Tell McDonald’s what’s important to you when eating out with your family - £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED!

[EmmaMumsnet]

Whilst eating out with the family can provide a much-needed treat and opportunity to reconnect, it can also entail much compromise in order to ensure that all members are satisfied with the outing. McDonald’s UK is keen to find out what is running through your mind when it comes to making that often tricky dining decision whilst keeping smiles on everyone’s faces.

Here what McDonald’s has to say: “We’re looking at new options for our Happy Meal and invited Mumsnet behind the scenes as we started the food development journey! Our restaurants have changed, options like kiosk ordering and table service make it easier for families to enjoy our food but we want to know what you look for when eating out as a family.”

Whether you are celebrating a special occasion, visiting your favourite family restaurant or simply popping into a local take away, we want to know on what basis you make such decisions. Is it the provision of colouring sheets for the kids, or haute cuisine for the more mature members of the family? Maybe you find it difficult to identify a restaurant with menus capable of pleasing all parties and resort to visiting several locations? Is making sure your children’s meals are well balanced or that the location is family friendly important to you?

Whatever your main considerations are when choosing somewhere to eat out with your family, please share them below and you will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Somewhere it is clear kids are welcome is always important to us, so no one can sit and tut if the baby is a bit noisy...it’s obviously a kids area so don’t be snotty if you are sat next to one! I’m not keen on technology at the table, meals out should be for interaction.

B

A lot of comments seem to be talking about healthy options which I understand is important, but when visiting a McDonalds you know what the food options are and I would feel a bit cruel expecting my kiddies to eat salad or vegetables when everyone around them is eating burgers and chicken nuggets.

Therefore we visit McDonalds around once a month for a treat.

When eating out, at McDonalds or anywhere for that matter, i am happy or the kiddies to have colouring/activity sheets but I'm not too fussed on tablets or TV's when eating out as it is a good time to have a family chat without distractions.

I also like a bit more space between tables as in some McDonald's it is often the case that you are so close to the next table there is not much privacy.

I think the introduction of tablets is wrong. They get dirty and disgusting are too high up meaning younger kids get upset and the kids are not really eating whilst playing.

I like somewhere that has a place for the kids to play. One of our out of town macdonalds has a play place and it always makes a nice treat on rainy lunchtime. They can play then eat and then play some more while i enjoy a coffee. This also means the happy meal is not so bad as they are burning it off. I do hate when salt is automatically added to chips tho at home we don't even salt our chips. Colouring activities are also good to have whilst waiting for food. Any restaurant that has anything to occupy the kids while they are waiting be it inside or out gets a big tick.

We travel a lot with a child with multiple allergies. Often the fries and the meat from a McDonald's burger were all we could find for him to eat when we were out ... and it was a godsend to see the arches! Would be great to have other kid friendly allergy friendly hot food too ...

Clean high chairs.
Veggie nibbles. (Red pepper slices or cucumber) with dips.
A play area.
Sofa seats so kids can get up and down..

Food that isn’t highly processed; bread that is wholemeal; fresh fruit and veg which hasn’t been washed in chlorine and stuck in a plastic bag; no plastic straws, bottles etc.; minimum waste and rubbish...

You did ask.

Cleanliness of the restaurant is my first priority. I find dirty tables/chairs/floors incredibly offputting, and I would walk out of a place straightaway if I didn't like the look of it.

After that, the range and quality of the food are key. Fresh ingredients, decent vegetarian options, healthier choices for those who want them. My dd hates kids' menus which assume that children will only eat beige food - she prefers smaller portions off the adult menu.

Ambience is important. I'll pay a bit more for pleasant decor.

Friendly service is likely to bring me back again and again. Crap service will guarantee that I won't be coming back.

We enjoy eating in McDs as an occasional treat - really enjoying the tastier burger range you've started to offer. I'd love it if some of the limited edition range could be made into a child size meal (maybe with a slider rather than a full size burger) as my dc (aged 8-12) still don't need a full size meal but would like to try some of the different flavours which are on offer.

I'd also like a slightly tastier salad range - leaves and 2 cherry tomatoes is not the most appetising lunch!

Otherwise, your recent updates are great - I love that your restaurants provide a variety of seating options - as a family of 6 we often struggle to find space in other restaurants unless we've pre-booked. Toilets are clean and staff are almost always really friendly and helpful.

Go back to the old ordering system. All the McD's near us have the same system as Argos so you have to stand around waiting sometimes up to 15 minutes fir your "fast" food. I've waited 10 minutes just for a latte!

We have the new style McDonald's restaurants near us and to be honest I preferred the old style. I really hate all this touch screen ordering and then sitting down with the kids and letting them play on the touch screen tablets attached to the tables because you know that these screens are touched by so many other hands all day as well as being sneezed on etc, so who knows what nasties are breeding there. We also preferred the little interactive play areas where children could dance and play games that were beamed onto the floor, at least it encouraged them to be active for a bit.

I would be more inclined to eat at McDonald's if there was a healthier option for adults that's not just salads, or perhaps a nicer variety of salad.

Tables big enough for all of you to sit at (not just tables for 2 or 4).

Helpful staff and clean environment.

NO TOYS in the Happy Meal - think of the waste of plastic! Link to a website if it's a promotion...

Make sure the carrot sticks don't run out and the apple and grapes aren't a bit off like they often are in the fruit bag...

Food that all 4 of us, including 2 autistic kids with different food restrictions, can happily eat.

With overly sweet bread, maccy D's currently hits the spot for none of us.

Better coffee - mcds coffee is shite

Definitely quick service. Totally essential. There are 5 of us, so it needs to be good value too.

Clean eating areas that you don't have to lift trays and wipe with napkins yourself. Enough high chairs for customers. Good changing facilities.

Quiet restaurants, as in no loud piped music, as we have one DC that is hypersensitive to loud noises.
Natural light if possible.
Quick service and plenty of seating.
Colouring in packs are good while waiting for food - but no screens! We have one DC who reacts very badly to having to stop playing on tablets / watching TV, so it’s a much pleasanter dining experience for everyone if screens are simply not an option in restaurants.
Menu options that we’re confident our DC will eat.
Clean restaurants.

Our DC like going to McDonalds, they like the food, the Happy Meal toy, and the restaurants tend to be child friendly.

A range of vegetarian options.

Clean high chairs and in good condition, and a family area would be good too
the thing that mainly puts me off a McDs for my dd is a side option, I have no issue giving her fishfingers but the chips are far too salty even if you ask that no salt is put on them. Something like sweet potatoes or butternut squash fries would be a better option and make sure there is no salt in them at all 👍🏻

Cleanliness.
Less plastic - cups that don't need straws (your cardboard cups easily bend in and spill without the lids on) - I don't want guilt over straws that take 200 years to disappear from the rubbish dump! Be more eco friendly.
Healthier kids/adult meals
More drink options that do not contain sugar or are not fizzy
Less plastic toys

A nice clean restaurant is important to me, the service station McDonalds I have visited in the past few years could improve on this.
I would think the salads could be better, bit dull. Also there is often no fruit available for happy meals...stock more please and more variety!

More vegetarian options would be welcome.

Clean place, including toilets. Good food with some variety. As I have 2 children with autism, their food issues means we need to have a fairly decent variety to choose from to find things they both like as well as having the option to have any foods "plain" without sauce and extras.

I'm not overwhelmingly bothered personally with fruit bags and healthy choices at McD's because we only go there as a treat, not an everyday option.

The kiosks are a welcome change to the McDonalds we were at recently. So much better than waiting ages to order, then waiting for the food.

I'm not going to McDonald's for a healthy snack. If we are eating there it's for a treat and therefore it's OK by me to have chips, nuggets whatever on offer.

My bugbear is that in this day and age, with so much needless packaging and endless bits of plastic floating around the oceans, why on earth are the toys McDonald's offers a) made of plastic and b) packaged in plastic.

I think McDonald's have made good strides toward using recyclable materials in their food packaging (although I'd love to see an end to the use of plastic straws) and I'm impressed they encourage recycling on site with the recycling station HOWEVER please look at the toys in the happy meals. It's such a waste of the earth's valuable resources. I'm sure you can come up with a better marketing ploy that doesn't involve shoving more plastic out into the world.