Friendly's

Horrible service. Dinner, which was normally 20 minutes at friendly's, became a 3 hour affair of just sitting around and waiting. When the onion rings finally came, i realized that i had paid $5 for 4 measly onion rings. WTF?* I dislike friendly's so much! And their icecream is not the best, Roche Bros's ice cream is 10 times better!!!** But seriously, they're not good at all! And the staff is mean and grumpy, they never want to serve kids. Friendly's is NOT friendly! I mean, um, like***, hello?? Aren't they supposed to be friendly?? Also, the waitress makes the food, I know this because the kitchen is visible through the door. *rebelzkewlz **!!!!exagerate!!!!!!!!kkkkeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwweee el! ***main-stream...AWESOME!!!

It would be easy for a food-snob such as moi to completely trash the place BUT- It's an okay burger-fry place to take brats whilst babysitting. . .and the ice cream means they'll behave at least another three to four hours. Outside of that this place isn't worth much.

The deserts are great but the real food varies from restaurant to restaurant. There's one in King Of Prussia, PA which was good and one in Mt. Holly, NJ which wasn't so good. Also, I worked there for one night- and the manager was anything but friendly!

I was recently hired at the Latham, NY Friendly's restaurant as an ice cream scooper/hostess. I have been reading your comments and I must say I agree with most of you. (Especially you servers) I have found that our servers and hostesses work very hard. Harder than they should. I, myself, am an ice cream maker, a hostess, a bus girl, AND a dishwasher. (& I HAVEN'T RECIEVED A TIP TO DATE) When I signed up for this job I was never told that there was no dishwasher on staff, or that I would constantly be clearing tables. The managers seem to be pleased with me, because I am a hard worker & don't complain. But some people "bother" the managers too much when they ask questions. One girl was recently fired for "not being friendly enough". Also I have never heard of employees having to pay for consuming drinks at work. I have even worked at fast food chains that weren't as cheap as Friendly's. When I come in to dine, it seems like the waitresses pay WAY more attention to other customers, just... Read more

Friendly's is pretty good. It's only on the east coast though.  Their ice cream is good. I remember getting 'Fribbles' and 'Cone Heads' as a kid.  The food would be three stars but the ice cream takes it up a notch.

While new restos are popping up in this chain, the food is "food service" level which means things are reheated from bulk packaging that is purchased from large providers like Sysco. Service is usually sub-par. IHOP is a better option.

Good Memories...Ice Cream after College Classes

Good place to take the kids and have ice creams sundaes. Oh yeah and there is mediocre food too if your in the mood for it. Love the ice cream though.

Friendly's in Watertown, NY was not a good experience. The hostess and waitress was not nice to us at all. Very rude. She didn't smile once at us and very rude. The hostess was rude too. Not what I would call Friendly at all especially at a restaurant called "Friendly's". Not happy with their service at all.

Mmmm

Pretty good ice cream, but essentially this is almost like Steak & Shake East, as this chain is apparently indigenous to the Northeast, and the further north you go, the more prevalent they become, peaking in say eastern Mass before petering out...

We used to have 2, now we have 0. The food and service not good, but that is more of a staffing issue than anything, and the sundaes are pretty decent.

Dirty restaurants. Cold food. Disgusting place.

I have worked for Friendly's for the past two years and overall it has been a horrible experience. The managers (well most) are all uneducated and power hungry. They are constantly transferring managers and out of the six or seven GM's that have been at my friendly's, I only thought one of them deserved to be a manager. The rest are all lazy and bark orders all day while they just sit at the break table and eat. It's ridiculous. Also, the number one thing that I hate about Friendly's is their cheapness. Friendly's is one of the most cheap companies to work for. Everyday that we work, they charge us a set amount for soda even if we do not drink it. This may not seem like a big deal to you. But, the costs of the beverages are pretty much being paid by the employees. In turn, the $2.19 that the customers pay for a drink is all profit for Friendly's so I do not understand why they keep jacking up their beverage prices. Another thing that bothers me about Friendly's are the cooks. Two of th... Read more

I work for Friendly's as a manager(in Massachusetts) and I must say that I disagree with the above comments.We are a very busy restaurant and cleanliness and sanitation are very important to us.Gloves and handwashing are crucial.Sometimes labor can be tight, but we always have a dishwasher during peak times, as well as a minimum of two servers and a cook, depending on the time of day.At night we normally have between 5-7 servers and 2-3 cooks.We always try our best to give excellent guest service. As for the management training program, I did not find it difficult at all.I found it challenging but rewarding. I came from Papa Gino's, and I would definitely give Friendly's higher ratings for cleanliness, service, quality and training any day.

nice place very reasonable

Gotta love the sundaes. I use to love their hotdogs when I was a little lad in the '70's.

I eat at the friendlys in Camillus NY, once in a while, it has really good food, and even better icecreame, I think there service sucks, but the biggest problem is they need to make it more of an eye catcher, tear it down and build it up make it look like an applebees

went there as a kid. Went back there and it was still good but not the same

I used to like this restaurant in New York. It wasn't the best restaurant in the world, no but it was nice after I took my kids shopping or to a movie to go here sit down for a little while and order some food and ice cream. Always dependable, and the ice cream was really good stuff.

I, too, work for Friendly's in New England. I joined not too long ago to become a restaurant manager and was put through their very poor training course. They say they want their managers to succeed and provide the best service and so forth, but the program is structured so that succeeding is hard. As a restaurant company, they are very confused. Like another poster said, they try to copy abunch of other chains. They have so much stuff on their menu and so many different types of dishes that not only does it overwhelm guests, but the kitchen, the service staff and the local management as well. In addition, they keep adding new test items and promotions to the menus and this makes it even worse. I disagree with the writer who says they are expensive. Yes, they are a bit more expensive than maybe a Denny's, but generally, their prices are very much in line with any other chain. As a company they need to either go back to being an ice cream parlor with some food, maybe something really d... Read more

I work at a Friendly's as well as a few others that have commented and the reason for the bad service is not because of your server (unless they are straight out rude to you.) but because of management. My restaurant is always understaffed because corporate forces them to understaff everyone. Everyday the cooks are slow. They do it on purpose to punish the servers who they blame for punching in your order too fast. If you send something back unless your server can fix it themselves good luck to you because I can not get my grill cooks to remake food correctly, or even get my management to get them to remake it correctly. We make ice cream, we host, we deliver food, we bus tables, and we have mystery shops held over our head constantly. Every shift I have i'm expected to stick around until they feel like sending me home because they understaff so bad. The reason why your service is bad is because they keep trying to save money and slack on staff to help the servers. The reason w... Read more

Last time I ate at a Friendlys,the food was terrible and the help was far from friendly.

I love the Fribbles, burgers and grill cheeses.

Friendly's is great!!!! It is sort of like a sit-down darry queen. Their ice cream is some of the best i have ever had, and all of there chicken dishes and their burgers are deliciouse and are reasonably priced. THEY DON'T HAVE ANY IN THE SOUTH!!!! Friendly's is one of many things that are making me look forward to getting back to new york

I don't like anything there except for the ice cream.

I have heard a lot of bad things about Friendly's especially in regards to customer service. But the Friendly's in my state are all great. The service is terrific and the waiters are friendly (no pun intended). The shakes and ice cream are the best bar none. But the food isn't too great. Often the fires and burgers are cold and that goes for many other dishes as well.

Friendly's quality has seemed to dwindle over the past few years, but not because of their food. Their food is still good (especially Mozzeralla sticks and chicken strips), and their ice cream is great as well. However, service is what this restraunt lacks. Hire more qualified and attentive servers! UPDATE: The quality of this place countines to go downhill. They've jacked the prices up and the food is barely edible. Considering that this used to be one of my favorite places to go as a kid, it's quite a shame.

The boneless buffalo wings and chicken fingers with honey mustard are the best! The ice cream was horrible though... it was all melted by the time they gave it to us... blech. My stars are actually for the FOOD.

Big problem with service ,but the food and ice cream can't be beat for the money.

I work at Friendly's as a server. I try my best to be the best server that my guests has ever had in one of the most poorly rated restaurants on the east coast. Everything on the desert menu can be rated a 5 star when a decent amount of topping and weight of ice cream is put into the desert dish. Sadly, this chain is falling. They tried to save themselves from falling by remodeling, but that didn't really make a difference in the amount of costumers who came in to eat. Then they raised their prices and added many items to the menu because they need money. They tend to copy off of other restaurants, and this is a major downfall for them. They tend to try to hard to be better, before they think about how much money they are going to spend. I started working here two years ago. A happy ending sundae with a meal was 1.99. Now it is 2.39. Sodas were 1.69. Now they are 1.99. In the past month, an extra 2 ounce cup of topping was 50 cents. Now it is 69 cents! The economy is bad, yes, I know t... Read more

I have experienced very poor service in every Friendlys regardless of the location. After observing the help for a while I came to the conclusion that the system that they use asks too much of the staff. The waiters and waitresses are always busy and running around yet the service is rotten. If they would let the waiters and waitresses do their job and not 50 other miscellaneous things the service would improve significantly.

Good for Sundaes and such, but not much else.

A nice family-oriented restaurant. If you are looking for a quiet, relaxing dinner then this place is not for you. Kids beg for this place because of the desserts. However I have found that the menu has improved in recent years and the prices are very reasonable.

I recently dined @ the Friendly's restaurant in Webster, NY. The food was good, the icecream was awesome, and the service was outstanding. The restaurant was VERY busy, but by the aura the staff gave off, you could tell that they were 'in the zone' and really enjoying thier jobs. After a short time there, it was obvious as to why. Around the corner came the manage, and he was FLYING!!! He had a huge smile on his face, and his arms full of plates of food. He delivered the food, made a quick joke,and was off again, but not without taking the the time to say hello to us, and truly make us feel welcome & wanted. It seemed like only seconds before he was back around the corner... with more food, and another big smile. It must be true, what they say, that the boss sets the tone for the workplace, because his enthusiam & teamwork were evident in every worker there. I have never seen ANY manager work with his people as hard as this man did. Hats off to you sir! I sure hope that your employees ... Read more

Their service is miserable, but the candy shoppe sundaes are usually worth it if you have the time to wait.

I have been an employee for Friendly's for about 1 1/2 years. I was planning on staying with company for a long time to come. In the year and half that I have been there, I have seen 3 different general managers brought in. The turn over is horrible. Recently, I gave my two weeks notice due to a supervisor who I could not get along with, sexual misconduct,and I simply could not stand be our new general manager's moral practices. five days later I was fired due to insubordination/slander of the general manager to crew. What is this all about? They are really trying to stick it to me good with no validility of these accusations. They aren't even true. They are just mad that I previously filed a complaint and that I gave my two weeks notice. I am at this time seeking legal action for false reasons upon termination. I have 3 freakin days left! hello????? something isn't right with this picture. They treat us horrible. It's their loss. I was one of the many best damn servers there were ther... Read more

Can you believe it? A sit-down restaurant that I actually enjoy! Alright, so its not quite up to Chick-Fil-A-par, but its still very good, nonetheless. The food there is excellent, with awesome chicken fingers, great fries, and well-done fountain drinks. The service is some of the best I've experienced in a slow-food restaurant, quick and (yes, you guessed it!) friendly. And, unlike some clastrophobic places such as Ruby Tuesday's, the place is actually well-lit and HAS WINDOWS! The prices are a bit high, but for the amount and quality of the food and service, its worth it! Recommended!

I like the Reese's sundae's. Known in the biz for slow service, though.

You know a restaurant is your hands-down favorite when it's the first one to pop in your mind whenever someone wants to eat out. Friendly's has never let me down. I could eat there 3 meals a day - no exaggeration. They're omelette's are big and delicious, their turkey clubs should win some kind of award, and their steaks beat the Outback's with a spiked bat. And to top it all off, they sell Cyclones for dessert. When I'm rich and famous there will be a Friendly's in my basement.

great ice cream and delicious burgers and fries! Their ice cream is some of the best ever produced by a chain and it ranks up with Dairy Queen! Unfortunately, most of the Friendly's have closed in my area.

They're great when they're not busy. I think the waiters/waitresses get a lot of undue crap from customers (I swear I overheard someone complain that their ice cream was too cold and had it sent back three times). The food's alright, I love the chicken soup, great ice cream. Very reasonable prices. This is a restaurant that definately varies with each individual restaurant.

I've eaten here once my whole life; in fact I've only seen this place once my whole life. I ate at the one in Orlando and the service was fine, but the food was laughable. I would have rather layed on my hotel room floor eating a PB & J sandwhich....mmmm.

I love to spend the night out with friends at friendlys

the food may tase good but as a former employee trust me that you do not want to see the lack of cleanlyness

Their food is not too bad, and their ice cream is superb. Unfortunately, their service is often wanting, and their prices are a little high. It almost balances out.

Never get tired of those sundaes.

Ranks right up there with Perkins. Love the burgers, love the sundaes

There clams are the best.

this place is pretty good, I havent ate there in a very long time, but I might as well review it while I still remember that last exeprince, here I go! ok, the atmo-sphere was ok,a tad crowded and it was lunch-time. anywho, the lunch choices could have been better and I had to resort to getting a chicken fingers dinner because the location I was at only had limited much coices and it mas mostly of soups,salads and smaller things and the hambugers were underdone and cold (this is the only thing I remeber form the visit before this) so I got some chicken fingers that costed around 7 buckaroos. not bad for 6 chicken fingers and a lot of fries. they tasted good but they were kinda fake tasting. I tried some of my sis's grilled cheese sandwich (3 buckaroos)and it was too muchy and cold. I had to wash it down with a nice cold glass of coke. they did'nt have the dew so I got coke, because the mellow yellow stuff at these places is really thin and tasted nothing liek mountain dew, so coke wasm... Read more