Perkins American Food Co. — Restaurant in Bethlehem Township

I have been buying pies from Perkins’ restaurants for years…and I swear by them. They aren’t ‘cheap’, but the flavor and the tender caramel-apple crumb pie is worth every cent to me; try one and I’m absolutely positive you’ll agree, wholeheartedly!! I usually buy my pies from 2 restaurant/bakeries…the one at Cedar Crest and Hamilton, and the other on South Lehigh Street, both in Allentown. Last week I found myself on Rte 191 in Bethlehem, so I decided to purchase my pies for our Memorial Day family cookout there at the intersection of Rte 22.

The pies smelled, and tasted as they should, the apples just slightly firmer than ‘tender’…the way they should be; not hard to chew at all and yet not mushy. All-in-all, everything seemed on par with the pies at my usual restaurants. So why then would I rate this restaurant only 1 star, you are probably asking yourself. The caramel on both pies was mostly ok, but there were large globs of it around the edges that had firmed up like rubber, impossible to chew through; it seemed like a cross between rubber and leather. [SEE PHOTO #1] That, in-itself, wasn’t favorable but was forgivable IMHO. But there was something far worse than the caramel plaguing these pies. Both had thin, pointy and sharp shards of plastic baked into the apple filling. The pieces ranged in size from about 1/4” to just over 3/8” in width and were very thin. [SEE PHOTO #2]

At first, the attendees of the cookout who found the plastic in their pie, myself included, thought it to be part of the apple cores which have a similar color and texture…flexible yet solid and not chewable. I believe I swallowed one by accident, Not expecting anything but edible ingredients in the pie, but then another piece came to my fork. When I couldn’t chew it, I spit it out into a napkin so that I could look at it. Moments later I realized it was plastic, and brought it to the attention of the rest of the family. Two others had spit out pieces they thought were core onto their plates; closer inspection proved them to be the same plastic.

I am a forgiving person by nature, but I am not ignorant. While I can forgive whatever caused this anomaly with these pies, I will not purchase pies from this restaurant/bakery again…strictly out of a sense of self-preservation and good health. I have had some unusual GI trouble since the cookout…I hope it clears itself up with some over-the-counter aids from the pharmacy. I don’t know where these plastic pieces could have come from, but they very well could have caused a very serious health emergency.

Please, take this as a friendly heads-up to check your pie and chew thoroughly before swallowing if you chance buying one at this location at all. I would highly suggest keeping the pies away from children; had a small child swallowed a piece of that plastic, God only knows what might have happened. I am sorry for the bad review about this restaurant, but the safety of people comes first...

We were a group of six friends meeting for Brunch.

The wait staff sat us in an area perfect for our chattering.

The waiter was more than excellent, attentive and accommodating to our various special requests.

The Food...fast produced on a Sunday Morning was nothing special, homefries tasting a tad too close to burned. Over medium eggs, barely made the medium mark.

The pancakes were YUMMY and perfect.

The amount of food with Perkin's meals is very plentiful. I had to share half my meal!

Observations: Cobwebs in the lower corner of the window next to my arm.

The salt shaker not only was blocked from pouring (prob due to humidity), but the cap was coated in a hopefully ketchup mess that was not fresh. Gross to touch and use.

Both concerns are easily remedied by alert closing staff. IMHO

The restrooms were functional and super busy....only 2 stalls in womans' room.

The Bakery Counter was enticing with treats for any taste. I suggest a muffin toasted on the grill.

Also...I have purchased pies to go in the past for our home.

I also have used Perkins bakery items as a funeral offering to families with out of town guests during a sad time.

I was pleased to note the calorie count on the food items in the cases and on the menus.

We certainly will return. I do not mean my review to scare anyone.

The most difficult part of this visit was choosing which combo of breakfast I wanted and could consume in...

Had the worst service i've ever experienced here and can't even rate the food because I never got it. My boyfriend and I went around 1:30 to order breakfast. All we ordered was pancakes and french toast and waited over 45 minutes. Tables all around us ordered after us and still got their food before us and they even ordered lunch food which takes much longer to cook than a couple pancakes. After bringing out food to the table next to us, our waitress told us our food would be right out and placed the syrups on our table. Waited another 20 minutes and still nothing. People at the other table even noticed and said how ridiculous it was. After waiting at least 40 minutes our waitress asked if we wanted to order a muffin to eat while we were waiting, which just shows that they had not even started making our food yet. We declined the muffin because we didn't want to pay any more. Finally, we got up and left because of how ridiculous it was. On our way out, we ran into another couple that had walked in the door after us and was leaving because they already ordered, ate, and paid before we even received our food. Not sure how long we would have waited for our food if we hadn't left. Again, worst service I've ever experienced and would definitely not recommend going here. The place was not even busy so they really...