Yesterday a new restaurant experience was rolled out in McDonald's across Toronto. The transformation includes new selections of bakery items, table service, and self-order kiosks with Create Your Taste customized meal options.

These additions will create 10 to 15 new jobs per McDonald's (1500 total across the GTA) including the new role of Guest Experience Leaders, a position specially designed to help with the self-order kiosks, engage with guests, and elevate the McDonald's experience.

I visited the flagship McDonald's at Yonge and Gerrard, excited to try out the new transformation. As someone who often enjoys McDonald's offerings but rarely visits McDonald's sober, it was interesting to see it in sunlight with pristine floors and fully clothed customers.

Entirely dissimilar to my work ethic as a teen, the User Experience Leader was friendly, welcoming to Torontonians, and expertly helping customers with the self-order kiosks.

The kiosks are extremely straight-forward. Guests select their meat, bun or bun alternative, cheese, and toppings using a touch-screen menu. The variety of options, including five types of cheese, nine sauces, and 12 toppings, appear with large text and pictures of the items, ideal for customers who may have literacy or language barriers.

The entire order is constantly displayed on the side of the screen, and after paying, guests take a numbered GPS-enabled Table Tracker and key the number into the kiosk. When the order is ready, the staff member can see where the Table Tracker is and deliver the right meal.

The whole experience feels very high-tech and weirdly luxurious and exactly how I, as a child, imagined things would be when I grew up and my life was just like Rosie's in The Jetsons. (My sister insisted her adulthood would be like Jane's but even as a child I was realistic about what I could expect in this life.)

With guidance from the User Experience Leader, I ended up selecting a beef patty (I'm into the classic taste), sriracha mayo (I'm a spice-meets-savory fan), and a lettuce wrap (I'm celiac not basic). It was great - a delicious mashup of classic nostalgia and new, updated tastes.

Like Paris Hilton's transformation from rich famous joke to rich famous DJ, the journey of McDonald's from fast-food joint into modern, innovative restaurants seems unexpected but impressive. GTA residents can visit one of over 100 locations across the Greater Toronto Area to try out the new and improved offerings (sober, of course).

Photos by Hector Vasquez.