McDonald’s McMasala Breakfast Menu Options Meet ‘Meh’ Response in India

McDonald’s India has added two new breakfast burgers, the “Masala Dosa Brioche” and “Masala Scrambled Eggs” burgers, to its product line-up to woo local customers amid rising competition from Domino’s and Burger King.

The two new products will be served alongside more familiar fare such as vegetarian and non-vegetarian burgers, waffles, hotcakes and hash browns.
The Masala Dosa Brioche burger features a grilled vegetable patty topped with molaga podi chili sauce, a flavor popular in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The other burger features spiced scrambled eggs on a bun.

The expanded menu has been rolled out across 44 restaurants, starting with Mumbai on January 13. Items on the McBreakfast menu cost between 30 rupees ($0.50) for a hash brown and 213 rupees ($3) for a meal.

These items will also be served through McDelivery and takeaway kiosks. The menu will gradually be introduced across India.

“Breakfast convenience on the go will increase as more people enter the segment. As a western quick service restaurant, we are going to grow the Indian breakfast market dramatically,” Amit Jatia, vice-chairman of Westlife Development, which runs over 240 McDonald’s restaurants throughout western and southern India, told the media.

McDonald’s first launched its breakfast menu in India back in 2010. Six years later, the fast-food chain is anticipating a good response from its fans. However, initial reactions to the “Masala Dosa Burger” were lukewarm on Twitter, as well as outside its restaurants in Delhi’s Connaught Place where the product has yet to be launched.

​A regular McDonald customer told Sputnik, “If I have to east Masala Dosa, why would I come to McDonald’s. I will go to one of those south Indian cuisine restaurants.” Yet another said, “it is worth trying but it is not exactly a masala dosa, which is served with coconut chutney and sambar (a curry).”