Two months ago, when the American fast-food chain McDonald's announced its withdrawal from Russia because of the Ukraine war after more than thirty years of success, the Siberian businessman Alexander Govor, who managed several McDonald's branches in the Asian part of the country, saw his chance and bought it nationwide network.
Govor, 62, who owns coal and oil processing plants in the Kuznetsk Basin, said he sees the way McDonald's trains its staff and works with suppliers as exemplary.
When he opened the now Russian chain with the hearty name "Schmeckt - und Finale" (Vkusno - i totschka) a month ago, he promised to maintain the quality.
The burgers produced under the direction of the fatherland would definitely not get any worse.
But that turns out to be difficult.
Recently, a customer at a Moscow branch found her burger bun covered in mold and posted the photo, triggering a flurry of sarcastic comments.
Blogger Alexander Gorbunov, aka Stalingulag, noted that it took less than three weeks after McDonald's left for burger quality to return to normal Russian levels.
Stalingulag suggested applying the Russian newspeak, according to which the Ukraine war may not be called such under threat of imprisonment, to the mold in "sovereign" rolls and rename it "bioactive eco-ingredient".
The satirist Vadim Dabuschski wrote on Facebook that in France you can find mold on every cheese, and Russian rolls need not be inferior.
Observers predict the chain's demise
Meanwhile, a customer from Tula reports that she was sold a meatless cheeseburger.
A customer named Yuri Golubinsky tweeted that he found insect legs in the melted cheese on his burger, which he supported with photos.
And the Moscow TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak showed burger sauces with an expired sell-by date on her Telegram channel.
The press service of "Schmeckt - undschluss" assures that all complaints will be checked, but at the same time defended itself with the argument that only very few of the sauces have expired.
Observers predict the further decline of the chain, because in Russian companies loyalty to the management is very important, but the customer and quality are written less and no action by the management or even compensation is to be expected.
A Twitter user summed up the result of Russian self-sufficiency in fast food restaurants with the motto “Eat up – and that's the end” that swept away all culinary objections.