• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

Smiley said:
Surely you'd just ditch the top bun of the first and stack the second on top. Like the MegaMac, but done proper. Obv with 2x large fries and a diet coke - got to watch the calories.

Personally the use of kiosks disturbs me greatly - how much bacteria must those screens hold, and no sanitizer in sight?!?
Click to expand...

We've managed fine as humans for centuries with door handles and what not. It is only post covid there has been such a focus on these things.
 
DistortAMG said:
We've managed fine as humans for centuries with door handles and what not. It is only post covid there has been such a focus on these things.
Click to expand...
There's a very simple solution to all this: in high street restaurants, once you've ordered your food, go and wash your hands in their toilets. Or, even better, order it on the app on your phone!

At Towers, that probably isn't possible but to be honest, with everything else you touch during the day - fences, queuelines, lapbars, restraints, ride vehicles etc is the potential of bacteria on a smooth, wipe-clean screen really the surface you need to be worried about before you handle your food?!

I've said it before on here somewhere, if you are worried about the cleanliness of the screens and touching them, use one of those rubber-tipped tablet and phone styluses.
 
Steve74 said:
At Towers, that probably isn't possible but to be honest, with everything else you touch during the day - fences, queuelines, lapbars, restraints, ride vehicles etc is the potential of bacteria on a smooth, wipe-clean screen really the surface you need to be worried about before you handle your food?!

I've said it before on here somewhere, if you are worried about the cleanliness of the screens and touching them, use one of those rubber-tipped tablet and phone styluses.
Click to expand...
Don't worry I never touch these things without then washing my hands. But they are just not hygienic, especially at theme parks. Am happy to get my hands filled with bacteria - just not before I eat without close washing facilities. Whatever happened to the "lemon treats" KFC used to give out???

DistortAMG said:
We've managed fine as humans for centuries with door handles and what not. It is only post covid there has been such a focus on these things.
Click to expand...
Why, oh why, or why, aren't all public toilet doors "open outwards" (with an elbow)??? Last thing I want is my newly cleaned hands get Jeff's piss all over them....
 
Smiley said:
You want it your way, you... Hold on, wrong burger chain. All to do with efficiencies, nothing more, nothing less.

Customer service and experience are key for some companies - not so much for others.
Click to expand...
Having it made your way more easily, improves the customer service and experience for some people significantly, being able to take your time at a touchscreen and check if there are any ingredients you don't like and order a burger with no onion makes for a much better experience for some.
But for others as Rob said, being able to get a burger within 30 seconds was a better experience.
 
Last edited:
jon81uk said:
Having it made your way more easily improves the customer service and experience for some people significantly, being able to take your time at a touchscreen and check if there are any ingredients you don't like and order a burger with no onion makes for a much better experience for some.
But for others as Rob said, being able to get a burger within 30 seconds was a better experience.
Click to expand...

I always think there's a balance to be had. Burger King have always done full customisation for example. Five Guys is full customisation too but they seem to take forever whenever I've had one.

For the "basic" things like chicken nuggets though there's not really an excuse to not have a huge amount of them on hot hold - clearly they have them in the drawers at the back so just move them up to the front and have them as quick access like the fries are. I always seem to have to wait ages for nuggets and they are the most basic items on the menu, and it's not like they will not sell out of nuggets quickly. I bet it's fairly easy to pull of metrics of exactly how many people have customised orders too.

KFC I find the weirdest as they have their chicken clearly visible in hot-hold cabinets yet most places the orders are still portioned out and put down the little slot by the kitchen staff rather than the counter staff making up the orders.
 
jon81uk said:
...But for others as Rob said, being able to get a burger within 30 seconds was a better experience.
Click to expand...
You see, by definition, this eating is no longer "Fast Food".
Due to the "new experience for customisation and quality"...it is no longer fast, so it simply becomes "Junk Food".
Proud to say I no longer suffer the experience.

The lovely staff in Crevettes can mix me up a decent fresh cockle and prawn salad, with a (fizzy) pint, in less than a minute.
Fast, and healthy!
 
dave___ said:
KFC I find the weirdest as they have their chicken clearly visible in hot-hold cabinets yet most places the orders are still portioned out and put down the little slot by the kitchen staff rather than the counter staff making up the orders.
Click to expand...

Plus, even Aramark know how to deliver crispy french fries. There. I said it.
 
dave___ said:
Something that KFC have never managed apart from the brief period where they sold Skinny McD style fries.

Even micro chips are crispier than KFC's effort
Click to expand...
Apparently they "listened" to "customer feedback" - and created crap fries. When all you do is chicken and fries, and you fail at one of them...
 
I quite like KFCs current chips. They are closer to chips than fries in my opinion, soft and tasty. Their older fries were just crispy nothing, like cardboard. At least these resemble the flavour of potato, also they've gone back to adding salt and seasonings which helps a lot with flavour and crispness (as the salt absorbs some moisture).

From memory the Burger Kitchen fries were decent.
 
rob666 said:
You see, by definition, this eating is no longer "Fast Food".
Due to the "new experience for customisation and quality"...it is no longer fast, so it simply becomes "Junk Food".
Proud to say I no longer suffer the experience.
Click to expand...

Devil's advocate here, but define how fast, "fast food" should be. It still comes out relatively fast, faster than say a traditional restaurant.
 
Greggs is quicker, real fast food now.
Spoons service can be quicker than some burger joints.

For a "quick counter selector", touchscreen service is at least twice as slow, often four times as slow, as it used to be.

But there is no actual definition, but it is now much harder to tell how long your wait will be with screen systems.
 
rob666 said:
But there is no actual definition, but it is now much harder to tell how long your wait will be with screen systems.
Click to expand...
I disagree, I think it's easier, because it's far easier to see how many orders are in front of you. Eg if you're 172, and the lowest order number you can see is 171, you know you won't be waiting long, but if you can see 160 you've got a bit of a wait ahead of you...
 
Islander said:
I disagree, I think it's easier, because it's far easier to see how many orders are in front of you. Eg if you're 172, and the lowest order number you can see is 171, you know you won't be waiting long, but if you can see 160 you've got a bit of a wait ahead of you...
Click to expand...
But order 160 might be stuck waiting for the McNuggets to cook when they have plenty of 1:10 patties ready to make Big Mac or cheeseburger from. So order 160 might keep sitting there even while they call 170, 171 etc.
 
rob666 said:
I used to walk in, select from what was on the shelf, pay in cash, and walk out.
If there was ever a queue I would not even walk in.

The new system is not quicker in any way.

Never has been, once.

So I changed my habits, and no longer buy at burger shops.
Click to expand...

It's designed to be "fresher" food rather than quicker I think. Not ever necessarily experienced that though based on the amount of boxes that are backed up in the packing chute staying barely lukewarm especially when there's a run on Uber Eats deliveries.

I maintain that the food delivery services are the worst thing that's ever happened to McDonald's in terms if quality/experience. Even my local which is massive and has a dedicated entrance etc can barely keep up as they still use the same kitchen.
 
dave___ said:
It's designed to be "fresher" food rather than quicker I think. Not ever necessarily experienced that though based on the amount of boxes that are backed up in the packing chute staying barely lukewarm especially when there's a run on Uber Eats deliveries.

I maintain that the food delivery services are the worst thing that's ever happened to McDonald's in terms if quality/experience. Even my local which is massive and has a dedicated entrance etc can barely keep up as they still use the same kitchen.
Click to expand...
Food delivery as well as them not having food ready to go behind the counter.

It’ll actually be their downfall imo, their food is now expensive and you’ve got to wait a good 10 minutes. Gone are the days or being in and out within 5 minutes.

It makes it a far less attractive option when you’re on a break at work, only have 30 minutes and 15 of that is taken up by waiting for the food. It’s genuinely easier to go and get a meal deal from Tesco.

Making to order to sounds good, but I’m not going because the food is healthy, I was going because it’s quick. Now it’s neither so I don’t bother.
 
Personally I prefer a BM, Cheeseburger when it's been sat for a few minutes - sometimes the cheese is still hard when you first take it out of the bag. Amazes me how many people are paying a premium to get MaccyD's delivered - and how many riders and hanging around outside to collect orders (I live in London).
 
Agree the delivery orders take the pi$$. When you want just a burger and fries yet there are 15 orders and you can see the chute is full is most annoying.

Also anyone who has been to a drive through will probably have been told to go wait, the spaces of waiting normally have 3 cars in them so it blocks the entire drive thru up
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top