“We always went to the gym together next door and afterwards we would eat a hamburger here,” Stefan explains. “It’s a matter of maintaining a healthy balance,” Dieter agrees. Stefan Van Rompaey (31) and Dieter Lenaers (30) traveled through Belgium to eat in all 111 McDonald’s branches. To conclude, they both order a medium Big Mac Menu in their regular branch on the Bredabaan in Merksem. The two men visited an average of about twenty restaurants every day. “The record number of branches in one day was 26.”
Stefan and Dieter in front of their regular branch where they always came after their visit to the Basic Fit next door. — © Jan Van der Perre
They enjoy their last burger with great gusto. “It’s been two hours since we ate one, so I was actually looking forward to it,” Dieter laughs. They haven’t gotten tired of eating yet and they haven’t had to fight the stomach acid either. “I had a whole box Gavisconnekes but I didn’t need them,” says Stefan proudly.
No quality judgement
They cannot say which McDonald’s has the best burger and which has the best Chicken McNuggets. “Many branches are only a few minutes apart. Then we ordered chicken nuggets from one, a hamburger from another and our drinks from another,” Dieter explains. “It was actually only on one of the last days that we realized that we could also just order a sauce. That would have kept the budget a bit lower,” Stefan notes.
Dieter and Stefan did not always eat a Big Mac Menu, to save their wallet and diet a bit. — © Jan Van der Perre
They guessed that they spent a total of about 500 euros on the food. “Although McDonald’s was aware, they did not sponsor,” says Dieter. “Sometimes the managers recognized us and gave a little extra. In Bergen, for example, we gave our citizens to the homeless.”
To film
“I actually don’t think we’ve recovered,” laughs Stefan. “You will see in our videos that we have also accomplished quite a bit. Some restaurants were right in the center of a city. You can only park for free there for ten minutes, so it was a walk to film everything, order and get back to the car on time.”
Dieter and Stefan filmed and edited everything themselves and they underestimated that work a bit. — © Jan Van der Perre
They provided a lot of content for the videos of their McRoad trip on TikTok and Instagram. “After our first day we already had thirty minutes of footage. We underestimated filming and editing everything a bit.” Due to their busy schedule, it was not a 100% fun trip. “In the middle of the road trip I really felt stressed,” Dieter admits. “We often got up at 7 a.m. to edit, but visited restaurants until late in the evening.”
Challenges
To ensure they didn’t get bored, they also did some experiments. “The Chicken Nugget Challenge, for example, where we ate them in as many crazy ways as possible. We also dived in the North Sea with a fish burger. There is none food waste or pollution. We put the burger in a plastic bag and ate it afterwards. It was cold, just like the sea,” the men laugh in unison.
They look back on their road trip with satisfaction. “We really got to discover Belgium. There are beautiful places that I didn’t know and where I would really like to go back.”
Tags: Stefan Dieter visited McDonalds restaurants Belgium days Havent needed Gavisconnekes Merksem
){kind=link}