(A collection of 8 European McDonald's reviews - spread across several years - #5)
This might be the southernmost McDonald's in all of Italy, located at the bottom right-hand corner of Sicily, from where the ferry goes to and from Malta. That said, I was surprised at several things. It seems to be busy all the time, whether inside the store or in the drive-through.
First, it is a spacious and very clean McDonald's, with a generously sized parking lot. It is at the western end of town, where it necks down to define the Raganzino beach area. The ferry docks for service to Malta are adjacent to this Raganzino area.
Of course, the food will be reliable. That goes without saying. The prices were fair. The service was considerably and consistently better than I have seen at any McDonald's.
Inside this big store, there is some segmentation. Clearly, most of the restaurant is for people eating standard McDonald's menu fare. The front left has an area for people doing the Italian bar thing in the morning, where they can get coffee and a sweet item. At the rear right, diagonally across, is a kid's area and some people come in to celebrate milestones for younger tykes. And, boy, does the noise level amp up, causing you to pray that it will soon be over. There is a similarly ample outside eating area out front and, with the cooperative weather, it gets a lot of use.
This McDonald's seems to fill the gap in such a way that the Italians in this area can approximate the coffeehouse thing ... order their food and drink and linger over it with friends. It's amazing to see how Northern European and American institutions have changed the business and social fabric in Italy - Lidl, Leroy Merlin, and our fast food, notably McDonald's. North Americans don't often see McDonald's used as it is here, and elsewhere in Italy, since people in North America do not tend to linger in them. The Italians have bought in to all this! I just hope that they don't blame us for what too many Big Macs can do to our health - and appearance - as we proceed down the pike.
For having all the things that any business should do to get 4 stars, it gets its 4 stars. However, for the service that is a notch above what I've seen at any other McDonald's in Europe, and definitely better than that in North America, I'll give this one - sitting across the Sicilian Channel from North Africa, of all places - 5 stars. read more