The Worst Time Of Day To Satisfy Your Fast Food Itch At McDonald's

While many McDonald's' menu items are still quite high (having effectively priced out its once go-to target audience), many are still willing to shell out extra bucks for a taste of the Golden Arches. So often, though, whether you hit the drive-thru or order head via the app, or go in and order at the kiosks or counter, you're met with long wait times and/or incorrect items (or – horror of horrors – they forget to give you your sauce!). How can you mitigate these occurrences from happening? Avoid McDonald's at the wrong time of day.

According to TikToker @chefmikeharacz, a former McDonald's corporate chef whose content is devoted to the ins and outs of the chain's workings, the very worst time of day to hit up your McDonald's is at 10:30 a.m. His reasoning, seen in the video below, is that at 10:30 a.m. the restaurants are switching over from breakfast to lunch, so the same fryers that are used for hash browns are instead being prepped for, say, fries.

@chefmikeharacz

Replying to @miquelwhitcomb Former #McDonalds corporate chef explains why 10:30 is the worst time to go to McD. #mcdonaldssecrets #mcdonaldsdrivethru #mcdonaldsworker #mcdonaldslife #mcdonaldsbreakfast #mcdonaldsbreakfastallday #mcdonaldslunch #BigMac #QuarterPounder #McMuffin #McChicken #McNuggets #McGriddle #McRib #McRib #FiletOFish #fastfoodworkers #FastFood #FastFoodLife

♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

Often there might be a shift change, too, with lunch employees coming and breakfast employees leaving, and the restaurants themselves are starting to see more foot (and actual) traffic as business picks up again. There's a lot of room for mistakes at 10:30, and your wait might be a bit longer, too, as management and employees sort through the daily chaos.

There are two ways to consider what the "best" time of day to grab McDonald's might be: First, when will it be the least busy, and second, when will your food be freshest. To the first point, the least busy times of day tend to fall in the mid-afternoon, from about 2 to 4 p.m. Think about it; the lunch rush is over, and people have gone back to their homes or places of work. If you can swing an afternoon trip to the Golden Arches, that could very well be your best bet for a quick in and out (and you're on your way to their hot, greasy fries with oh-so-many ingredients).

If you want guaranteed fresh food, on the other hand — you're not going to believe this, but just after 10:30 is when all the lunch/dinner items are at their freshest point, since the employees have switched over from making breakfast, to the very first batch of lunch food. If you don't mind a little wait (and who knows — your restaurant's staff could have the transition down pat, like a well-oiled machine), and you don't mind eating lunch a little early, this the best time for the freshest order (while simultaneously being perhaps the worst time for waiting and accuracy).