McDonald's — Restaurant in Chichester

The only good thing about Chi Gate McDonald's is the mild excitement around guessing how they're going to mess up your order this time round. Given all the years of fine tuning to make McDonalds efficient and consistent worldwide, it's quite impressive how exceptionally bad these guys are at every aspect of the process. For example, today I ordered a big Mac with large fries. What I received was a big Mac with no pickles and about five cold, stale and chewy fries. Given that it was a quiet Monday night and employees outnumbered customers 5 to 1, I'm wondering how they managed to mess it up so badly. The whole place is in chaos, with rubbish everywhere. random furniture is dotted around the place in the middle of the floor. The screen which tells you if your order is ready appears to just be there for fun, and you watch as your order number bounces between ready and preparing - or quite often it just disappears for a bit. The counter is full of people complaining that their orders are wrong. Meanwhile, the manager is... Taking food to people's tables. I would rather spend £15 for a burger at Five Guys over the road than have to withstand the utter chaos, disgusting food, and agonizing wait of McDonald's...

Harry, the "Assistant Manager" was rude to me in front of my Children. He also stated that he wouldn't help change an order because, as he exclaimed proudly to my children and his staff "It is not because I can't, it is a matter of principle." Awful, Awful, Awful Man that should learn how to build a good reputation and learn manners. He then told me I had been rude to his staff! A lie, Harry. You lied knowing it is difficult to defend such an accusation. It was like he has taught himself sentences in order to try and look good in front of his obviously embarrassed staff.

Update: The Chief Executive Officer for the UK Paul Pomroy emailed me back expressing "deep concern" over the way Harry dealt with this matter. He will conduct an internal inquiry regarding Harry. He also emailed me £20 worth of vouchers as a gesture of goodwill. Thank you Mr Pomroy. I only hope Harry learns how to be polite in front of children and staff. (I will use the vouchers at an alternative franchise!). It is no suprise this McDonalds has the lowest Google review feedback in West Sussex. Harry...oh Harry what are you...

They have a very quick system for taking orders but seem to be understaffed as they then struggle to get those orders to customers, causing a large backlog both at the drive in and in the restaurant. They tend to put orders into the green "please collect" category long before they are actually ready to collect - I assume to help internal metrics - which causes a continual flow of people approaching the counter to collect meals that aren't actually there yet and staff having to spend time explaining this.

When I last visited the lack of staff also meant that they had prioritised getting food out over anything else, all bins were over-flowing and a random table seemed to have been allocated for overflow litter as well. This resulted in some customers unable to find anywhere to put their litter just leaving it on tables which - again due to a lack of staffing - would not be cleaned or cleared. Giving the whole place a chaotic and messy vibe.

The food itself was fine, our orders were correct, chicken a bit chewier than usual (possibly left on the heat rack for a while?) but standard...