McDonald's — Restaurant in Ontario

This location is officially a joke. After one of the worst drive-thru experiences of my life (a 25-minute wait for a single drink and a broken paper straw), I decided - against my better judgment - to give the McDonald’s on Memorial Avenue in Orillia another chance.

Not once. Twice.

Tonight was the final straw. I pulled into the drive-thru at 11:00 PM for a Dollar Drink Day large, which is advertised clearly on the sign for under $2. By the time I got out at 11:19 PM, not only had I wasted 19 minutes of my life AGAIN, but they tried to charge me $4.09 for a drink that’s supposed to be around a buck.

And while all of this was happening, I couldn’t help but remember that this isn’t even new. I have vague memories from childhood of this exact location being just as slow, just as unorganized, and just as frustrating. I guess I forgot why I stopped coming here - but now I remember.

To be clear, there were at least 4 or 5 staff members on site tonight, which should be more than enough to keep things moving. So what’s the issue? Training? Management? Lack of oversight? At this point, it feels like a systemic failure. This location has been a disaster for years and somehow it’s only gotten worse.

At first, I debated whether to post this publicly or be a good guy and send it directly to the restaurant first. As I considered it, I decided to browse the other reviews. And wow - it all started to make sense. I can’t say I was surprised, but I was still stunned by the sheer number of one-star reviews. Pages and pages of people describing the exact same problems. This isn’t a one-off. This is a documented, ongoing failure, and the fact that it’s been allowed to continue for this long is insane. Has McDonald’s completely abandoned this location? Are they grandfathered in somehow and no longer under corporate control? Because that’s the only way this level of neglect makes sense.

And the most mind-blowing part? Corporate has done nothing. The fact that this store still operates like this - after years of dysfunction - is beyond comprehension. Someone needs to step in.

After leaving McDonald’s frustrated yet again, I decided to head two minutes up the street to Wendy’s - and the difference was night and day. Friendly staff. A genuine “thank you for choosing Wendy’s.” A piping hot burger with extra onions and mayo done exactly as requested. A Frosty in hand. And all of it in under 3 minutes. Honestly? Michelin-star service by comparison.

So here’s my advice: if you’re choosing between this McDonald’s and literally any other drive-thru - go anywhere else. Preferably Wendy’s. This place isn’t just underperforming. It’s a case study in how not to run a business.

If this location was a reflection of McDonald’s standards, I’d be embarrassed to have my name on the building.

It’s not just broken - it’s actively damaging the brand.

Fix it. Or...

This service today is really not even 1 star. I ordered on one order 2 ham and egg mcmuffins and a medium coffe 1 cream 2 sugar. Actual order 1 ham and egg and 1 coffee 1 cream 2 sugar but paid for 2. Becuase out if a 10 dollar bill i got 20 cents back. I ordered a sausage egg mcmuffin with ketchup lrg coffee black with 3 honey. Actual order 1 sausage egg mcmuffin no ketchup and a lrg coffee with cream and what ever else. Once back to work we realized they made a mistake and we ate what we had. I gave my coffee away. I went back to McDonald's and spoke to slim fellow at approximatly 12:00 about what had happened. He asked for my reciept. I told him that would be great to give to you if they had gave me one. He said he would yell at the employees to make sure they are giving reciepts. He said he will give me a coffee but with out a reciept he could not give what they shorted me. I still had to pay for a ham and egg mcmuffin they shorted me and low and behold he never gave me a reciept eaither. Okay so to wrap this up. Why one earth would you ever yell at an employee. Why would you give me a coffee if i had no reciept. At that point why would you have the need to yell at employee if he did not believe me with out a reciept that the claims I was making were truthful or not. Makes no sense. I told him that I was hoping he was going to be better and correct the situation. I told him I would be calling McDonald's corporate to let them know that there is a sistemic situalion here that is affecting customer experiance. Also that by shorting my order and not correcting it is actually theft. There is a case # filed and they would be emailimg me and someone would call from the restaurant in 1 - 5 days. As promised to the gentalman in customer service I will delete the review once the situation has been corrected. Please dont yell at your employees that is ridiculous. Take my money fine but dont berate them and stop telling customers you will yell at them. Very dissapointed. I hope this can...

This franchise as a whole has gone to **, some locations stand out above the rest as well managed but as for this one it’s one of the locations contributing to the imminent failure of the franchise. First of all over 20$ with tax for a dried out mc crispy meal is ridiculous, I can go to a decent sit down franchise like Kelsey’s or chucks and have a burger and fries for the same price or less. Service was horrible and slow, ordered two adult grinch meals and a happy meal and watched about ten people who ordered meals after me get theirs first . And they were not simple coffee or ice cream orders they were full meals. Waiting 14 minutes to receive ours with no acknowledgement or apologies for the wait. The garbages all over the restaurant were overflowing on to the floors the bathrooms were virtually un usable , good thing I stand to pee. The only clean thing was the play place which says something. After eating and letting the kids play for 20 mins or so after letting the manager know about the garbage when going into the restaurant the garbages were still un emptied and the manager was still standing in the same spot barking orders and poorly managing instead of contributing to the team as a whole. My mistake was buying ice cream as it was promised to the girls , I should of taken them somewhere else due to the events leading up to our departure. But I chose to get the ice cream here, it was basically liquid not very frozen at all, wife ordered fudge in her smarties McFlurry as did I in my Oreo. The color or the mc flurries clearly was different between mine and hers the was no fudge in hers which was paid for. I am understanding mistakes happen were only human but the young man who remade the McFlurry slammed it on the counter and said” there is that good enough now?” The attitude was unacceptable. Our visit was very un pleasent and I would not recommend people spend their money at this location. You have many better options to spend your hard...