A man jailed for the "gutless" act of spitting in the face of a McDonald's worker is out of custody after lodging an appeal against his sentence.

Hassan Abdul-Rahim was on Wednesday given a one-month sentence for spitting a large amount of phlegm into the 19-year-old woman's face while he was in a Mercedes-Benz in the drive-through lane of the Essendon fast-food outlet about 5pm on January 13.

Some of the saliva went into the woman's mouth and she later had medical tests, Broadmeadows Magistrates Court heard.

Abdul-Rahim spent 26 days in custody last month on unrelated offences and was hoping to avoid another jail term, but magistrate Meagan Keogh said she needed to denounce his conduct and was concerned about the impact on the victim. "Spitting is a particularly awful crime; it's pretty gutless in all respects," she said.