Perkins American Food Co. — Restaurant in Pickering

I've patronised Perkins for decades, always a go-to when I was in the US. I was very pleased when one popped up in Pickering, not too far of a drive from where I live and have been eating there regularly since then.

On Friday/Valentines day I received a coupon in my inbox from Perkins offering 20% off, so my husband and I decided to have lunch there. When we produced our coupon, the server told us that they weren't accepting them because it was a long weekend. The long weekend was Monday/Family and nothing to do with Friday, but our coupon was still rejected by the server, telling us that there was a sign on the door. We didn't notice the sign on the door, but as we left we noticed a small print obscure sign to the far right of the entrance - not directly in the line of sight when you enter the lobby and competing with a lot of visual pollution.

I found this lack of transparency a bit shady, the sign seemed almost deliberately styled and positioned to get diners into the restaurant, hoping they'd just order and pay full price. If the sign had been clearly displayed I would have turned around and found another restaurant, not because of the lost discount, but because of the principal of the franchisee not complying with the company's offer.

This franchise is happy to take the pension money of the handful of senior couples who eat there on weeknights, when the restaurant would be more or less empty without them. The ood quality isn't that great at this location, the silverware is so cheap it hurts your hands to use it, and the seating isn't particularly comfortable. The booths have upright backs, unlike most other restaurants that have a slight recline for added comfort - they're possibly designed deliberately like that, known as 20 minute seating in the industry, so that customers won't hog tables in a restaurant that doesn't do a lot of wet (alchohol) sales. The seats themselves are falling apart, sagging and worn and your clothes get snagged on the torn/worn out vinyl.

If a restaurant arbitrarily decides not to honour a Company coupon, when other franchisees are, you know that they're struggling. I doubt that my decision to go there again won't affect their bottom line, but I'd rather spend my money where I don't feel like I'm...

My family has enjoyed visiting Perkins since our kids were little.

Tonight my husband and I went for dinner, and the food was tasty as usual. I'm fond of coconut cream pie, but recently discovered their peanut butter pie which is delicious. Sadly I had to remove the onions from my sandwich, I love them, but just can't handle them lately.

We usually have good service when we eat here, but what made this meal extra enjoyable tonight wasn't the pie, or the delicous pot roast sandwich. It was the service - Kayla was first class - she was attentive, helpful and genuinely friendly. She didn't pressure us and was very patient as we got familiar with the new menu items. She made sure the coffee pot was always topped up too.

My husband and I are fairly quiet in public- we don't usually chat people up, and prefer to just keep to ourselves. Well that didn't happen, Kayla removed all our defenses and had us joking with her by the end of our meal. Kayla seems to have a very good rapport with all of the customers, and I can see why, she really has a talent for dealing with people and putting them at ease - that is something you don't see very often, and in the last 20 years of eating in the GTA, I can only remember one other server who had this remarkable skill.

Now I just need to get my hands on her schedule so we can be sure to return when she's on shift.

Thank you Kayla for putting a smile on our faces, you even melted our 'keep ourselves to ourselves' attitude so much that we goofed around with the little boy in the booth next to us - that's a first!

Note - the restaurant feedback on this post is regarding a previous post re: a delivery order from a couple of years ago where they had forgotten to include part of the order. It was resolved satisfactorily and we still visit the restaurant when we're...

Horrible. Horrible. Do NOT go to Pickering location.

We went for dinner for the first time to celebrate my birthday. We ended up having horrible time, as a result of the service and the food. There was only one server for the whole place! Not really the server’s fault, we completely blame poor management. We were not only slow to service, but menus were never removed from our table. We ordered pancakes but never received syrup. For every little detail, we had to not only ask, but then remind the server and then wait. My 7 year old asked for mustard, which we never received. The biscuits and gravy was just a blob of cold gravy and it was so dry. More importantly, we ordered a side of fruit for our 1 year old, and the fruit was rotten. Thankfully, I tried a piece of fruit before cutting it up for my 1 year old and I immediately spit it out. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had fed my child the fruit without trying it. My husband then smelled the fruit bowl and it smelled rotten. We called the server over and politely told her the fruit was rotten, and had her smell it. She apologized and offered fruit from a new batch. If there was a new batch of fruit, why did we get an old batch? We told her we didn’t want it, and because our experience was just bad overall, we just asked for the bill. We didn’t even get the cookies that were part of the kids meals. When the bill came it was like nothing had happened, and she acted like everything was ok. Usually, at other restaurants, a manager would come out, apologize, a discount, something. But nope, nothing. We had gone there for my birthday because I have heard about the desserts, but the display was virtually empty. Overall this was an abysmal experience. We reached out to company to no response. Posting so...