McDonald's — Restaurant in Pennsburg

July 2021 Update:

Well, McDonald's tore down the old building, leveled the lot and build a new McDonald's on the same site. The parking lot has been re-arranged, with two entrances, one which is one-way in, and lets you access a drive-thru line, and the other bi-directional entrance. The building has been shifted back away from the road, making it far less dangerous to leave the parking lot, since there is not increased visibility. There's also a pedestrian access path to the adjoining shopping center, so you can walk to the McDonald's from there. This is the first McDonald's that I've been too in over a year, where indoor dining is available, so that was a treat. The indoor decorations are a bit interesting. The theme appears to be somewhat city like, with rusty patina metal objects on the walls, but there are also large photos of telephone poles, wires and weird birds. I'm not sure what the birds are supposed to convey, but I think that they look stupid. Another interesting thing, is that there is not soda fill station in the dining room, but I'll blame that on COVID. It looks like there might be an area for one, but it's not installed. Like most McDonald's these days, they have kiosks to order from, but they also have two cash registers where actual humans will take your order. The food that we ordered this last time was surprisingly good, with the french fries being excellent. And since the french fries are the main reason to go to McDonald's (unless the McRib is available) that always makes the visit more enjoyable. Outside, they have two drive-thru lanes, with one accessible from one-way entrance. If you come in the other entrance, it looks like you could go to either line. Both drive-thru lines join together, with three windows afterwards. If looks like the first one is a payment window, and the other two are pick-up windows. I went through once and only used the second window for everything. There are labeled curb-side pickup spots, as well as spots labeled for the drive-thru. There aren't many normal parking sports to go inside the restaurant, but it's a pretty small McDonald's inside, so it should be sufficient. I hope that they take care of this new place and maintain a higher level of service than before.

This is the closest fast food restaurant to my house, and it is almost always a disappointment to eat here. They often prepare the food incorrectly (both drive-thru and eating inside) and the restaurant is almost always dirty inside, with overflowing trash. And, they are slow, slow, slow! Slower than any other McDonald's around.

The last two times that I went, there were no straws in the dining area, no ketchup cups, and the sweet tea was empty. Usually the french fries are really good, but they even messed them up the last time that I ate here, as they were hard and tasted odd.

Ordering online via the app really seems to confuse them. When you order through the app and pay online, it automatically shows on their screens by the food, but the register people fail to believe it. They always try to look up my order, which they can never find, but I keep telling them they don't have too. Eventually, they see that my order is up there.

Thinking about my experiences here, they seem to be a lot better at breakfast time for some reason. Every time I've come in the morning, they are faster and my food...

I have to say this might just be one of my top three worst McDonald's experiences in my 48 year lifetime. I visited yesterday either my son (order #270). We ordered around 6pm. They gave us one of those table tents to locate us when our food was ready. Well 615pm comes around and no food. I'm trying to be patient I know many places are short staffed. 620pm no food. I decide to go check on things at the counter. I stood there for at least a few minutes and was not acknowledged. From where I was standing I could see my tray with my order clearly ready and staged to be brought out. The counter girl was fiddling with some machine and my order just continued to stay there. Getting cold. I went back to my table (sorta gave up at that point) and I hear my order number called out and my tray thrown on the counter. Why was I given a table flag? I saw them bringing food to other patrons. What happened? Well all our food was cold. Especially the fries. I took all three orders of fries up and asked for a fresh batch. That took another solid 10 minutes. Between all these shenanigans and actually taking time to sit and eat it took us over an hour to get out of there. Fast food? LOL. Service? Even worse. ...

7:38 pm mobile order on 6/27/2025

I used the mobile app to prepay and submit my simple order. Pulled up to the USELESS 2 lane drive thru.

If defeats the purpose to have a two-lane drive-thru if you only have one person running the speaker. If anything, it complicates things. Take some notes from Chick-fil-A.

They finally get to me. I tell them my mobile pick up number. After 2 cars got passed me from lane 1. As I'm slowly making my way to the pickup window. Through the pay window i notice a guy walking around with a sleeveless shirt. All I could think was armpit sweat and hair around food. Great.

I pull up to The designated pick up window after waiting too long. At this point my order has already been submitted for almost 10 minutes.

The lady at the window hands me my coke and tells me that the food is still being made. I wait almost 6 minutes more. Leave frustrated. I get home to find out the quarter pounder I ordered magically turned into a crispy McChicken. Despite the receipt STUCK TO THE BAG that clearly said QUARTER POUNDER.

By far the worst McDonald's experience I believe I've ever encountered. Needless to say, If I'm choosing to get food I pennsburg again, I'll choose any other place...