Its not really about the taste - its about the speed and convenience. If you want good food, you make your own. If you just finished a shift in a back-breaking job, and hate cooking, then its a chance to relax and free up some time.
Relative to cooking a similar meal, absolutely. Getting McDonalds takes like 5 mins and almost no effort. Less if ordering for delivery or pickup. If I want to cook myself a burger its probably going to take me like 40 minutes to makes and fry the burger, and prepare toppings. Im sure a good chef could do it much faster, but thats not me, and esspecially not after a full work day.
Edit: Plus, less directly measurable and comparable, but the time and work for planning, shopping, and dishes afterwards.
I gotta say, I fucking hate doing dishes. I'm not sure what it is about it, but I just have this almost irrational dislike for washing dishes (especially pots+ pans). Sure, I'll do it when it needs to be done, but my God do I dread it. Is there something wrong with me? Oh absolutely, but there's plenty else to fix before the dishes issue lol
I'm not sure, but I know what you mean. I dread doing dishes, but my wife dreads putting dishes away. So before we had a dish washer, she would wash and I would dry/put away.
I left it out because its something that can (theoretically) be left for a more convenient time such as a weekend, so its a less one-to-one comparison. That said, thats still additional work compared to buying food.
My point being that it is never 5 minutes anymore and it costs the same as any fast casual joint which can also be had. maybe no drive through and maybe thats the selling point for mcds but drive through aint fast either, just dont have to get out of the car.
If I have to wait five whole minutes for fast food they're either slammed or they're having equipment problems. I can literally count on one hand the amount of times it's happened in the last few years.
Tbf, though, I don't eat fast food incredibly often. Maybe once a month.