Friendly’s

It’s yet another Friendly’s, (It’s yet another Friendly’s), with a whoop-​de-​do and hickory dock, don’t forget that the whole chain is pretty much a crock.
OK, so with that holiday jingle out of the way, it loathes me to have to say that the kids drug me to yet another Friendly’s. I get the appeal of the chain in premise but my wallet sadly needs to call BS as the prices are really high considering the quality of what is being rendered.
I must say that this Friendly’s location compared to most is huge both in terms of seating and in terms of parking. I can’t imagine a scenario where you would need to wait to be seated short of being here during a Lucy related event.
The service was shockingly very, very good. Our server «S» was on top of things from the moment our butts hit the seats until we left. Timely refills, food being brought out ASAP and a great demeanor equaled A+ all around.
The problem as always is that the food is simply not that good and the «new» kids menu offerings/​pricing is poor compared to what was offered prior.
We did the two for twenty shtick although due to past horror stories starting with an app versus ice cream (audible gasps from the three people who will read this) seemed like a better choice. The loaded waffle fries hit the table entirely, entirely too fast. This batch had to have been sitting around for a while as the fries by themselves were very dry and hard. The Honey BBQ Chicken Supermelt was done in a way that I never seen before. On one half of the sandwich the chicken tenders were slathered in sauce and the other side was more or less dry. I’m not sure I understand how that can happen?
The kids meals come with ice cream so there is no avoiding it for them (not that they care) but the old lady and I as mentioned prior abstained as in the past we’ve had too many run ins with Friendly’s ice cream that had small to large ice hunks in it, that tasted very freezer burned and toppings that very old/​stale. This is not to say that the Friendly’s ice cream you can find in some supermarkets (that’s the way to go if you can because the price they sell it for in the restaurants is hella high in comparison) isn’t good because it is but clearly how the ice cream is stored at the restaurants is to me the problem.
I suppose things could have been a lot worse here and I should consider my lucky that they weren’t but either way at best to me Friendly’s is a three star proposition on a good day and only goes down from there.

When I was a toddler, my mom worked at a Friendly’s and that’s when my addiction to watermelon sherbet began. I grew up far from New York, I’m now an Army wife who moves around a lot and rarely get back, but when I do, getting watermelon sherbet is a priority for me. We drove 53 miles out of our way to get to this, the last Friendly’s in western New York with it in stock. Our server was excited for me and she and the manager were so incredibly accommodating. Annette, the manager, went above and beyond to get me two half gallons that were as frozen as possible so I could binge on my favorite treat during my short trip here. She and everyone made my day and I’m incredibly grateful.

This is a good place to go for a quick bite to eat. Its clean and the staff is nice and friendly. They have a good selection of food on there menu and the price is eight for what you get. They also have great desserts for everyone.

My sweetie’s family has a history of going to Friendly’s, although not this particular location, so when we were in Jamestown, I decided to give her a treat by taking her there.
I liked the décor. It’s eclectic, with a sort of antique-​shop-​meets-​flea-​market, «I don’t care if it’s fashionable, I like it» sort of appeal to it. (And, no, I’m not into the kind of place that actually knows, or even cares, what «this season’s» colours are…)
Apparently, Friendly’s two big schticks are the ice cream (which, regrettably, we didn’t have enough room left to try), and the «Build Your Own Burger» system. There is a menu with a fair number of other choices, but the «Build Your Own Burger» sounded like fun, so we decided to try that.
The concept is somewhat similar to Harvey’s (for my fellow Canucks), only instead of standing at the counter and telling the cook what to put on, you tick off choices on a slip of paper and give it to your server.
On the plus side, there are a lot more choices in toppings (and patties) than Harvey’s offers. The burgers were also extremely good. And waffle fries (a recently-​discovered passion of mine) were one of the choices for sides.
For reasons which were not at all clear to me, there were no options for relish. No sweet green relish, no red hamburger relish, no corn relish, no onion relish, no cranberry sauce to go with the turkey burger, and definitely no ajvar. (They did have salsa.) I found it extremely odd that they neglected the opportunity to provide a lot more variety for little to no effort.
On the minus side, once you go beyond mayo, lettuce, and tomato, each topping has a price (even, oddly enough, pickles). We didn’t load up our burgers with stupid amounts of toppings like a Dagwood sandwich, or anything close to it, but the bill still produced considerable «sticker shock». We could have had more food for less at one of those «Gourmet» burger chains like Red Robin.
And, unfortunately, we had one of those servers who, if you don’t jive with her timing, ignores you for the rest of your visit. She asked us if we were ready to order while handing us the menus, and then twice more before we had had the chance to read through them and make our decisions, and then we had to flag her down to place our orders, and she was nowhere to be seen when we wanted our glasses topped up.
I wanted to like this place. I really did. The food’s good, the atmosphere is fun, and I really like the «Build Your Own Burger» concept. But they need to lower their prices. And, apparently, teach their servers about, well, service.

The service is to be desired. Very unfriendly staff, as I went to this place twice. The food is okay and reasonable. I would only recommend this place for a small snack or light meal. Don’t expect refills of beverages without flagging down a waitress or having to ask for a refill when your glass is completely empty.

I lived in Rochester NY for a while so Friendly’s was a frequent establishment I visited as a kid. However, going back to it in Jamestown NY, I was quite surprised by the menu.
Service here was disappointing. Our waitress did not come enough to refill our waters and attend to our needs. When we got to the table, the seats were all wet from cleaning. The server brought us to our tables and just left so we had to fan the seats with our menus for 3 minutes. This is the main cause for the low rating.
We got our menus and mine was quite disgusting. Sticky and crap on it. Anyways, what surprised me was out of the 30 or so items on the list, only 5 items were below 555 calories. The salads were all (with dressing) over 1k calories. I never realized how bad (for your body) the food here was.
Ended up getting the grilled chicken and shrimp over rice dish under 555 calories. It was aitte at best.
I will probably just go back for ice cream when I’m craving it but not for food.

My wife and I stopped at Friendly’s, long-​since gone from Michigan, for a simple dinner while traveling. As a vegetarian, I thought that I was out of luck here until I noticed that they would make any burger with a veggie Boca patty upon request. My burger was nicely fried. However, the french fries were average to below. I finished off with a strawberry-​banana smoothie, redolent of fruit and better than I expected. My wife’s Chicken Bruschetta sandwich was fine and she appreciated the restaurant’s willingness to substitute a vegetable blend for fries.
On the negative side, the service was a little slow (somewhat surprising because the place wasn’t that crowded). The waitstaff was also a little heavy handed urging us to support a New York State hospital burn unit that the Friendly’s was sponsoring (we ultimately did so anyway).
Overall, though, our experience was decent, somewhat better than I expected.

I’ve visited this location numerous times in the past. This review will mainly be based on the most recent visit and with small amounts from older visits. The most recent visit was at 11:15PM on Friday, June 04, 2010.
PRODUCTS: The food here is usually pretty good. During our most recent visit we weren’t served any food or drinks since we left after waiting for a very long time with no service.
SERVICE: Service at this Friendly’s location is usually really good and the staff is pretty friendly, but during our most recent visit the service was really poor. We waited 4 minutes at the front door to be seated and overheard the female waitress say «I don’t want to seat them and I don’t want anymore tables». We eventually got seated by a polite man (possibly the night manager) and he was the last to serve us. The restaurant had only 4 other tables with 2 female waitresses, but neither of them offered drinks, or told us that they would be right with us. We waited over 10 minutes at the tables and both female waitress were just wiping previously cleaned tables 10 feet away. They didn’t even acknowledge us when we got up and left. Very bad service! Friendly’s lost 2 stars due to lack of service.
CLEANLINESS: The tables are usually clean, but during our most recent visit the top of our table was clean and the side edges around the table was a bit sticky. The cleanliness of the restrooms are unknown since I’ve never used them in the past.
ATMOSPHERE: The feeling in the restaurant in the past is fun and relaxed, but during our most recent visit with bad service we didn’t feel invited and that we were a nuisance.
OTHER NOTES: None