McDonald's all-day breakfast won't be the full menu
McDonald鈥檚 will begin testing all-day breakfast in San Diego beginning next Monday, April 20, but it won鈥檛 be offering its full breakfast menu.
Just nine food items (plus McCaf茅 beverages) will be on the menu, according to the San Diego McDonald鈥檚 co-op. The iconic Egg McMuffin is there, of course, along with Sausage McMuffin with Egg, Sausage Burrito, Sausage McMuffin, Hash Browns, Hotcakes, Hotcakes and Sausage, Fruit & Maple Oatmeal and Fruit 鈥楴 Yogurt Parfait.
Participating stores won鈥檛 be making biscuits all day and won鈥檛 be preparing McGriddles past the usual 10:30 a.m. breakfast close. They won鈥檛 be baking mini Cinnamon Coffee Cake or Double Chocolate bundt cakes all day, either. And if you鈥檙e a fan of the Steak, Egg & Cheese Bagel you鈥檒l need to find a different choice for lunch or dinner.
The nine test items are essentially the same breakfast foods included in 2013 in the聽test menu, a mix of breakfast and lunch/dinner items (Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, Double Quarter Pounder, Chicken McNuggets and a few others) offered between midnight and 4 a.m. (after which the kitchen shifted to all-breakfast).
The point is that McDonald鈥檚 already knows it can cook the San Diego all-day items alongside burgers, at least for a while. The all-day marriage is what鈥檚 in test.
The problem of making sausage and eggs at the same time in the same space as burgers and chicken has kept McDonald鈥檚 from extending breakfast hours before. It was two years ago that Atlanta operator聽聽told BurgerBusiness.com, 鈥淲e only have so much toaster space and so much grill space. Unlike a lot of breakfast QSRs, we still cook our product on a grill. Many of the pretenders are doing a ton of prep in microwaves. For instance, go into a Dunkin鈥� Donuts or a Starbucks, who are chasing breakfast, and you don鈥檛 find a grill or oven or fryer. We prefer to be a restaurant rather than processing everything through a microwave.鈥�
McDonald鈥檚 first attempt at expanding breakfast in 2012, called聽聽tested a limited breakfast menu (similar to the San Diego test) from midnight to 5 a.m. Later that became the 鈥淢cDonald鈥檚 After Midnight鈥� test.
Members of the San Diego market鈥檚 My McCaf茅 Club loyalty group are being invited to a special preview of the all-day breakfast menu tomorrow (April 18). One attendee will win breakfast sandwiches for a year.
