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The Manhattan fast-food joint where an Australian tourist was stabbed in a terrifying, unprovoked attack Monday is an infamous hangout for shady characters — earning it the nickname “Murder McDonald’s.”
The McDonald’s at 490 Eight Avenue, which is open 24/7, attracts a seedy clientele, including drug dealers, thugs and junkies from a nearby methadone clinic, after hours, they told The Post.
“It’s like a f—ing nightmare,” said one clinic patron named Toaster, 45, adding that he eats at the restaurant about once a week.
“It’s a murder McDonald’s. They do whatever they want here. It’s like a little slice of hell because you can get whatever you need here,” he said.
“You gotta watch out while you’re eating McDonald’s and you’re not even freaking from here.”
Nearby, a panhandler and admitted former drug pusher named Tony said anyone with common sense stays away from the eatery after midnight.
“Once it gets dark that’s when all the stuff comes out … that’s when the vampires come out, the bloodsuckers,” he said. “The bloodsuckers come out when it hits dark. When it’s light, they sleep, just like a vampire.
“It’s money hour,” Tony added. “Not a place to be hanging out here at that late night.”
At around 2 a.m. on Monday, a 19-year-old man from Australia was inside the McDonald’s eating when he was stabbed in the ribs and back by a wackjob wielding a knife, according to police and law-enforcement sources.
Words were exchanged between the victim and his attacker, but sources said the horrifying incident was largely unprovoked.
The victim, who was staying at a nearby hotel, according to sources, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
Cops later arrested Juan Mercedes, 25, and charged him with second-degree assault in the attack. Mercedes, of Florida, was awaiting arraignment later Monday.
The victim may have been unaware of the notorious, Penn Station-area restaurant’s sordid reputation, which was the subject of a 2015 New York Times article.
But the eatery remains a known hangout for troublemakers, according to the neighborhood regulars — and even a security guard stationed outside Monday.
“It is bad,” the guard said. “There’s a clinic across the street so the clinic people come in.”
But she said the violence usually takes place outside: “It’s more so the homeless people fighting the homeless people. It’s not really inside here.”
She said her co-worker, who was on-duty at the time of Monday morning’s stabbing, gave her a blow-by-blow account, including telling her “I almost got stabbed too.”
The attacker “was screaming and ran to [the victim] and stabbed him twice,” she said the fellow security guard told her.
“He was just talking gibberish.”
The fellow guard “said he asked why he would do that and he just stared at him. He waited outside for the cops. When the cops came, he dropped the knife.”
Major crimes have dipped by 11% in the NYPD Midtown South precinct, which patrols the area, with one exception being three murders so far this year compared to two over the same span in 2025.
By early afternoon Monday, the restaurant was packed with patrons and there were no signs of the violence that unfolded there hours earlier — but locals said it’ll change when darkness falls.
“Spotters” looking to sell drugs or robbing the unsuspecting are always around the eatery, which is near the corner of West 35th Street not far from Penn Station, they said.
“The drug people always be here,” said Khan Raze, who works at a nearby gift shop.
“They’re always selling and drinking,” he added. “Late night it’s dangerous, especially 34th Street. It’s always people sitting and the drug mafia.”
— Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
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