Perkins is one of the few restaurants open 24-hours and the Perkins in Ames, Iowa is one of the best Perkin's restaurants in the country, in my opinion. It's especially nice in a college town where students can go to eat and study late at night without bothering roommates (or vice versa). Perkins offers real food and is famous for their breakfast menu. They have a special late-night snack menu from 9 pm until 6 am. They offer pies, cookies, muffins, and other desserts to "take home." Perkins has a special "Gluten Sensitivities" menu as well. I especially like the slogan on the back of their shirts that says "Kindness Served Daily" because the servers seem to exemplify it. Two eggs, two bacon strips, hash browns and two toasts, and a coke cost $12.50, so about $15.00 with tax and tip. That seems a bit high but kind, quick service makes up for it. read more

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Nothing to complain about food wise since it was delicious! Just keep and eye on what your biting into. Our server was an older lady and was not very pleasant. The younger lady that sat us initially deserved the tip. Very clean establishment otherwise. read more

Perkins American Food - Plastic from a syrup bottle was tucked between my pancakes. Could have been a choking hazard. - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

Great service very good food. Bread was crisp and crunchy so were the onion rings ! The food has improved greatly in the last month. Amendment : ordered American cheese on the patty melt I got cheddar and the waitress did not return to check on the order. read more

Perkins American Food - Patty melt with American cheese and onion rings ! - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

This review will cover several items at this Perkins. Not all were consumed at one sitting. I'll start with the food I'm eating tonight-the turkey meal, which includes turkey slices, stuffing, cranberry sauce, turkey gravy and two sides of your choice. The turkey was juicy and had good taste. I got mashed potatoes and corn with my meal. The mashed potatoes were good. The stuffing was typical restaurant type, perfectly hydrated(not too dry). The corn had very little taste, but looks bright yellow and pretty(!). All in all, it was a good hearty meal that I would enjoy eating again. As I tell most folks in my reviews, sign up for emails and get the apps. of the places you like to dine at. Perkins has a couple good deals that come via emails. Also, be sure to clock in with your phone number at the counter. Last week, I had the three "handpies" and they were good. There could have been more blueberries in the blueberry one, but it was ok. The two breakfast ones, one with bacon and the other with polish sausage, were also good. Overall, these ranged about a 5-7 on a 10 scale. The previous order I had gotten was the $5 for 5 meal. This week, that will cost an extra $0.50 per egg, due to scarcity of eggs and high prices(I thought this dude was supposed to reduce the prices on day 1-or that's what he PROMISED) anyway, this order had 1 egg, over easy, 2 slices bacon and 2 pancakes and it was hot, fresh and I enjoyed it very much. I've taken all my meals to go, but the restaurant is clean, staff is friendly and there's such a wide variety of food here that you can't really get a bad meal. Lot parking. Prices not much higher than fast food, yet it's a sit down place. MarcyDiner'sTantrumScale 5/5- NoScreamingKids. CyHawkApproved and loved. I'll post a pic of the handpies. read more

Perkins American Food - Handpies - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

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Food was awesome Our server Lakan was very attentive and made sure we were taking care of We will definitely be back read more

Thanks for the food poisoning puked my guts out until 5 AM California avocado Benedict TASTED great but--not for that result read more

The server was okay, checked up on us and made sure that everything was okay. And the food was also okay, I ordered the eggs avocado Benedict (that comes with fruit) and I found 3 small black hairs in my fruit. Other then that overall everything was good. Edited: Slow service read more

Perkins American Food - Fresh Fruit Bowl - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

Your typical breakfast diner food! One thing that really intrigued me on their menu is the potato pancake platter! Three potato pancakes with two eggs, fruit or bacon, and a small side of apple sauce. This will have you full in no time! I definitely recommend this dish. The portions were very filling. I could hardly finish all of my food. The customer service was very friendly and we got our food fairly quickly too. read more

Perkins American Food - NEW Potato Pancake Platter - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

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What exactly is the point of going to Perkins if they are not open 24 hours? We went there at 9:50pm, the manager or the person there just told us we were their last table and was super rude to only us although 2 other parties walked in with us. Why did we walk in at 10pm? Because their website says they are open till 12 am. So does google. The rice was undercooked, the tilapia was without any seasoning. The only thing that was good was the apple pie. Come on, it's tilapia. How do you not season it is beyond me. It also seems like they are understaffed. There is only one person in charge of an entire room with many tables. read more

Perkins American Food - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

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Josh was a lot of fun. He checked in a lot and easily handled a huge group of people and all our food without issues!

This place is OK when it is open. Yelp says open at 2am but actually closed! I'm so glad I wasted 15 minutes driving here. Thanks for wasting my time. You guys need to get the hours accurate in all markets/cities. Number one priority! read more

Went here to get soup & a sandwich. Service was slow & the soup was ice cold. I complained & they reheated the soup, still lukewarm. $30 for two people to get cold soup & a sandwhic. This place is very mismanaged. It's sad, this was once a thriving nice place. read more

There are 4 in.our party. The eggs were great. The pancake were really good but so big The apple crisper was good. The bacon was really really delicious. The sausage was cooked to perfection. Anthony was our waiter and he was delightful please give him a raise! THIS was a day with the grandkids...we will be back!!! read more

My friend said it best "I'm not overwhelmed but I'm not underwhelmed!" Good pancakes, eggs that always confuse me, and PIE!! I'd say it's equivalent with all the other Perkins I've gone to. But I keep coming back. I convince myself it's cheaper than other places but it's probably about the same. I like coming here late at night they have some specials that start at 9 but occasionally I'll crave it in the mornings. It's like a once every few months place or a great place to easily get a big group! read more

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Good value for money. The food was neither awesome nor poor, it was okay. However, my daughter and I enjoyed splitting our meal. We ordered the HEARTY MAN'S COMBO* Two eggs, smoked sausage, two Applewood smoked bacon strips and two sausage links with choice of hash browns, breakfast potatoes, tots or fruit and choice of three buttermilk pancakes, Mammoth Muffin®, buttered toast or two biscuits. We got the buttermilk pancakes. The eggs were fine. We enjoyed the smoked sausage. The bacon was okay. We liked the link sausage. Tots were perfectly crispy outside and soft on the inside. The pancakes satisfied our sweet tooth. Breakfast was pleasant and nice for the wallet. read more

Perkins American Food - Hearty Man's Combo - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

Desperately poor service. Hostess avoided us for at least 5 minutes. Looks like it's Chick-filet next time. read more

Perkins American Food - Here with family traveling through. - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

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The pancakes were absolutely immaculate, they were bangin. Also, my bacon was only 70 calories...let's just say this place is gonna make my tummy stick out further than ever. read more

This Perkins serves its purpose which is late night dinner food. The staff is nice and you get exactly what you order. This location hasn't been updated since the early 2000s so it's a bit of a blast from the past. read more

We had an amazing waitress names Bethany. She was on top of everything and I watched as she went around treating diners as family. My boyfriend had to take an important call, and she was super considerate as to not disturb. The food was okay, but what shined through was how much Bethany really cared about her customers! read more

Ive loved their food but the past two times we've gone the wait has been 40 minutes to be seated and then 30 minutes for our food to be served. The waiters keep telling us they are short staffed everytime we go. I think the managers need to do something about being short staffed all the time. Either overstaff because this happens every weekend. The food the past two times have been really badly cooked. Im sorry but I will not return and I will tell everyone I know not to waste their time at perkins any longer. read more

Me and my fiancé stopped here recently and had excellent food quality, service, and accommodation to our needs at hand. I would recommend going here if you're looking for a great causal experience with staff there to help you with anything you might possibly need. Shout out to the dinner staffing tonight as they were awesome. read more

We've been to this Perkins location lots of times, and it's not a bad location. It's not great, and there is definitely room for improvement, but it's not a bad one. Mind you, I almost always come after 8 PM, so I'm never there during the morning busy hours. In the 20+ times I've been here, the only food issue I've had is that my pancakes were insanely burned once. I'm not even sure how someone found it acceptable to serve to a customer. However, once my waitress came back and I mentioned it, they were happy to remake me another plate, and there were no more problems with it. The employees are really nice, and the same man has been managing this place since I started living in the area around 5 years ago. He's very professional, and I've seen him handle drunk and unreasonably irate customers with ease. He's a nice guy. As for service, it really depends. If there are a lot of people, you may end up waiting for service. If no one is there, the servers are insanely attentive. Especially during evening, when they don't stay staffed for constantly busy times, if a group of frat boys or any other group comes in, your service level may go down because they really just don't have the staff. Because I tend to go in evenings, this means that my service is usually hit-or-miss. For example, last night, we were there for over two hours for two people to have the "all-you-can-eat" pancakes. The first set of pancakes took over 15 minutes to come out (which is reasonable-ish), but during the rest of the time there, we only received two more platters of pancakes. The waitress didn't have time to check-in while we were still munching on our current ones, get the order in, and bring out the plate for more "seamless" service. We ended up waiting long periods of time before each plate of pancakes. It was not our favorite service experience, but after a group of 20+ people came in, I can understand why they were backed up. The pancakes themselves were nice and fluffy, and they tasted great. Their sugar-free syrup was pretty good too. Perkins is great for large groups. I've seen them seat up to 12 at a single "table" (made of multiple tables that they've pushed together). They seem to handle larger groups surprisingly well. If you have a dietary restriction, they will allow adults to order off the children's menu - which I very much appreciate since a lot of their foods are pretty high-fat and high-calories. However, you can check out all of their nutritional information on the official Perkins website before you ever step foot into the restaurant. They have the "Fit" meal options marked on the menu that are less than 600 calories - and honestly, they sound pretty good too, so if you're watching what you eat, that might be a good choice for you. This location is well-taken-care-of too. The floor looks great, the lighting is nice and ambient, and the bathrooms are always clean. The seating doesn't have cracked fabric and doesn't look bad. It honestly shows that they take care of the place - especially with as much foot traffic as they probably get. Lots of booths and tables to choose from, and they're always happy to sit you in your preferred area. Final thoughts: it's a good Perkins location. I wish service was more consistent, but the food quality is usually consistent between visits, and they do have some tasty dishes. Everyone is pretty friendly, and if I want a breakfast meal late at night, they're always happy to accommodate. read more

Perkins American Food - Dining area - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

Multiple hairs in food. They Asked what can we get in replace of that item, they charged us for the replacement item. Thank you for the consideration. read more

Depending on the day and time, they can get kind of busy and the wait time can be long, but it's well worth the wait for great food and very friendly service. I'd stay away from weekend mornings if you're looking to cut down on wait time. I absolutely love their mammoth muffins, especially the blueberry ones. I'll stop in after work some days and pick some up and they don't cost very much. They are prompt with refills and just in general. Their pancakes and eggs are always good, too. I highly recommend the Perkins in Ames. read more

While in Iowa we stopped a couple of times in to have breakfast. Food was delicious and staff was friendly! I wish we had this chain in Las Vegas ! I'd eat there often! The Boston cream muffins were amazing!! read more

Perkins American Food - Perkins is popin - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

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Normally, I prefer Hickory Park but I knew the wait on a Sunday would be crazy. Well, we waited close to forty minutes here, too! The list moved quickly, but we were packed in like sardines in their entryway for a bit. We're Perkins regulars back home. My son orders chicken and fries (that's all he eats - I expect him to start clucking some day!), and my husband usually goes with some type of omelet. This time it was the granny with melted cheese and pancakes on the side. I opted for the A1 Tangler Burger. OMG It was so good! It was a handful - with little onion strings and pickles falling out but it was really fantastic. Totally hit the spot. For being so busy, it was still clean (tables got bussed immediately) and the server was still very attentive and friendly. The bakery was having a buy three, get three free deal so we walked out of there with a box of six cookies. :) We'd definitely recommend this location! read more

Great service here! Perkins has some tasty food at an affordable price. Their late night deals are pretty great and it's cool to have a place open 24 hours of the day. The staff and service at this location has been very friendly and helpful. Pies are awesome read more

In 2012, Gayle, the Kid, and I stopped at Perkins after arriving on a late flight to DSM. They are open 24/7 and since Central Iowa seems to roll up the sidewalks after 8 PM, this was one of the few available "after hour" options. This Morning, it was me, the Kid, and his Grandparents at Perkins for a Sunday Morning Breakfast (in a booth of course). In the Day that would be considered before Church. As there were now 3 of us over 55, the Senior Menu awaited. As I wasn't that hungry, I ordered a simple 2 egg omelet and an English muffin. The Kid had a supersized version of that, while Mom and Dad when for a simple egg and pancakes. It was a nice meal and a nice time out. I'm particularly pleased that my Son and my Dad have a nice relationship, and one that I hope the Kid cherishes for a very long time. read more

I was coerced into going here and was not surprised by the results. The food was absolute garbage. Eggs tasted like rubber and didn't taste like they were actual eggs. Ordered pancakes and got toast instead that wasn't toasted. Waste of $9. It's too bad the Cyclone truck stop closed down because they made a good breakfast. Save your money and go elsewhere for breakfast food. read more

Perkins American Food - This is supposedly "eggs", bacon, toast, & hashbrowns. - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

This experience was okay. The restaurant is dirty and smells funny. Our server did fairly well at making sure our experience was worth it. Food took quite a while to cook but tasted okay. Everyone was friendly enough. Just an average meal at Perkins. I won't set out to go here anytime soon, but won't necessarily avoid it either. read more

Service was quick and with a smile. My wife and I had the spinach and mushroom skillet and it came out hot and freshly made. This item is only 410 calories with no add ones so it is a guilt free breakfast option that is quite tasty. The coffee was great! I always enjoy Perkins coffee but this was exceptional. Overall, this Perkins is above average and the restrooms were even clean! read more

Perkins American Food - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

Have had mixed experiences here. The staff is usually friendly, but you may be forgotten if they're packed. Actually, we went in one night around 10 PM (literally the only people there) and were greeted and seated and didn't see another body until we were leaving about 20 minutes later (not even a drink order put in). I found a grape in my taco salad once, but I did get free pie out of the deal. There is some cookie and ice cream dessert, try that! Their pie is yummy too, but the rest of their food is hit and miss. I probably end up here once a year, and that is enough. read more

The only thing good about this restaurant was the food. It was warm and very well cooked! The sad part is the employees working had terrible service and rushed my party of two out the door! We waited to be seated for over 20 minutes until a manager told the hostess to show us to our table (it was also very slow, 3 tables of customers). Needless to say we did not leave a tip. read more

I have not even gotten my food but I already love this place. Our server ASKED us if we wanted straws prior to laying them down. We do our best not to use straws for the same reason he asked. read more

Worst service imaginable. I think they're understaffed and stressed, but they take that out on their customers. Our waiter, Jay, literally snapped his fingers at my table and snarled at us to hurry up. He was rude when taking our orders. As we were in line to ring up at the front, the phone was ringing and Jay stormed past the customers and slammed the phone down on the receiver lol. I'd recommend trying literally anywhere else. Always feel kind of sick to my stomach after eating here, and the service was something else. read more

When I splurge and eat bacon, I like it black. Burnt, crumbling to pieces, bitter, and black. The only person who really knows how to do this right is my mom. When I ask breakfast restaurants to do it, for the most part it comes out a little crispy but still chewy and I'm not happy. Perkins gave me burnt bacon. So for that they get 3 stars, and their home fries are always crisp and tasty. Other than that the main dishes are usually eh and not worth the high price. I had a mushroom and mixed veggie omelette, and the egg was paper thin. I like my omelette's full and happy! This was more like a crepe it was so thin and flat. Pancakes are eh and the only syrup I like there is the blueberry. Also this place is usually packed unless you get lucky. read more

Terrible service towards college students. Got charged $21.90 for 2 waffles, small side of hash browns, and one strip of bacon. Never going back and told my friends to avoid this place. read more

When every my parents come to visit me at college, they always want to come here, which I don't mind. The food is good service is fast and their pies are amazing! My favorite meal to get here is the turkey and potatoes, that way it always feels like thanks giving. read more

Perkins American Food - Buffalo chicken wrap - American Near Me - Ames, Iowa

We don't frequent Perkins because of past experiences but gave it a go today. Service was friendly. Slow on refills though. My waffle was overcooked, but the bacon was crispy like I asked. Overall, it was a pleasant change from our past experiences here. read more

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