The Exact Time McDonald's Switches From Breakfast To Lunch
McDonald's breakfast menu has had millions of people looking forward to an Egg McMuffin or a crispy hash brown for decades. Sadly, for most of the chain's history, its breakfast hours have been limited. This means a lot of us have experienced the sadness of pulling up to the menu board only to find that breakfast hours are over. If you're a lunch lover, it's the opposite. Show up 10 minutes too early and that Big Mac won't be available.
The exact time your local McDonald's makes the jump from breakfast to lunch is impossible for us to say. McDonald's leaves decisions about service time and hours of operation up to its franchisees, which means there's some variance from restaurant to restaurant.
Most locations make the switch from breakfast to lunch at 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. Frequently, McDonald's fans enjoy both the breakfast and lunch menus, but it can be annoying if you're craving a burger or McNuggets in the morning and have to wait. Sadly, it doesn't seem likely that McDonald's will start serving lunch items during breakfast hours (or vice-versa) anytime soon.
Burgers didn't always share the menu with breakfast
McDonald's didn't always serve breakfast. It wasn't until 1970, when McDonald's franchise owner Jim Delligatti got the okay from then-McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc to sell donuts the morning, that the breakfast menu began.
Even after a full breakfast menu was introduced, it was only available during limited morning hours. This changed from 2015 to 2020, when McDonald's provided customers with an all-day menu that included several breakfast items. However, menu options were reevaluated in 2020 to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on both crew and customers. Separating breakfast and lunch service allowed the chain to streamline its operations, improving service for customers and making things easier for its kitchen employees.
It seems like it would be easier to serve breakfast and lunch all day so people can eat whatever they crave. According to McDonald's, it isn't that simple. The restaurant has mentioned that the Universal Holding Cabinet that's used to keep food warm throughout the day doesn't have enough room for both breakfast and lunch products. The option to serve all food items throughout the day is up to the franchisee though. This means that someone somewhere may be able to order a morning Big Mac or dinner McMuffin.