The lady across the hall from me is a manager at a local BE. Her place is very clean and always wins awards of sort. She has been there like 20+ years. I have not had BE food in years, as I am always on a diet, but I hear it isn't that bad, especially for a chain.

Locally I like "Yours Truly" for general type American food, and El Patron for Mexican in Mentor and Chardon

Another data point for the OP.

I never ate at a Bob Evans and I am currently alive but not certain about any Bob Evans.

MisterNice

When my kids were small, we would take them to Bob Evans. It was that or Shoney's. There is a place for BE but I wouldn't be taking Mrs BV there for a Friday night romantic dinner. The crayons were always fresh and the tab was modest as it needed to be.

You, sir, are no politician. I hope you win that seat on TB. You have my vote.

I'm also a fan of Yours Truly. Although I haven't been to CLE in 2 years now, I will be there in early December and YT is a possibility for lunch if I can manage it, although if I'm near a Friendly's I can't pass that up out of nostalgia for my New England upbringing. The Bob Evans in Woodmere (I think) was between the office and one of my usual hotels. The service there was always gracious and I was on the receiving end of quite a number of free drinks and desserts. BE food is sub-par but it fills the belly and kept me going through a number of late night projects. The temptation to order a glass of wine with dinner is removed and it is a half step above the Wendy's on the corner.

Shoney's. There's another one I got the pleasure of eating at in Farmville, VA (I think.)

Wow, why's everyone so hard on Bob Evans? No, it's not going to be confused with Whole Foods' to-go section but I can't say it seems more greasy than other short-order places I've visited.

Been there many times, enjoyed it almost every time. Service is top-notch, food comes quickly, prices are reasonable. Try honey on the biscuits. It's mmm mmm good...

I ate dinner at a Bob Evans in Columbia Maryland while on travel last year. Having grown up in the midwest I had high hopes for the food quality but was sorely disappointed. Poor service on top of that.

Bob Evans is sooooooooo delicious! People shouldn't hate

Close your eyes and pretend you're at a Mimi's Cafe instead. While your eyes are closed, also pretend you're in a decent town, i.e. a town that has a Mimi's Cafe but no Bob Evans. (Bob Evans Co. owns both restaurant chains).

I always feel rushed at BE. She must bring me a new glass of ice tea before mine is half finished.

Q. What has 6 legs and 3 teeth?

A. The night shift at Bob Evan's.


Bob Evan's lovers : Flame broil me - ...I implore you!

I thought I was reasonably conversant with US chains, but I have never heard of Bob Evans. When did it become popular? What's a comparable chain in terms of size?

Bob Evans was a sausage maker from Ohio who founded the restaurant chain that bears his name. The restaurants are common in so-called "red state" America and feature Gosh-darn down-home cooking, not unlike Cracker Barrel restaurants. They are rare in any part of the US that you would want to visit.

Recently, the company (NASDAQ ticker symbol BOBE) purchased Mimi's Cafes, a West Coast-based chain of French restaurants. Thankfully, BOBE hasn't messed with Mimi's. The company has yet to respond to my suggestion that they convert the remaining Bob Evans restaurants to Mimi's Cafes, and to rename the company's ticker symbol to MIMI.

Don't want to send this to PR land, but OH, DE, FL, IN, IL, PA, MD, MI, NJ, & NY are red? Those are more than half the states where BE is located...

Bob Evans is more midwestern, north-central, and mid-Atlantic than southern.

Corrected.

I haven't lived near a Bob Evan's in years. The breakfasts, certainly, are good. However, I'd always resist going there because of the padded vinyl checkered tablecloths (which may have been gone for 20 years, for all I know). They always seemed to retain the awful smell of the dishrags used to wipe them down between seatings. I couldn't eat food from El Bulli if it were served on one of those tablecloths.