McDonald's — Restaurant in Belmont

So, let me start off by making a clear point. The majority of my review, can and does easily apply to nearly every fast food chain, and location I've dealt with, with the sole exception of Chic-fil-A (the proper pre-mandela effect spelling) but if it's Sunday and you wanna eat quick, your stuck with these guys and the others like them. First point. I am utterly astounded at how difficult it is to take an order from my mouth, through to handing me the bag "at the designated 'could you please pull up and we'll bring it to you' location of course" without getting something wrong. I am completely certain I could order a single pre-made item and it be incorrect when I receive it. Seriously, they've screwed up "a number 2 with a coke" more times than I can remember. The shake machine. Whatever time it is, deduct an hour, or add an hour, from that point, and that is when they either tear down, or set up the milkshake machine. It's a fun experiment. For best results, this test should be preformed before 11am and after 5pm, during those hours there is a 20% chance of actually being able to get a milkshake. I swear the thing is up and running like 17.356 minutes a day. Just wish I knew when that magic window was, as I like their shakes, which is a rarity on that menu. Fries, coca-cola, strawberry shake, caramel frappe... Occasionally under the right conditions their fried chicken paste can be ok. Of course anything that actually requires human resources to produce varies wildly in quality. Your fries could be prepared by the associate who believes that salt is supposed to outweigh potato and grease, or the one that "don't know where no salt at" and the aforementioned fried chicken paste could very well be older than the associate serving it to you, so best to stick with the menu items are inevitably going to be the ones that only require unwrapping, and maybe a button push or two. You'll then have a 50/50 chance of it at least being edible. I'm sure most who read this, will either think I'm some insensitive monster, or be laughing so hard they pea themselves, being in total agreeance with me. In this locale, we've had to, recite the recipes to cooks, explain how the register works, count our own change to tell them what they owe us, duck for cover as our bags flies I'm the car window, and we spend approximately 4u% of every visit in that awkward spot a couple cr lengths ahead of the last window. Let's not forget since chin masks have been required, observing them used as sweat and snot rags, and seeing sweat drip off of them onto our bag of food. PSA, the chin strap is actually meant to be worn above the nose, and below the mouth, as it's actually a "face cover" intended to keep the public safe from contamination, not the uses I mention above. I hope...

Always more concerned about throwing the food out of the window, instead of looking in the bag first to make sure its correct. Almost every time I go here the order is wrong. Young rude millennials don't take responsibility for anything, its always someone else's fault. If you are the one to pass the bag out the window, then you become responsible. If you don't want to deal with someone coming back to say hey what the heck, my order is wrong again. Then check the bag. And don't get mad because I'm holding you responsible because you're the one that passed me my order. I looked you in your face and asked you a question about the order and you answered me like you knew. If you don't know, that's ok, just say you don't know, but will find out. I get it. I'm not dining at a 5 star restaurant. But I do expect to get what I paid for and that includes me getting my entire order, and food fixed properly. Food that was only supposed to have ketchup and pickles has everything on it and now my 10 yo can't eat it. Fries with no salt, are covered and drinks are wrong and or the wrong size. Simply I should be able to count on the person filling my order to be able to look at a screen and fix the food like it's clearly printed. And then put the correct food into a bag. Especially when my receipt has the correct order on it. My biggest problem is not just that sometimes the order is wrong. Life happens. It comes from when I have to get my 4 children out of the car and take $35 dollars worth of food back inside to be corrected, only to have every kid in there point at someone else and try to ignore me when I walk up because they just saw me come through the window and know that I'm going to say something about my order being wrong again. Granted this was under different management 10+ years ago. But this place used to be 3rd in the nation. David Stevenson was an amazing man that kept his people in line, and loved his crew. My brother and myself being some of them. We always greeted the customers like we were happy to see them. And always checked the bag no matter who handed it to us (unless it was David) to ensure that the customer was happy and received their entire (correct) order. That kept people coming back. We also learned names. People always really liked that. We got to the point where when our soccer moms in their minivans or the old veteran in his old Chevy s10 came through, and we'd greet them by name and ask if they wanted their usual and would start rattling off their order. We actually cared for the people who kept us working and helped pay us. Without your customers you don't have a job. Just learn to slow it down just a tad, and remember to take responsibility if you mess up. It's ok to mess up but not pass the buck on taking...

I am utterly shocked by the appalling state of the McDonald's in Belmont, North Carolina. When you think of Belmont, you usually picture a community with wealth, so it’s hard to fathom why a dining establishment would appear so neglected and unclean, especially one where people come to eat.

As soon as you step inside, you're greeted by litter scattered across the floor. The trash bins were overflowing, with refuse spilling out and patrons resorting to piling their waste on top of the overstuffed cans. It was impossible to find a proper place to dispose of trash. I documented this with photographs, which I will include in my review.

After placing an order, customers receive a table number to signal where their food will be delivered. However, the staff seems too indifferent to return these numbers to their rightful place, expecting diners to do it themselves while they eat. This is nothing short of sheer laziness.

To add to the chaos, there was a random rolling cart trashcan just sitting in the middle of the floor, as if someone had started cleaning and then abandoned the task altogether.

The mess on the floor was exacerbated by the overflowing trash cans, leading patrons to toss their garbage on the ground or leave it on tables. It was a truly revolting sight.

Meanwhile, the staff was hanging out in the back, absorbed in their phones and goofing off, completely ignoring their responsibilities. To make matters worse, two employees were casually enjoying their lunch in the lobby while the entire restaurant descended into disarray. It's baffling to witness...