Bob Evans — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Ok , so I've waited to post this because I was on vacation... On Sept. 22nd, my wife ordered dinner for me to pick up on my way home . We were leaving for vacation early the next morning. I got to Bob Evans and parked in "Pick up " spot and signed and asked me to call. I did, and they told me it wasn't ready yet , I waited about 15 minutes, then went in to ask what the problem was. They couldn't find my order , They never asked me what my order was, just them name it was under. I gave them my wife's name as she ordered it . I then showed them the email I got back from them that my wife had ordered, # , they still couldn't find it . The manager was called up, and he said, " I remember taking this order over the phone." It was breakfast for dinner order ,eggs and such . He said I'll cook it again for you since we can't find it ,it will take a few minutes. I said "ok , no problem " now after about 10 minutes the original person who was taking care of the to-go orders came back up and said " what did you order" I showed her the email with order # on it ,she went over to the counter where a to go bag was there sitting all this time now approximately 25-30 minutes now and said "oh ,here it is " "it's been here the whole time but it wasn't in my wife's name it was in my name " I said " well she ordered it , but I had the order # the whole time and you never asked me what I ordered or looked to see if that bag was it . So she said "well here it is " I said "well the Manager told me he was getting another order for me so since that bag has been sitting there for 30 minutes and we have eggs ,etc I'd rather have the new order. She wasn't happy with that . So I sat and waited another 15 minutes, she then gave me what I thought was the new order. I got home and it was obviously the old order , eggs , bread , cold ...you could tell it was the old one. But , because we were going on vacation, I didn't want to ruin it for us so we let it go ... But , this was terrible - employee of Bob Evans the way she handled it , management should have known that she did this or was part of it . But , we had a great vacation! Just a terrible dinner before it at...

I've been going to Bob Evans since I was a little girl. I grew up in Ohio where their farm is located, so once I moved to Florida I was very happy to find that they have locations here in Florida. I've continued frequenting this location for the last 7 years at least once a month or more and the wonderful woman who takes my order knows my voice and knows my name, and even what I usually order.

I would have previously rated service and quality as being a 5, but the last few months I noticed a really big difference in the quality of their meat and even their hot chocolate. Their steaks WERE always amazingly tender and had a delicious seasoning on them. The hot chocolate was the best of any restaurant and had always been and had never changed.

Now the steaks are way tougher, so tough that I struggled to cut one of them at all with a steak knife. The steaks are also smaller and unevenly cut, so the cooks can't ever get them cooked to the temperature you asked for. I got one steak that was thicker on one end than the other so the thicker part was done correctly and thinner part was way overcooked. The other steak was REALLY small but so thick it was like a filet minion, so naturally it was raw in the center. Neither steak was seasoned. I had to wait for the steak to be cooked more, then they brought it back to me so well done it couldnt even be cut. Then I had to wait for another steak to be cooked while the rest of my food got cold. I can't even drink the hot chocolate, it tastes like fake chocolate and has a nasty aftertaste.

So the last few months I was so disappointed with the meat and hot chocolate that I asked about it and was told they changed meat suppliers and changed to a different hot chocolate. They said new management had come in and made a lot of changes and obviously they are going with cheaper products and suppliers and you get what you pay for, but they are keeping the prices the same of course. I told them that I would not be returning. They have lost a lifelong customer and I'm sure I'm not...

My 5 star rating is based on the staff's ability to endure an extremely stressful situation, while remaining calm, composed and friendly. We ordered our Thanksgiving meal online and went to pick it up at the requested time. Upon our arrival, the lobby was a madhouse and full of confused customers. No signage to instruct customers where to go and what to do for pick-ups. The staff was overwhelmed and seemed completely unprepared for the volume of orders. The website was a bit confusing and we learned we had mistakenly ordered the "heated" instead of the cold. For heated meals, there was a 2 hour wait (regardless of when you said you wanted to pick it up) because they only had one cook (due to coivd restrictions). Not only did this impact walk-in customers but services like grubhub and doordash. In speaking with Joe Colon, the manager, he offered to void our online heated order and swap it out for the cold, which we could pick up out back. PERFECT! Thank you Joe for working with us on a solution! We still had to wait in a line for about 30 minutes, but the staff packing the orders really hustled. People were very impatient and the staff was under tremendous stress but remained calm and friendly. These people deserve praise and recognition! They did the best they could with limited resources. I have issues with Bob Evan's website and will take that up with their headquarters. Had it been properly structured for the high volume of orders & able to calculate an ACTUAL pick-up time, this would have run a lot smoother. At a minimum, the website should have stated "due to high volumes...." I hope the Bob Evan's staff in Mandarin has a Happy & Blessed...