McDonald's — Restaurant in Wales

McDonald's encourages drink driving!

Stopping overnight at the Holiday Inn right next to the McDonalds, we were arriving quite late but i wasn't all that hungry and we fancied having a drink while it was still light, looked on the website and it says McDonalds is open 24 hours. Great, have a drink first then go for a burger after.

So we get there about 11, and find that it's open but only the drive through.

Well that's annoying. Maybe I can understand them shutting the seating area etc, but they should have a little window facing outside that you can get served through.

Ah well well not to worry we'll use the drive-thru. Except the drive-thru refused to serve us! Can't use it if you're not in a car. Which is ridiculous, I asked why and they said it's in case you get hit by a car. But the cars are only crawling along at half a mph so that's a pathetic excuse, and the really funny thing is by this time we'd already queued with the cars for most of the queue, we were already at the speaker by this time and not far off the collection window, so if we were going to get hit by a car it would've already happened.

So on only 3 pints of course it was very tempting to go get the car from the hotel car park and drive the few yards inbetween the two as i wouldn't have been on a public road and wouldn't have gone over 10mph. I didn't, but I bet other many other people wouldn't have had the same resolve. Starving and lightly tipsy and only a few yards away.

It's pathetic not to serve people on foot, there's no excuse for it. And when you have a hotel with people parked right next door it dangerously encourages drink driving.

Also the queue was ridiculously long at night, and even worse the next...

Quite unimpressed - McDonalds is McDonalds... there's no point reviewing the food as pretty much everyone in Britain knows what McDonalds is about, it's quick and easy and sugary and kids dig the happy meals. My issue with this particular McDonalds is the level of noise. The music - way too loud, like ridiculously loud! And then on top of that, pretty much all the stations in the kitchen had a beeping alarm on them to tell the staff when something is cooked, but it's McDonalds, so stuff is continuously cooked, so the various beeping alarms are continuously beeping, at least 2 at all times and then occasionally 3. All beeping out of unison, with loud music on top of that. It might have been one of the most uncomfortable McDonalds experiences I've ever had. I mentioned it to the staff, and the staff member literally stopped and had to listen, because after working there for an extended period of time it's now like white noise to them at this point... and to be fair to the staff member, he did quiz it with other staff members and then returned to me to tell me there was nothing he could do, but he said he was sorry...

So... Food - standard McFood. Restaurant - clean enough. Noise...

Very handy being on the A55, but apart from parking outside to use the WiFi keep going. This is very handy for me too call in on my way home, but after a couple of poor experiences I haven't been in a while. Gave it another chance today and it was the worst and last visit. Waiting 15 minutes for your order - not good enough! Used the new self order point, selected TAKE AWAY. Order arrives on a tray, wait another 3 minutes for them to bag it up - not good enough! Ask for a manager, staff think that's amusing - not good enough! Manager arrives (no name badge) stands there and says "sorry" yes that's all he said - not good enough! So your receipt asks you to go online and complete a survey, I'll be doing that for the second time about poor service and I'll get an auto reply from McDonald's saying that it's a franchise store and the franchisee will contact me directly. Guess what? they didn't last time but I hope they do this time. So keep driving past the McDonald's Northop Services on the A55, or better still call into the OK Diner next door for fresh food and...