Frisch's — Restaurant in Whitehall

When travelling though Ohio and Indiana, I’ve come across Frisch’s Big Boy as a chain of restaurants, so every time I drive by this place, I keep wondering if it was part of the same chain, even though it does not have the same look, and certainly there is no Big Boy holding up a burger in front of it!

I finally made a point of stopping in one day and can definitively state that this Frisch’s has nothing in common with those Big Boy outlets!

This one is a deli. When you enter the place, you are in front of a standard deli counter with assorted cheeses and meats and you can order them cut to your specifications and taken away. If you go beyond that counter, into the next section of the place, you will enter the actual restaurant which has an order counter and a salad bar. Behind the counter there are a series of blackboards listing the various dishes that they offer as well as one whiteboard standing on the counter with the specials. Most of the dishes are deli style, and they offer hot and cold sandwiches. In my case, I decided on a Cajun Chicken Sandwich and was given the option of what toppings I wanted: Selections of cheeses, lettuce, tomato, onions, etc. You can choose to eat at the place or do takeout. In both cases, you pay at the counter and are given a number on a stand.

I went and found a seat at one of the indoor tables – there are also two outdoor seating areas. Within a few minutes, one of the employees came by with my sandwich which came accompanied by a pickle and a large handful of potato chips on a paper plate. Paper napkins and any flatware needs to be picked up elsewhere, and when you are done, there are trash bins for you to dump your used paper plate in. In other words, this is a really stripped down operation.

The sandwich was reasonable. It was nothing extraordinary or special. Between its ordinariness and the employee’s being very – not surly exactly – but certainly not very cheerful of inviting, I am giving this place a three...

I've been eating at this place for a good 35 years and was always a place to get great food at a very reasonable price, but that has changed unfortunately. I can't describe the food as anything more than God Awful anymore. Tonight, I ordered their pizza for the first time and it will be the last. Ate a slice of pepperoni pizza and a slice with green peppers on it which were good but the cheese tasted "odd" as if it is going bad... Very peculiar and unpleasant to say the least, and I ran into the bathroom after eating just 2 pieces and vomited. Awful disgusting pizza with almost no sauce. Was like eating big globs of semi-coagulated cheese on bread. The crust is good but that's about it. About 3 mos ago my wife and I ordered broasted chicken dinner and sat down. An older couple came in and sat down and received their broasted chicken dinner before we did! I said something to the server working there and she said they got theirs before we did because and I quote "they cook the orders as they receive them... ". Yeah, that makes sense. The ice they put into my unsweetened iced tea must have been barely ice at all, it all melted in about 5 minutes ruining my drink. I was drinking severely watered down iced tea that tasted like water. And it was warm of course, and no reason to ask for more almost ice in another iced tea. Our broasted chicken was horrible. dry and overcooked, nasty, and barely edible. I will never go back to this place again. Horrible horrible food. Total...

My 2 family members each had a good meal. I did not. My sandwich and my son's sandwich took a very long time to arrive and when my sandwich arrived I choked on my first bite. It was a very sharp piece of bread that hurt me. I coughed a very hard and felt like my throat was cut. After I recovered, I quickly realized that my sandwich was not edible. It was not going to stay together and was very difficult to eat. There was certainly no way I could just pick it up and take a bite like it is possible to do with most sandwiches. I ended up throwing it away and going hungry. A family member suggested that I should have complained and asked for a refund, but I felt bad because I already had the impression that the person cooking was a new employee and had been having a difficult time and I didn't want to make it any worse. The waitress/ counterperson gave the cook a really hard time when I asked about my food because it was taking so long, and they inappropriately spoke about the cooks poor performance on the job. Upon receiving my food, I felt bad for the cook and wouldn't have complained. In retrospect, I think I should've asked for something because I did not enjoy my meal, but my family did, and that is why I am giving 3 stars instead of 2...even though 2 out of 3 people at our table did not get our food for an excessively long time. My son insisted that his food was good and that I should give it another chance,...