McDonald's — Restaurant in New Bern

EDIT: Aug 2025 The people at this location seems to working great. There's still a chance of the food not being totally hot and fresh. Wish they'd stop building up a food buffer only to serve it cold. Best time to go is when it's busy, then you'll get fresher food.

EDIT: Feb 2025 This McDonalds has stepped up their service and I'm increasing them from a 3 Star to a 4 Star. As far as the food, the fries are fresh about 40% of the time. The Nuggets are fresh about 50% of the time if you get the 10 piece. If you get the $5 McDouble meal with the small fries, they are good about 20% of the time. Clearly, these items are most likely sitting for a while before they are sold. I'd like to shout-out to the extremely nice but a little older lady that is usually working nights. She is an employee worth keeping. You know who she is if you've ever been served by her.

EDIT: Dec 2024 Some improvement has come to this location. The breakfast pancakes are now fluffy taste good instead of being hard to cut. About 60% of the time, the McDoubles & breakfast biscuits are hot. Unfortunately, the fries are still mostly hard and cold whenever I buy them. I find that whenever there's a long waiting line, the food is delivered like it should be delivered... hot and delicious. Off peak hours tells me the food has been sitting in the pickup tray for long periods. Also, the guys in the staff seem to be more friendly than the ladies.

EDIT: 2024 This McDonald's has improved from a 1 star to 3 stars. Seems like 50% of the time the fries are hot as well as most of the items on the menu. The chicken nuggets are still a hit or miss. About 40% of the time they are hard from sitting too long. Only 10% of the time are the 4 piece nuggets hot and fresh when ordered with the $5 meal. The Fish sandwich and the 1/4 pounders are the most consistent as far as being fresh. The staff seems to be replaced often because new faces show up regularly.

EDIT: 2023 1 star. I visited at 10:50 p.m. and was told that they were no longer taking orders even though there was cars in front of me getting food. I'm not sure whether they're doing this just to take a break at 11:00 or not. They will place cones in front of the drive-thru to prevent you from ordering. This McDonald's is really going downhill.

EDIT 2022: The night staff (10/2022) is working well at this time. The drive through gets you around quickly. I've had 4 cars in front of me before ordering and I am still able to get my food and get back to work before being late. At least when the drive through is full of cars, I tend to think I'll get hot food instead food that's been sitting under a heating lamp. I only have 30min to clock out & get clocked back in so a quick drive through is important.

EDIT 2022: 4 STARS. This place has improved at night. Not completely though. They seem to get you through the drive through at a decent pace. Further improvement I would highly recommend is the staff should cook the food as it's being ordered and not have it laying under a heating lamp for long periods. It's pretty common for the fries and the nuggets to be dried out. The staff at night (7/2022) seems to work good for the time being.

EDIT 2021: 1 STAR: Their breakfast pancakes have got to be an hour old. You literally cannot cut the bottom pancake with a fork because it's so hard. The French fries are old & hard 95% of the time and the Chicken Nuggets are old & cold 95% of the time. Jesus Christ can't ya'll just get some management in this place???

EDIT 2018: 1 STAR: I've quit going to this McDonald's early in the mornings because they're telling customers that their computer system is updating and can't serve anything. This usually happens at least once or maybe twice a week. I've now started going to the McDonald's across the street from the hospital and they have NEVER been closed. I think the manager should do some investigation to see if the employees are just being lazy and not wanting to serve...

I arrived about 1025 and didn’t leave till about 1045pm I ordered a value meal and added and paid for a apple pie and As I got to the window (I didn’t get any names due to refusal) the two caucasian men tried to alert me and let me know they were out of apple pies and I could wait 15 minutes. I politely declined and asked if I was able to be served 2 chocolate chip cookies in the place of the missing apple pie. The guy turned to the man who claimed to be the manager dressed in a camouflage zip up jacket and black jeans who was packing my order and repeated what I asked and gotten no answer. I then asked the guy who was not packing my order and who was helping me to please make sure I have my honey mustard with ketchup please. He then turned around and repeated that as well and still got no reply from the man. I asked the man is everything alright due to him seeming frustrated with getting no response. He told me he apologized for the guy’s behavior. I then asked could I add a 3rd cookie and pay the difference for it being I had to ride 45 minutes home and worked 16 full hours today. He told me yes I could and told the guy to add another cookie totaling 3 at this point. He then proceeded to finally reply and when he did he told the guy to tell me “no” he said no he wasn’t just going to give away a cookie. I said excuse me trying to get his attention to than explain I was paying the difference for one. He ignored me I asked for the manager he then told me I was the manager and to speak it I wanted to I told him it was rude and unprofessional how he was handing the entire transaction. I tried to explain to him what I was trying to do and he began to become louder and irate and verbally continued to assault me. I was disgusted to say the least he even told me “People like me want something for nothing” i told him money wasn’t an issue and I’d like a full refund along with a copy of my receipt and the number to corporate I was shocked humiliated and disappointed that all of this came from Nothing but a cookies and apple pies and it turned into a nightmare. He was so rude verbal attacked and seemed like he wanted to physically assault me. Both of the other employees told the guy to relax and stop and to give me the food and the cookies and he refused multiple times and wanted to flaunt his authority of being manager I feel like this goes against every guideline possible as far as customer service and the integrity of fast food. I am very unhappy and am seeking legal counsel for the matter. I also have contacted corporate and thought I leave this here as well. Very disappointing as I spend a lot of money at this particular location and never had an issue. The guy was African American about 5’6 maybe 150 pounds with black dreads with brown tips in his hair he refused to issue a refund refund to give his name and or the number to corporate. After I turned my car off and refused to leave without a refund he then decided to issue one. The guys who were there with him were two caucasian men one with a red macdonalds shirt on and the other I don’t remember but both tried to intervene and help both tried to stop the guy and even return my food with fresh cookies I declined and waited for my refund and left. They both provided my receipt and an apology and the number...

Disappointed I find myself here reviewing a fast food joint but here I am. So, staff must get paid extra to post Google reviews after their shifts bc 3.4☆ is as accurate as the current political ads. This McDonald's is a little slice of unorganized hell right here in sweet New Bern. An absolute cluster ducking disaster of epic proportions. The inside is comparable to a sheep dog attempting to herd a slew of sheep high on meth and the outside drive thru is pointless bc you're forced to park and eventually find yourself inside observing said herding disaster because of a wrong or partial order, if you can stand sitting there for 15+ minutes. I decided I had taken my last trip here after a few months back, I ignored my instincts as it was late, empty, not a car in sight, and pull up to the drive thru. Sigh. Order, fine. Pay, fine. Get my drink and then I'm asked to pull up and park, still not a car in sight. I said okay and rolled my window up, sitting at the window. About a minute later, employee walks to window with my food, I roll down my window, take my food with a polite smile and say a thank you. All while she stares at me in what I would describe as confused disgust, presumably because I had decided not to go park. I pull away and still not a car in sight behind me, waiting, or parked for dine in. What in the bloody bells thought process went into this plan? Aside from the asinine process just being ridiculous, I feel it's unsafe for the mostly young staff to be expected to walk in and out of parking lot traffic when they do have customers, not to mention the dream scenario it creates for a predator as a young 16 year old approaches stranger after stranger parked off to the side, in the dark. This location is the prime candidate for a fast food rescue or just shut the whole place down...