Friendly's in Watertown, NY was not a good experience. The hostess and waitress was not nice to us at all. Very rude. She didn't smile once at us and very rude. The hostess was rude too. Not what I would call Friendly at all especially at a restaurant called "Friendly's".
Not happy with their service at all.

Friendly's has spectacular sunday's and it's a big draw for kids - they love that conehead thing, the one with recee's peices for eyes and recee's peices on the bottom of the sunday. I miss that one.

I have worked for Friendly's for the past two years and overall it has been a horrible experience. The managers (well most) are all uneducated and power hungry. They are constantly transferring managers and out of the six or seven GM's that have been at my friendly's, I only thought one of them deserved to be a manager. The rest are all lazy and bark orders all day while they just sit at the break table and eat. It's ridiculous. Also, the number one thing that I hate about Friendly's is their cheapness. Friendly's is one of the most cheap companies to work for. Everyday that we work, they charge us a set amount for soda even if we do not drink it. This may not seem like a big deal to you. But, the costs of the beverages are pretty much being paid by the employees. In turn, the $2.19 that the customers pay for a drink is all profit for Friendly's so I do not understand why they keep jacking up their beverage prices. Another thing that bothers me about Friendly's are the cooks. Two of the five cooks at my Friendly's have been in and out of jail. Also, they are disrespectful to all of the female employees. They are constantly cracking jokes and sexually harassing everybody, but nothing is being done about it. Another thing about Friendly's that bothers me is the scheduling and hiring procedures. Constantly, the managers try to get me to work a day that I'm not scheduled or try to get me to stay later. I'm currently a student and I work the hours that I work for a reason. It annoys me that they attempt to force me to work when I am not scheduled. It seems like I'm just ranting about my job, but that is not so. Not only am I an employee at Friendly's, but I am also a frequent customer. The ice cream portion sizes are ridiculous! I used to scoop ice cream before I became a waitress and they were constantly reprimanding us for putting too much ice cream in the glass when we only put like one scoop in the two scoop sundae. I personally will not pay for a sundae from Friendly's unless I make it myself and make sure that I am getting what I pay for. I hope that you think of what I said and realize that Friendly's isn't so friendly. It is actually the most "un-friendly" place that I've ever worked for.

I work for Friendly's as a manager(in Massachusetts) and I must say that I disagree with the above comments.We are a very busy restaurant and cleanliness and sanitation are very important to us.Gloves and handwashing are crucial.Sometimes labor can be tight, but we always have a dishwasher during peak times, as well as a minimum of two servers and a cook, depending on the time of day.At night we normally have between 5-7 servers and 2-3 cooks.We always try our best to give excellent guest service. As for the management training program, I did not find it difficult at all.I found it challenging but rewarding. I came from Papa Gino's, and I would definitely give Friendly's higher ratings for cleanliness, service, quality and training any day.

Good place to go for sundae's. What a treat. Ice cream there is pretty good but I wouldn't go to Friendly's for the food.

nice place very reasonable

I go to the friendlys in Camillus New york once in a great while. Friendlys has awesome food and even better icecreame but every time I am in there I am the only one. I know why they get no business they need to make there restaurant more attractive, tear it down and and build it up, make it look like an applebees.

went there as a kid. Went back there and it was still good but not the same

I, too, work for Friendly's in New England. I joined not too long ago to become a restaurant manager and was put through their very poor training course. They say they want their managers to succeed and provide the best service and so forth, but the program is structured so that succeeding is hard. As a restaurant company, they are very confused. Like another poster said, they try to copy abunch of other chains. They have so much stuff on their menu and so many different types of dishes that not only does it overwhelm guests, but the kitchen, the service staff and the local management as well. In addition, they keep adding new test items and promotions to the menus and this makes it even worse. I disagree with the writer who says they are expensive. Yes, they are a bit more expensive than maybe a Denny's, but generally, their prices are very much in line with any other chain. As a company they need to either go back to being an ice cream parlor with some food, maybe something really distinctive and unique, or lose the ice cream end of things and stop trying to be all things to all people. That never works for anyone.

I work at a Friendly's as well as a few others that have commented and the reason for the bad service is not because of your server (unless they are straight out rude to you.) but because of management. My restaurant is always understaffed because corporate forces them to understaff everyone. Everyday the cooks are slow. They do it on purpose to punish the servers who they blame for punching in your order too fast. If you send something back unless your server can fix it themselves good luck to you because I can not get my grill cooks to remake food correctly, or even get my management to get them to remake it correctly. We make ice cream, we host, we deliver food, we bus tables, and we have mystery shops held over our head constantly. Every shift I have i'm expected to stick around until they feel like sending me home because they understaff so bad. The reason why your service is bad is because they keep trying to save money and slack on staff to help the servers. The reason why I still work there is because I can't find a job that I will make this money at and be able to go to school and pay rent/bills. Please if you dine their and your server is nice believe me they are trying their best.

Used to be one of may favorite places as a kid, but I went back east recently and the quality of the food has gone down hill. They seem to have jacked up the prices as well, which were not particularly reasonable to begin with.

It's a nice family restaurant, sort of like what Howard Johnsons was before they lost their direction. Nice burgers, sandwiches, etc. Great ice cream and you can see how hard they are trying.

The boneless buffalo wings and chicken fingers with honey mustard are the best! The ice cream was horrible though... it was all melted by the time they gave it to us... blech. My stars are actually for the FOOD.

I work at Friendly's as a server. I try my best to be the best server that my guests has ever had in one of the most poorly rated restaurants on the east coast. Everything on the desert menu can be rated a 5 star when a decent amount of topping and weight of ice cream is put into the desert dish. Sadly, this chain is falling. They tried to save themselves from falling by remodeling, but that didn't really make a difference in the amount of costumers who came in to eat. Then they raised their prices and added many items to the menu because they need money. They tend to copy off of other restaurants, and this is a major downfall for them. They tend to try to hard to be better, before they think about how much money they are going to spend. I started working here two years ago. A happy ending sundae with a meal was 1.99. Now it is 2.39. Sodas were 1.69. Now they are 1.99. In the past month, an extra 2 ounce cup of topping was 50 cents. Now it is 69 cents! The economy is bad, yes, I know this, but our soft drinks are more expensive than drinks served in some restaurants that serve alcohol! Our menu does not include the cost of soft drinks. Costumers get angry when they get their checks. Some say they will never come back. The biggest advice I can give to ya'll is to please...please......if you ever order ice cream sundaes when you sit down in this restaurant, please still get the sundae in a carry out container anyway. You will get more of everything. It is hard to fit any ice cream or topping in those small azz fancy dishes. Also, the ice cream melts before the server gets it to the table sometimes. Please request this stirefoam (sp) container no matter if you are sitting or getting caryy out. to avoid the 69 cent charge for extra topping bring your own candy in your purse of gf's purse. Sneak it in. That cost is ridiculous. As far as our food menu is concerned, I recommend our chicken tenders and honey mustard over anyone elses's. The cook can't go wrong with this. Thank you. very important...in the last 5 years Friendly's has greatly reduced the amount of employees they have on the clock on a shift, particularly day shift. When you walk in and get your slow service, you may assume that everybody called out. This will probably not be the case. Friendly's restaurant purposely puts mostly servers on the schedule to save the company money. Severs get paid 2.38 per hour. Sometimes we have to host, wait on tables, take carry out orders, bus, and put dishes through the washer all at the same time. This is no exaggeration on my part. This is very normal for my store and many others I have visited in MD, PA, and NJ. If you come to Friendly's during the night you may get quicker service because all postions are filled due to closing and cleaning at the end of the night. Also, the main manager won't be walking around making sure we don't hand pack our ice cream (HEHE) also, please tip us at least 15 percent. Please. We do more than you think. If we don't acknowledge you right away it is probably because we are scooping 7 ice creams in the back, because a table of 5 kids is taking 6 minutes just to place an order, or because we are taking credit cards at the register. Only if your server if completely rude, or if you see the server sitting on theyz azz can you not tip him or her. Other than that, I would like you to be more open minded. we usually bust our ass 5 times as much as the servers in Fridays and Rubys. Thank you.

Good for Sundaes and such, but not much else.

I recently dined @ the Friendly's restaurant in Webster, NY. The food was good, the icecream was awesome, and the service was outstanding. The restaurant was VERY busy, but by the aura the staff gave off, you could tell that they were 'in the zone' and really enjoying thier jobs. After a short time there, it was obvious as to why. Around the corner came the manage, and he was FLYING!!! He had a huge smile on his face, and his arms full of plates of food. He delivered the food, made a quick joke,and was off again, but not without taking the the time to say hello to us, and truly make us feel welcome & wanted. It seemed like only seconds before he was back around the corner... with more food, and another big smile. It must be true, what they say, that the boss sets the tone for the workplace, because his enthusiam & teamwork were evident in every worker there. I have never seen ANY manager work with his people as hard as this man did. Hats off to you sir! I sure hope that your employees truly appreciate having a boss like you!

Their service is miserable, but the candy shoppe sundaes are usually worth it if you have the time to wait.

I like the Reese's sundae's. Known in the biz for slow service, though.

some of the best ice cream ever! it's sad that most of the Friendly's in my area closed. Their fries and burgers are better then yucky Pizza Hut, White Castle, and Taco Bell food!

I recently worked as a ice cream scooper at a friendly's and have to tell everyone that the hygene of the chain is disgusting, especially the ice cream portion (and I used to work at a McDonalds whick are very clean) I would not eat anything there unless i was able to personally make it and see what type of environment the food items were comeing from.

Their food is not too bad, and their ice cream is superb. Unfortunately, their service is often wanting, and their prices are a little high. It almost balances out.

Never get tired of those sundaes.

Ranks right up there with Perkins. Love the burgers, love the sundaes

There clams are the best.

The ice cream is pretty good, but I don't really like the rest of the food. Plus, the service is very lousy, at least it is at every Friendly's I've ever been to.

Very very very good ice cream, and belive me...to get me to say very 3 times in a row??? That's a good ice cream.

The ice cream is good, but the food is very greasy. It is a good value, but I always feel sick afterwards.