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Few diners head to Friendly’s or Waffle House expecting top-of-the-line cuisine, service or ambience. The results of a new survey indicate that these chains seem to live up to their expectations.
It depends largely (almost exclusively?) on the management of the local restaurant.
I live in a city that's big enough to have (for instance) multiple iHop Restaurants. While one may be absolutely horrible, another one several miles across town might be absolutely outstanding.
I've never been in a Friendly's that appeared clean or cheerful. I've gone into several locations in NJ and PA, usually because that's where someone (who has kids) wanted to meet me, or because I was getting an oil change or other car work done, and it was right next door. There are usually broken floor tiles, sticky tables, cracked booths, and overhead lights that are flickering. If I must have a Fribble, I'll use the walk-up window, but inside is just sad and bleak.
Only went to one Waffle House in Lancaster PA, (near F&M University). It was very clean, but very run-down and dreary.
I do think for most chains there is a big difference in how places are run.
There's should not be so much difference in my opinion. The reason people go to chains is for consistency (not for the gastronomic experience). I thought that chains and franchises had company-wide standards that all locations must meet, but this doesn't seem to be the case.
For example, I just went to a Pizza Hut for lunch when I had to go to a meeting in Edison NJ. The Pizza Hut near me has a wonderful all-you-can-eat buffet at lunch, with salads, all kinds of pizza, made fresh and hot, and dessert pizza. The Pizza Hut I'm familar with is also bright and clean, with nice staff, and the customer are all middle-class-looking folks getting lunch during the work day or taking their kids out for a cheap pizza buffet.
This dump in the Edison area was cruddy (I didn't notice until I was already seated), the table was sticky, and I had to ask for another drink, because my cup seemed dirty. They had a very "stingy" pizza buffet, only 4 new pies at a time came out, and the remainder of two older ones were dried up and just sat there. They wouldn't bring out new pies until the 4 newest ones had gone. They only made pan pizza, not a single thin crust pizza (my favorite) came out the whole time. The salad was wilted and looked old (and no one was eating it). It seemed they were waiting to bring out new salad when people finished what was there, but it looked so awful, no one would finish it. And you would expect "normal" pizzas to come out: pepperoni, mushroom, plain, in addition to the other combinations of toppings.
This place just brought out pan pizza with the most fattening toppings: No mushroom, but a "ham, sausage, and mushroom." Or they also brought out, one after another, pan pizza with jalapenos and black olives. Yech! How would they think that was a common combo to put in the buffet? The clientele seemed a little "different" from my usual Pizza Hut, and they all seemed to want the fattening stuff and the jalapenos.
I was pretty much stuck there, as I didn't know my way around, and had to get back at a certain time, or I'd have walked out and found another place. I also kept harboring the hope that they would suddenly bring out 8 really good thin crust pizzas and new salad. They also did not have unsweetened iced tea like the Pizza Hut near me has. They only had sickening sweet raspberry tea.
I politely tried to voice my complaints to the manager, but I don't think she understood English, as she just smiled at me and nodded.
I really think chains need to be consistent from location to location and they should get spot-checks to see that they are staying up to company standards.
I had stopped off the interstate at an exit about 50 miles north of Indianapolis to get some coffee. There were six or seven gas stations at the exit and a waffle house. My coworker doesn't care for gas station coffee, so we went into the Waffle House to get large coffee to go.
We ordered at the register, and my coworked added that he would like cream and sugar. The hostess, an older woman wearing a starched white uniform, said that he could have creamer but they didn't have sugar.
Then she gave us an "are-you-dumber-than-dirt" look and said. "We had THE SUPER BOWL here last week, OF COURSE WE DON'T HAVE SUGAR!!"
This was hilarious because first, the Super Bowl had been ten days before, and second, this little town 50 miles north of Indy was a long way from the Super Bowl venue. If they had truly run out of sugar because they had such an incredible rush of business for the Super Bowl, couldn't they have run to the grocery store to buy a bag some time in the past ten days?
We rarely frequent chain restaurants, we're not interested in their "food" (and I use that term loosely) or their "ambience". I don't understand why Americans frequent chain restaurants in droves, and I'm an American. If they are not expecting real food, good service or cleanliness, why even go?
We go to very few chain restaurants. We are blessed to live in an area with a lot of unique and wonderful places to eat.
There was a "Friendly's" in our area that went out of business last year. I always laugh when I think of that place because I once read a review on the internet from some disgruntled customers that complained their waitress was terrible and also kept telling them how she was suffering from "the Big "D"... LOL That was enough to turn me off.
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LOL That was enough to turn me off.
