Friendly's tinkers with menu again in vain attempt to avoid its real problem

The problem with Friendly's service has been longstanding -- I remember swearing the place off after a hideous experience circa 2000 in Chestnut Hill, and then again in 2008 at the Natick Mall. There is always a place for diner food and Conehead sundaes in the Massachusetts restaurant world, but first they have to stop hating their own customers so much.

I suspect the whole mess with the East Arlington location and that Hepatitis A scare did them no favors in our end of town.

Ah yes - when I was a kid in the 70's, growing up very close to Bishop's Corner in West Hartford, CT, going to Friendly's was always a fun treat. (I don't even know if that one still exists.)

But somehow, from college on, here in MA, I lost the taste for Friendly's - I know I went to the ones in Waltham and Watertown, and they just weren't the same. And it also seems to me that the store-bought version of the ice cream isn't quite the same either - or maybe it just tasted better as a kid. (I still get the occasional hankering for the Watermelon Sherbet, though to me the store-bought version tastes less specifically watermelon than I remember it as a kid - it tastes very sweet, but the flavor is a bit generic to me.) I remember always loving the burgers and the grilled cheese sandwiches. And of course the Fribbles and the ice cream sundaes. (Loved their hot fudge...) But as it often is with nostalgia, maybe the memory was actually better than the real thing?

I do agree, though, that their "hip" new menu items and their awful "trying to be hip" new theme song, etc, really miss the mark. I understand why they feel they have to do it, but naw - it doesn't work.

There's always going to be a place for decent dinner food and ice cream. Yeah, palates are changing, but all these articles about Friendly's in today's news has put me in the mood for a big beef. Sadly, there are no Friendly's in my area.

I think most of the problem (at least from what I observed) is that they don't train the servers in service! They are trained in some ridiculously complicated abbreviations system that is supposed to reduce kitchen errors. The system probably worked great when the menu was small, and was probably easy to learn, but by the time I got there in the early 90s it took me half the summer just to get that straightened out.

I hadn't considered the alcohol angle, but I have to think that could be overcome.

I'll agree that service at Friendly's has always been spotty at best. But let's be honest, their ability to hire and keep good help is likely being hampered by their target audience. When you think of Friendly's and customers, what are the two images that come to mind? (Senior Citizens and teenagers). Statisticaly speaking, what customer base is least likely to leave a generous, or even adequate tip? Senior Citizens and Teenagers.

On a related note, roughly a year and a half ago, my partner and I stopped by the Friendly's in Waltham for Ice Cream on a Friday night, around 9 p.m. We were dumbounded when we arrived to find roughly 75 pre-teen/young teenagers running around the place, jumping on tables, and otherwise creating chaos. Meanwhile, another two minivans arrived to drop off another dozen or so pre-teens and then proceeded to drive away, leaving their kids in the care of the three waitresses on duty. (Who knows if the waitstaff even saw any tip money that night) After leaving the place in disgust, we ended up calling the police and told them they might want to send a car by to assess the situation.

It's easy to say this was an isolated incident, but frankly, I've been to other stores around the region and seen scenes that could have easily turned into this.

I grew up going to Friendly's. I like Friendly's food/ice cream, and I'll miss it terribly when the inevitable happens and it shuts all of the stores down for good. But if I was running Friendly's, I'm not sure what I would/could do to fix it. It's easy to say hire quality people and train them, but who really wants to wrangle teenagers on a Friday night when you could easily work in a more controlled environment like a Chili's, Applebees, or even a local diner. And what business can really be in the position of calling the police on their customers? Or their customer's kids. As much as I hate to say it, I think Friendly's is a concept whose time is coming to a close.

It sounds like there might be serious problems in the kitchen. It's one thing if it takes forever to get a seat or a menu, but it isn't the server's fault (usually) if it takes ages to get any food out of the kitchen.

These are good suggestions. I wanted to point out, they did update their menu fairly recently and it has a couple of "trendy" items (one that comes to mind is the salad with green apples, walnuts, and blue cheese).

Now I am not here to disagree with any of the criticisms of Friendly's on this comment page, because most of them are spot-on. I will say however that as a parent of young kids, Friendly's is still a great place to go when you just can't stand to cook another pot of mac-n-cheese. The kids can still get their mac-n-cheese, plus ice cream, and the parents can have something more grown-up to eat. And it's a relaxed atmosphere where you don't have to feel all tense because your kid doesn't sit still. Of course, there is a fine line between "I like that no one minds my kid being a little bouncy" and "my kid is running amok through the restaurant because I am a terrible parent" but some of us at least are aware of that line and take pains to stay on the correct side of it. Meanwhile it's nice to be able to go somewhere that really "gets" kids (menu items they love, coloring pages, cups with tops and cool color-changing straws, etc.) and where the standards of behavior are relaxed.

On the flip side, from the vegetarian standpoint Friendly's is pretty awful. Every salad on the menu includes chicken (of course you can ask for it without but that's not the point) and other than that your choices are basically a grilled cheese sandwich or a few appetizers. Yeah that kind of thing is pretty unforgivable in this day and age.

I work at a friendlys currently. Theres alot i could say. But for one thing friendlys isnt suppose to be fast food. We got ten min cook time for breakfast 15 for lunch and 15 to 20 for dinner. I am very nice and happy but after u get a table who doset care ur getting paid 2.13 a hour then decides not to tip or leave a low amount it kind of makes u not want to give ur all. We live off ur money. Even when i gonout to eat anywherre i alwayysss tip a generous amout if the checks 35$ they are getting 15$ tip bec i know how it is and i clean the table up. Another thing dont let ur kid run around the resturant showing no respect while u sit txting or emailing on ur phone!