Bob Evans — Restaurant in Battle Creek

Our 5 year old daughter has loved eating the piggy pancakes at “Bob Ebbans” since she was a toddler and we have eaten there as a family more than a dozen times on their Kids Eat Free night - my husband and I each ordering a meal, our two children getting something from the kids menu, their meals always getting taken off (sometimes at our prompting if the wait staff forgot). We’ve also used their curbside pickup option for a quick dinner here and there. Sadly, after our past few experiences there, it’s unlikely that our family will ever order anything from the Battle Creek location again.

The past 3-4 times we ate there, we experienced longer than normal wait times - even when there weren’t many other patrons dining in. Twice we have had a very uncomfortable experience with a waiter who repeatedly forgot things, spoke in a rushed and frantic manner, and (if I’m honest) at times seemed to be under the influence of something (sweating, darting eyes, erratic, etc).

Tonight when we ate there, we experienced several issues. The water had an unusual taste to it, so much so that my husband didn’t let our children have any and wouldn’t drink it himself. The waiter (the one I referenced above) didn’t acknowledge us until we’d been there for 10-15 minutes, despite the restaurant being mostly empty. It took a solid 40 minutes for our food to come out, despite us ordering as soon as he came over to introduce himself. As much as we appreciated the complimentary bread that was brought out without being asked, we didn’t appreciate being told in a rushed manner that our food was “almost ready” 5-6 times before we actually saw a plate. Thankfully our children were patient and did well with the wait, but every time he showed up empty handed at our table to frantically apologize and say “just a few more minutes guys, so sorry”, it confused them and they’d ask us where their food was after he left.

The man at the counter, who I assumed to be the night manager, was not well-presented at all and charged me incorrectly more than once (the first time, not taking the kids’ meals off the bill, the second time, only taking one off and then telling me that that’s all it would take off, despite us having several prior experiences to the contrary). He also told me that my debit card only went through for part of the bill, with $2 and some change still owed. I’m able to check our bank activity in real time through an app so I excused myself back to our table to get my phone to verify my account activity. (As a side note, when I went back to the register, I overheard an older gentleman telling the manager that he had never had such poor service in all his life!) I showed the manager that the full amount shown on the receipt did indeed come out of our account immediately and that there were no issues whatsoever with available funds. He, as well as several others in the kitchen and on the wait staff, seemed flustered and upset, and in the end he told me ‘not to worry’ about the ‘outstanding amount’ and then comped the candy that I wanted to purchase while I was up at the register. I think he just wanted to get rid of me - but I did appreciate the gesture, especially since we were charged for one of the kids’ meals and shouldn’t have been.

During the majority of my time speaking with the manager, our waiter kept lurking and trying to ask if everything was alright, as if he was worried about complaints. I didn’t say anything about our poor service to the manager but at this point it’s just unlikely that we’ll ever return to the Bob Evans here in town. I may contact their corporate office to express my concern that it’s gone downhill so badly over the past few months.

A quick note on the bathrooms - during our visit tonight, I needed to change my newborn’s diaper. The changing table in the women’s room was filthy, so much so that the changing pad I laid on the table is getting washed right away (and I was concerned changing my baby on the table even with a pad underneath him). It was just all around a...

Step mom invited me out for a family breakfast 10 people total, I hadn't been here since pre-covid but I remember the giant cinnamon pancakes so we sit down order 2 cinnamon bites for an appetizer and we got 1 order because the server forgot to order 2 but no big deal we get another and wait for our food. When the meal arrives my older brother's (A) food has country gravy instead of sausage gravy so they give him some sausage gravy to put on top weird but okay. Everyone's food couldn't come out at once so we wait for the rest and A finished his food when the second wave hits my younger brother's (B) food is wrong, wrong gravy wrong eggs, so she takes it back and a few minutes later he gets it with both gravy and both eggs. We ask for refills and B finishes his food, the only other table on our side of the restaurant then starts to talk to the server about drinks for 5 minutes when my cousin got his chicken tenders, and when he was halfway done I got my pancakes. They were smaller and with barley any icing okay. B finally got his grits and they were so fresh they were seeds in a bowl of water... almost like they forgot then remembered and made 1 minute grits in 30 seconds. A decided he didn't want the pancake he initially ordered, stepmom did the same with he biscuits and gravy and refills never came (we asked 3 times and she looked at the cups every time...

We arrived yesterday 1030am for our monthly brunch. I don’t usually review, but this experience stood out as the 35-minute wait didn’t line up at all with a fairly empty restaurant at the time we were actually seated. Party of 4, why the ridiculously long wait?! The hostess was oblivious and did not seem aware where to seat us without asking a server. We each had pancakes plus either sausage or bacon. While our server (Marcia?) and another lady (I think Dawn) who helped her were fantastic, going above & beyond, our food just wasn’t up to snuff compared to our usuals. My husband’s bacon was overcooked to where he could barely chew it. My sister’s pancakes were room temperature. My brother-in-law said his eggs and bacon were edible, but not great. My eggs and sausage links seemed overdone, also. It was all inconsistent, so I knew Tina was not the one cooking. We ate some of it instead of having it all remade, because we were beyond hungry and didn’t want to wait even longer. I don’t know what’s changed with leadership or staffing behind the scenes, but this location has gone downhill in recent months enough I needed to write this. The servers are mostly amazing despite food and other issues. We will seriously rethink our brunch location options if things don’t seem better the next...