McDonald’s restaurants in Australia test ‘gourmet breakfast’

Already testing all-day breakfast, McDonald’s Australia operation—which developed the Create Your Taste platform, McCafé and other ideas now in the U.S.—is testing an upscale “Gourmet Breakfast” menu in at least one market, BurgerBusiness.com has learned.

All-day breakfast, launched July 2 in the Illawarra region south of Sydney and since spread to the Gold Coast region on the east coast, is more limited than the U.S. trial. Just six items from the regular breakfast menu—Bacon & Egg McMuffin, Sausage & Egg McMuffin, Sausage McMuffin, Hash Brown, Hotcakes and English Muffin (with honey, Vegemite or strawberry jam)—are being offered 24 hours a day. The U.S. test, which launched in April, includes nine breakfast items.

Gourmet Breakfast, testing in Annerley, a Brisbane suburb in Queensland, is a completely new morning menu, anchored by a “Café Breakfast” platter of toasted sourdough bread, bacon, two chipolata sausage (a small pork sausage) links, scrambled eggs, wilted spinach, grilled tomatoes, a hash brown patty and tomato relish.

Also on the menu are Belgian waffles with yogurt and fruit; a corn fritter platter with avocado, grilled tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese, tomato relish and spinach; a Bacon and Egg Roll (bacon, egg, spinach and tomato relish on a toasted brioche-style bun); and an Avocado Smash platter with toasted sourdough, mashed avocado, crumbled feta, spinach and sliced tomato.

Point-of-purchase merchandising says diners can customize Gourmet Breakfast items “at the kiosk,” presumably the same kiosk used for building Create Your Taste burgers.

McDonald’s Australia has long been interested in elevating perception of the brand through higher-end menu items. This has included an “M Selections” menu, tested in 2011, that included an Angus the Great and Grand Chicken burgers plus a NYC Benedict Bagel at breakfast, plus the Chicken Schnitzel & Citrus Mayo, Chicken Schnitzel & BBQ rolls and Angus & Egg Brekkie breakfast burger last year. Last December, McDonald’s opened The Corner, a healthy-foods café, in Sydney. Recent additions the The Corner’s menu have been a Mash & Lamb Winter Protein Box and a Lemon Lime & Bitters beverage.