Great food and ice cream, but a little pricey
Written: Apr 27 '01 (Updated Dec 26 '07)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great food and ice cream.
Cons: Extremely slow service; wait staff undertrained; prices way too high.
The Bottom Line: Although the food and ice cream are great, the expensive prices and slow service don't give you a real sense of value.
|
|
|
| Chad9976's Full Review: Friendly's |
I've been going to Friendly's since I was a child and back then it was mostly for ice cream during the summer. For like a buck you could get an ice cream cone. Only once or twice a year did the family actually go there for dinner and as a kid I loved it. I still genuinely enjoy eating at Friendly's - the food is good and they make delicious ice cream desserts. This is a good restaurant to take a date to and a fun place to crash at with a group of friends after going out..
It wasn't until I started writing for epinions.com that I gave this place a thorough, critical examination and realized it's not as good as I had thought. Not that it's terrible or anything, I mean, if I had to chose between eating at a local diner and at Friendly's I'd probably go with Friendly's. However, if I had to choose between Friendly's and TGIFriday's, Houlihan's or Applebee's I'd go with one of those places because the prices are almost exactly the same, Friendly's just doesn't have the same sense of value for your money (although they do have great ice cream… hmmm…)
DECOR & ATMOSPHERE
Usually when you write a restaurant review the first thing you mention is the food but when I think of Friendly's the food is actually not the first thing that comes to mind - it's the appearance of the restaurant itself.
In my lifetime I've probably been to about 50 different Friendly's from Buffalo to Boston and the thing that stands out in my mind is the bright, clean atmosphere. Every store has its own individual floor plan and layout but every store has the same decor - white and red color scheme with plenty of overhead lighting and mirrors. The tables are usually clean, the booths are always comfortable and the smoking section is properly cordoned off from the non-smoking section.
People like to eat in a warm, inviting place and the people behind this chain obviously realize that. Even as a kid I can remember every store I went to as being bright and clean. A nice atmosphere like that goes A LONG way to the customer because it's so inviting. You might have lousy service or the food might suck but in the back of your mind you're thinking "oh that was just a one-time thing, I'll be back."
FOOD
BREAKFAST
Friendly's breakfast line is pretty impressive - always delicious and they offer a surprising assortment of dishes rather than just generic pancakes, french toast, etc. I'm not going to elaborate more because I haven't had breakfast there in a long time and the details aren't with me right now, but let's just say they do a wonderful job on breakfast.
APPETIZERS
I said before Friendly's is a good place to go on a date or a good place to just swing by because they have an excellent assortment of appetizers that are REALLY filling by themselves. Ever order the mozzarella sticks? You have to share them with at least one or two other people because you get like 12 in an order. The prices for these are nearly identical to those at fancier restaurants but this is the one area where I find the value to be worthwhile. I'd rather spend $5 or $6 on mozzarella sticks or quesadillas at Friendly's than anywhere else because I know the food is going to be good.
ENTREES
Which brings us to the main course – hamburgers, chicken platters, sandwiches, steaks, etc. The menu is pretty big, about 5 or 6 six pages with lots of choices and specials. They also have a pretty big kids menu too (how I loved that kid's menu when I was a wee lad). Compare that to Applebee's and it's amazing that a diner-type place like this actually offers more choices than some upscale place.
Every time I go to Friendly's I get a hamburger of some sort and they've always been good. The fries were good too, nice and warm and crispy. And they seem to have stopped with the obligatory cup of coleslaw. The burger was pretty filling and there was enough fries to keep me satisfied without making me so full that I felt like my stomach was going to burst. My only problem is that you don't get plates anymore - you get baskets and that's kind of annoying because sometimes I need more room. When you stab your fries with your fork it goes through the paper into the basket or you can't stab the fries at all because they just bounce around.
As for everything else on the menu, well, I always stick with burgers because it's a sure thing they'll be good. But now that I think about it, my friends usually order chicken and I've never had an experience where they didn't like the food. I've of course finished what they couldn't eat and liked it. So suffice to say that the food at Friendly's is surprisingly good.
ICE CREAM
Friendly's is known for their ice cream and I've had pretty much everything on this menu. The sundaes are always delicious but even the little things like an old fashioned cone or the new "tornado" are still worth the money and the time to go over to Friendly's and get one.
When I was a kid my favorite ice cream dish was the "cone head." It was a sundae of a few scoops of ice cream with a sugar cone on top covered with chocolate syrup and peanut butter syrup and Reese's Pieces.
Today when I go to Friendly's my favorite ice cream sundae is a lot like the one I had as a child - the Reese's Pieces Sundae. Basically, it's three scoops of ice cream with LOTS of chocolate and peanut butter syrup with whipped cream and a cherry on top.
Another good dessert is the Oreo fudge brownie which is a plate of a HOT brownie with warm chocolate sauce and sprinkles and whipped cream and the whole nine. It's a great mix of something hot and cold at the same time. I highly recommend it.
SERVICE
I would venture to guess that working at Friendly's is not a great job and they're probably understaffed pretty much everywhere. I don't think the wait staff is properly trained either, it seems like every time I go there's some little problem with our order – for example I got a hamburger when I ordered a cheeseburger, or you ask them to hold the coleslaw and they give it to you anyway.
Servers here, in my experience, have performed only satisfactory service. They're pleasant and smile when you first order but that's about it. They're not super friendly or jokey or anything to proove they really want to impress you. And when it comes to checking up on you they either come over every 60 seconds or never at all.
PRICES
Between Applebee’s and Friendly’s which place would you think would be more expensive?
Actually, that's a trick question because they’re pretty much the same, but what does that tell you? How can a generic family diner like Friendly's charge the same prices as the trendier, classier restaurants?
The answer is, they can't. No matter what their advertising campaigns say to make Friendly's hip and cool the fact remains this place is basically the same as a local diner only with more name recognition.
I miss the old style of Friendly's where they didn't try to pretend they were anything they're not. Up until the time I was a teenager I can distinctly remember my parents saying they'd take us to Friendly's because it was within their budget and I remember going on dates there because it was within mine too. You could get a burger platter for $3.99 - generic hamburgers about the same size as a Whopper at Burger King but so what? They were good and they were worth the money. Today.... it just seems really expensive for what it is (and it's not due to inflation either).
CONCLUSION
So what it all comes down to is a case of quality versus value. The quality of the food and ice cream is high, surprisingly so. If the service was much faster and friendlier it wouldn't seem so expensive. If you want good food and you have money and the time this is your kind of place. Not a bad place to eat at all but I'm not as impressed as they want me to be.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Chad9976
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Chad Polenz
Location: Albany, New York
Reviews written: 663
Trusted by: 147 members
About Me:Check out Chad'z Beer Reviews on YouTube
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.