Bob Evans — Restaurant in Columbus

I placed a curbside order at 8:01 PM that was supposed to be ready at 8:27. I arrived at 8:25, called, and I was told it would be "just a minute -- they have to make one more thing." I called at 8:39 to find out the status -- "it's almost ready -- I'll bring it out." At 8:47, half an hour after the order was supposed to be ready, I went inside to request a manager to cancel the order and get a refund. Brittany, the "manager" (and I use that term loosely) said they don't do refunds. I asked why not? She said, "because." I repeated my question, "why not", she said "because." I told her just because isn't an answer. She snapped at me and said, "because we aren't allowed to do cash regunds." I told her I didn't want cash, I wanted a credit back to my AmEx. "We don't do that." At 8:59, she walked away. I was in my car driving away at 9:01. I got home at 9:05 p.m., and -- SURPRISE! The food was cold. I gave it to our cats, because at that point, I figured the nasty people there had probably spit in the food. There were other exchanges, and more stupidity. One of our desserts was thrown in the bag, upside down and in pieces. The sausage gravy container was upside down and leaking out the sides, and there were no biscuits... To add insult to injury, they now automatically add a more than ten percent tip for curbside pickups. Thus, there is absolutely NO incentive to provide good customer service.

Not only will I never set foot in another Bob Evans, I'll never buy another Bob Evans mashed potatoes or any other of their products at the grocery store.

This experience is all the more ridiculous because this restaurant is about a mile, if that, from the corporate headquarters, but the restaurant staff obviously isn't remotely concerned that corporate staff will stop by.

Golden Gate, the investment company that bought Bob Evans should sell it and look for something profitable.

And honestly, how did this place manage to get a 4+ rating? They certainly don't deserve it. I only gave it 1's because you can't skip the rating.

If only they let you post a picture, I'd show you the cheesecake (pie) disaster and the sausage gravy mess....

⭐ 1-Star Review — Bob Evans (New Albany, OH)

This location has some of the worst management I’ve ever seen. Upon walking in, the first thing I noticed was the manager, Brittany, standing around doing absolutely nothing while we waited to be seated. She looked directly at us — clearly saw we were waiting — and still didn’t move a muscle. That should’ve been the first red flag.

Once seated, things only got worse. They put us in a section with five other tables, all being handled by one single server — a blonde waitress who was clearly exhausted and overwhelmed but still busting her tail to take care of everyone. Meanwhile, Brittany just stood there, watching this poor woman struggle while doing absolutely nothing to help.

To make matters worse, there were two other servers standing behind the counter laughing and socializing, not lifting a finger to help deliver food or take tables. This went on the entire time we were there. It wasn’t until about three-quarters of the way through our meal that the place started filling up even more, forcing the others to finally get off their backsides and actually start doing their jobs.

I honestly felt bad for our waitress — she was the only reason the meal went smoothly at all. You could hear the strain and exhaustion in her voice. She mentioned she’d been working since 7:30 a.m., and this was at 5:15 p.m. That’s nearly ten hours straight of being left to fend for herself while the manager stood by doing nothing. That’s not just bad management — that’s negligence.

The only saving grace here was the food, which was actually excellent. The kitchen clearly knows what they’re doing. But when management allows their staff to be treated like that — and customers to witness it firsthand — it overshadows everything good about the meal.

If corporate Bob Evans ever reads this, you need to seriously re-evaluate the leadership at your New Albany, Ohio location. Your employees deserve better support, and your customers deserve...

Terrible service. My spouse and I FREQUENTLY visit Bob Evans, this particular location to be exact. After waiting for service once being seated, the waitress did not enlighten us with her name after waiting 10 minutes. Once she came to our table, she rushed us with our drink orders and mentioned if we didn’t have our order ready she was leaving us to cater other customers, but in fact we were ready at the moment and said that once she came to the table initially.

We waited for our food for about another 15 minutes, where she forgot condiments that we inquired that we wanted when we first ordered. My needed a refill and she did not come back to give EITHER of us refills or bother to check in on us after the food was dropped off. In fact, she didn’t even drop off the check and we had to walk to the front of the restaurant to be acknowledged by her once finished. I asked another server if I could talk to a manager (Brittany Hawkins) and she made a sly comment to the server that pulled her over and she was nonchalant about the experience and concerns that I had. She reduced the bill by taking off one sandwich but did not want to hear about the experience we encountered. I understand staffing is an issue, as it is everywhere. However, blatantly being ignored by our server while she was attentive to every table she had outside of us is truly unacceptable. Please enlighten your staff about guest experiences in the future. Poor service equals losing my hard earned money...