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

Friendly restaurants with healthy meals that are cut down version of adult meals rather than the usual chicken nuggets and chips

A restaurant that looks clean and tidy, and that is very child-friendly. My DDs also like it when they get their own menus, and colouring bits to keep them occupied while they're waiting for their food.

We choose restaurants that serve amazing food, have a relaxed atmosphere. Especially like places who make dogs welcome.

Someone available to carry the food over to a table as I can't manage it on my own with two toddlers.

Suitable cup for the toddlers to drink milk or water from their happy meals. E.g. Little lidded cup with straw. They can't drink from an open bottle yet and I don't want to give fruit shoots or fizzy drinks.

No grapes in the fruit bags unless they are cut in half as I cut these for
Toddlers.

Clean high chairs (no food wedged down the side), room for prams and buggies for those who are too young for high chairs, clean changing facilities. My lb is too young yet but I hope happy meal toys are still around when he's a bit bigger, used to get so excited collecting everything!

Price is a big factor to me. We will try and eat out mid week when it tends to be cheaper or they have special menus. Would have to be a very special occasion to eat out, full price on a Sat night!

Clean restaurant with vegan options.

There has to be healthy food options and has to a clean enviroment.

Choice and quality! We eat healthily at home, so I don't mind everyone having a bit of a treat on the occasion that we do eat out - nutritional aspects aren't something I look at on these occasions.

Fruit bags that don't have the chemical taste to it(some kind of preservative?), big enough changing room for pushchair too.

Clean tables, enough room between tables to be ourselves without people listening to us too much. Quick, simple food that the children will enjoy. Also the cost would need to be quite low as we are a family of 5 and eating out gets expensive. The main priority for us is treating the children and making sure their experiences are as lovely as they possibly can be with lots of happy memories x

Clean tables, highchairs and clean bathrooms are essential to us. We have walked out of many restaurants because they were dirty.

We really enjoy eating out as a family, but to make it fun for everyone..

• It has to be clean & tidy, with adequate space between tables - no one wants someone elses elbows in their dinner.
• Service has to be within a reasonable time - no one likes waiting, kids least of all!
• Colouring pack/activity sheets/stickers to keep the kids entertained. My son does love the tablets in McDonald's - I like it as I can sit with him & watch him playing so it's less of a solo activity as it can be at home.

Our local McDonald's has just had a refurb & it looks great!
I do like it as a treat & think all things are ok in moderation.

Everything being clean (it isn't always!), quick service, and some fun distractions like games or colouring-in.

As others have said, high chairs, room for the pram. Lots of tables! I understand places get busy but often the space seems to be utilised SO badly, huge tables with only three seats, or loads of high tables with stools that only adults can sit on. I like the food, lots of options, and table service and self service machines are a GOD SEND. Also I find the staff are alwaya very kind, helpful and accommodating which is rare. They always help me out which is great.

I like places where service is quick with lots of different dishes to suit the whole family

For us is very important that restaurant provides healthy and tasty meals. We are looking for a good variety of meals to choose from, menu which is suitable for everyone of us. I am enjoying going out to eat in places which provides great service and my children have happy experience too.
We like McDonalds Happy Meals and little toys to go with meal.
Going out for meals usually is a treat for us and children too. McDonalds is great place to have birthdays parties.

I rarely go to MacDonald or any fast food restaurant. Fast food and plastic is not the values i want to teach my kids. Plastic toys, plastic cups, plastic strews and very poor service . I like to go to places where there is a proper menu with healthy choices, veg, fish, baked potatoes in child portions with options for vegetarians . It must be clean clean high chairs clean tables clean loos, I don't like the trend of putting tvs and Netflix in family restaurants. I like places were children are welcomed not tolerated. I don't like staff that are miserable and robotic which MacDonald in my town always is. I also don't like how MacDonald is so buggy unfriendly the seating is so packed in everyone is sat on top of each other . Sorry but there would have to be a lot of changes for me to consider a MacDonald just not family friendly at all.

We tend not to eat out that often as we are vegetarian and find it difficult but I prefer a clean restaurant and nag my kids to use good manners when they are eating!

Hot food, unlike the stone cold Big Mac that we had the other day. If it hadn't been a drive through we'd have gone back to complain.

When my DC were little, it was important to me to go somewhere child friendly to eat, which meant:

Provision of clean highchairs
Child portions
Plastic kids plates & cups
Play area or outdoor space
Ideally the use of a microwave to heat milk or pulpy baby food.
Clean loos and changing facilities

Delicious food for the adults - and a space for the little ones to run around.

My DS has autism and I know for sure that other parents would go with their autistic children if the kids were allowed to run around and not have lots of bigger kids pushing them around.

Price and choice and something for the kids to do x

Child friendly, healthy menu options and decent veggie options are important to us.

Clear allergen information. I really appreciate how your app breaks down each dish so that I can customise burgers to remove allergens etc - the electronic order points also make this easier so I can feel confident that our family (with multiple allergens, not all of them the 14 EU ones) can eat safely.