Sean Lobue

Review of Friendly Ice Cream Corporation

I am not the type of person who complains. I am c...

I am not the type of person who complains. I am certainly not the type who would leave a negative review. In this case though, I feel very much in need of bringing something to the attention of Friendly's corporate. Hopefully they view these.

On Thursday, December 29th, I took my wife and three children to the Williamsville, NY location. We were planing to see a movie immediately after and had more than an hour and a half until that started, so we bought those tickets ahead of the restaurant. We had no concerns when we walked in as it was not busy and were seated within a couple minutes of getting there. The manager (I assumed by the fact that he wore a button down [with jeans]) said to the girl seating us "why dont you just put them at 72". Not sure if I heard the number correctly but that was close to his question. From that point on, this became (by far) the strangest experience I have ever had at any restaurant.

We were placed in a separate area in the front of the building. The hostess/waitress kindly gave the kids the usual crayons and placemats and said "your waitress will be with you in just a minute". My wife took two of my kids to the bathroom while my son and I looked at the menu. in that time, one waitress came by to help an older couple seated in the same area. 5 or so minutes passed and my family returned. Still no waitress for us. This area is separated by two knee walls, one of which has a waitress station. I mention that because most of the time, there was one there. After about 10 - 15 minutes, , every time one went to that station, I started giving the longing glance of someone in need of assistance. By that I mean, I would casually try to get their attention with a demure hand raised a little. That did not work and I am at a loss as to why. Since she was facing us, I am hard pressed to believe she couldn't see me. The half wave is as far as I am willing to go as I would never yell "excuse me, can you help me" across the room. I see that as extremely rude to both the customers and the staff. Patiently we waited for another 15 minutes and my wife and I were terribly confused as to what was going on. At that point, we made the decision to leave. I anticipated someone seeing this and being very apologetic to what happened. Quite the opposite happened.

We were all getting our coats on, the waitress moved from the station. Not a big deal until I saw that none of the waitresses were on the floor any more. Everyone was (again assuming) in the back with the exception of a bus boy and a girl behind the ice cream counter. It was my intention to mention to the "manager" that we were ignored. I assumed someone would be apologetic. Nothing... No one...

Taking this story at face value is enough to call it strange at the least. Seems there were too many times where someone could have stopped to say something to us. I am at a complete loss as to why not. We will likely not be returning to Friendly's. I am very disappointed that this is based on a single visit.