Had 7 people and they told us that the max per table is 6 due to the virus. Well... we were fine with that it's just confusing why spreading my family throughout the restaurant is going to help the spread.... think about it. There is no benefits of spreading a family throughout a restaurant when they've been together. It only makes the chances of spread higher for other people. But it was fine. But that isn't why I'm writing this review... We got seated by a waitress named Theresa. By the end of out meal we were absolutely disgusted by the way she treats people and makes them feel like crap..... not just us... the people around us also. After 45 seconds of sitting down and we just started looking at our menus she came over our table and immediately said "what do you want to eat" not asking if we were ready or anything. So we quickly made a decision with no other choice of waiting. Absolutely forced. My girlfriend asked for a Chicken strip melt with no fries and the waitress forced her to get fries because they "only add $1" and my girlfriend said no initially and Theresa, the waitress insisted she orders it and so she finally said "fine I'll have them". Once we got our meal ordered an older man was sitting alone at the table across from us and said "ma'am could you do me a favor" and she aggressively tells him "one moment" and then a shorter waiter walks by and says "what do you want." And he says can I have some jelly and the guy yells at him... "What kind!" Not exaggerating... I felt so bad for him. And the older man stuttered a bit and the man yells again "WHAT KIND" and he finally told him which kind. Felt so bad for an older man sitting by himself. Later on as we were waiting the man says to the lady again "can you do me a favor" and she says "what." Not "yes" or "sure" and the man asks for a to go cup for his coffee and it looked like she snarled and walked away without responding and grabbed his cup and brought it back to him. The man is putting the tip on the table as she brings back the cup and she takes the tip while he is sitting at the table and didn't even genuinely thank him or anything.... she took the tip before he even stood up and walked away immediately. The poor alone, sitting by himself, older guy got treated like he doesn't matter. Sitting ALONE. So unethical and inhumane. Theresa brings out the food and my girlfriend's mom realizes she got bacon instead of sausage and politely asks Theresa "ma'am?" And she turns around and says in quote "what do you want". Word by word. Exact words and bad tone. There were MANY more horrible service and customer service experiences with our waitress, Theresa that would take way too long to type out. Bonus: They do not sanitize tables in between parties of people. Food was good though, cooks must appreciate their customers. Hopefully change can come soon so people like that older man eating by himself and families don't get treated like they don't matter one bit. WAITRESS: Theresa. read more

Very good service food was great normally have breakfast but this time I had their salmon it was okay probably won't get it again need to be more juicy and the flavoring needs to be equal instead of just all on one side it was almost a little dry but next time I'll just get something else we will be back read more

Excellent service. Food is hot and fresh. Always a good place to eat in Ames. Good value for the amount of food you get.

Perkins is simular to Denny's with a few better, more flavorful, choices. They are open all night, have the calorie count for each item on the menu, and offer a large breakfast selection. The food is hit or miss though. One miss is the scrambled eggs with spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and onions. This sounds delicious, and was a low calorie choice, but this dish was flavorless. The Sanoma Chicken Salad (an open faced chicken salad sandwhich with grapes and walnuts), the Loaded baked potato soup, and the South West Avocado Salad are all yummy choices. Over all this is a good choice if you want casual dining at odd hours, you don't mind an occasional fair dish, with a lot of menu choices. read more

Perkins Restaurants over the years have been consistent, but recently it seems like they've been cutting a lot of corners to keep their chain operational. I have stopped at their restaurants all over the Midwest while on the road and, while service hasn't always been great, the food has been the same. There was a time when I would pass a dozen other breakfast restaurants to get a stack of Perkins' buttermilk pancakes. Those are hard to beat. It seems as if things aren't the way they used to be (though this isn't something that is unique to Perkins...). Their menu is larger, but they have expanded the menu at the comprimise of some of the classic favorites that made Perkins great. Plus, the prices have gone up tremendously. There was a time when you could get a Tremendous Twelve breakfast (which is enormous) for $8.99. It was a HUGE portion of food. They no longer have that on the menu (or at least, I don't remember seeing it on there) and have a similar meal that is $11.99. With rising prices, smaller portions and changing menus, it seems like Perkins is another restaurant struggling to keep all of their locations open. Okay, now on to my latest visit at the Ames, Iowa location... As usual on a Saturday morning, there was a wait. This is nothing new since it's a college town and one of the better places in Ames to get a homestyle breakfast. The staff in Ames is very polite and courteous and have been as long as I can remember. We were seated and waited on quickly. They brought the coffee out, took our order and put it in. It arrived as ordered, in a decent amount of time and hot to our table. I had the classic eggs benedict. The eggs were cooked perfectly and the hashbrowns were good. However, as usual, I've come to expect a bad assortment of fruit in the fruit side. I know that honeydew and cantaloupe are common in a fruit bowl, but when it's supposed to have strawberries, grapes and pineapple in it and it doesn't it's a little disappointing. My only real knock on the Ames location is cleanliness. The floors were dirty and the tables weren't clean when we were seated. The restrooms were also quite messy. They were out of soap in the dispensers. I notified the staff and they said they'd take care of it. However, 45 minutes later after our meal I went in to wash my hands and still no progress had been made. Overall, I still like Perkins but it's not the great restaurant chain that it used to be. read more

Eggs were perfect! Our waitress, Sarah, was very nice and even helped me get the perfect breakfast for me, even though it wasn't on the menu the way I wanted it. Restaurant was very clean, comfortable and really had a great breakfast with my mom. read more

Went here one night for dinner. Walked in and there were about 7 other tables with groups of people at them. There were two tables clean. My fiancé and I got one of them. We sat down and waited. Long wait before we could even get drinks. Another couple came in. They got the last clean table. Ordered our appetizer. Another group of people came in and all tables were still dirty. The manager went to a dirty table and took all the dirty dishes off a table and placed them on a nearby table then went to get the group of people. They got seated at the table that hadn't even been wiped down yet. We wanted refills on our drinks but our waiter told us they were out of clean cups and it would be a while before they would be cleaned. I just told him to take my cup and refill it. We finally got our appetizer after waiting 20 minutes. When we got our appetizer, which I'm glad we ordered, the waiter finally took our entree order. The manager kept walking around the dining room looking at all the dirty tables and walking by them. He would wipe down the booth benches but do nothing about the dirty dishes on the tables. As more people came in the manager would clear off a table and put the dirty dishes on a nearby table. This continued for a while. After have being finished with our appetizer for a half hour, someone came out of the kitchen and grabbed some dishes off a dirty table. Shortly after that our food finally came out. I wonder if they even washed the plates. The food was not to bad but the thought in the back of my mind about having my food on plates that may or may not have been washed made it dreadful to eat. The manager decided to run the vacuum under a table he had been contemplating cleaning the entire time we were there. We had been there for an hour and fifteen minutes and the manager had wiped the booth and vacuumed under the table but hadn't cleaned anything off the tables or wiped any tables down. There was dust on the window sills. Tons of crumbs in the cracks of the booths. Dirty dishes piled high on several tables. Employees standing around and talking. I kept thinking to myself, "If it is this dirty in the dining area, I'd hate to think what it was like in the kitchen." We were there for just under two hours and there had been a total of three tables that had been cleared. I almost felt like just walking out without paying. I've been to this restaurant on other nights and the service was fast and great and the food was good. They also had a very clean dining room those nights. I worked in a restaurant for five years and was told you have two minutes from the time the guest leaves to clean the tables they were at. What happened to that rule? Apparently nobody at Perkins cares. So if you go there and see the tall skinny African American manager working, just turn around and leave because this is the service you can expect from him. Lazy and no work ethics. read more

OK I arrive this afternoon I am seated by a very nice girl and then I get Gabe. I ask for new silverware because there is egg on my fork the table was dirty when I sat down but the girl who set me down cleaned it up. I asked for hot water and lemon and received hot water but no lemon. I got a little tude when I ask for the Lemon once again after several minutes he brought out the lemon. I poured my hot water and lemon and there was a black slug looking thing in the bottom of my cup of hot water. When my food finally came Gabe proceeded to take my food to another table then brought it to me. I finished my food and was waiting for my check while he stood by yucky yakking with some other customers which is no big deal if you don't have work to do. I'm surprised usually I don't get this treatment at Perkins maybe it's just Gabe. Also while I was eating my food I overheard another customer asking about the raspberry Coke if it was any good and Gabe instead of offering to bring a sample just shrugged his shoulders and said he had no idea he doesn't drink soda wow OK Gabe maybe you should stick with your day job... oh wait it is your day job. Maybe you need to go back through the customer service 101 class!! read more

Visited late on a Friday night. They were moderately busy with the after-game high school crowd. It took forever for the waitress to take our order. We waited 10-15 mins for our drinks (water). The food was brought to our table 30-40 mins after we were seated. The pancakes tasted horrible.. like they were under cooked. Flipping them over, I noticed that all pancakes were raw on the bottom side. It seemed to me that the kitchen was overburdened and was taking shortcuts (undercooking food intentionally). I found the cleanliness of the restaurant more nauseating than the food itself. Ledges by the windows were covered with thick dust/dirt. The curtains by the tables were filthy. There were flies all over the place - including the display cabinet with the pastries. The menu was sticky from food and syrup. read more

Great waiter today was very impressed with service and we sat for a long time and chatted. We was very patient with us. He enjoyed the kids and was very accommodating. My omelet was excellent. Free wifi during visit. Free refills of coffee and pop! read more

Thank goodness for Perkins, for those times when there is no choice but a chain. You can count on the food, service, and price being exactly the same from one to another, at least that is our experience. read more

Best pie in town. Food is pretty comparable to most chain diners like Baker's Square and Denny's. Baker's Square has better pies though.

Excellent Breakfast food! Friendly service. Best breakfast place in ames! Way better than village inn. Would recommend to friends.

Generally we don't complain for service issues and are understanding when a restaurant is busy, but in Ames Perkins it was an entirety different story. It wasn't busy but it took quite a while to have our drinks brought to us, trying to get coffee or water refills was quite a task. food was ordered when we got our drinks. It was obvious my omelette had been prepared some time before I received it. My wife's French toast was more like dry toast with bananas on it. A good portion of our order was forgotten by the waitress and we still were out of water. When everything was done, it still took a half hour to get the check. All in all, No one had a sense of urgency to get moving, the food was not up to normal Perkins par, we spent far too much time requesting items repeatedly and when we were asked about our experience at the register our concerns were met with blank stares . read more

Never in my life will I go to this location again. I got nasty food and it was gross. My chicken was old and since I work at Arbys on 13th in Ames. I know how to cook chicken. It took a hour to get my food and I was not in a good mood ask the owner for a refund and got it. But never will I ever go to this place. read more

We had waited for around 50 min to get the food. Ordered a burger and disliked it. Service was okay.

I had my first visit to a Perkins restaurant while in Ames from Cedar Falls. Went on a Saturday morning and it was very busy, but they sat me immediately. Service was okay, but the waitress had been given too many tables, so it was understandable. The food is okay-I got a bacon tater omelette with pancakes and hashbrowns. The hash browns were a very small portion, kinda greasy. Omelette was pretty good, eggs taste like fake boxed eggs. Both needed salt. The pancakes were the best part, almost sponge-y but in a good way. All in all, not an awful experience. IHOP is WAY better with much larger portions, but this was pretty good, albeit a little overpriced. read more

Worst service I've ever had. Tried 4 different times hoping for a better experience but they continued to get worse and worse each time. From taking forever to bring a single drink refill when absolutely no one else was in the place to taking over an hour to bring out a cinnamon roll! To top it off, the waitresses completely skipped us over when seating people! Even when they saw us there first! NEVER coming back again! DO NOY WASTE YOUR TIME GOING THERE!!!!! read more

My waiter, Conner was outstanding. A great personality, very professional, yet entertaining. Cant say enough about his work ethic

I got food poisoning here! I ate here on 6/25/14 and I ordered the Mediterranean omelette, which comes with hollandaise sauce. I found out later that hollandaise sauce must be prepared very specifically and kept at a certain temp to avoid spoiling. I wonder if it was done correctly? The restaurant was moderately busy and the service was good. Unfortunately, I was sick for 5 days afterward! I will never order Hollandaise sauce again and can't recommend this restaurant! read more

Because our favorite restaurant for Sunday brunch (Cafe Shi) closed and our second-favorite place for Sunday brunch (Pazzesco's) is no longer open on Sunday, my wife and I decided to experiment with Perkins, which is not a restaurant we would usually go to. The food was actually better than I thought it would be. My wife had the turkey dinner; the turkey was not carved from a real bird but neither was it the kind of awful reconstituted stuff; it looked like it came from a roast turkey breast. The portion was huge, and we saved some money by ordering it off the "55+" menu (same size, smaller price, than the regular menu). I had the fried chicken and eggs: two biscuits, each with a piece of fried chicken and cheese inside, and smothered in creamy gravy (though I had that on the side, and next time will just skip it altogether); two eggs; bacon; hashbrowns. Everything there was pretty tasty too. On the way out I bought half a dozen of their "mammoth muffins" (buy 3, get 3 free); they look good, but I haven't tasted them yet. Prices are a bit on the high side, though I did have a 20 percent off coupon that I found in some brochure put out by the Ames chamber of commerce. The main drawback to the meal, though, was the waiting. First we had to wait fifteen minutes to get in, and unfortunately there isn't much room in the front so we had to stand around in a crowd that looked like it came from Times Square on New Years Eve; the greeter finally calling my name was as exciting as watching the ball drop. Then, once we got seated and ordered our food, we had to wait almost a half hour for the meals to arrive, by which time I was starving. But for the wait, we would be a lot more likely to come back here; as it is I don't rule a return visit out, but it won't be a priority either. read more