Friendly's — Restaurant in East Norriton Township

An unassuming spot at first glance, and honestly I had never heard of friendlys, I don't think we have them in Canada. My wife was excited when we spotted one while away in Pennsylvania, so we stopped in.

Walk in and we were seated promptly. The server was very friendly (which given the name I supposed I'd expect). Really 'on the ball', keeping drinks filled, checking in on how the food/desserts were. It sounds like basic service but honestly you don't get that as much as you used to. But I digress..

The food was quite good, and exceeded my expectations. I went for the triple cheese grilled cheese supermelt (I think it was called), and was delicious. Not too greasy, which was a bonus given the amount of cheese served on this thing. I got fries with it, and they were fine; standard stuff.

The dessert menu is larger than most places food menus, and that's probably why you'll go there. I had a legendary chocolate brownie Sundae (or something like that), and it was very rich. A perfect finish for my meal.

My wife got the "Hunka chunka pb fudge lava cake" and I'm just going to put a photo up because it was so vast I can't describe it in detail.

Coming from Canada I have a hard time getting the jist of what "good prices/value" are in the USA, but now that we've been to a few places, it's quite good value for what you pay. Particularly on the dessert end. Both our desserts were 8.99 each, and I can tell you what you see in the photo would be 20 dollars or more in Canada, so go on and order it.

I think my supermelt with fries was about $13 which seemed fair.

I have read a little about Friendly's since our visit, and it seems they are disappearing, which is sad. I also read many reviews stating poor/ slow service, but again, the service we received was great. I'd love to see Friendly's in Canada.

My main gripe is when it comes to atmosphere. We actually have made 2 trips so far, and both times, it was eerily quiet; no background music or anything. I'd like some sort of background sound, but that's a minor complaint.

For a family diner/dessert spot, this...

My experience today is biased. Scenario: my daughter and I went to celebrate accomplishments on report card, extra curricular and girl time. The manager greeted us seemingly overwhelmed BUT HIS SMILE AND PERSONALITY rendered a "Welcome" so we encouraged him with smiles and joviality. There were 4 tables occupied with approximately 7 ppl other than ourselves. We ordered our drinks..ice tea and lemonade and mini mozz - in the interim the booths were being filled w/ customers all around we placed our entree: cheeseburger and crispy chix bacon ranch salad...after 20 minutes and ALL THE 15 ADDL customers were eating their food and ordering dessert. I questioned the other waitress as she was hustling 6 addl tables with accuracy and a smile. My daughter wanted a refill as our waitress was MIA..the other waitress AGAIN overwhelmed but did NOT respond negatively esp knowing we were not her table i explained to my daughter to be polite and pointed out to her how hard she was working and accommodating us along the way. Our order of salad and cheeseburger finally arrived. PERFECT! Salad..delicious- burger perfect medium. Even though we were upset about waiting 25 minutes for a non challenging meal but despite being overwhelmed tired clearly understaffed for pre evening, early bird customers EVERYONE'S PERSONALITY WAS POLITE, PERSONAL, AND ALTHOUGH WE WERE HEADED TO GIRL SCOUTS I WOULD GO BACK AND ADJUST FOR POSSIBLE DELAY BUT KNOW SERVICE WILL BE SERVED WITH A...

Update......I went to the take out today on 4/30 at 3:40 pm and I had a much better experience. General Manager Michael Fox waited on me and he was very attentive and helpful. I only waited a couple minutes before he took my order and it was prepared quickly. When I arrived home and opened the containers, the ice cream and toppings were delicious and plentiful. I will continue to make a special trip here not just for their ice cream, but for their clamboat, clam chowder and other delicious food. Thank you Mike for doing a wonderful job! I arrived for just ice cream take out and there was no one at the register. I was waiting patiently with another customer when two servers glanced over and looked at us, but they decided to talk to one another and look at their phones. Another employee was making an ice cream order for the dining room and still no coorespondance. After about 10 minutes, someone who looked like a manager came from the back room to take my order. The order consisted of three large sizes of ice cream and was prepared relatively quickly. However, upon eating them at my house, my order had very little toppings and my lava cake was missing. I would have liked to be informed if they didn't have the cake and I might have picked something else. Customer service has been terrible in most places ever since the pandemic. I am surprised this Friendly's location in Norristown is still open. I do not see them lasting another year unless they train...