Farmer Boys — Restaurant in Hanford

Short version: A step up from fast food. Reasonable food for a reasonable price.

Long version: I recently moved to a town with a Farmer Boys prominently on the route I drive each day. Looking online, I found they have an app which offered me a free cheeseburger (called The Big Cheese) with my first purchase. I'm all about free (or nearly so) stuff, so I headed over the next day.

Inside, the restaurant is a cross between fast food burger joint and an oversized diner. Tables and booths have trays of condiments, including those little jelly packets for toast. I guess they do breakfasts too. The location I was at was very clean, which is a huge plus in any food place.

You order at a counter off a lit up board, like any FF place, but they give you a number to take and stand on your table. The food is prepared after you order. There were a number of choices, but I went traditional by adding fries and a fountain drink to my cheeseburger. As always, I ordered my food without onions, due to an allergy.

The drinks are fill-your-own, featuring Pepsi products. I'm a Coke guy, but can make do. The carbonation seemed a little flat, but that could just be the way Diet Pepsi is.

Sitting at a table, I noticed they use their own ketchup brand, which the label touts as a healthier, corn syrup-free version.

It was about a seven minute wait for my burger and fries. Not bad for food made to order but slower than the drive-thru places nearby. (Farmer Boys has a drive thru too - I'm not sure how that works, but I'd guess you need to wait a little longer than usual.)

The fries are coated in a light batter. It had no particular flavor, just made the fries crunch a bit. Overall, I'd say that they were good. Needed salt, but there was a shaker on the table, so no prob. They are very much above average, but just a bit.

The burger looked good and it had a wooden spike through its heart. It didn’t seem like it was going to be sliding around enough to need that, but it did give some added visual appeal. The produce was fresh (lettuce and tomatoes) and the patty properly done. It wasn't the thickest burger, or the juiciest, but it was a solid 4/5 for taste and it was done all the way through. I thought it needed to be dunked in the ketchup to hit its potential. That may be because the "special sauce" (an ordinary burger thousand island dressing) was spread on like its whole purpose was to tinge the bun pink. Not at all the layer of dressing suggested by the photos on the order board! I couldn't taste it at all. And there were exactly two thin pickle slices. It needed more.

But it was better than your standard fast food joint in most respects.

I liked it. It was fresher than drive thru burgers. If I'd paid for the combo, I'd have been happy. Since I got my burger "free" from the app, I'm more than happy. It'll probably cost about $15/person to eat here - about the same as the yellow arch folks these days.

If you want a quick burger and fries without the grease of the main fast food guys, give Farmer Boys a try.

I'll need to stop by for...

I have eaten here a couple of times before and the hamburger wasn’t very good, but their salad is other than the fact that the lettuce is white more than green colored. The salads are a very large serving and a decent value . But I went there a few days ago and ordered a three egg for takeout breakfast, which used to be around $6.99, but now It was $16.99. I was quite annoyed to see that price but I was hungry. I’m in a hurry so I ordered it. When I got out in my car, I looked in the bag as I usually do to make sure everything is there and they didn’t put any salt or pepper, no silverware and no napkins. That was annoying at first until I open the box to see what the food looked like. There wasn’t even 3 tablespoons of hashbrowns, which is the cheapest part of a breakfast you can get. There were not three eggs and a piece of ham was about a 3 1/2” circle, and incredibly thin. I became furious. I sat there and looked at that for a while. I just decided people need to start saying something about this price gouging. So I went into the restaurant and I asked for a manager. I wish I had caught her name so I could report her, but I didn’t, a young Hispanic woman walked up to me no smile,no greeting, and just kind of nodded her head in my direction with an expression like “what do you want”. I owned a bag and took the plate out and set it on the counter and said “this is NOT a $16 breakfast! I know you don’t set the prices, but you’re all I have to talk to and this is price gouging and ridiculous. You can see the plate under the hashbrowns that’s how little of them there are!” She didn’t even look at me, she just rudely said “well that’s what our servings sizes are” - I said “well that’s not acceptable to me”. And she said “what do you want, do you want your money back?” and I said “I absolutely want my money back!” and she gave it to me and I left, after sarcastically stating to her “wow you really have some great customer service skills, look at that big smile and that friendly tone of voice I’m so impressed!’ And she just completely ignored me and never made eye contact with me once throughout the whole experience. Before I walked out, I said “you are so lucky to have a job at all, much less one as a manager. But I promise you this job isn’t going to last long if this is how you treat customers.” She still just ignored me - and by the way, there was a couple was a child and two other couple standing there waiting to order while this was going on and they all heard everything and saw what she was doing. So I’m not the only one that got terrible feeling about your restaurant that day. It was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had at a restaurant in this city, and that girl does not deserve to have a job...

MEADOW RIPPED ME OFF AND BLAMES CUSTOMERS FOR HER SCREWUPS. First let me say I love Farmers Boys and this is the first time I have been done an extreme injustice by this establishment. I live an hour from Hanford.. I went in at around 7pm and placed my order. It was a Fiery chicken sandwich add pickles. Plus a Sourdough chicken sandwich with a order of always hot fries and reg soda. . The young man who brought the bag out looked at me and did not say a word. I asked him if that was for Me and he just handed me the bag. I looked through the bag and it looked as if the Sourdough chicken was there ,the fries were there but no Fiery chicken.. So I asked him about my missing item and he gave me a blank stare. The girl working at the register told me to give him the receipt so the kitchen would make my sandwich. Minutes later I get a new bag with the Fiery chicken sandwich. Fast forward till we get home and find no Chicken on the sourdough and no pickle s on my Fiery chicken. Let me repeat NO CHICKEN ON MY SOURDOUGH CHICKEN. I called the Hanford store immediately and asked to speak to the manager. The woman on the phone said her name was Meadow and that she was in fact the store manager. I told her my predicament and she said she would make it again ( I live a hour away) or just give me 20% off instead of comping a meal that was NOT what I ordered nor was my fault. Meadow blamed me for not looking at the other sandwich. I did not know for $23.90 plus tip I am supposed to check everything every time. I thought getting my order right was your responsibility. Your Expo is supposed to bag and make sure everything comes out right on your end, your...