McDonald's — Restaurant in Melbourne

There are some people in life who just get it — who bring warmth to the cold corporate machine, who turn routine customer service into something memorable. At the Southland Eastlink McDonald’s, that person was Kieran. A sweet Asian lad with a smile you couldn’t fake, a work ethic you couldn’t teach, and a vibe that could lift the grumpiest customer out of a drive-thru daze.

And now? He’s gone. Let go. Just like that.

I don’t know what the reason was—roster cuts, "performance metrics", maybe someone up the chain just didn’t understand what they had—but let me be clear: letting go of Kieran wasn’t just a bad business move. It was an emotional crime against the heart and soul of that restaurant.

Kieran didn’t just take orders. He remembered names. He noticed when you looked tired. He’d say, “Rough day?” and hand you an extra serviette like it was a gesture of compassion, not policy. He made a $5 cheeseburger meal feel like a five-star moment.

There’s something so genuine about him. He didn’t act nice because he had to—he was just built that way. He had this soft-spoken charm, this humble way of checking the screen twice to make sure your order was right, of saying “thank you” like he meant it every time. When Kieran handed you a tray, he handed it over like it mattered.

I remember one time my order came out wrong—burger had pickles, and I’m anti-pickle to my core. Kieran didn’t argue. He didn’t sigh or shift blame. He said, “I’ll fix that for you right away,” and ran to the back like he was on a mission from the McHeavens. Came back two minutes later, burger remade, fries fresh. “I chucked in a sweet ‘n sour for you too, just in case,” he added with a grin.

That’s just who he was.

Now, I go in and it’s not the same. The place feels colder. The staff look tired. The energy’s different. No warm welcome. No soft voice asking, “Hey, how’s your day been?” Just beeps and bored eyes.

It’s crazy how much one person can change a place. But Kieran was that place. He brought life to it. And now that he’s gone, Southland Eastlink McDonald’s is just another stop on the highway—nothing special, nothing sacred.

To whoever made that decision: you didn’t lose just a worker. You lost the best part of your store.

Bring back Kieran.

For the vibe. For the people. For the fries that taste better when handed over...

I think next time I would rather starve than eat Mc Donald's food. We stopped at Eastlunk after driving for roughly 6 hours straight. Rather hungry as we hadn't eaten all day. The only place that was open was Mc Donald's. Nothing on the menu really appealed to us so we just ordered, 2 large fries, 1 coffee, 1 hot chocolate and 2 jam donuts and asked the guy to heat them for us. My friend said "I hope we get fresh fries and not those stale ones (as it was late) that have been sitting in the warmer to long". Nope they went to the person before us. Yea! We get fresh ones. I watched them put the fries in the warmer, then the young girl put salt on them. Now I had requested a couple of small pkts of salt as normally they don't put enough salt on the chips for my liking. I really, really like salt. So the young girl had a small dish of salt that she started pouring over the chips in a shaking motion. But she didn't stop and just kept shaking the salt over the chips then dumped the last bit in the warmer and mixed the few chips in with the salt. I thought to myself wow that's a lot of salt. Anyway we got our fries, donuts and drink an off we went as we were still 1 1/2 hour from home. OMG! The chips were so salty that I could not eat them they also had a funky taste. So in the bin they went. At least I had the donut! It was cold, dry and so leathery that it literally could not be chewed. In the bin that went as well. The coffee was OK. I don't understand the poor quality of the food. Thank goodness we didn't order Hamburg's! They probably would of made me vomit. I don't understand how the quality of the food can be so poor. Is there not some sort of standard? I use to love Mc Donald's now I would rather go without. I know it's fast food but you should be able to eat the food you pay for. KFC is another fast food outlet that has dropped the quality...

We got there and ordered at 8.05pm. Ordered two happy meals (one a cheeseburger and the other nuggets), a big mac meal and a mcspicy meal. Waited over 15 minutes for our dinner.

Every table in the dining area was filthy, there was rubbish all over dining floor, every single bin was overflowing with rubbish, there were drink spillages on some of tables that no one in the entire time we were there that nobody bothered to clean up.

The chips were cold. My nieces did not want their chips taken back but I took mine and my father's back to the counter. The manager rolled her eyes when I asked for fresh chips. My father has had kidney transplant it is vital that food is served at the correct temperature. The niece with the cheeseburger could not eat it all because of how cold it was and my father's burger was also barely warm.

Afterwards my father went up to speak to the manager about the food temperatures, the dirtiness of not only the dining room but the kitchen area as well. The manager he spoke to complained about a lack of staff, claimed she checked the temperatures of the food (which she did not) and then told my father to not bother coming back to the store.

By the time we had finished eating the dining room had being quiet for a good 20 minutes. During that time not one crew member even came out to change the extremely overflowing bins ( rubbish was on the floor because you could not fit anything in the bins) or to clear the tables.

Either my father or I will be contacting the health department tomorrow morning to lodge a...