McDonald's Taihape — Restaurant in North Island

After traveling for 6 hours in the car, we stopped off at Taihape McDonald's for a rest stop. The toilets were disgusting with loo paper all over the floor and none in the dispenser. We then went to order only to find no one to serve us. We waited and waited and then saw a staff member come from the back and walk to the front to order themselves. They waited with us. Finally another staff member appeared. I could see that they were surprised to see us queuing and was obviously finishing their shift as they had their keys and jacket in their arms. The staff member served us with such disdain that I thought I might get my head chopped off if I asked for anything unusual. It made us feel extremely unwelcome and we wondered if we would have razor blades in our burgers. The one star is for the wonderful hot food less razor blades that we received. I am only commenting because Taihape McDonald's is on state highway 1 and would see a lot of tourists. Is this the picture McDonald's want to give to...

Visited twice now at non busy times, like only one customer ahead of us, and both times we were asked to wait for the meal to be made. Not enough staff and/or they genuinely make to order. When fast food is that slow (10 minutes from ordering), you have to ask what is wrong with that branch? Not reflected in the rating, but ordered a coffee at 9:02 and they were cleaning the machine. I realise 9pm is the cut off time but when people sit in the drive though from 8:58 to 9:02, you should consider the human dimension and not make excuses. The clean can also start at 910.

UPDATE: This is currently the worst Maccas I know of in the country. I've yet to have prompt service here, and the last time it was just not even open. We time our journeys to grab some food on the go after the Desert Road and either you sit there waiting 10-20 waiting for your drive through food, or they aren't operating. Simply amazing, but not...

The food was ok and tasty, and the staff were friendly and assistive but what let the team down was something outside of their control, namely lack of staff. I guess a problem for most service operations in rural towns in this day and age. Because of the shortage of staff the main restaurant section was closed and only the drive through was operating. After a long wait in the drive through queue, which we happy to accommodate given the restaurants staffing predicament, we experienced a fast turnaround on some beef burgers but had an extraordinarily long wait parked out the front for some chicken mcnuggets. We almost drove off.... Staff were nice and did their best under the circumstance but I wouldn't rate this McDonald's outlet as one with a timely service if you were to pop in for a quick bite whilst on the road like we were whilst enroute AKL - WLG - at least until they get their staffing...