McDonald's — Restaurant in St. Catharines

My friend and I were well dressed and planned a nice dinner out after her work at 9. Finding our intended place had a lineup due to the first NFL game we left. Most other places were closed, even Wendy's and Harveys. We ended up at McDonalds on Glendale. I ordered a Big Mac. The cashier said "Combo?". I said "I don't want fries, do you have salad?" "No. The only other choice is poutine". I said "that's still fries". I am not supposed to have potatoes, much less fries and I dislike McDonalds' fries. The cashier could have offered me dessert, like pie, but forced a combo. This was at 10;18pm. About 5 minutes after we sat down to eat a man walked by sweeping and said, bluntly, "the seating section is being closed". Excuse me, I am not rushing my food. I paid 15 dollars for a combo I didn't want. It's bad enough I have to eat out of a tiny box, and with my fingers instead of a knife and fork on a plate. You shouldn't serve people food they don't want and when they start to eat you shouldn't tell them it's time for them to go. We have been at the McDonalds by Brock U and they allow dining in until much later. We didn't expect any different on Glendale. I didn't see a sign about that and the cashier...

I have gone through the drive-thru at this location 5 times in the last few months and every single time I have had to pull up to wait for my order for one meal. I have had to wait at least 5 to 10 minutes every single time. Finally this last time, I asked the young man at the window if anything is ever ready to order when you go through the drive-thru? I told him that the last four cars that I saw go ahead of me also all had to pull forward and wait for their food. He said they just never have fries ready. I feel like that is kind of their whole thing. This is no longer a drive-thru it is a drive up, park your car for 10 minutes, waste some gas while you wait for your food and then leave 15 minutes later if you're lucky. After waiting 10 minutes I went inside, there was a girl standing at the counter talking to a delivery driver. There were four bags on the counter in front of her. I asked her if one of them was my order and she shrugged her shoulders and said I don't know what did you order? I told her what I ordered and she handed me the bag and turned and continue talking to the delivery driver. Sweet service people!! Such a waste of time for...

To be honest, quick serve, usually only gets three stars from me. I gave four stars here because my experience was unexpectedly good. The store is very recently renovated and looks modern. The madness of the kitchen is nicely hidden. In talking to the shift supervisor, maybe the manager, he explained the recent updates to the facility.

Update: Started coming here a few months ago after another store’s espresso machine broke and had no urgency to repair (over 3 weeks…never went back to find out). Now this store’s espresso machine is broken. Will be interesting to see how fast it gets fixed, or I may be looking for another store…now two stars…

Update Feb2025- revisited location. Espresso now available. Finally the issue was explained that there had been a safety concern with the machines all across Canada so they were taken out of service until the mfr could resolve and make safe again. Full marks for transparency, but ridiculous they could not have just explained...