Friendly's — Restaurant in Florida

in orlando, being open for 3 weeks and having a 3.8 rating is extremely concerning. I personally have opened four restaurants, a lot of time and effort goes into it, and no effort was put into opening this friendly's.

I showed up at friendly's at noon. my friend showed up at 12:10. we were finally greeted at 12:30. I ordered a strawberry fribble, small. my friends were still deciding which flavor fribble they wanted. it took 20 minutes for the fribble to make it to the table. it was melted, and worse the server hadn't taken the time to put whipped cream or a cherry on top. one of the things that friendly's is known for is the whipped cream and cherry on top of the fribble. we still hadn't ordered because the server kept running back and forth, but we finally did. we ordered the mozzarella sticks as an appetizer, the Doritos Cool ranch chopper, the Patty melt, and the Marion Berry grilled cheese.

the appetizer took 20 minutes to come out. the mozzarella sticks that only needed to be dropped in a deep fryer for 5 minutes took 20 minutes to come out. the restaurant wasn't that busy. then we continue to wait for our entrees. and wait. it was another 20 minutes before I grabbed a server that wasn't ours, because our server was nowhere to be seen, and told them to get me a manager now. a child's that probably can't legally rent a car came over and meekly claimed to be the manager. I still don't believe them. I think the manager was in the back snacking. I told him how ridiculous it was that it had taken 20 minutes for me to get my fribble, that are appetizers had shown up before my friend got his fribble, that tables that had been seeded after we had ordered had already gotten their food, and that we couldn't get our server to come and serve us. the child said he would go see where our food was. he went over to the past, and was talking to our server. eventually they attempted to give us our "food".

stop reading, go look at the picture of the Marion Barry grilled cheese. look at how it's not a grilled cheese, it is a cheese sandwich because that cheese is not melted. not at all. my chopped Burger was ice cold, it and the fries were unseasoned. the dorito chips that came in it were stale. they've been open for 3 weeks. have they been using the same bag of chips the whole time? I have to believe they have.

my other friend's patty melt was hot, but again unseasoned. did they lose the salt and pepper after opening? they weren't extremely busy, but again, we noted that people that were seated after us got their food before us. when my friend told the manager child that Hertz grilled cheese was infected cheese sandwich, and that she had asked for the bacon on the side for her loaded fries, however they had put the bacon on the fries, he tried to take it away before I took the picture. not fast enough though.

zoom in on the hard edges of the cheese. does it look grilled? I know that they know how to make a grilled cheese at friendly's, as a child it was the only thing I would eat. again, I have opened for restaurants. I understand that in the first 3 weeks there's a certain amount of kindness you need to extend because it's often a crazy house, but here the servers were just hanging out and chatting while the manager was using a full roll of towels to wipe down tables, which is how I know they weren't the manager. a manager wouldn't use that many towels, it was like he was trying to wrap his arm like a mummy.

3 weeks this mess has been open and unfortunately it does remind me of the old friendly's. I remember going to the old one and having to wait what felt like hours for food. is that the friendly's way? make us wait for our food until we're so hungry and tired that will eat whatever you put in front of us? the server needs to be trained more. the manager needs to be trained more. the kitchen needs to understand how to stagger a check. how are they not dropping fries on plates at the same time? 3.8 rating after 3 weeks. in 6 months it'll be a steak and shake and we won't have to think about...

We were very pleasantly surprised at this friendlys location. We go way back with friendlys being from new england, so when we find them in the south we get excited, it brings back lots of memories for our family. Some friendlys have closed and seem to have just disappeared from the map, so we were happy to find this one so close to where we were staying. It seems like it was a newer location or it was remodeled, with the exception of the bathrooms, not sure if they were just not finished yet or what, but they weren’t the best. Otherwise, the restaurant was nice and big and the booth seating was large and comfortable. THIS LOCATION IS PET FRIENDLY!!! Making our visit possible and all the better. We were shocked to learn the servers do everything except the cooking. That’s crazy! They seat guests, bring menus and set ups, wait tables, clean tables, bring the drinks and food and also make the ice cream dessert orders! We were like, WOW. And they do this for all of their tables. So there’s no choice but to wait a little bit. These poor people are running crazy. This location has plenty of free parking as well, and seemed to be handicapped accessible. The menu choices were immense and they have lots of specials so take advantage of them, just be aware some advertised specials can’t be combined and it’s not advertised so it was a bit confusing when we got the bill. For instance, they have a $9 lunch special with a few different choices available, and that Is advertise on a little paper stand at each table, but also on the regular menu they show different choices that come with a Sundae for dessert, however it does not state that because it’s a $9 lunch special you can’t have the free sundae for dessert, it’s one or the other- you either pay the full price for the sandwich or meal choice option and your sundae is free or you pay the $9 lunch special with no free Sundae. They also offer a military discount but again only on items that are not part of a special price already. So in other words, no military discount on the $9 lunch special. All understandable just making you aware because it was kind of confusing when the bill came. Now on to the food. The food was amazingly delicious!!! From the presentation to the taste, the food actually came out looking like the pictures in the menu that never happens. Come on people how many of us disappointed when our food arrives to the table and we say that does not look like the picture well, I can honestly tell you that the food that was brought to our table and we had five lunches, one of them looked exactly like the menu picture advertised and the food was delicious from beginning to end! Ready for this? They have a summer lobster roll special yes I said Friendly’s has lobster rolls that came with fries and they were made with real lobster!! They were amazing!! Then we got a tuna roll and chose onion rings for an up charge. Then we got a Philly cheesesteak with fries and a Pastrami supermelt with fries. And for dessert, a truly humungous strawberry milkshake, a mint chocolate chip sundae, I meant chocolate chip sundae with brownie bites, A black raspberry sundae and a black raspberry sugar cone. EVERYTHING WAS AMAZING! If you find yourself near this location, PLEASE GO YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. I’m going to add photos of the food, but unfortunately, I failed to take photos of the ice cream but trust me it was...

This was a first and last for me. I knew the restaurant didnt have great reviews so my expectations werent high at all but we wanted to try friendlys for the nostalgia. The atmosphere itself is fine, nothing to complain about. Our server was nice but she had an extremely hard time understanding a very easy order: blue cheese on the side, not in my salad. She kept going back and forth between having it on the side or in my salad while I kept repeating on the side. She thought I was talking about the chicken salad when I was clearly talking about the Cobb salad, that confused her even more. I ordered ranch as my dressing but when my food arrived I wasnt given the dressing, had to ask for it and she acted surprised like she didnt know a salad should have dressing. They call it a $100k cobb salad but ive had better salads from mcdonalds. Also we tried to tell them about a seafood allergy and that sounded like a huge burden and we eventually needed a manager to clarify about not grilling shrimp and chicken together. My husband asked for hot sauce 3 times, never got it. I asked for a togo box for my salad 3 times, never got it either, our waitress had the attention spam of a 3 year old. My father in law asked about the "grilled" hot dogs and she told us they are actually microwaved, i assume the chicken and other food is microwaved as well. They were also out of the ice cream and toppings he wanted. One thing she kept doing was insisting on giving us waters to go, I think she insisted like 4 times and this is just for water, in her head thats more important than my dressing, my husbands hot sauce, and the togo box we kept asking for over and over. Ive worked customer service and I was nowhere near amazing but this lady was something else, she just wasnt all there. But hey, at least I didnt get food poisoning or diarrhea, ill count that as a win. Oh and lets not forget the extra charge if you use a credit card to pay the bill, thats the cherry on...