McDonald's California Gully — Restaurant in Victoria

Let me be clear. I love McDonald’s. I grew up on Happy Meals and McNuggets. I don’t expect five-star service when I go, but I do expect to survive the experience. Unfortunately, that wasn’t guaranteed the other night.

So it’s around 9:45 PM, I’m starving after a long day, and all I can think about is a Quarter Pounder with cheese. I decide to hit up my local McDonald's drive-thru. Bad idea number one.

I pull up to the speaker, place my order (Quarter Pounder, no pickles, Coke, medium fries), and I swear the person on the other end either didn’t hear me or just gave up trying to understand. I had to repeat it three times while someone in the background kept yelling “The shake machine is OFF” like they were fighting for their life.

I finally get through and pull forward. That’s when it all went sideways.

Out of nowhere, this massive bird, some kind of aggressive seagull or maybe a pigeon with gym membership, slams into my open window. It half-flies, half-falls into the passenger seat, flapping around and freaking out. I’m freaking out. Fries are flying. I’m yelling “GET OUT” like it’s a horror movie.

The car in front of me isn’t moving. I’m stuck in the drive-thru with a bird in my car, the smell of old fries in the air, and what feels like judgment radiating from the staff behind the window.

I finally pull up, trying to act normal even though I probably look like I just got mugged in a parking garage. The cashier doesn’t say a word about the bird, even though it’s literally perched on the backseat headrest. They hand me the bag like this is all just normal.

I drive to a spot to check the order, because obviously I don’t trust it at this point. And yep. There it is. Quarter Pounder, loaded with pickles, onions, and no cheese. No cheese.

I’m too tired and too bird-traumatized to go back. The dining room is closed. The seagull is still in my back seat looking personally offended. I ended up eating a mistake burger in my car, window down, staring into the distance, wondering what choices in life...

Usually relied on this maccas for a quick meal on the go and usually hasn’t disappointed me. But on this occasion something absolutely abysmal was going on in the back of the McDonalds. I’m not sure whether it was a case of a lack of management or supervision, only junior workers that have just started their job or absolute zero communication between eachother because among others in the maccas we were waiting up to 30 minutes for a large fries and up to 45 minutes for a toastie. To add on, I went up to the counter to politely ask if my toastie was getting sorted out and the maccas employee looked at me as if I was speaking another language and in a rude manner stated that it must’ve already been made and claimed I didn’t look or listen to the worker at the mc cafe. Keeping in mind for the whole 45 minutes not one worker had stepped into the mc cafe. To finish it off, once the toastie had been finally sorted out it came to my attention that one side was almost burnt and the other was completely uncooked. Making a toasted sandwich is not a skill to master it’s almost common knowledge. Im not barking at any worker but the lack of supervision and management was crystal clear. This isn’t the first time the toastie incident was disappointing, once ordered a ham and cheese toastie and it once again became apparent that making a toastie isn’t a common practice among the workers as a hold chuck of sliced ham was folded in half and stuffed in between to bits of bread and unmelted cheese, not to mention the completely watered down sprite that came...

For the second time in the past month I attempted to take the dog for a late night walk to Cal Gully Maccas for a snack (he loves the McNuggets), only to find the store closed on both occasions. Out of two attempts to buy their food they were inexplicably closed two times. On both occasions I phoned the store and spoke with a lady who more-or-less shrugged her shoulders and said that it had to be done and there was nothing that could be done. This time it was apparently because only three people bothered to show up for work. Obviously a deep fryer takes four-plus people to operate... The three 'workers' who were sitting inside should have been outside taking down the sign that says "24 Hours" as this store is clearly only open during the day. I wonder how the franchisee feels about paying people to work night shift who don't actually work during their night shift? Service: 0/10 Food: I have no idea, as I still haven't managed to buy any. Who knows, maybe...