.: it’s near impossible. The new outlet is at 8,439 sq ft: that’s almost the size of 7 five-room HDB units. Hopefully it won’t be that packed anymore!

It’s McDonald’s Singapore flagship out and a testbed
A flagship means it’s going to be the best—and with Singaporeans all wanting to be the best, this is the best place lah. In additional, new foods or services will be tested here before they decide whether to roll them out in all outlets; in other words, you get to be the first to try their new food or drinks!

The new menu took one year to develop and it’s based on food trends
I don’t know whether there’ll be salted egg yolk burgers or matcha burgers, but the new menu is developed based on trends and feedback. In other words, salted egg yolk burgers or fries might really occur—because it’s a trend, and I’m sure you’ve asked for it because you’re loving it.

High-tech wall that even words can’t explain
Okay, what the McDonald’s website indicates is a “shadow wall” that is interactive. The Straits Times reported it as a wall that could convert people’s shadows into “popular McDonaldland characters such as Grimace and Birdie”. My take? I need to visit it.

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com