McDonald's — Restaurant in Star

Review for Star Idaho McDonald's

⭐☆☆☆☆

TLDR summary: Served food to wrong drive thru customer, took food back, it fell on the ground and they still served it to the next customer, then got mad at us for communicating this to the poor unsuspecting customer behind us.

I had an incredibly disappointing experience at Star McDonald's recently. After waiting over 15 minutes to pick up my mobile order, they handed me the wrong food at the drive-thru. When I pointed this out, they took the incorrect order back, threw it on the floor, picked it up, and then served it to the next vehicle! This is absolutely unacceptable, especially considering that my huge furry dog was in the car with us, and we witnessed the whole thing.

We were told we could go park for our small order, but with our 30-minute lunch break coming to an end, we preferred to wait. We just wanted our food so we could leave, especially since they should have been remaking the food for the car behind us. Instead, we were told to either park or we would be refunded. In hindsight, I should have chosen the refund, but I was furious at the terrible service and attitude.

When I tried to inform the customers behind us about the situation, the manager, Autumn, became visibly angry. Instead of addressing the issue, she escalated things by calling the police and having us trespassed from the property. All we wanted was our two double cheeseburgers and fries, but apparently, that was too much to ask during a busy lunch hour.

I expected better service and food safety standards from a well-known chain. I won’t be returning to this location anytime soon. If you value your time and health, I recommend...

Friday night, 25 minutes to fill an order, understaffed and poor quality. Shift manager needs to be demoted or this branch closed. Gives McD a bad name. Food eventually came and edible...that is why 2 stars.

Update....several weeks later to see if new staff, still pathetic turn around times. Waited 25 minutes for several sandwiches and one 20 piece nugget. Ordered a simple cone in store to see if they could process that....took several minutes for them to figure how to operate the register. Manager had to do it. This McDonalds is an embarrassment. Lowered to one star.

Update (10/24)...just testing every few months to see if they have changed ownership/management...nope. Three ice cream cones and 1 fr.... 15 minutes. They did get the order correct so maybe just order one or two simple items per order. We placed two separate orders.

Update (11/24).... complete turn around for the good, fast and correct orders. Thank you for the new staff/manager! I will increase the stars if things look consistent with subsequent visits.

Update (2/25).....back to bad. Waited 10 minutes for a refill. Walked out.

Update (8/25)....same ol'. 4 minutes to refill and they left it sitting in the back. Had to ask them the status. Manager really needs more workers. And this was at 8 at night. This McDonalds gives corporate a bad name.

Update (11/25)...same issues, 3 staff walked right past and would not stop and provide refill. Waited 5 minutes. Manager needs to go to Management 101. Also got order wrong,...

Reader's Digest version: Food less-than consistently hot and no self-service drink refills. But the elderly fellow at the front counter keeps the entire dining room running smoothly despite this.

Unabridged version: Slick newer McD's have a business model that doesn't let customers have self-serve access to utensils, drink refills, condiments, etc. Some boardroom genius in Chicago, IL obviously saw money being lost on excessive use of salt packets and decided to nix the whole lot. He probably hates puppies, wears a comb-over, and talks like Mr Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life".

But I digress.

Combine that strategy with the easily anticipated yet utterly unforeseen problem of low staff and you get customers standing in line for drink refills and everything else.

This one solitary McD's in Star has cracked the code and made this new minimalist McDonald's model work. How? They have someone work the counter. All the time. 🤯

A friendly senior-aged fellow named Joel is usually up front greeting customers and offering to help anyone in the dining room. He's terrific. And the little side counter where you wait for refills and BBQ packets? It seems reasonably well staffed too.

That's the secret ingredient that allows this new dining room model to work. Have attentive, hard working human beings with social skills actually work the counter. The McDonald's in Star does this successfully.

That and serve the food a little hotter and you've got a five...