Perkins American Food Co. — Restaurant in Newark

I writing this review as a warning to others wheelchair users of particular difficulties of navigating the dining room.

On the morning of our visit, we entering the restaurant and it wasn’t long before we were confronted with the distressing reality that there were no accessible paths to navigate through the dining room areas with a wheelchair. When my family and I entered into the restaurant we were greeted by who we later discovered was the general manager, Tasha. It was when Tasha began to seat my family that we quickly realized the aisles were so narrow that I was unable to maneuver my father’s wheelchair down the aisle of dining room. The sides of his wheelchair push up against both tables located on either side of the aisle. As we attempted to move through the dining room, other dining guests offered to move their tables to widen a path for a wheelchair to clear. During this experience, Tasha suggested my father leave the restaurant and maneuver his way down the side of the building to a side door in order to get to a table. Taken back by this comment and caught completely off guard by nature of this situation, we proceeded down the aisle with the assistance of the other dining guest moving their tables over to attempt to clear a path. The inconvenience caused to my father, the other guests, and my family was not only embarrassing but also demonstrated a complete lack of foresight and respect for the needs of individuals with disabilities. It is disheartening to realize that other guests had to inconvenience themselves during their own dining experience in order to accommodate my father’s basic right to navigate this establishment. I must emphasize that this experience left my father and family feeling humiliated. I believe Perkins should provide a welcoming and accessible environment for all individuals, regardless of their physical abilities.

After getting to a table, I had a moment to sit and gather my thoughts, I requested the general manager to come to the table to further address these issues and express our family’s concern. When Tasha arrived at the table she displayed a dismissive attitude and failed to acknowledge the gravity of the situation. This blatant disregard for our grievance further amplified the sense of frustration and marginalization my father was experiencing. Tasha began to explain that she routinely redirects costumers with disabilities through the door on the side of the building because the space through the dining room does not accommodate them. By doing this, Tasha is restricting these guests abilities to maneuver freely through the dining room, to have access to the restrooms (located by the hostess stand which is opposite the dining room area), and access to any service counters. This is not only a lack of dignity and respect for individuals with disabilities, this also poses a safely and liability issues for these guests. During our conversation, Tasha never addressed my father directly or took any responsibility for the situation. The summation of the conversation was something to the effect of ‘there is nothing I can do about the size of the building’. Although I do agree that the General Manager cannot control the size of the building, I do believe it is within the general manager’s control to organize the layout and revise the floor plan of the dining room to abide by basic regulations and laws. If the aisleways offered a minimum of 36 inch clearance my father could have navigated in his wheelchair down the aisles.

In conclusion, I caution visiting if you rely on a wheelchair or have any mobility challenges. The extremely narrow aisles and the general manager's dismissive attitude towards accessibility concerns create an unwelcoming and frustrating experience. There are plenty of other establishments that prioritize inclusivity and will provide a far more enjoyable dining experience...

I would like to start off by saying I never leave negative reviews, but my first experience here about an hour ago was unacceptable:

I dined in with a friend – the server who initially greeted us, said she would be passing us off to another server because it was the end of her shift. She was extremely sweet and apologized for the initial wait time. We put in an order with the next server who came to greet us, which included an order of turkey sausage patties for myself and turkey sausage links for my friend. A different server came to bring us our food ( she also had to get us silverware) after a considerable wait because she said our server was in the bathroom. Our food was not hot, but tasty. When my friend tasted his, he wasn’t sure if it was turkey or pork. When we realized a possible mistake, our server had come over and asked if everything was okay. My friend asked her if his links were pork and she went back to the kitchen to check, later realizing that they were in fact pork links along with mine- fyi I do NOT eat pork and have not for 10+years! Mind you, I had already taken a couple of bites of my sausage as it was mixed into my plate of eggs and hash browns ( I am now sick from this). The manager came with our server and apologized for the bad service asking if I would like my plate reheated, which made no sense to me since my pork was already mixed into my hash browns/eggs. When the correct meats were brought out, I then asked my server if I could at least have another plate of eggs and hashbrowns for my new sausage and she brought out one egg. Our server did say she was new and it was only her fifth shift however, I would expect much better from management!

Upon checking out, the manager asked us how our meal was and chuckled, proceeding to say something along the lines of “Oh that’s right I apologize again. In the future, if you notice something wrong, please make sure you let us know right away instead of waiting so we can make it right“. We let our server know as soon as we realized there may have been a mistake- but simply looking at our meal when it was brought to the table, it looked fine. I feel like this was an inappropriate way to handle the matter by putting blame on the customer. We did not receive any discount or accommodations and I will not be coming back to this location. Again, the food tasted good, it was the service that was the issue and how it was handled by...

Latest comment, 05/2022: Apparently management has eliminated dinner bread. The waitress said they felt customers were wasting them or something like that, just odd. They have a bakery but bread is not an option at any price, very odd. I'm trying hard to not lower my rating to two stars.

Review archive :-)

Update 04/2020: We had a nice breakfast here with friendly service. I'd say it is nicer and better run than it was a few years ago. We'll go again and maybe they can earn another star.

Update 10/2021: I appreciate Perkins. It is one of the few places you can get relatively simple and tasty American fare at an affordable price. That said, lately we've had a recurring issue. Our waitresses keep disappearing, no drink refills, if something is missing or wrong they're just gone. We've been waiting a long time for checks and when the waitresses finally do come back they smell strongly of cigarettes. They need to find a way to get their smoke breaks between tables not in the middle of service. Seriously.

Update 1/2022: takeout orders are almost always missing something. Today I asked for 2 rolls and got none and I asked for my teriyaki sauce on the side and got none. Please stop trying the bags shut. It's obvious I need to start going through everything before exiting the building. Last week toast was missing, rolls are rarely in included even though I always ask and a couple months ago we were missing my entree. I want to like you Perkins. Please show more care and attention.

Update 03/2022: WHY IS OUR TAKEOUT ORDER ALWAYS MISSING SOMETHING??? What does a person have to do to get a dinner roll? I specifically ask for them and get them 1 out of 4...