McDonald's — Restaurant in Gaithersburg

A graying gentleman waiting gratingly for his order. For his order to be made correctly. This is the first thing that catches my eye beneath this particular set of Golden Arches. “I’m allergic to cheese.” He begins, his frustration barely restrained and his composure barely maintained. He looked to be upper middle class. Prescription Spectacles, his entire form hunched likely from desk work, he made himself barely known in his khaki windbreaker and slacks. He had clean old hands. His footwear were a pair of leisurely worn slip ons. He goes on. “I need more pickles. I need more sauce. But no cheese. Can we fix this?” He talks to the confused younger employee like a secretary at some private and meaninglessness firm for pushing meaningless papers to uphold meaningless cycles of bureaucracy. That is likely what puts the upper in his middle class demeanor. Just my impression. The young employee titters something in broken English but makes his subservience abundantly apparent. Not that he’ll get a raise out of it. I’m waiting on my order which coincidentally too doesn’t include cheese. It messes with me too. Likely to different degrees. The woman with a fading African accent has taken my order. Her hair was dyed red like Ronald McDonald but has been toned down through time. Her eyes are holes. Her eyes are void of any response or reaction. They stare but they don’t stare back at anyone. They seem vacant. Like someone gouged out all the substance with a plastic spoon. The kind they serve with a small Mcflurrie. The sign in front of her says it all. It explains a shortage of Staff and requests patience. Which so few give. And that reminds me, in this little way, this little unfair instance. America is declining at an excruciating pace, which is to say slowly. But when we look back we will almost certainly ask where the time went? Where the focus was put? On who is it that a dream so perfectly sold devolved into a reality so flawed and so broken? And just so deeply careless? I don’t have any such answers and if you were to ask me as I stand here waiting for cheap sustenance with no substance, I would tell you it was all one immense multigenerational misunderstanding. One where no effort was made to understand. Just to carry on and keep working. Even when nothing was working. I still got my food. And I parked myself where a car would have to pay for. I ate. I consumed. And I thought of what I had to say. And You just heard it. Stay safe...

Sadly, the weeks of waiting for this store to be remodeled was not worth it.

The two positives are: The equipment is new with some upgrades. The cooking oil is new, at long last, which you can taste in the French Fries.

Among the very disappointing negatives are: The secluded-ish area on the end no longer exists. That used to be a big plus. Not there any more. The seating everywhere is much worse. It was never great. There seem to be fewer seats overall now with a lot of wasted empty space and there is some kind of large communal table in the middle that is very unappealing. The entrance into the store is extremely poor and considerably worse. There used to be a railing spanning the front with steps on the right end and a long wheelchair accessible ramp on the left end. The wheelchair ramp is gone. Now what was the ramp is just a walkway that goes across the front from the entrance and then wraps around toward the exit from the drive-thru where it empties out onto a tiny piece of grass. Ultimately, there is only a right side entryway and no left, whereas before there were both left and right, which was infinitely more convenient. The ramp was much better than the steps. Of course, they got rid of the ramp and...

Had a misfortune of going to this McDonalds today, I needed to have a quick bite before heading back to work. Went in there order 2 chicken sandwiches and a drink. One of my sandwiches was undercooked and had lumps of hard and almost rough rubber like texture. I went up to the counter and wanted to inform the manager that hey this food is not cooked properly. What i was greeted with is a look and attitude that was utterly disrepectful. After showing the manager the tough parts I was told this is fully cooked and nothing seems to be off, and he is starring at me with this blank look as nothing has happened. I proceeded to ask should I trash the sandwich or return it to you? Manager then says go ahead trash it. Ooh wow ok as i turn around from trashing the sandwich I see manager put 2.50$ on the counter and says here you go.😅😅😂 This person did not make any effort to replace the item or indicate that this might be a mistake in perfect McDonalds world. Such Horrible attitude should not be tolerated in such a high volume...