A Review of Frisch's Big Boy #551 in Cleveland, Ohio

The Frisch's Big Boy #551 in Cleveland, Ohio provided us with a disappointing dining experience on a Labor Day weekend trip to Northern Ohio. Located at 12920 Brookpark Road just off I-480 at the 130^th Street Exit, we found this restaurant from a highway billboard sign. Interstate access can be considered easy off and easy on for this location.

The décor of this Frisch's Big Boy is virtually the same as all the outlets in this famous historical chain. This particular Big Boy, however, was really showing its age. The booth upholstery and floor coverings were showing serious wear. The rest rooms appeared clean but wall tiles and grout were stained, which did give me pause.

We elected to have the breakfast buffet which included the "fruit and salad bar". I love a good breakfast bar, which was one of the reasons we chose Big Boy over other restaurant in the area. The breakfast items were the usual: Scrambled eggs, a variety of meats, biscuits, gravy, pancakes, French toast and waffles. The eggs were very good, both in flavor, consistency and temperature. I love bacon, and it was the normal crispy fare piled high in a serving pan. The sausage patty I had was cold, however. The biscuits were dry, and the gravy was lukewarm at best. The fried potatoes were cut, with a rather odd mixture of small pieces and large. Personally I felt the large pieces of potato were cut too large, as there were many larger sections of skins mixed in with the potatoes. The French toast was tasty, but like the gravy, was not really very warm. I did not try the pancakes, as they were small, very irregular in shape and frankly not very appetizing in appearance.

My wife had the fried potatoes and items from the salad bar. She shared my opinion of the potatoes. The salad bar was ok, however most of the items did not really look that fresh in comparison to other salad bars we have visited.

Even though the staff was friendly and our server very efficient, we were both disappointed in this dining experience. The price of $8.99 each for the meal was, in our opinion, too much for the lack of quality of food and value offered. And the $1.99 for drinks was pretty steep as well. This Big Boy, #551, does not meet the usual high standards of this chain.