Is it just me or is fast food really not that fast. Now that the initial hype around it has died down, I think it's time for us to really take a long hard look at queue times between fast food chains and other types of food outlets which don't call themselves fast food, but which also provide food quickly. In my area, the queues at MacDonalds and Burger Kings can be so long we have to wait up to 15 minutes to get our orders. Looking for a place that can sit my entire family will be very difficult as well. In comparison, some other eateries we enjoy eating at serve the food within 10 minutes of our order and we can find a seat almost immediately when we arrive. The key determining factor for whether you can say something is "fast food" or not, seems to be how crowded the place is, not how quickly they can prepare the food.
I have to agree with you it can come down to how busy the establishment is at the time. It can also come down to how many staff members are working. I remember one time I was in a Subway on Saturday, and there was only one other person ahead of me, so you would think this wouldn't take long at all. Think again, there was only one guy working behind the counter, if you could call it that. He seem to move around as if he didn't want to be there, and was quite slow in his service. It got to the point where my sister and I left because the service was so bad. I think this was one of my worst fast food experiences.
Mc Donalds can get really slow at times. It always seems like there are 4 or 5 staff behind the counter but none of them are actually allowed to do anything! It's really frustrating!
Think for a second about WHY they're as fast as they are. I couldn't even imagine making my entire family (and neighbours and their families lol) burgers and fries and shakes and drinks and pies and whatever else people eat in those places, in 10 minutes. Even with a lot of help. I would have to have some pretty shady food, already cooked so they can just be reheated and thrown on the tray etc. I realize this is probably another aspect of the western diet people expect and have accepted, but it's fast because it's low quality food. The faster it is, the worse it is.
That's a good point, because there are some restaurants which have a drive through window, but the food does take a few minutes for them to prepare - think of places like Steak & Shake, and they are up front about this. The thing is, hardly anybody goes to Steak & Shake's drive through, so waiting 5 minutes for your order to be cooked isn't such a bad thing when you compare it to getting stuck in a long drive through lane at McDonalds for like 20 minutes. I had one instance at Burger King, where I wasted my entire lunch break stuck in the drive through lane that I could not pull out of, because some lady in a MiniVan full of kids in front of me had to special order *everything* - it took her like 10 minutes just to place her order, then she had the nerve to check each item one at a time before pulling away.
I definitely think it depends on where you go. For me, it's normally quite fast for me. I don't go to many burger joints but kebab places are reasonably fast, though rarely as fast as McDonalds.
What it depends on more than where you go is what you order. There are certain ways at every fast food restaurant that if you chose to order you would end up waiting quite some time. However, if you were alright with waiting that amount of time you would find that it will likely be fresher & better. So, the faster the better for some. The slower the better for me.
Most fast foods are suppose to have their food prepare under 10 minutes, but during rush hours it may take up to more than 30 minutes which I have experienced before a few times. Places that are usually fast in service are burger, mexican, chicken, and ice cream type of fast food places. Also, the amount that you order does make a difference, which is the main reason In-N-Out Burgers stop selling the 100 patty burgers.
I am in agreement it take me the same time to prepare a meal and to order a meal at our so called "fast" food chains. Service gets poorer and poorer everyday, normally there is a timing for serving each customer and that employee should execute with that time frame. Not sure they are still using this method. By the time they serve us the meal is cold.
Definitely not fast enough. We used to stop for lunch on the way home, but realized it actually wasn't very fast at all. I've realized I can boil a pot of spaghetti noodles while heating a jar of sauce and bag of frozen pre-cooked meatballs in about the same amount of time as ordering fast food. With the added benefit of sitting at my own dining table, home cooking wins! Even though it's not an elaborate meal prepared from scratch, the cost savings and health benefits make this an easy choice for me.
Not really. I was in the drive through line for Wendy's on Saturday and I sat there for nearly fifteen minutes waiting for my chicken sandwich. I was very aggravated once I actually got to talk to the person at the window. In their defense, however, the lady explained that one of the cars ahead of me had several of their credit cards declined. It wasn't really Wendy's fault, but I kept thinking how much quicker a sandwich at home would be.
What are you comparig the speed that you receive your food to? The tell you walk up to the cashier and give your order or the time it would take to get the same meal if you are at a sit down restaurant? I would prefer to wait an additional 5-10 minutes for fresh food that be given a burger that has been sitting under the lights to stay warm and is hard as a rock, but it was fast.
The KFC in my town is ridiculous - at peak times people are literally lining up out of the door into the street! I only use it at quiet evening times. McDonalds is variable but much better since they installed the touchscreen order stations so you order and pay there, then go to the counter to collect thus bypassing the main queue. I have had a few issues with wrong and missing items though, to the point where I e-mailed a complaint and they did send me a voucher by way of apology When the main fast food outlets are so busy I will go to independent outlets which actually tend to offer a better deal and service, as well as being a bit quieter. I can get table service and a meal of quarter pounder, chips, beans and a drink for less than a McDonalds meal!
I quite agree with you... most fast food places I go to take quite some time. Last time I went to Mc Donalds it took us almost 20 minutes to get our food, and when we did one Diet Coke didn't come Diet and one burger came with the wrong kind of cheese. I feel fast food is only a name we call places that sell bad quality foods that aren't good for our health, not really foods that are delivered to us fast.
In my area of fast food chains, food is produced fairly quickly. If I'm in a rush, I'm able to get in there and out within five minutes. It may just be because that the chains in my vicinity are not very crowded. Fast food has lost it's meaning however. Preparation and food quality has gone up, but it is taking the chefs a longer time to prepare these meals.
I certainly have to agree with Onionman, it really does depend on where you go. The McDonald's in my home town is usually very fast, with very little waiting. Even if you find a queue, they are usually fast in getting your order to you. The KFCs meantime, are a joke. No matter how short the queue, it always takes forever! I don't even know why I bother sometimes because they tend to be unhygienic, too.
I have to agree, fast food is not faster than any other restaurant in most cases. Then if it is faster, the food is generally coming out very cold because they are just pulling the food off of the shelf before the hour or so has expired. So I have decided to completely cut out the fast food.
In my area fast foods are really fast. Even if there is a long line once you have reach the counter and order the meal you want it takes only around 5 minutes and you get it. We hace McDonalds and KFC here and they are quite fast except for some meals like Big Mav which takes about 10 to 15 minutes.
Back in my day when I was working at McDonalds we had standards. It was a 90 second experience. We had people working the front and back of the lines. Every hour everyone was washing their hands and every 20 minutes stock was being switched around so the freshest stuff was always going out. I somewhat am joking as I feel the McDonalds around me are still doing these things except for one location that can't seem to get its shit together. Pardon my german. Anyway, times are changing. We live in a time where McDonalds isn't about assembling a 4 part burger anymore, there are numerous complications to this that we're trusting in the hands of a 16 year old who has a car, a girl/boy and every other distraction on their mind. So the person in front of you orders a triple frap mocapeanutbutterchino and the person behind you wants seven meals of all varieties. No wonder you can't get a decent Big Mac.
It is true that fast food is really not that fast. The lines at an In&Out get so long that I have found myself sitting at a drive through for 45 minutes This happens all the time at this particular fast food restaurant. This place doesn't even have a huge menu. They have had the same ckassic items for 30 years, butvthe lines are rificulous. I love their food, so I keep going, but it is never fast.
