Friendly’s

Too bad it’s closed; I had wanted to take my wife there and show her where I worked as a customer service supervisor 30 years ago. I started working there before it even opened; we all trained together and then we had a «soft opening» for family and friends.
It was interesting to learn how to use the grill and also the fountain; and the food was good, too.
Wonder what it will morph into now? I worked at the Hechinger’s that was right behind, too. We opened that store, too. It’s probably a Home Depot now.

Friendly is closed! My Mother-​in-​law goes to Friendlys after Church and has been doing that for at least five or so years and got to be friends with a woman by the name of Missy. Of course, she doesn’t know the last name and each week Missy would be the person who waited on my mother-​in-​law and four other ladies. And now Friendly’s is closed. If anyone knows who Missy is and where my Mother-​in-​law can get in touch with this woman, she would appreciate it. Please email me
Missy is an older woman (retired) but still worked. She was lovely. Please help.

I like Friendly’s and my 8 yo son loves it. It’s my compromise to McDonalds. Service has always been great and the food usually good. My one primary complaint is the smell. It’s sorta like soured towels. Whatever it is, it’s foul! And it’s present every single time we come — once a month (?). You almost get used to it by the time you leave.
Other small issues are that the sweet tea is hit or miss. This evening it was water with tea bags dipped in it and ½ the sugar used to be considered sweet (but then again, I’m from the South) but what really gets me is that the container the tea is held in must not be getting cleaned properly every day — you can taste the remnants of soured tea.
Also, the restrooms — sometimes they’re ok, more often they’re not. But PLEASE please put hooks on the inside of the doors. I don’t want to hold my purse while I’m using the commode, but the only thing worse would be putting my purse on the floor (no matter the cleanliness!
So, long story short, I think there are some cleaning issues going on. Kinda makes you wonder about the things you can’t see.

I just love friendlys coffee milk shakes. There service is never bad and is always friendly. I haven’t had there food in long time. My grandparents used to take me here when they came visit me and my mom and dad. I always remember there food being good.

I hate to do this since I love the idea of a local Friendly’s but after not one or two but FOUR bad experiences, I have to say I won’t be back. Let me at least start with the good: service is GREAT, professional, friendly and attentive, each time we went. Seated quickly, order taken quickly, nice servers who really try!
But beyond that, so many problems. First of all the place is dirty. It always seems to smell like every surface has been wiped with a dirty rag. The floors always have food on them under nearly every table. There’s dust everywhere. Worse still, plates, cups, silverware often dirty.
As for the food — echh. Takes forever even when the place is practically empty. Arrives looking sloppily plated. Is nearly always COLD. Has little black bits of grit on everything.
I so want to love Friendly’s. I’ve shared my feedback with them at their website and I sincerely hope that they implement changes to make this place into what it should be — a nice local family restaurant. Please do better, Friendly’s! Your staff deserves it and so does Burke!

Why is everybody hating on Friendly’s? I must have had a great waiter or at least reasonable expectations! I was seated and my waitress served me some hot chocolate and water while i waited on my SO who was coming from another direction. Once he arrived we both ordered and were served within ten minutes no problem!
I had a tuna melt which was GREAT. Lightly toasted on both sides (I did remove the tomato). He had the honey BBQ chicken sandwich and cleaned his plate (I’m assuming it was good). And of course their are the french fries, mmmhmmm I LOVE the french fries. They are the perfect size, cooked just right and so delightful with a spritz of ketchup.
Afterwards we chatted and allowed our food to digest and eventually ordered an ice cream. My only disappointment was the picture of the ice cream on the menu makes the sundae look HUGE. What was delivered was teeny tiny. Eh, I guess its good for my waistline. 30 bucks later (not bad for two people, one hot chocolate and a sundae), I was happily stuffed and my ice cream craving had been satisfied.
I must have had a happy waiter and come at a good time! i’m so sad that others had bad experiences.

No, Sean and I were pretty much the anti-​demographic for eating here. We are neither grey-​haired (well, *I’m* not, hahaha), nor toting a gaggle of little kids behind us, and yet we decided to eat at Friendly’s anyway. I mean, to be fair, I’d never eaten at a Friendly’s ever before, so I was willing to give it a chance.
Not gonna lie, I was kind of dreading it. I mean, it’s really not much to look at from the outside… or the inside. The interior is outdated and it definitely speaks to the fact that I’m sure this location has been here for… oh man, who knows how long. And it took us a good few minutes of standing up at the front with nobody there to get seated. But honestly, that is where my problems really end!
Once we were seated, by a super friendly host/​waiter who was clearly doing double duty during lunch yesterday, we had a really pleasant experience here. Our waitress was prompt, our food came out quickly, it was totally decent (I got the Asian Chicken Salad and it is HUGE. Super glad I asked for dressing on the side because they LITERALLY give you a half cup of dressing… omg.)
Plus, they have holiday decorations out the wazoo and were playing some awesome holiday tunes on the loudspeakers. And you guys know I’m a sucker for pretty much anything Christmas-​related, hehe.
Aaaanyway, is Friendly’s at the top of the food chain? Definitely not. But I’m glad that we took the time to stop in here, because it was a totally decent choice for lunch — and we didn’t even get to try one of their sundaes this time around! I’m sure we’ll be back, and thus Friendly’s, even with all its, er, «charm,» still gets an A-​OK in my book.

DISGUSTING! Bad lettuce, kitchen crew without hair nets, and grimy plates and cups. Obviously this place is a disappointing restaurant.

Background: I have been going to this Friendly’s for many years, but for the most part I get ice cream to go. My in-​laws don’t have a Friendly’s near them and they’re in town to visit, so they wanted to go. I told them how bad I suspected the service would be, but despite my stern admonitions they really wanted to go. So we went.
I hate that I was right, folks. I really do. But this place was downright awful tonight.
We got there around 6:00pm and the place is PACKED. We were seated fairly quickly and our server, Thomas, did a fantastic job, despite the lack of cooperation on the part of his colleagues. The main problem was with the kitchen; they were REALLY SLOW. It took them at least an hour to get our food out to us. I mean, really… how long does it take to cook a burger? Thomas came to apologize to us twice before the food came out. Once it finally did, at least the food was decent.
Then we ordered ice cream. Part of the reason you go to a Friendly’s is the ice cream. And here, dear reader, is where this story takes a turn for the worse.
It took nearly 30 minutes for us to receive our ice cream. We noticed that some servers did go back and make their own but our server didn’t. That’s not meant to be a derogatory remark on him; he did a great job. But the kitchen, once again, really was slow. Based on some of the faces I saw around me at other tables, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. I was ready to go back there and scoop my own ice cream! Some of our desserts had already started to melt!
The manager, William, was standing around as his staff was running their tails off. Just before I left I saw him do something of value: He helped Thomas bring food to a table near ours. But other than that, I didn’t see that he was helping manage anything. Granted, he could have been cooking or helping out in other ways that I didn’t see, but could he have done more? In my opinion, yes. You don’t just SIT THERE and watch your servers struggle with a dining room full of people.
Sadly, this abysmal level of service is pretty standard for this establishment, even when I get ice cream to go. Sometimes it’s the server, but tonight it was the kitchen.
The most sad part of this experience is that there isn’t another Friendly’s locally to go to that is any good. (The one in Sterling also sucks. Been there, done that, experienced their craptacular service, too. But that, gentle reader, is another tale for another review.)
Much to my dismay, I will be going back to this Friendly’s, but only for ice cream, and only because I am often passing the restaurant. I won’t waste my time in the future in their dining room, and maybe one day I’ll even get smart and stop giving them my business altogether.
To be honest, I feel like every time I visit it might be their last. They always seem to be short-​staffed and out of things. One night they had no plastic spoons!
NOTE: I did not experience the smell that other Unilocal reviewers have mentioned on this visit, but I have smelled it in the past. It’s mold or mildew or something like that.

The ice cream was ok, but the place smells of mold, old grease and dirt. Now, don’t get me wrong, the kitchen appeared clean, the staff wore gloves, and they served us in a timely manner, I was just thanking sweet bejeezus we didn’t eat in!

Absolutely nothing special here-‘especially the atmosphere. With cold stone creamery just around the corner, I will probably never return to this place.

I imagine that if there is a hell it smells like this Friendly’s.
My son has a fixation coming here when he earns academic rewards. My wife, daughter and I do everything we can to avoid it.
Thankfully, on our last trip, the staff ignored us so long my son had no problem with our leaving and going to ColdStone instead.

Burke is a great place to raise a family but a crappy place to go out for dinner. What the heck? What horrific crime did the entire town commit in a previous life to condemn us to a future where we need to cross over to Fairfax or DC for a decent restaurant?
So when the weather is bad, or we’re low on gas and need a sweater, we head to Friendly’s. Notice I didn’t say we «pop into» Friendly’s because seriously, that place is on it’s own time zone. Like a casino, there are no windows, so when you leave you’re like «Whoa ! It’s dark out! What just happened?» If you have a large group, you better carve out the better part of your evening: Friendly’s-time in in effect.
Service can be slow. No, let me re-​phrase that. Service WILL BE slow. Nice, yes. Helpful and well meaning, yes. But slow.
Here’s what I like about Friendly’s: The kids menu is a ton of fun, with great options and very fairly priced. If you’re needing some fried food, the clam-​boat is perfection. And ice cream. Not the best ice cream by far, but nice, full-​fat, served with hot fudge ice cream.
A solid 3 star choice if stranded in Burke.

Well Friendly’s is Friendly’s even though the menu has changed and they have attempted to add some new food to it it really doesn’t go beyond 3 Stars (2 Stars for Food, 4 Stars for ice cream and sundaes). You do have to look at what you would expect from Friendly’s and understand that this is extremely fair. I will say that if you are looking for typical food ie. Chicken fingers, waffle fries, something that young kids would enjoy then you should be happy here. What is really good though are their sundaes and ice cream selections — my kids absolutely love the place for that. I do find myself taking the family here, not really by my choice, but the kids love the place for the ice cream and kid friendly atmosphere.

I only give it three stars because I only come here for their ice cream. I don’t care for the atmosphere. I think this place would be nice to sit in if they changed their carpets & added better furniture. I get this old motel feeling when I’m in there. But their ice cream is seriously delish. I only go through their ice cream window in the front of the restaurant. We dined in once & that was the last time. There was a kid banging on the table next to us making our table shake all the time. I asked them to stop but the parents just sobbed me & the staff did nothing about it. So I will never dine in again. The staff talk about their personal lives too much too. They talk very loudly about their boyfriends & college. A little more professionalism is needed but at least they still got good ice cream.

Not a huge fan. Food was really greasy, service not great.
I heard they are going to have an iHop in Burke soon and am excited about that.

The food is OK. The ice cream is very good. But the service is consistently slow and bad (no busing the tables; delivering the check before the desserts arrive). The restaurant needs a good scrubbing.

Good location… at least for me… Ok food and service… But the staff was «friendly»

It simply isn’t worth the trip. The service is slow and sometimes impolite. It is dirty and has a bit of a run down atmospere. The food is not great.
The ice cream tastes pretty decent, but after the poor service, greasy sandwiches, and run down atmosphere, who wants to stick around to find out? I have always loved going to Friendly’s restaurants in the past. I have great childhood memories of the chain. I am really disappointed that this one is so awful.

Slooooooooowwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeessstt service ever! Food is okay. Ice cream is good. This location has always been so super slow. Don’t go here if you plan on a quick bite as nothing here is ever quick.