What the hell happened to McDonald’s ?

It's actually a very sensible point.
You can buy an organic chicken for £12 and it will last for 3 days if you make meals from the carcass/ stock.

I was wondering why the quarter pounder was different!
I has a filet o fish the other week. It took ages but was piping hot and freshly cooked so I don't think its ordered much.
Also if you don't like the thought of kids having to pay for their uniform at McDs don't order delivery. Deliveroo, just eat etc are doing nothing to prevent illegal workers delivering for them on illegal bikes. They are basically part of the huge black economy, fuelled by people paying £££ to get their takeaways delivered.

I think the more expensive the better.
It's cheap, over processed food and you've got to ask what type of food you're getting for those previously ridiculously low prices.

Everything has gone up because employers are now paying higher NI and a higher basic minimum wage, regardless of the cost of the food itself.

I haven't been to McDonald's since they stopped doing the triple cheeseburger. That was the only menu item I liked. It was good value. I am assuming they weren't making enough profit from it which is why they pulled it from the menu.

What a bizarre comparison

It needs to be like Belgian McDs in the UK. Beer, Wacko Guaco burgers and mayonnaise with your fries.

Or maybe not as I'd probably then eat there more often.

@Yerroblemom1923 - I think that’s unlikely. A standard happy meal includes orange juice, apple juice, milk or water here. The only way they would have coke is if parent ordered one separately here.

I had a Cheesy McCrispy the other day which was pretty nice. The food is what it is, but they are competing with KFC etc who often do a better job of some things. We find the the local branch often miss things off the order and food is cold if delivered so they are less reliable than other takeaways they compete with on the delivery side.

McDonald's has always been awful! I think that's why people only go when drunk or hungover!
I hate the whole ideology of getting kids hooked on it with "happy meals" and then they've got customers for life. I hate seeing 3 or 4 year olds in there drinking coke etc. Don't think my daughter went to one until she was 5 and even then she doesn't drink fizzy drinks as had sideways been raised on milk and water.

I can't believe I am defending Macdonalds!

But you are not just paying for food, you are paying staff time, building costs, food safety, the cost of running a business and all the back office functions.

Hospitality has been hit really hard by the NI employers hikes. Not just the % increase, but the lowering of the threshold.

The ingredients are probably a small % of the overall cost of the burger, and you don't want to think about that too much.

A McDonalds is never a 'treat'

I do like a McDonald's breakfast and think they're good value. But I do not like the Egg on my McMuffin so delete it from my order. (Why doesn't the price come down? It goes up if you want an extra one.) Last time I got my sausage McMuffin the wrapping had clearly been opened and the egg taken off. What it I was allergic? I couldn't be bothered wading through the throng of Justeat drivers (& that's another bugbear - thank goodness for self ordering becuse it's impossible to get served at the counter if you've only got cash) to return it and get a fresh one.

This is local mac Donald’s

This is what our Mac Donald’s it’s like

Hard disagree, the gravy chicken meal off the saver section at 2 x pieces of chicken 2 x wings chips and gravy for £5.99 is a decent price.

The reason they don't have these anymore is mostly to do with issues around the way mcdonald's/ fast food is marketed to kids.

Also hygiene concerns around ball pits etc - it's difficult to keep a kids play area clean and sanitary in a restaurant. 3-day old fries and ketchup everywhere, pretty gross really (and worse - there were reports of vomit/ dirty nappies/ drug needles etc being found).

I think it’s pretty good value and it’s more expensive where we live.

We have the Mc cafes inside which serve everything in glasses, and sell slices of cakes and pastries. A hot chocolate is about €4.50 so similar to local cafe, but far nicer than other chains like Starbucks. It’s €5.99 for kids happy meal but that includes an innocent orange juice than would cost me €3+ alone in supermarket and a kids fruit purée is €1.80 alone. So €5.99 for that plus kids nuggets, fries, mini cucumber and a books is pennies.
I think it’s €10-14 for an adult meal deal. Which I don’t think you could get a full meal and drink for anywhere else

Plus we still have a full indoor and outdoor play area which is clean and safe. Toilets with baby change, and a parents feeding room. So in winter Its an ideal place to stop for coffee or grab happy meal as Ds basically plays for free for an hour.
They still have free newspapers, and decent WiFi, and our closest now has a massive 30 car electric charging area, and it’s a 2 min detour off motorway so it’s full of people stopping to charge. It’s at end of nearest town where all the big stores are like diy/ homeward/ garden/ car/ supermarkets and very few other cafes so they really have the monopoly.

I remember during covid when everything was shut and collection only, I was sitting outside feeding Ds who was a small baby ( hadn’t ordered), as it was the only place with a bench. It was start of winter and freezing. I was wasting time whilst car in for MOT nearby. Someone inside came out and told me I could go inside, no need to order and sit in warm to feed Ds, and use baby changing etc as long as I needed. Bought me a glass of water over. Whole restaurant was empty inside apart from staff.

I don’t find the quality to be any different to how it has ever been. We don’t go that often because we just don’t need to eat that volume of junk food but we’ve never had a bad experience in a McDonald’s. It’s still cheaper than most places despite prices having risen. Took the kids to nandos a couple of weeks ago and it was £50.50 for the 3 of us! In McDonald’s we could eat for less than £20 which would include a McFlurry for each of the kids.

One of our local ones (Luton) does still have a play area, I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it a few years back!

Probably anywhere in the South East/ London. It's not unusual.

the ‘salad’ is just the same stuff they put in the burgers. They definitely need to work on that.

I’ve actually started going to McDonald’s again after a break for years. I only tend to get the wrap of the week (2.29) or chicken salad £4 ish including a coffee. The burger meals all seem really expensive. All the food is cooked to order though at my local one.

Unfortunately these play areas- especially the tunnel ones kids could climb inside- attracted the wrong type of men like flies to shit. It would be unfathomably worse now.

Ultra processed shit…but I do love a mcplant lol

I thought they had reacted to the drop in sales by offering more deals. There is a massive poster outside my local one with loads of £5 meal deals.
I think it is suffering from being mainly a Uber Eats place now.
My three love a McDonald’s. They wanted a breakfast the other day before we set off on a long drive. It’s a 10 minute walk so I was going to pop in but when I went on the app they had loads of deals for delivery only so I got Uber Eats.
They got the order wrong. One item missing and one wrong. Didn’t apply the deal. So I paid more for some bloke to drive it to me and then there was literally no way to rectify the order. Literally.
You can give ‘feedback’ but if you want a refund or replacement you have to go to the store and sort with the manager. Sod that.
Told the children I am never ordering from there again!

I think it's still cheap compared to other eating out options.

We paid nearly £20 for two paninis and 2 drinks the other day at a small cafe that does takeaway. At McDonald's they do a £5 meal deal which is a drink, fries, cheeseburger & 4 chicken mcnuggets.

I've no idea why it's so popular on delivery apps though, I don't think it travels very well.