Friendly’s

I come here for breakfast pretty much every other weekend, mostly because there’s always parking and never a line even after 9AM. I also stop in occasionally for lunch when I’m craving grilled cheese and tomato soup. I’m not sure what’s with all the haters Unilocaling, this is a chain restaurant and delivers the brand promise of uncomplicated meals and ice cream desserts for not too much money. They’re family-​friendly and will cheerfully tolerate octogenarian micromanagement as well.
The servers are friendly and the food is decent. If you’re cheap bring the coupons from last week’s circular, I never felt good about cashing them in because the bill’s rarely over $ 15 anyway.

5 Stars on Unilocal (that is not Z*#ATS)
Favorite place for Super Grilled Cheeses
tuna fish chicken turkey
Above average Chowder for a cheap Price!
Food and Ice cream No Other Place has Food and Ice Cream.
Everything tastes 5 Star Customer Stomach Satisfied.
The Servers Smile Smile Smile
I would die without Friendlys especially with Brighams gone 20 years ago in most places

I had breakfast here once. It was okay. I stopped there today, had coffee and a bowl of chowder,. Coffee was filled to the absolute top of my cup. No room for cream. I had to put napkins on the saucer to absorb the overflow. Meh.
Had a bowl of chowder. It was served cold. Blech!
Waitress gave me two spoons, both with long handles and clearly for ice cream, not food.
All added up to a messy, unappealing and unappetizing experience. Yuk

Horrible service, horrible attitudes, and horrible food, the only thing good was the ice cream, if I wasn’t getting food for my kids I wouldn’t have gave my money to this company. I walked in and waited for ten mins to get some help, several employees walked by without greeting or asking if I needed help. The restaurant was not busy, but I had to walk up to fountain service area before I could get some help. When I approached the employee, she was rude, didn’t smile and looked like she was irritated because she had to help me. I told her I had an order to go and she looked at me like I was speaking french. I will never ever spend any of my hard earned money at Friendly’s again!

I have eaten here many many times based on how close is it to my house. The meals are always very consistent, which is good. The food isn’t awesome quality but it is very good for what it is. The whole staff is very nice, never had a problem. And the price is always very cheap.

6÷3÷15 9:35 PM. Staff was VERY loud in the back. I was in the front booth. Swearing heard. Real lack of management. Food was just OK. Will not go back. Was like eating in a high school cafeteria. Bunch of adolescents gone wild.

This restaurant isn’t bad. Don’t have to wait too long for food. Some of the staff is pretty rude though, though some are very very good. I went there with my mom the other day and just needed a table, a booth, for two. They had plenty available. We were told to wait a few minutes, fine. The people behind us was a party of 26. Didn’t call ahead or anything… but they got seated before us, after all the staff got together and pushed tables together. Easier to seat 2 than 26, especially when they weren’t prepared for a group that size (not their fault)

The burger I had to tonight was a sorry excuse of a burger. It barely had any burger or a legitimate bun it was literally half toasted toast. This place has always been very low quality so I blame some of this on my self. Nonetheless I wouldn’t give any stars if I could.

My second tine here for Breakfast both times I t was really good. The waitstaff is very nice.

I only come here because it is a tradition for my best friend and I to come for the cheap food. If we haven’t come as often as we did, I would rather go to Panera across the street.
The menu has changed a bit since I’ve started coming here which is a good and bad thing. Good because Friendlys is keeping their menu updated but bad because they keep changing their specials and my favorite dishes are never included anymore.
Today, we got seated after a couple of minutes of waiting at the host booth and waited for another 10 minutes or so until our waitress, Ophelia, came around. After I ordered their new Stuffed Turkey Melt thing which was OKAY. There was one chunk of cranberry sauce in the middle that was better after I spreaded it myself. The mayo and the cheese kinda ruined it. My waitressed asked me how it was and I told her it was OKAY. She responded, «Yea, it looks questionable.» Gee, thanks. My best friend ordered his usual Honey Barbecue Super Melt with Loaded Waffle Fries but just got regular Waffle Fries.
It took us a while to get our dessert which was sloppily made which isn’t surprising since it’s a chain restaurant.
We got charged extra for my best friend’s un-​Loaded Waffle Fries which was annoying because it already took her a long time to get the check to us and now she had to get her manager to change the bill. Instead of changing the bill, she just gave us 75 cents in change which probably came out of her pocket because it was going to take her manager too long to make the change. If my best friend wasn’t a waiter himself and didn’t insist me on tipping her properly, I would’ve given her $ 2 even though I’ve been feeling generous since it is the holidays.
This location is pretty good for people watching since you have old people who come here, little kids who run around, and many different kinds of suburban kids.
The food is OKAY (what do you expect for a chain restaurant and for the price) and the service is worse. Thank god I only come here twice a year.

COCKROACH NIGHTMARE
I hate to be the one to share this story, but after tonight I felt it necessary.
First of all I love the Friendly’s franchise and grew up on it. Over the past decade there have been more and more of them shutting down and I was hopeful once I saw this location had some renovations done. Unfortunately, still there is something radically wrong with the service and management.
My first job was at a Friendly’s several years ago when I was a teenager, and I still don’t know why something always seems to go wrong there. I know when I worked at Friendly’s (it was in Acton at a strip mall, but no longer exists) I tried to give my best service to guests, but something always seemed to go wrong (unsanitary conditions, lack of competent management, and ice cream always took so long for the fountain staff to make).
The management is shady and it’s a shame because when I think of Friendly’s, I think, affordable; family fair; ice cream and meals… but now even with the new CEO, a fresh look and after they filed for bankruptcy– it’s clear as crystal some fundamental faults still remain… as I had a very scary experience tonight…
I am not someone who is going to expect the best quality of food from here because it’s Friendly’s…food’s alright… ice creams great… BUT.
Tonight I was munching on an appetizer with my boyfriend tonight then he looks at the side of my booth and says, «Don’t move…» Before I knew it, I was looking at three COCKROACHES crawling near me… and then I look to the left and there are more covering my purse. I felt like puking right then and there.
I told the waitress (Rebecca) about this and she kept saying, «I’m sorry»…and I told her it wasn’t her fault. Had there been more sufficient training for the youngin’s who start out here, this would be a scenario where you would notify the manager right away; she didn’t. I’ve cut a lot of the staff slack for the long waiting to be seated, the messy take out station, and a whole laundry list of faults.
We gave our server a decent tip for the crap we did get, and she came up to us saying, «Is this all set?» She grabs it without waiting for our response then opens it instantly to see the amount of tip we left. Bill came to 21 bucks — we tipped her 6… she gives us a dirty look and leaves. Don’t even get me started on how many things are wrong with that.
There was another instance where my bf and his mom wanted to eat here, and we waited 45 minutes at least for the check… we had to go thru a little bit of a goose chase to track down our server.
The management needs to have a more organized way of running this establishment if Friendly’s stands any chance maintaining business. There has to be side work for staff where everything is cleaned thoroughly throughout their shift and before they leave. There also needs to be better communication and conduct from the servers; I saw one server yelling at someone and I could hear everything she was saying. I know this is a casual place – not a 5 star restaurant and I hope they step it up because like I said I love Friendly’s – and they could be SO MUCH better, if rules and regulations were more strict and organized.
Cockroaches…(((shudder)))

Food good. Place filthy and not that busy. No excuse. Staff was friendly but service was very slow. Tables had been wiped but were sticky and dirty. Floors were dirty and shoes stuck as we walked. Avoid this one.

I have gone to this location sporadically for a number of years. After tonight I will be hard pressed to go again soon. The staff tries but seems to be always very stressed. Some of them lack even a modicum of professionalism, like the company hasn’t given them any training. I went to the take out window for ice cream and you can see into the kitchen. The preparation area is very disorganized and not as clean as it should be. Even the preparers uniforms are in need of cleaning — caked with syrup, jimmies and whatever else they came in contact with in the recent past.
The parent company has been in and out of bankruptcy a few times and to think this is one of the better performing locations since it is still open is surprising. This site could use better management as the product, ice cream and food, isn’t terrible. I’ve been to other locations that do a far superior job at cleanliness and service.

This place needs a manager!
The food was good, it could have been hotter. The service was Slow, I think they were under staffed. My table was poorly cleaned, it was covered with sticky smear marks. The floors needed to be cleaned and vacuumed.
I talked to the manager afterwards… not sure if he understood me or cared?

It took about 5 minutes before someone came by to acknowledge and seat us. We were then seated. After about 10 minutes, our waitress had not come over even once. We were about to leave, but I figured I should let the manager know about the delay. About 5 minutes later, the waitress did come over. We had to ask 2x for a soda refill, and 2x for a glass of water. When the bill came, it was the wrong bill (someone else’s table). When I looked at the corrected bill, I saw that she had charged me for the wrong type of sandwich (ultimate instead of plain). She did not offer to fix that on the bill — in fact, she said she was not able to. The new look of the restaurant is wonderful, and the food was delicious, but the service is just as bad as I remember before the makeover. We probably won’t return anytime soon.

Okay, so this is Friendly’s guys. I’ve been reading the other reviews and people are pretty harsh on Friendly’s. It’s a cheap little family restaurant chain, so it doesn’t aim to be a 5 star restaurant. It’s just a place to eat a little, have some deserts, and talk with your companions.
Service is often slow, I won’t deny it either, but it’s a great place to come and talk and sit around with friends. I don’t come here when I’m in a rush, I come with groups of friends who I want to talk to for a while and hang out with for an exciting conversation. Look at the service time as a bonding opportunity — just take it into account before you head there. Sometimes service is snappy, you never know!
The ice cream is pretty quality, you have to give them that. Not artisan, but quality. Also, this is one of the few places open late in this area, like 1 a.m. late, which is rare because NOTHING in Lexington, Waltham, Concord, Arlington, or nearby is a nice local place to chill with friends late at night. So please be kind to Friendly’s, it’s great that they’re here.
Also, if you go ask for Kevin, he’s the ABSOLUTE BEST waiter around if you want to start a friendly conversation! Service here is great, you just have to be Friendly.

Oh boy. I hate giving lower than 4 reviews for anything. But honestly. I have no idea how this business is still in operation, especially this particular store.
Now, first off, I’d like to mention that Friendly’s has been a part of my life for as long as Barney (the big, lovable, purple dinosaur) has been — I used to love going to Friendly’s with my family, and gorging on the chicken tenders, fries, and ice cream.
Fast forward a little bit under two decades, and here we end up, my cheap college go to restaurant… and only if I was depressingly low on cash and was willing to give Friendly’s another shot for old times sake.
Sadly, each time, they disappointed me. And it’s not in particular the food (although the quality did go down from when I used to love it) — it’s the service. It blows. Seriously. I’ve been here at times when there is no host, and we would need for a waitress to notice us just standing around because that’s what we obviously love to do. Then, after they seated us, it was sayonara to us — the server wouldn’t be back for awhile. Of course, the service would vary depending on the hour and the server, but I thought it was standard enough to still make this one of the deciding factors that this particular location deserves a two.
All in all, only reason this isn’t getting a one is because the food is still half decent (assuming it’s not cold because it took forever to get to us), and at an extremely affordable price.

Worst service ever

Okay, I have a serious soft spot for Friendly’s, since I grew up going to one. I love the grilled cheese and I love their sundaes, Fribbles, and FrienZs!
I sometimes go to the Watertown location (and end up irritated by the staff there) but last night I went to the Waltham one. It was actually the best experience I’ve had a Friendly’s in a very long time. The interior was redone sometime over the past few months and it was much more welcoming than the older Friendly’s.
The staff was actually FRIENDLY (!!!) and attentive without hovering.

okay, so I read the other reviews to see what others think before I write my review. So I’ll bestow my advice upon all of you:
FRIENDLY’S IS FOR BREAKFAST ONLY!!!
IF you go for lunch, you’re normally alright, but the longer those doors are unlocked the worse the service gets, hour by hour.
The morning crew is great, two Donna’s and Anne, are 3 of the nicest waitresses you’ll ever find. If you’ve never eaten at a dinner before come her for breakfast, that’s the service you get. Friendly fast services with a side of wit, local sports and politics and topped with a heaping of sarcasm… and if you become a regular maybe a menu slap to the back of the head.
The food for breakfast is good, sometimes great, rarely, if ever, bad.
Lunch time, you still get the morning crew, a bit worn down and maybe 1 or 2 new waitstaff thrown in. Not as good as the morning, but still quick get you in get you out for lunch crew.
Around 2pm all the talented caring people leave the staff. You get high schoolers, and people working in restaurants ‘for a living’ trust me I once was one of these people, most are good, but then again most work at more established places than Friendlys.
Dinner is always hit or miss. Sometimes you hit, right manager, right waiter, right cook, right ice cream maker, sometimes, not often. More often you get poor service, poor food, slow ice cream maker, and no manager in site.
So why if it’s so bad give 4 stars? I go to Breakfast, dinner crew cost this place a star.