Frisch's Big Boy — Restaurant in Madison

I was seated this evening in what I thought would be a routine visit to a reasonable fast(ish) food dining establishment. Honestly, we've all been to Frisch's before and I knew what to expect. Something like eating McDonald's, but a little higher class and there's a waiter. I have never been so disappointed in a meal I actually couldn't finish. However before we even discuss the food, let's talk about the tables, lighting, and blinds. I sat down at a sticky table, which I'm going to be forgiving on since it was the "Dinner Hour". However, the light fixtures had some sort of dust or bugs and general grime in them that obviously hadn't been cleaned in quite some time. The blinds had a thick layer of dust on them that some unlucky patrons or employee had the misfortune of running their fingers through. It was enough dust to blow off with breath, but had been neglected so long that not all of it came off in that puff of air. On to the food, shall we? I ordered a super big boy on rye with a side of mashed potato's and gravy and french fries. My significant other had ordered a BLT like salad and what we were told was the soup of the day, potato cheddar soup. I first started into the fries, which were warm by some grace but unsalted and had been sitting too long under a heat lamp to be considered food. I moved onto my burger, which was palatable, but luke warm at best and only edible because of the tartar sauce. The mashed potato's were the absolute icing on an otherwise incredibly mediocre meal. I have never been served mashed potato's so old that I had to actually cut them with a fork in my life until tonight. I persevered and dug through to the center of the ball they had the stones to call potato's and, to my surprise, were actually rather tasty. It's a shame I had to call 811 before I could legally excavate to them. The gravy had been neglected on the burner or holding table so long it had formed a skin and had been presented without so much as even attempting to stir it into the whole of the pot. On the whole haphazard and unappetizing. On to the "Her's" portion. The chicken on this salad was composed of two orders. Old, dry chicken and older still and slightly more dry chicken. The greens in their entirety were half browned. The grape tomatoes served on top had a pleasant squish usually present after being frozen or rotting. I'll leave it to your imagination which is correct. The potato cheddar soup our waiter twice assured us was the "soup of the day" came alongside her salad and ended up being wedding soup. Taste was reasonable, but it came cold. What gets me is this place seemed busy and the parking lot was full. I recommend not coming here and instead heading to literally any other fast food establishment where you can eat three or four times for what I paid for the pig slop they tried to pass off...

Tried to eat here today (12-26-23) and received some of the worst customer service I've ever had. The husband and i walked in for dinner, and I noticed there weren't many people. Okay, i thought maybe it wouldn't take as long for food. Perfect! Wel, boy, was i wrong. We were seated by the hostess front-end staff member after waiting for about 5 minutes. No big dea, she was bussing her own tables and cleaning. After we got seated, she said that our waitress would be with us shortly. Oka, great! My husband and i wanted two super big boys and 2 salad bars. Eas, right? Lmao. It wasn't. After about 25 minutes of NOT being waited on, we went ahead and went to the salad bar. He got a bowl of soup, and i made a salad. After we returned to the tabl, the waitress finally came to us and asked what we wanted to drink. Hubs wanted a vanilla coke and a sweet tea for myself. She repeats it back to us and says ok cherry coke and sweet tea." I say no, vanilla coke and sweet tea. She says, "Oh right and proceeds to repeat it to herself till she grabs her tray. She then asks if we are ready to order as well, i said yes, we would like 2 super big boys with fries and the salad bar. She said okay and walked away. She brings us the check before our food. And then, about 20 minutes later, she brings out 1 super big boy. I said that we had ordered 2 supers and 2 salad bars. And she said oh im sorry and proceeds to hand my husband his food. He told her that he didn't want to eat without me and told her to take it back and keep it. We grabbed the check and went to the register. He asked for a manager and told her what had happened, and the hostess said that what my husband said was true. I told them that i would at least pay for the salad bars, but the manager said not to worry about it and comped them. I understand working in service. Ive worked in a couple fast food places and have assistant manager experience in a popular gas station chain, i empathize with being short staffed, new employees, call ins, and just being in service in general. But that young lady should not be in the service industry. I will be back to give it another chance. I just hope next time is better....

The last time me and my fiance went to frisches big boy was almost three years ago, before that we used to visit there pretty often.  Our last visit on that day, three plus years ago, why we quit coming unfortunately was because: The whole place was filthy from the cups, silverware, plates, floors, tables (probably easier to say everything) our waitress left us waiting for 15mins drinks then another to order food. Food came out cold and mediocre at best so needless to say we just decided to not go back.

NOW Back to Present Day- we both work opposite schedules so eat out alot (more than we should) so we were over the usual places and decided why not let's give frisches another chance. I Absolutely have to say im beyond happy we did. I dont kniw if its bc we haven't been in so long or what but they have alot of new menu items. Mini big boy sliders, deep fried pickles and im not talking about the chip size im talking the whole dill spear fried up 🤤 They were absolutely delicious. The sliders were delicious. The Service was great friendly fast the place was clean and looked like they got new dishes and really deep cleaned the place. Dessert was delicious (as always) I could go on for days about how shocked and impressed I was at how big of a turn around frishes has made. I highly recommend anyone who has had a bad experience like we did before and decided not to come back, to give them another try. I believe you will be...