McDonald's — Restaurant in Ribble Valley

What can I say, you seen one you seen them all. However, there is the odd one that stands out. This was not one of them. As soon as I walked in, no atmosphere, no engagement from any staff member dispute walking past right next to me. So I have ordered my drink from the digital kiosk and while waiting one of the lobby hostess starts sweeping around those waiting to collect their food. No excuse me, or would you mind, zero eye contact. I thought that customer service was supposed to be a thing here. I guess I am mistaken. So after almost being swapped off my feed my a mature lobby hostess on the 26th Sept 2025, at 11am ish I thought she busy must be working hard. The store had less than 20 people in it, not that good for business which works on volume. Before I order my drink I had spotted a table that was empty and thought I go there to drink my drink. When I go to my table it as still has the last crumbs and sauce across the table. I began to realise that there system of hospitality was not the only broken thing in the store. Others customers used a more traditional ordering approach at the counter. I saw them stand there for well over 5 mins while other staff just looked at them. Eventually a manager (white shirt) came to serve them and was very pleasant and helpful. This gave a bit of hope in a dark world of staff who had either short term memory loss or who never listened during their training, if indeed there was any. The lobby staff member did not appear to have a name badge otherwise I would of named her here. Next I saw another manager (white shirt) come very quickly with a customers order to his table, he looks perplexed, and he said this can't be mine because I didn't order a coffee. The manager then, without speaking to this customer then walked off and took it (no idea where, but hopefully identified the correct customer by correct number that customer had placed on thier table. Now some would say you do not need to intelligent to work here but actually this is not the truth. They will look at the 3 R's, reading righting and rythmatik (there and irony in two of these, did you spot it) in the work books they have (or used to by the look of things) and that manager could actually read 2/ number on the tent plastic collected by the customer. You may think I am just gripping here, however, you would be entirely mistaken. customer service and cleanliness are the core ingredients of retuning customers.

After being in store and drinking my coffee, I took the mandatory visit to empty the coffee (so to speak). The toilets we exception and smelt fresh and didn't have that usually nostrellic invasion to the naisel receptors that we all have. That filled me with a renewed hope of what was possible. (I cannot speak for the other toilets which can be frequented by other type of species of the human race) I am surely confident they would be equally as clean as mine were.

In conclusion it was a 6 out of 10 the visit's main let down by the zero interaction of any member of staff unless they were forced to communicate to those of us who frequent (or me far less likely to ever go to this one again,) than absolutely necessary.

Please do not ask me why a black coffee to just under 5 mins to be made during an off peak time with only 3 small orders on the qué screen. On a far brighter note, it would seem that someone had paid attention to the coffee bean hopper and actually cleaned that too, as there was no bitter after taste.

Come on all at MCDONALD'S I am sure your owner would have expected much more of you, when he...

I'm a person that likes to go for a drive regularly after work etc to relax and unwind

On said drive I usually like to buy an icy cold fizzy zesty cola from McDonald's to enjoy on the drive

Recently however I have been having nothing but issues with pretty much every branch in and around my local area

The last 15 or so drinks probably more I have purchased from in and around the preston area have been completely flat as a pancake with no ice whatsoever

Tonight's visit to the clitheroe branch was the final straw I purchased a medium and large cola via the drive through

No only was the drink flat and with no ice it was also really warm as if it had been sitting on the side for a few hours

I went inside the store to complain and received two more fresh refills only to be met with the same Issue two more flat really warm drinks with no ice

Absolutely furious I went over to the coop store over the road purchased a family sized bag of ice and filled my two flat warm drinks with said ice do McDonald's bosses and management find it acceptable that customers are being forced to go these kind of levels to overcome incompetent staff?

Yes I had a cold drink but it was still flat as a pancake with no life in it whatsoever it just tasted like a funky water

I find it wholly unacceptable to have to go to these lengths just to get a cold drink from one your franchises

Given the current temperatures we are experiencing in the uk this is unacceptable

This issues is extremely persistent at the lytham st Anne's branch, the Preston docks branch and the blackpool and lancaster branches as well as the clitheroe branch

Your staff couldn't seem to care less about the situation at any of the branches

When no ice is available the staff just seem to overcompensate with cold soda water with makes the drink taste awful and flat

The docks branch even gave me diet coke when I asked for sugar

If your current staff cannot competently run the ice and drinks machines maybe you could employ ice and drinks machine specialists at each branch?

Honestly it shouldn't be this hard to buy an on the draught syrupy fizzy cold drink from McDonald's but apparently it is

You never encounter this kind of issue ever in pubs other restaurants or cinemas etc etc cold fizzy drinks with plenty of ice free flowing in all of them

Sincerely a very unhappy customer that is not loving...

Used to be one of the best McDonalds in the Lancashire area but its fallen dramatically in the past 2 years.

I know McDonalds isn't high class dining but the ability to put a burger together without it looking like a dogs dinner is apparently a skill they aren't taught anymore.

If you pay for a large drink expect it to only be 2/3 full as its too tough to make sure that the customer gets what they ordered.

If you want warm fries well good luck that's about a point f'all chance of happening. Hope you like soggy cold chips.

Cheese melts? expect them to melted into a homogeneous ball and to top it all off every single order you have to double/triple check because they have every single time they missed something off the order and then look at you like you've just stabbed their grandma when you politely ask for the rest of your order.

Usually I hate people that leave reviews but this place needs to steered well clear of until the up their bare minimum standards. Go to Blackburn or Burnley. The 20 min drive is worth it even for mcdonalds, Trust me.

The final straw for me was the cheesy bacon flatbread attached, How hard is it to fold a piece of bread in half? Maybe it was because the bread was so stale that it couldn't be folded but then maybe don't serve a customer a flatbread so stale that it cant be bent and the bacon to top it off is in a ball barely hanging on for dear life.

Won't be coming back again, Even KFC has better service and quality and that place is laughable. I'm going to have to go to...