Bob Evans — Restaurant in Chesterton

This review is based on our experience with the Premium Farmhouse Feast meal that we ordered for Thanksgiving. For the last 4 years, we have chosen to forego the 2-day ordeal of making a Thanksgiving dinner from scratch. We've used Cracker Barrel for each of these meals, including their hot and ready option and their heat and serve option. The heat and serve option worked best for us, since we didn't have to worry about the food cooling down during transport. The heat and serve option saved us time (only takes about 2 hours), left us with little to no cooking mess or dishes, and provided us with more than enough food for 8-10 people.

This year, we chose to try something new and go with Bob Evans. We ordered the Premium Farmhouse Feast with some additional sides about a week before Thanksgiving. Tried ordering online, but the system wouldn't take our information, so we had to call the store directly. Annoying, but not too much of an issue.

When we got the meal home on Thanksgiving, however, we had some problems.

1. Everything came in plastic take-home containers (except the turkey), which meant that I had to use my own baking dishes and thus have a mess to clean after dinner. Every time we ordered from Cracker Barrel, each food was packaged in an aluminum tray for easy and clean reheating, so that's what I was expecting.

2. There were no reheating instructions in the box. My wife called the store and the girl who answered the phone said she didn't know the instructions, but that we could look them up online. For $125, I really don't think I should have to go online and look up instructions, but I had no other option.

3. The food quality was not good. The ham was pre-sliced, so it dried out in the oven (there were only 8 slices, so 2 guests didn't get any ham). The rolls were stale and dry. The pumpkin bread was inedible. The apple pie was a frozen pie and actually came in its retail packaging. The cranberry sauce was a single serving. I called the number to complain about the food quality, but no one answered and there was not even an option to leave a voicemail.

I can't say how the food or service is at this Bob Evans on a normal basis, but this particular experience left me wanting. I can thank the store, however, for at least helping me make the decision to go back to making everything...

My wife and i decided to actually go out to enjoy a nice holiday breakfast to start our day. We don't get the chance all that often. Typically i cook breakfast at home. Wel, here is our experience. Server was decent. Never got refills on drinks until asking for. Adjacent table (arrived around 10 minutes after us) received their food 5 minutes before we (2) received our food. Our order was 1 egg over easy with 2 bacon (asked for crispy received not crispy) with toast and hash browns, and biscuits and gravy. Very easy order. Gravy was only warm, found out after mixing in biscuit. We informed the server, she took it back and said she would get new. Well, it came out hot but it was only my original microwaved and now crusted edge gravy. Kinda unsanitaryto reheat in microwave used for orders for other people as i already had started to eat. Soggy biscuit and pretty nasty. Server stated that they always microwave the gravy. If true, why did it take so long for our small and easy order? No jelly for the extremely over buttered toast. We did question the server why adjacent table (came 10 minutes after us) received their order 5 minutes before us. No answer except, "I will get the manager". We explained experience and she stated that my biscuits n gravy would be removed from order. We did not go there for luke warm food that gets reheated only to get it free. My wife went up to pay and the manager stated it was free. No apology nor smile. Our daughter is a server, we know how poorly the restaurants pay and they rely on tips (that get taxed too). We left the normal tip of $5.00 for her. It would have been more if handled better by the server and the manager. The kitchen was the biggest problem, with inadequately heated food and orders apparently left to sit. If you like reheated 2 time microwaved food, this place is a perfect fit for you. We will not be back. Below picture is of the food uneaten as it was not good. I typically eat every bit especially if I...

Me and my husband went there for dinner around 7 pm the place was almost empty and it took the waitress awhile to come to our table to take drink orders and then after we ordered our food she was talking to her coworkers and I noticed our food was up so we waited about 5 minutes and then my husband stood up to see where she was at and then she noticed him and come over to our table and asked if we needed anything and my husband said yes our food!! And she said oh ok I will get it for you right now so then she went to the window and put our food on the counter and was looking for the sour cream and other amittides that we ordered with our meal and apparently had to go back to the kitchen for a new tube of sour cream so by the time we actually got our food it was getting cold... so when the manager was out on the floor my husband called her over and told her that his food was cold and about the waitress having a bad attitude so she gave us a 20% discount for our trouble .... I was very unhappy because I have eaten there Several times before with no problems I'm not sure if the waitress was just have been a really bad day or she just wasn't into her job that night but my husband said he will never eat at that my Bob...