After being built in what seems like no time at all, one Kent town saw the doors to its third McDonald's restaurant open to the public this morning.

We dispatched reporter Rhys Griffiths for a fast-food lunch - and he found that the gleaming new building in Folkestone is not quite all that it seems...

There's certainly no missing the town's latest burger joint, which has risen in no time at all at the end of the Tesco car park in Cheriton.

It's a sleek and modern two-storey building clad with all the usual branding you'd expect - and today there's even an arch of yellow and red balloons welcoming customers into the new restaurant. So far, all as expected.

Entering the dining area, however, and there's something I just can't put my finger on.

There are plenty of the now-ubiquitous touch screens for placing orders, and beyond these a very small counter which on first look doesn't appear to have the familiar bank of tills.

When I do drop into Maccies for a bite I tend to utilise the app. I appreciate the ease of being able to order my food and then take a seat while I wait for it to be prepared and brought out.

Taking a table by the window, I fire up the app and submit my order - a medium McCrispy meal, Coke and fries - and then go to enter my table number.

Glancing around, there isn't a number to be seen, at my spot in the restaurant or anywhere else.

For a few moments I'm thrown. Is this fancy new restaurant so cutting edge that it's left the existing app set-up behind? Am I missing something glaringly obvious and about to make a fool of myself?

I catch the attention of assistant manager Sam, who is all smiles as I point to my phone with a look of technological befuddlement more commonly seen on the face of an elderly relative confronted with some new gizmo or other on Christmas morning.

"The table numbers are being added later," he tells me, pointing out there are still one or two bits and pieces still being taken care of about the place.

Helpfully he comes up with a quick solution, grabbing a plastic numbered marker from the touch-screens and plonking it on my table. Minor crisis averted.

Lunch arrives in no time at all.

The food itself doesn't really require much reviewing. It's a McDonald's, it's warm, it tastes good, it's what you'd expect in every corner of the globe where the Golden Arches now stand.

What is more curious, however, is where this meal has come from.

Glancing beyond the counter top earlier, it wasn't just tills that seemed to be missing, but most of the frenetic kitchen action we're so used to seeing when ordering our meals.

It turns out that this may be a rather imposing two-storey restaurant from the outside, but inside the top floor is strictly out of bounds to customers.

I corner franchisee Paul Crocker, who is a bundle of energy as his team puts the final touches on the new restaurant, and he explains the unusual layout.

"It's one of just a few that we've got in the UK now with a kitchen upstairs," he says.

"In fact, the first customers in this morning said to me 'where's the upstairs?' and I said 'that's a secret'.

"But basically that's where we now prepare all the food and we have this transporter system which takes the food downstairs to the serving area.

"That's where we're cooking the fries and producing the drinks and bringing it all together."

Everything about the newest location in Mr Crocker's fast-food empire seems optimised to ensure each route to the customer is working as smoothly as it can be.

There is even a separate room for the deliver-app couriers to collect their orders, away from the diners who are tucking into their meals inside the restaurant.

The third strand of the operation is the drive-thru, which many fear will lead to traffic problems both in the supermarket car park and in neighbouring streets.

But on the first afternoon, there were no signs of any issues.

Mr Crocker insists he will do everything he can to ensure the business is a good neighbour to those living nearby.

Indeed, he hopes that in fact there will be a net benefit on the roads of Folkestone, as the new restaurant will take pressure off the existing drive-thru at Park Farm.