We Went To A Real Life McDowell's From "Coming To America" And It Was Sexual Chocolate

"They got the golden 'arches', Mine is the golden arcs."

For those yet to fall in love with it, Coming To America is an iconic piece of 1988 comedy gold, starring Eddie Murphy as a discontent prince with a taste for adventure.

Paramount

It's like a Cinderella story where the prince bucks the monarchy and the patriarchy in a single broom-stick fight and goes to work at a fast food joint. Also, shout out to Arsenio Hall who is awesome in this movie.

Hi! We are Ryann, Morgan, and Zach, and we love Coming To America.

Instagram: @the818

Actually, let's be honest, Morgan and Zach love Coming to America, and Ryann is watching it right now because we near razzed him to death over it. He sees the error of his ways. But like, it wouldn't be a trip to pretend Queens neighborhood staple McDowell's (that's golden ARCs, not arches) if SOMEONE wasn't TOTALLY OBLIVIOUS TO THE LOCAL CULTURE, RYANN, SERIOUSLY.

WTF is McDowells, you might ask? It's the suspiciously-similar-to-another-fast-food-joint-that-starts-with-Mc restaurant that Eddie Murphy's Prince Akeem gets a job at once he, y'know...comes to America.

Zach Dresler

Needless to say he excels.

So when we found out that Fat Sal's Deli was hosting a pop-up of an IRL McDowell's, well...we hightailed it over.

Paramount.

Sure, sure. We weren't actually in Queens, we were in West Hollywood (which is basically the exact opposite) but the pop-up McDowell's felt very authentic.

Morgan Shanahan

Hi, do you serve juices and berries?

Ryann Graham

McDowell's was (obviously) standing room only, so we took our McD's back to the office to do the honors.

Ryann Graham

Really wanted to steal that hat, tho.

Morgan Shanahan

First up, THE BIG MICK. There it is, baby. Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions, and YEP: a non-sesame seed bun. Nice.

Morgan Shanahan

The bummer? While we were imagining round Big Micks, ours were on submarine rolls. Still, not mad.

Morgan Shanahan

Let's dig in!

Kelly Diamond

Morgan: Mmmmkay. Mmmmkay. There are two all beef patties here. There are no sesame seeds on the bun, which was VERY important to me in terms of authenticity. Fat Sal's, the restaurant playing host to McDowells, put fries in their version, but I wasn't mad. My digestive tract was mad at the onions, though, which it promised to make me pay for later.

Rating: 3/5 (points deducted for bread shape.)

Ryann: The Big Mick was amazing! I love the addition of the fries, which apparently isn't in the movie??? Probably should be. I feel like my soul was glowing after eating it! #poser

Rating: 4/5

Zach: I think the Big Mick was fantastic, and really tasty, but would have loved to see it on a regular hamburger bun (WITHOUT THE SEEDS LIKE IN THE MOVIE) rather than on a hero/hoagie bread. Still amazing, but make it like it was in the movie! Two all beef patties, pickles, cheese, lettuce, special sauce on a seedless bun!

Rating: 4/5

Next up? Zmunda fries.

Morgan Shanahan

This is not a recipe anyone describes in the movie, so we were excited to see what they came up with. The answer: Red peppers, chicken, and three kinds of cheese over fries.

HOLY CRAP THEY WERE SPICY.

Kelly Diamond

Morgan: Holy crap these were spicy. But also there is no such thing as cheese fries that aren't delicious. We had two orders of them and honestly it wasn't enough. The third cheese made it -- it was like a queso sauce, but Zmundan? After 30 years of Lisa and Akeem running McDowell's, I'm pretty sure this would be on their menu.

Rating: 5/5

Ryann: This was by far my favorite item out of the bunch! It was spicy for sure, but it had the perfect blend of cheese, spice and flavor. The only complaint I have is that I had to share it. This might be food for peasants...but I'm all about this peasant life!

Rating: 5/5

Zach: The Zmunda fries are my favorite item they had. I wasn't too keen on it when I saw they had sliced red peppers, but they actually gave a nice flavor to it. And the spicy chicken and sautéed onions that were put on top were amazing.

Rating: 5/5

And the cherry on top of this amazing meal? THE SEXUAL CHOCOLATE SHAKE.

Paramount

Guys, there was an entire piece of chocolate cake in this milkshake, with an actual cherry on top.

Zach Dresler

Also, it's impossible not to act like maniacs and scream sexual chocolate at each other when trying this. Even if you're Ryann and you've never seen the movie.

Along with the slice of four layer cake, the sexual chocolate shake had wrapped Hershey's kisses in it, and chocolate frosting around the rim, covered in sprinkles. No, I'm not going to make the rim job joke. I'm not.

Morgan Shanahan

Morgan: I didn't think something could have more chocolate than I could handle, but this was it. This was more sexual chocolate than I could handle. And did I detect a hint of juices and berries in there? I think I did, because it basically tasted like someone blended up those weird holiday chocolate dipped cherry candy things. The frosting was out of this damn world though.

Rating: The sexual chocolate shake cannot be defined by fractions.

Ryann: This was....alot. A whole lot. I'll say the dark chocolate cake put me in the mood, but the sexual chocolate explosion of flavor that followed in the shake was not for me. I'm sure someone out there can handle all of that, but the "juices and berries" are a no from me. But I'll have another slice of cake!!!

Rating: 2/5

Zach: Aesthetically, this shake looks amazing. I love chocolate and to see this chocolate overload especially with the massive slice of chocolate cake made me drool just holding it. I wanted to dive right into that first. However, this was surprisingly the most disappointing item. It didn't taste like a milkshake. It tasted more like pudding. However, the name was brilliant.

Rating: 2.5/5

And that was it. Like a dream, it was over. If a McDowell's ever pops-up in your neighborhood, get the Zmunda fries.

Paramount