I was in Laughlin last weekend for WhyLaughlin [dot] com and we set up shop at the Edgewater next door to the Aquarius. Anytime we have a working weekend there and wanted to bring food up to the crew, we would go down to the McDonald's in the Edgewater casino, but sadly, it had been closed for some reason. HUNGRY.
It was 10:45 PM on a Thursday night and, frankly Laughlin was filling up with guests for the weekend. This was a busy weekend because it fell between the two Spring break weeks for most every school and university. Given the number of people in town, there just were not that many places to eat. We remembered another McDonald's at Aquarius, and decided to walk up the Riverwalk to get some food. HOPEFUL.
We totally understand that a stand-alone Micky D's across the river in Arizona would have the same reasonable prices as any other McDee's - and that ALL Casino Fast Food is marked-up to a premium - maybe to push you into the Casino's main restaurants; maybe just because they can since it is there as a convenience. Therefore, I don't use high prices as a CON. But I think we ALL expect that with the increased premium pricing that ---maybe--- the food should at least be on par as any other Micky D's with lower prices. Right? And how about customer service? A smile? A thank you? Sadly... NOT HERE.
The other 4 reviewers before me are on target; but for different reasons. I did not come for FREE WI-FI, but if that is advertised, I too would expect them to deliver. High prices. Hey that's to be expected. Bad service? Some say that too is expected in Laughlin. I am a huge Laughlin fan and inwardly cringe when I run across that stereotype in real life. Sadly too, this McDonald's has the worst service by 2 female employees that seemed to want to be anywhere but here. FAIL.
4 of the 7 of our crew had come here. We were the only ones in the 24 hour place at 10:45 PM. We ordered 3-each 2-cheeseburger meals with large fries & drinks. Our one new vegetarian ordered just a large fry and a drink as his meal. Yes, it was expensive! We waited a l-o-n-g time for our order. We expected it to be good; we expected it to be hot. After all, we were the ONLY customers. When it was ready the "front-end" employee sat all the bags on the counter of the pick-up area without a word. No repeating the order. No asking if we needed napkins or condiments. Just turned and walked away.
The Food: IT WAS BLOODY AWFUL!
No kidding. Is this franchise owned by the same outfit who ran the now-closed Edgewater McDonald's that was decent? The meat patties -all 6 of them- were lukewarm - no where close to hot. The buns were cold and stale. Were they added after the cooking process? Or were the patties laying around already-cooked for hours and briefly "nuked" and then added to cold and now-stale buns? The cheese slices were stiff and cold (not melted). Did these employees not have the sneakiness to nuke the old patties with the cheese on the patties? Aren't they worried about getting caught? (If this is what they're doing.) SHAMEFUL.
One can only speculate based on taking the 6 cheeseburgers apart in amazement how the various components were all different temperatures and different states of freshness. A sample bite was horrifying. It was WORSE than embarrassing. Embarrassing for the Aquarius Hotel & Casino management that allows this franchise operator to cast a bad light on the whole property; possibly dangerous for patrons to eat this crap (if sitting for hours and reheated later); embarrassing for those of us who want Laughlin to be a place where visitors find great fun, food and service. EMBARRASSING.
Okay, so trash the overpriced $30 hamburgers and let's enjoy the world-famous McDonald's French Fries! Since that was now going to be our whole meal, we thought that some ketchup and some Ranch would make it more like a meal. But none was out at the drink refill station or anywhere else where patrons might help themselves, and none had been provided nor offered when we were at the pick-up window. WTF?
Now there was a line for coffees and McFlurries so we went to the pick up counter to request ranch and ketchup for the four of us. They ignored us. We sent a 2nd person to bolster our "presence." By this time the fries are now as cold as the 12 stale and cold bun halves; almost as cold as the refrigerated cheese slices sitting stiffly and awkwardly atop the lukewarm meat patties. One of our party finally got the sullen employee's attention. We were literally 10 feet away and watching the whole process out of astonishment by this time. We could hear her clearly ask for "a handful of ketchup and some Ranch for 4 people who already received meals and are sitting there waiting to proceed with our meal. The could-care-less employee finally responded and handed us ONE squeeze package of ketchup and ONE tiny rectangular package of ranch for 4 of us, did an about-face and walked away. To that conduct I say: STAY AWAY FROM THIS MCDONALD'S read more