Bob Evans — Restaurant in Dover

I haven't been to this location in several years and I thought I would tell you why. And the reason is, there may be a slight chance you might actually care and do something about the issues that plague that location. Now when I was growing up my grandma would take me to this location just about every Sunday for breakfast after church with the ladies. I was a kid then. And they always had great food there. It was part of my childhood in the early 90's.

Now we ate there several times other times too, for lunch and dinner. They used to have really good pie and the wild fire chicken salad. I got the dinner size every time. I loved it.

Several years ago, right around when the new CEO took over, I go there by myself. I ordered the Wildfire chicken Salad and a sprite for dinner. The server brought me my sprite in a mason jar. This is a new concept for me. So I get less soda in a mason jar. Country theme, cost cutting is more like it. And drinking out of a mason jar is just weird to me.

Then I get my salad. Now the one thing I like about that salad is that dressing with them grape tomatoes on it. Fresh tomatoes makes a good salad. Not that time ( my last time there). Canned tomatoes. So it made the salad mushy with that nice irony canned tomato taste. It was bad.

I ate it, didn't complain paid and left. But when I did pay, it really seemed like they was rushing me to get out. There was no have a nice day no nothing. It was just really bad. So bad I haven't been back in years.

Now the reason I am writing this is because I know someone that works in a restaurant that is always busy, and it's the going theme that they are so busy because the Bob Evans crowd goes there. And this has been going on for years. The last time I was there was 7 years ago, that last experience was bad enough to keep me away from there. It's still bad. I have read all the reviews. A lot of them are the stories I hear. It's sad nobody seems to care.

When I was growing up, it was great. The atmosphere was great, there was a lot of regulars. Now it's just horror stories.

My suggestion is to fix it. And you know exactly how to fix it. Make some tough calls that aren't so tough and hold to the standard...

On Monday, March 12 at 8:40 pm, a group approximately 15 people (myself and my husband included) showed up at this restaurant. You see, that evening, we'd all been at a local funeral home for the visitation/calling hours before our grandfather's funeral the next day. After calling hours were over, we asked our grandmother where she'd like to eat and decompress. She asked us to join her at Bob Evans, so we searched for the closest and drove there in groups.

My husband and I were the first to arrive and went in to talk to the manager on duty, Todd. See, we knew the restaurant closed at 9 and wanted to see if they could accommodate us. My husband worked in the service industry for 20+ years and knew that our arrival could be met with resistance or annoyance, and the size of our group was asking a lot. After explaining the situation to Todd, he assured us that his restaurant would be happy to take care of us, and started setting up a table for our group.

We werr at that restaurant until probably 10:15 or 10:30 and received amazing service from the team. Our waitress Courtnie was incredibly attentive, efficient, managed our party with ease, and made sure that our experience was pleasant. We did not have a chance to get the names of anyone who worked in the kitchen that night, but our food was delicious, fast, and very well made, which isn't always the case at that time of night in any restaurant. Todd and other team members checked out as periodically to make sure we had what we needed. We couldn't have asked for more.

After an emotionally difficult and exhausting day, the team at this Bob Evans stepped up to give our family the opportunity to connect, break bread, and relax a little. They didn't have to take care of us the way they did, and we are grateful for their willingness to accommodate us at the hour they did. This team deserves the recognition they should get for going above and beyond, and we are all...

My wife joked, we'll get great service today. There was one other car in the customer parking. We were seated immediately. And, in fact, there was only one other customer in the place. 10 minutes and still no waitress to take our drink order, let alone our lunch. But 2 waitresses standing 10-15 feet away chit-chatting. And two other employees a little further away also chit-chatting. Close enough we could hear them all and no one talking abiut work. The manager walking back and forth from front to back unconcerned about four staff standing around not working. Not one of them even concerned enough to take a drink order. We can't review the food, we hot up and left. And my wife really wanted the strawberry pie but couldn't get a meal, let alone dessert.

No one was even inquisitive enough to ask us why we were leaving. I'm not sure the waitresses even noticed. And no one courteous enough to wish us a good day. It is no surprise they had only one customer. If their service is this bad all the time, it won't be around much longer. And not being too nit-picky, but the day after Independence Day and their flag pole gad no flag! This place was NOT representative of the Bob Evans we grew up with.

Saturday, July 5, 2025, 2:10pm to 2:20pm was not the time to be at Bob Evans on Commercial in Dover, OH. I hope someone who cares about these things is reading this. The entire crew...