Friendly’s

Had a quick inch before Mom’s doctor appointment. The server was pleasant and efficient. We both ordered the soup and salad. Salad fresh and crisp. Soup had to be reheated but was delicious (tomato basil). Mom got a free small sundae for her birthday. She always has to have a dessert of some kind after her meal. I had not been in a Friendly’s in years. Used to go way back when they had their mini sundae cups. We had our lunch and got to the appointment in less than 30 minutes.

Friendly’s has really quick service, really good food, for a decent price. My personal favorite thing to get is the honey BBQ super melt. It’s so delicious, and then you have lunch for the next day.:) But… You can’t fill up on your meal because you have to save room for their delicious ice cream. I got the Reese’s peanut butter cup sundae, and man, that could of been the most scrumptious thing I’ve ever tasted in my life! Man it was sooooo good! The vanilla ice cream, peanut butter sauce, hot fudge, and peanut butter cups, all taste beyond amazing! (I’m making myself really hungry right now)
Overall, I totally recommend friendlys. Also, it’s the perfect place to go if you have kids. They have really cool menus to keep them entertained and even an ice cream menu for the kiddos!
Friendly’s just redecorated their restaurant with a 50s theme and it’s really new and nice.

Just not a good experience

Have you ever had mystery turkey?
If not, this place is for you. I got a turkey melt and found some weird deformed slice of meat.
They are rationing French fries at this location, this is good for dieters (not me!)
The chicken Caesar salads are good, again this is good for dieters.
Definately for families, lots of loud children running around. Some crying.
They have cool drinks like blue raspberry shown below– kids and teens love them.

Where do you go on Mother’s Day after a long hard day of shopping at the mall and no reservations? I will tell you where not to go — the lines were crazy!
So — we headed to one of my staples on the road — where no matter how the meal is — the ice cream treat at the end will make things all better.
This time — well it was more then the ice cream. The place was fairly busy and our waiter seemed to handle things very well. He was right there after every course asking how things were and when he did forget something — he was quick to get it once reminded. I know this might sound bad — but we were a bit picky about a lot of things — I almost forgot what I wanted a few times.
The price is good — the food was good and as normal — the ice cream treat his the spot. This might not be the perfect place for a Mother’s Day outing, but we made it work for us!
I’m not sure exactly how the entire place was for cleanliness, but from what I saw and from what I was told by someone in our party — I’d say it was good on this fine Mother’s Day!

I am originally from San Antonio, Texas and currently live in San Diego, California, both do not have a Friendly’s chain anywhere near the area. I had heard about the chain from a coupon service I frequent and so when my partner and the kids were on the lookout for a place to eat after spending the day at Darien Theme Park I opted to try it out.
They have a very large selection to choose from on their menu (s) which should satisfy the most finicky eater (children) and a wonderful selection of ice cream and toppings. The restaurant itself has a great «soda fountain» feel to it with a counter for those feeling nostalgic and booths and tables for the rest of us. I had the mushroom and bacon cheeseburger which came with the option of being cooked Medium well or Well done. With an upgrade of a few cents I chose waffle fries over regular french fries with an extra topping of cheese sauce and bacon bits. The kids had a honey BBQ chicken sandwich and a BLT. My partner had the Ultimate Cheeseburger. It was all very hot when it came to the table and the fries/​waffle fries came to the table crispy.
Finally it was time for the ice cream and this is what brings up my rating for the restaurant, after all this is really the point of the establishment isn’t it? There were many flavors ranging from cotton candy to mint to what I consider the «holy grail» of ice creams «Butter Pecan». I only had the one scoop topped with caramel. Wonderful flavor and the caramel thickened just enough to hold to the spoon and melt once it hit your mouth. Fantastic!
Food: Overall the food was good. It will not be the best burger or melt in the world. I could visually see that the burger patties were formed and frozen and that many of the condiments were processed. With that said you probably don’t walk into Friendly’s expecting an organic or «local» experience, you go because its family friendly, it has a fun atmosphere to bond and just be kids, and the ice cream is very good. I also have to give them props for having «butter pecan».
Service: Our server got derailed after greeting us by an issue in the back of the house and as soon as that occurred another server came to us to let us know she would be back and apologized for the delay (there was none) and promptly took our order. Our original server came by soon after to apologize for being absent for the initial order and checked up on us every 5 minutes or so to let us know our order would be out soon. The food came out about 10 minutes after being ordered and when she brought it to our table apologized again for the delay (again, no real delay). All this really impressed me and makes me happy to give them the highest rating possible for this type of establishment. Dairy Queen should worry with this place around.

This place is always a hit for us almost everything on the menu is delicious. The honey BBQ chicken melt is amazing with the butterfinger sundae for desert. Also try the cheeseburger soup very good. And if your lucky enough that when you go there and there serving the blonde brownie caramel sundae don’t think twice and get it hands down best sundae ever!!! Now we only gave this place 4 stars only because the bathrooms are usually dirty not filthy but always trash on the ground and paper towels are out often

Decent food but not spectacular. The location was clean and the staff were cheery.
Unfortunately their grill died while they were making our food. Without us even asking they gave us 50% off our bill for the extreme wait. I say «extreme» because we had a 20 mo. old with us who has a very short tolerance for sitting properly in a restaurant (something we’re working on, but is difficult because don’t actually eat out very often).
The manager made us feel very comfortable and welcome in his apologies for the wait. The server however needs to work on her promptness and keeping the customer informed. I had to actually seek HER out to find out what in god’s name was taking so long.
Please don’t make your customer’s come TO YOU for answers. A paying patron should be well informed and cared for. It’s what can take a potentially bad scenario (dead grill) to a reasonably decent experience. Not everyone is impatient and without understanding. Simply informing me of the problems in your kitchen allows me to make an informed decision as to how to spend my next 40 minutes — rather than sitting their wondering when our food is going to actually pop out of that little doorway.