to think McDonald's have lost the main idea of "fast food"

[urwildquoter24]

It's not even fast anymore. It takes at least 15 minutes on a good day to get food, and on a bad day even longer. The drive-thru is even worse, I was in there last weekend and there were three cars in front of me and took half an hour to get my food and go.

I haven't even seen McDonald's do anything particularly creative recently. They're just bringing back old things and the food really doesn't look anything like in there adverts (which we established years ago)

And don't start about the new Happy Meal toys!!!

McDonald's is basically where fast food started, and now I think it's lost it a bit.

I think I’ve reached the age where I can’t sit in a MacDonalds anymore without seething at the youth enjoying themselves. And Deliveroo always, always mess up our order. We’ve pretty much given up bothering.

I’d rather spend the money on a Chinese takeaway these days. Much more food for the same price.

And MacDonalds isn't even conducive to home delivery! It arrives cold and sometimes with the order wrong/drinks spilt/loose fries, etc.

That was when they were batch cooked. Now they're all cooked as ordered, so they're not stacked up waiting on the dispenser shelves anymore. The change happened when they started allowing/encouraging customisation.

In theory, they should be dispensed in order and that means they should never hang around long enough to get cold.

Trouble starts when they make something by accident, i.e. make a big mac without pickles and put pickles on by accident, then it goes out to be served, and they have to make another without pickles. The one with pickles will sit there until someone orders it, and of course, a new one will be made for that order, so another will sit there, and so it goes on. Should be fine for a fast moving staple like a BigMac, but when it happens for something less popular, it could indeed be sat there a long time, and there's no time on it, so could languish and go cold.

If you stand at the counter and look at the "warm" tray ready to serve, there are often items in there that simply never move during the 5-10-15 minutes you're waiting, which have obviously been accidentally made, and will only get handed out when someone comes into order them.

The worst is if they make you park, and you grab it and drive off only to discover they have given you pancakes with NO maple syrup. Worse than useless, but you are back on the freeway. Feels like a total tragedy though.

Iv still not forgiven them for taking away the breakfast bagels 😭😭

You live in SE London, don't you.

The same at our local one.

It’s expensive. It’s ganky. The chips are limp.
Happy Meal book or cardboard toy? No!
Mr Men recently, were good, more like it please.
Everyone is on their phones, at a family meal out.

Agreed. I’ve been to McDonalds twice this year and both times it was a long wait for food. I certainly wouldn’t go there if I was in a rush. Very strange.

Because it's cooked to order now to reduce waste. I actually prefer it now you know it's not being kept warm for goodness knows how long.

My local McDonald's is really slow too. I usually have to queue up for a while and then they ask you to park up in a bay to wait for the food.

I only ever order a couple of things too so it's not like I'm making a massive order but it always takes at least 15+ minutes and to make matters worse it's usually cold too! I rarely go but when I do it's usually disappointing 😄

I took my kid for a quick Wagamamas (gross salt fest, but still) and despite there being next to no one in there, we waited ages and ages and ages. Because of the 20+ UberEats and Deliveroo drivers sitting on their phones in the waiting area.

My 18 year old Autistic Grandson works in one of ours p/t .. he's at Uni..They are great employers for ND .
He is rushed off his feet all the time.. and they stay behind to clean.. it's actually the deliveries ( take aways) that now take up the most time.. just eat and Mcdonald etc.
But we have 3 here in our city and we don't seem to wait that long.
Please be patient.. you never know what is going on behind the scenes with the servers.

The cost puts me off these days. It used to be a fast cheap meal. something you could get while you were shopping etc.
I also don't want a drink, but the pricing of meal vs sandwich only is also off putting.

They really are, I don't even bother buying a Happy Meal now for my son, total waste & just more plastic tat we don't need... whereas I still have Muppet Baby Happy Meal toys from the late 80s who were/are very treasured

Can't believe you would actually order McDonald's from deliveroo so many times that you get barred

Never understood who would want to deliveroo McDonald's. These days you have shit loads of actual good burger places to get burgers delivered from

This is true my DS works at MacDonald and they can't cook any quicker than they do , they can only cook to order and cook so many at a time for quality. Just eat and deliveroo take up a massive amount of time that they are cooking as well, so that customers coming in or at the drive thru have to wait longer .

I love a McDonald’s every now and then but would never order it for delivery. It must be cold? There’s no way the fries especially would last a journey.

I stopped going there because there’s no veggie option (not in the UK) and Burger King has about 3 different veggie burgers. It feels like they haven’t moved with the times at all. In the past there were no veggie options anywhere so I would get the DDs something and I’d just eat at home.

If you think McDonalds is slow, try Burger King at Skipton (Yorkshire). We called in and there were only around 3 people before us. We ordered on the screens. It was a "whopping" 40 minutes before our food was served! They were on a go slow, and seemingly only preparing one meal at a time. The "cook" didn't seem to know how to do two things at once. It wasn't as if it was busy, there were only a couple more people came in after us. None of the staff looked remotely interested in actually doing their jobs and were just randomly walking around behind the counter. Then when the burgers finally appeared in the serving area, the counter woman went to the fries and only then realised there weren't any, so she started cooking them, as the burgers were sat there going cold! No "joined up" thinking at all.

Although even worse at the Scotch Corner KFC. We only wanted two soft drinks, but the guy doing the drinks was doing it strictly by order number, so we had to wait behind everyone else who was waiting for food to be cooked. We asked him if he could do ours, as he was literally doing nothing, until each order had been cooked and then doing the drinks for them, but he looked at us as if we'd asked him to explain quantum physics - he just couldn't grasp that it was nonsensical for him to stand there doing nothing, when there were orders he could fulfil!

I go to McDs about once every 6 months.

It takes me about that long to forget how bad the previous experience was, and also be sucked into the idea that the juicy burger shown on the advert will be what I will get, rather than the saggy miserable offering that is actually served up.

To be fair the gourmet burgers from most fast food places are OK.

Also it used to be delicious in a disgusting, trashy way, but last few times I've been (different places) it has been really unmoreish: not enough salt or sugar, not enough gross UPFish sauce or oozing fake cheese. So it's like, if you aren't going to be an OTT junk overload then what's the point of yiu?

I remember going to a McDonald’s in central London that had extended its seating area massively to the whole of the upstairs. But the kitchen area was still the same size. The seating capacity did not match the staff numbers and kitchen size at all, we waited about 45 min

I can order online and get it delivered in 20minutes. 30mins at the drive through is outrageous, but probably the fault of people like me ordering online.

It varies by branch.

There is one branch I know where you can take a seat and they'll bring you your food quickly and with a smile. The toilets are relatively clean.

There is another branch I know where they always disable table service (if you order via the app, they just won't bring it or tell you), the big screen with the orders is always turned off, most of the touch screen order stations are always out of printer paper and the food will take you well over half an hour, even if it's a simple order. Don't even ask about the toilets - I feel traumatised just thinking about the one time I walked in and immediately walked out again wanting to vomit from the sight/smell.

Ordering via the app is a bad idea because when something is missing, you don't get a refund.

The best way to order is directly via UberEATS (i.e. not through McDonalds powered by UberEATS) or Just Eat, as you'll get account credit for your missing items that way. No McDonalds reward points, but at least you won't pay for food you don't get.

PS With the terrible branch, it's obvious when you walk in that all hope has gone to die. If you get that sense, walk out. Chances are, there's another fast food joint (maybe even another McDonalds!) nearby that's better.

Thanks for that, I want one now. 😂