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

Clean setting, clean toilets, toilets that are big enough that you can bring a child into them and close the door without it hitting you. Hooks on the inside of the toilet door that are big enough for the huge bag you will inevitably have. Noise absorbing panels. I don't want to leave with plastic junk nor be pestered about it so no toy, colouring onsite is good to have, tap water, I actively avoid places that hand out a lollipop with the bill, chips with no salt on them. Vegetarian food that's not flabby from being sat for ages under the lights.

I would say suitable food for my three year old daughter and disabled access is most important to us! Including seats in this area that move and enable disabled people to sit down comfortably. Happy, child friendly staff also helps! McDonald's fits the bill for all of these requirements and my daughter loves going to "Chippy-Donalds" as she calls it! The new table service is also fantastic!

Knowing that the food is cooked in a healthy way. Also, providing water

Clean and safe high chair is a must. Too many allow the child to slip down or through them. Clean toilets and baby changing facilities.
Options for children that are healthy but also look tasty.

Shireslass I agree about the high chairs. The new ones have wheels which is shit because my little one likes to push herself as far back as posisble, which is both risky and annoying. They are also always dirty. She has a suppressed immune system. She can’t eat but her sister loses out because I don’t like putting her in the high chair. In fact, anywhere with high chairs, they always seem dirty.

Space to get a pram round the tables!
So many places have the tables crammed in, then when you add in people actually sat at the tables, leave little to no room to get past. I don't want to have to disturb people eating to get past, as much as I don't want others disturbing me as they try to get by.

Prefer no kids menu and rather restaurants that offer anything off the main menu in a kids sized portion. Mine have surprised themselves with what they've enjoyed when there's been no chicken nuggets on offer!

Cleanliness is important, particularly high chairs and baby change. But most of all, quality of the food.

Comfy seating and surroundings, friendly staff, good food, not overpriced and just a nice ambience. I'm veggie, so a good vegetarian selection is important when we are choosing somewhere to eat.

It's amazing how many places still only have one or two vegetarian options, and if you don't happen to like those particular dishes then you are out of luck.

Understand they can't have loads of vegetarian dishes but if you are a meat or a fish eater and you don't like spicy food you can choose something else. But if the only vegetarian option is a spicy dish, then there aren't any other options. Quite often I've had to concoct a meal from a veggie starter with a couple of sides - which is a bit of a letdown.

Clean toilets are also important - amazing how many nice places to eat there are, lovely surroundings ... and then you go to the loo and they are dingy and mucky!

Today we were in a rush so the prompt service and ease of McDonald's was perfect. If we have more time I prefer a more relaxed, ambient atmosphere where we can chat and relax with plenty of space to sit and eat. Balanced, healthy choices are very important to us and McDonalds doesn't really fit that specification, but it's fine as an occasional treat.

The cost of eating out as a family can be so prohibitive these days therefore price is the main thing for us. Kids meals just aren't big enough for my 13 year old so we're buying 3 x adult meals when we go out which gets really expensive. We don't eat out much as a result which is a shame.

Am also looking for a good choice of vegetarian food so have to say McDs is not my restaurant of choice!

Finally, all restaurants should have changing facilities suitable for disabled people and children. I know a lot of parents battling with this and having to change their disabled child on dirty toilet floors.

A better veggie option. The one veggie burger/wrap is awful and hasn't changed in years. I'm the only veggie but McDs misses out on our table of 5 because I won't go. I just want a meat-free quorny Big Mac .

Also, if we are coming to McDs then we accept it'll be a treat meal. Naff off with your melon bags.

My DCs are teenagers now, but when they were younger it was very important to find somewhere where they would feel welcome, where I wouldn't be fretting if we made a mess, and where the menu offered a decent selection of children's portions that they'd actually enjoy tucking into. Colouring books and pencils helped too.

We look for a clean, bright, not too packed fun place to eat. When I take my kids out I want them to enjoy every minute, and at McDonalds the kids always enjoy their food, the staff are lovely and its always very clean!
I wasn't too keen on the new system in place in the Aylesbury Mcdonalds at first but now, I can see its much easier to order and be served.
The only thing I have a problem with is the size of the toilets!!! Honestly, you cannot fit more than two people in the whole toilet facility, and if you are in a cubicle and someone is waiting outside the door, you actually can't get out unless they leave! So, if you are washing your hands, and someone else comes out of the second cubicle, there is no room for anyone, so then doors get opened onto my children unless I carry them!
Putting it simply, the McDonalds loo's in Aylesbury are teeny, and they really need to be made for mums with kids, because the baby changing is always either out of order or only available for babies, and not older children. x

Good food, good company and somewhere with an atmosphere.

Real healthy food will make it my choice of place. Knowing the vegetables are fresh and plenty makes me happy!
Ok to have meat but again, knowing it is local, fresh, no preservatives, organic and min processed but that's not the McD business model so not sure if that help?

We go to Mxdonalds because it's cheap and easy. We'd go more often if there were more healthy options.

We eat out elsewhere for different reasons. McDonald's is Friday night, we're knackered. Sunday lunch with family is local Castro pub.

Fast service so we’re not entertaining children for ages at the table, healthy options for children.

The most family friendly places bring cutlery specifically for young children so they’re not struggling to eat with a full size knife and fork, a smaller cup so that they can manage it and one place we enjoy brings a bowl of vegetable crudités for the table before the meal arrives, which is helpful. Not bringing food out to children straight from the microwave so that it’s hotter than the sun - and providing a cold plate, not a burning hot one that has to be held with a napkin! A clean table and chairs rates highly with us as well for feeling comfortable (surprising how so many places are a little bit sticky!). Good, clean toilet facilities. Crayons and some kind of paper activity is really helpful too.

What I really want is for the food to be fresh, the order correct and the service friendly. Some McDonalds manage this fine but for some it seems beyond their capabilities.

I do like going places with crayons, anything to provide a moments distraction but also it signals that children are welcome. I like it if there are specific children’s drink options like fruit juice cartons not just fruit shoots. Really don’t like having to manage my toddler with a glass of something and a straw, because there is nothing particularly for children. Also like it when there are children’s portion sizes of adult meals not a completely separate menu.

Vegetarian choice. And I mean CHOICE - not just one vegetarian option which is always mushroom risotto or some boring veggie pasta that you could make yourself in 20 minutes

Healthy fresh food for children (not pizza and chips)
Clean toilets
Something to occupy them - stickers/colouring/book/cards
Serve kids drinks in a small cup not huge glass
Ability to order small adult portion for kids instead

Cleanliness, I can't stand to see food scattered about. Usually if there's food on the floor or tables piled high with rubbish/ dirty plates it's a good indication of what the eating experience is going to be.
I also don't like going to restaurants that have crammed in too many diners. I want space to move about and not feel that I'm sitting with the people at the next table.

A half decent gluten free option, healthy choices for adults as well as kids and something to amuse the children while waiting for food.

We were in mcd's recently for breakfast and loved the idea of the iPads but none worked.

The toilets were also pretty awful - tiny, cramped and dirty. Clean loos are a must. Though not as bad as our local burger king where there's a lovely mens loo and a women's / disabled / baby change which you have to ask for the key. Staff didn't quite get that I don't consider being a woman a disability and as a grown up shouldn't need to ask to go to the loo!