McDonald's — Restaurant in Herndon

I'm a McDonalds man. Yes, I'm a McDonald's man even after watching "The Founder", so you know that means I'm serious and also means that I'm behooved to leave anything under 5 stars for a restaurant chain that I enjoy so thoroughly. However, the truth is the truth and I must speak it.

I've become somewhat accustomed to unusual situations happening at McDonalds. I mean, I know I can get a little crazy when I'm trying to choose between the apple crisps and the french fries when selecting my Happy Meal (haha), but this is probably the weirdest location I've ever been to.

We came here on a Sunday afternoon around lunchtime and overall, the place was pretty empty. It was nice except for the fact that we literally couldn't find parking. The drive through and mobile ordering spots fill up the parking lot and there's like 7 spots available if you want to go into the dining area. I had to loop the building like a vulture in order to finally be able to pounce on a spot. But pounce I did and we made it into the store and ordered our meal at the little kiosks (I love those little kiosks).

Our food came a few minutes later and honestly there was nothing to report. It was McDonalds and it tasted the same as the McDonalds that I've had all over the country (deliciousness with a light sprinkle of salt and regret, in case you're wondering). However, it was after we started eating that things got strange.

We were about halfway through our meal when a man came into the location, sat down at a table a few feet away from us and then proceeded to stare at us for the remainder of our meal. I get that watching me eat a Quarter Pounder with Cheese is an event, but I didn't really see it as being a community activity. So that fun. Not McDonald's fault, but just weird.

Then, I got to watch a manager chew out a teenage employee behind the cash register. I have no idea what was going on, but it made such an commotion that it even distracted the man who was staring at us.

At last, we finished up our meals and my three year old needed to use the bathroom and my wife got up to take her. Unfortunately, just before she got there, a man came into the store, walked right into the ladies bathroom and proceeded to use it for at least 15 minutes - too long for my poor daughter's tiny bladder. The men's bathroom door was locked and you had to be a customer in order to get the code to get in. The ladies bathroom was open, which is why he used it.

There was a female McDonald's employee who discovered that there was a man in the ladies restroom and proceed to shout at him to come out, which he didn't. She shouted again, he didn't. So she left and came back a few minutes later, and clearly figured it wasn't worth the fight and just walked in and went to the bathroom. Meanwhile my wife and daughter, far less comfortable with that approach just sat outside the bathroom.

After about 15 minutes of waiting, we just decided to leave. While getting the girls into the car, the man in the bathroom finally came out and walked away down the street. That happened approximately 30 seconds before we almost witnessed an accident in the parking lot, to which there was more shouting and honking. That's not necessarily McDonald's issue, except for the fact that the manager was out in the parking lot and got involved in the dispute.

I love McDonalds, but don't think I'll be coming back to this location. We were there for 30 minutes and saw three incidents of conflict, for those of you keeping score at home that's one conflict every ten minutes on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Not the most enjoyable...

Update 9/18/2024: They WILL make you park and wait if you go through the drive through.

Curbside is legit quicker.

Neither case is fast food. High prices. Long wait times. Okay food. Quite frustrating. More than that, it's a hassle. If I wanted to park, I wouldn't be going through the drive through!

Update 3/26/2022: I regularly forget how terrible this McDonald's is, and go back, only for them to aggressively remind me why I avoid McDonald's.

This time around, they gave me a cold, not hot, not warm, not room temperature, but COLD, double quarter pounder with cheese...

Old Review:

Literally, not figuratively, tried to steal eighteen bucks from me; then laughed it off when confronted.

They charged me for the people ahead of me's bill, we pointed it out, and the guy at the register said that they'll fix it; then the lady handing out food initially pretended like she didn't know anything about it, when we pointed out that we saw her try to give my card to someone else with their receipt, she said OK, we'll give you cash.

"So, you were just gonna let me ride off without that eighteen bucks?"

"Yeah, he he."

Intentionally trying to jip me eighteen bucks is not a laughing matter; I will not be going back to this McDonald's.

UPDATE: 11/24/2020

Yep.. They're still terrible.

Everything else is closed this late, so I figured I'd get a couple mcdoubles and give them another shot...

I get there, the guy says to wait ten minutes...

I wait...

After ten minutes, the guy says they're having "connectivity issues" and I need to wait another "five to thirty minutes,"

I ask what that means and the guy starts giving me attitude, and tells me to go to the McDonald's "just up the street" if I want food... the McDonald's "just up the street" adds almost thirty minutes to my ride.

So yeah... I went home and made soup. I'll try to remember how much this McDonald's sucks, so that I don't subject myself to...

This McDonalds location has a couple issues.

To give credit where credit is due, the food is pretty good. If you order something, and it comes out as you ordered it, you will probably be happy with your visit.

Unfortunately, their processes for ensuring customers get what they ordered, or correcting the problem if they do not, is somewhere between very lacking and entirely absent.

At some point they started making drive thru orders pull up ahead instead of giving you your order at the window. This achieved the desired effect of making the line move more quickly, but at the very noticeable price of making it so your order is actually just.. not all that likely to be entirely accurate or even yours at all!

I have personally witnessed my order being given to another car, the driver of that car sit in their spot and eat my fries while they wait for the food they actually ordered, and then having the worker take back my order when the mistake is realized, give the other driver their food, and walk right over to hand my bag with partially eaten fries as if this is just standard operating procedure. It should not be the customer's job to hold a restaurant accountable to standard food handling regulations.

Management is also completely unwilling to provide (even partial!) refunds on orders that had entire items missing. Their only offered solution is to drive back to the location and have an item remade. No gift cards, no free delivery for missing items, no apologies.

I again must emphasize that if you eat here and successfully win the "will I get what I ordered?" lottery, the food tastes great. Very consistent for a McDonalds. This is the only positive thing I can say about...