Friendly’s

This Friendly’s location is like that acquaintance who you only see once in a while and each time you make the mistake of waving to them and getting trapped into a conversation, only to walk away an hour later promising yourself that next time, you’ll avoid them at all costs. By the next time you see the person, you think maybe things have changed, but again and again you are snapped back into reality by another negative experience. The restaurant is often dirty, the service is almost always awful and the food is inconsistent. There is a waiter at this location who has NO BUSINESS working with the public. He is awkward, rude and once argued with me for 5 minutes in front of my kids because I said we didn’t want dessert. I once went in just to grab a quick cone to go. After paying and waiting about 10 minutes (I was the only take out customer) I watched as a very sloppy employee made my cone and then used her hand to apply sprinkles to my ice cream… she actually reached in to a container, grabbed a handful of sprinkles and rubbed her hand all over my ice cream. She was also coughing quite a bit. Rather than accept the germy cone, I walked out the door after paying with NO cone. Honestly, the new décor at most Friendly’s is great, but every single location needs a bathroom reno. The ladies’ rooms at every location around here are dirty, smelly and in disrepair. I did have exceptional service from a great server at the Palmer location one time and made it a point to let corporate know… it was so rare for Palmer that I thought I should give the girl some props.

I went to this restaurant with my boyfriend. The food seemed to taste good until it came back up later that night. Food poisoning. We don’t plan on ever coming back to this Friendlys.

My family goes to this Friendly’s maybe twice a month. We only go to this Friendly’s as it is the best run in the area in my opinion. Once you come in you are always greeted with a smile and seated promptly. At their busiest we still only had to wait an appropriate amount of time to get our food. The restaurant itself is totally redone to look like a Friendly’s from the 50’s. It came out beautiful and lends itself as the perfect backdrop for a fun family night out. Food here is always solid to good. If you are looking for five star food go somewhere where the dinner will cost you more. If you are looking for a solid meal and a fun place to take the kids then this Friendly’s is the place.

Saw them stacking meals on top of one another at the kitchen pick up Window for the wait staff. Gross practice. Won’t go back to this one… didn’t stay this particular time either!

Slightly below average even for a Friendly’s which is already pretty low. The interior looks tired and needs updating. Service, while nice, is slow. The food is on par with most other Friendlys.

So we stopped here, only a few miles from the Corporate HQ of Friendly’s and close to its restaurant-​of-​origin, expecting a fairly classic Friendly experience as a consequence.
Alas, it only highlighted the lack of attention to detail that is the hallmark of the 21^st century Friendly’s. Since our server was nice and fairly attentive, and the manager checked in at our table twice, I can only conclude that the responsibility for Friendly’s steady decline lies farther up the management chain, not the very kind and sincere people who work at this particular location.
This, for example, was the second separate Friendly’s in as many visits to different locations where the ice cream freezer was broken. And the food came out at four different temperatures for four different diners, ranging from the plate-​was-​obviously-​microwaved-​too-​long to, hey-why-don’t-you-use-this-soup-to-chill-your-ice-cream-if-the-freezer-is-broken. Of our last five or six visits to various Friendly’s, not once did we get in and out in less than an hour, with an hour and a half fairly standard.
The other shocking revelation I had on this visit is: Friendly’s just is no longer a bargain. Adults clock in at over $ 10 a head, and the kids’ meals don’t have big portions or anything like a variety of side options for the $ 7 or so you end up clocking in, ice cream included notwithstanding.
It pains me to say this, but Denny’s is a better experience these days than Friendly’s. That they can’t get a restaurant THIS CLOSE to the Corporate headquarters up to old Friendly’s standards is a sign they’re treading water. The niche of grandparents-​taking-​the-​grandkids out for lunch and ice cream isn’t exactly a huge profit generator.

Hello! Not much to do in Palmer, so this is THE SPOT.
This Friendly’s is practically my second home. I’d almost walk right back into the kitchen and start cooking for myself. The waitstaff is always young and adorable in that «high school kid from nowhere» kind of way. you can’t help but feel for their need to make a dollar so they can take off to Boston. Only 77 miles away!
Friendly’s is a chain, so there’s really no need to get into the food or ice-​cream. All the restaurants are the same in that regard.
What this particular one has is small town charm, a family feel, and really. everyone DOES know your name. It can get busy (see above about nothing to do in Palmer), but you’ll know everyone in the place anyway. Just like a high school reunion. Hmm. maybe it should lose a star for that.
All in all, I love the Palmer Friendly’s.