Magleby's Fresh — Restaurant in Provo

For breakfast its a 2 star. For lunch and dinner it is a solid 4 star and sometimes even 5.

SUGGESTION: They should really get rid of the all-you-can-eat french toast and pancakes (especially on weekends and holidays). They don't seem to want to continue it, and it creates a circular problem that is a total mess. Instead, they should just include a little larger portion in the initial plate and not serve refills (or change their system). Here's why:

You order your food then look for a table in the very crowded dining room. After 10 minutes a table becomes available and your group sits down while you wait near the counter for your group's order to be called. In another 10 minutes your french toast and pancakes are finally ready and you bring the plates to your group's table (except the one person who didn't get the bottomless, but their plate cold). Knowing your teen and young adults will want a refill, you IMMEDIATELY go wait in line to request refills. After waiting for a while you're finally able to place your refill order, you return to your table to scarf down some cold bites, then go back to the counter to wait for the refill order to be called. You wait at the counter for another 20 minutes. Eventually, your 1/2 sized refill order is ready and you bring it to your hungry group.

But since its only 1/2 sized and refills take so dang long, you IMMEDIATELY return to order another set of refills, wait in line again, get the order placed, and return to your table to hurry some more bites of now-cold french toast. You head back to wait, standing of course the entire time since there are so many other people waiting at the counter for refills that takes 20 minutes so there's no place to sit. Eventually the next 1/2 sized orders are ready and you return to your table.

But your group has now been there nearly an hour and are ready to go, especially since there are so many people hovering around waiting for a table. So you go get some to-go containers to stuff everything in (yeah, you don't feel great about to-go containers at an all-you-can-eat, but you weren't really able to enjoy the bottomless portion so what are you to do). Since you table has been given up, you're left packing your things on a counter and leaving.

As the paying person in your party, you spent an hour pretending to be a waiter and didn't get to enjoy the company of your family or friends. You leave thinking you should have been paid the tip instead of giving a tip to who knows who for who knows what, and leave regretting that you even came.

Of course this can be solved by not eating french toast or pancakes, or it can be solved by going to the much closer Kneaders and having their yummy thick french toast on superior bread for the same price, and not need to wait for refills because Kneaders has the refill system down pat. And, since there's no waiting at Kneaders, there's plenty of tables, plenty of time to enjoy the time with your party, and you leave quite happy having had a great experience.

I like Magleby's for lunch, but for breakfast there's better options. It's sad though because I really want to love Magleby's. Send me a message when you change things and I'll come back. Until then, sadly I'll be somewhere else...

Pro tip: order a slice of cake to go when you order your meal. It will be a great...

I enjoy going to #MaglebysFresh I’ve had many good things over the years. You order at the counter and then they deliver the food to your table usually very quickly. They have self serve fountain drinks which I appreciate. Here are A few dishes I love. The #SaladAndSoup meal. I often get the #FajitaSalad Mixed greens tossed in a citrus chili vinaigrette with grilled pepper and onion, roasted corn, guacamole, cotija cheese, cilantro, tortilla strips, and topped with grilled sirloin. It’s big, has great flavor. The citrus vinaigrette comes on the side and is lively and sweet, a good compliment with the salad. The #soups are made from scratch daily and come with thier famous bread sticks. Some of the soups I’ve enjoyed #CornChowder #TomatoBasil #ChickenNoodle Magleby’s serve a good #FishAndChips Hand-battered cod with fries, a sweet and creamy cole slaw, and house-made tartar sauce. I will often substitute the regular Battered fries for the Sweet Potato fries. I love the #ChickenMarsala Chicken Lightly breaded, served with a lovely mushroom marsala sauce over mashed potatoes and comes with choice of side. Sides include fruit, Battered fries, Sweet Potato Fries, coleslaw, veggies, soup, side salad etc. the #DenverOmelette With Peppers, onion, mushroom, bacon, ham & tomatoes, served with a side of skillet potatoes or fresh fruit is pretty good. Their #Halibut is wonderful. Fish fillet Egg washed and lightly breaded served over rice pilaf with house-made tartar sauce and choice of a side - it’s A house favorite for over 20 years! Magleby’s produce a tasty #CaliforniaTurkeySandwich Slow roasted turkey piled high, avocado, onion, and greens with Thousand Island dressing on wheat bread also comes with a choice of side. Other yummy options include their breakfasts served all day like the pancakes and French toast. The breakfast burrito is good too. You can’t go wrong with anything they make. Including their yummy #ChocolateCake and #CarrotCake mmmm. Magleby’s Fresh makes good quality food at a reasonable price. You know...

So -- never mind the fact that my wife and I have been watching the Biggest Loser recently -- the food here has got to be SOOOOOO bad for you! It still tasted pretty dang good! Just don't plan on eating healthy off their breakfast menu (I'm lookin' at you, candied bacon). I'm sure that their sandwiches and salads are a step up in that department.

To speak from our experience, though, being our first time, we had questions about the food options. The waitress wasn't very versed with the menu and wasn't really quick to make informed suggestions. I ordered the french toast platter and asked that the whipped cream be put on the side. When it was delivered to my table, the waitress (who took my order, even), began to apologize for the cream having slid down off the french toast. "Well, it was on top... then it slid down," she said. I just said, "That's fine. That's how I wanted it anyway." "Oh... that's right," she awkwardly replied.

I ordered an extra side of hash browns that came out to me with one side of each piece absolutely burnt to the point of being hard enough to break teeth if not careful. I hate to complain about food, but that was absolutely unacceptable. I took it back and I got a somewhat reluctant, "Ok... we'll make you some more." As the worker handed the plate back to the cook, "he said it's burnt." Anybody could have told you it was burnt before serving it to me. And maybe I've been watching a bit too much 'Hell's Kitchen,' but this cook would have been immediately kicked out of the kitchen by Gordon Ramsey, not before being at the receiving end of several bleeped words.

The only reason I'm leaving 3 stars and not 2 is because they did fix their mistake. I still can't get over how burnt and hard those potatoes were.

All-in-all, chances are I won't be going back nor will I recommend Magleby's. For a place that sells themselves as "gourmet" dining, I was not at all impressed and was, in...