Applebee's
Reviews and Complaints

The Ames, IA location has removed their changing table, so I guess my family will be forced to go somewhere that can accommodate such a basic need. We have 4 children and have been coming here longer than our kids have been alive, and I even worked here as a teen, so it's very disappointing for Applebees to be so inconsiderate to us and other families with young children.

We went to Applebee's in Osage beach mo and it was on the high school graduation night. The management made the decision to send home servers before the ceremony let out leaving the 3 servers to fend for themselves with large groups of parties. The employees were AMAZING and worked there butts off to keep everyone happy and we truly appreciated them, but can't understand why management would do that to them. I do hope they commend the staff they stayed and prepare better next year. They did the same thing on prom night.

Why has management not been replaced yet? I have personally been a witness to one of the black managers sexually and verbally harassing and bullying his employees. It is very unprofessional, unethical and cynical of him. I overheard one of the employees saying something about him selling or using drugs there. Must explain why he operates the business very thug like. No offense to anyone of any particular color but the way he operates the business is unacceptable and has been ongoing for years. When will corporate or law enforcement take action instead of turning a blind eye?

I will never go back to this restaurant as long as this manager is still employed. I have never experienced such a miserable, hateful, more angry man in a customer service role! I witnessed him belittling his staff in front of everyone. The whole time we were there he looked like he would rather punch people in the face than serve them a meal! We felt like cattle being herded in and pushed out. He sat us at our table and threw the menus down without smiling once or saying a word! We were shocked by his demeanor so we kept watching him as we ate. This man needs help-like mental help. I would never allow myself or my kid to work there or be treated this way. Ever. I almost stopped him to tell him as we left about what an awful atmosphere he is creating, but my husband thought this "Daryl" guy might cause a scene if confronted. Seriously?! And this was on Mother's Day! We would have had a better time at Mc Donalds! He needs to be FIRED. ASAP. Unbelievable.

My husband and children wanted to take me to eat for Mother's Day so I decide to call ahead and see how long the wait was, the hostess had told me there was no wait. I was about 10min away and as we showed up she said it was a 20min - 30min wait and i was ok to wait. After 30 minutes I ask the hostess if the table is ready and rudely she tells me that it's not that it's gonna be another 5min, after 10min I asked if the table was ready and still very rudely she tells me they are cleaning it up it will be another 5 min, again I wait and still nothing so I asked the hostess about 2 open booths and she tells me she can't sit us there because the server has too many tables already, that they are almost done cleaning our table and the cooking crew is fast so we will get our food fast anyways, which was a lie. Once we were seated we seen so many tables open and the cleaning crew had no sense of urgency. After another 30 min or longer of waiting we finally received our food. Overall it was a horrible experience.

My daughter took 4 of us out to dinner for Mother's Day. The host was terrible. After I refused to sit in a no window treated booth we were finally seated. 20 minutes later after waitress took our drink order we got our drinks. 1 of our sweet teas tasted like soap. 20 minutes later waitress takes our order. Appetizer was great. 2 steaks were ordered. They received them undercooked. My loaded baked potatoes was not cooked all the way . Even the cheese on it was not melted. All 4 of us agreed. No more Applebees.

I witnessed the Westside Applebee's employee's in Hamilton, Oh smoking weed outside the work. There have been so many times where I come in and workers would look high as hell and [censored] our order up. I only come for the food and I'm tired of taking my kids around this. I would like to see someone give these worker drug test and check their background information because this has gotten out of hand.

The Applebee's on Whitney Way Madison Wi
I have been going to Applebee's since my children were little, they are 28 and 30 years old. The past 1-2 years my husband and I have tried to have dinner there, once no one ever walked us to a table or bring our drinks or sliverware. Once we went in the whole smalled like spilled liquid old, the floors were dirty, the booth seat was dirty the tablet was sticky and dirty. The whole place seemed dark and dirty. This restaurant does not live up to your tv commercials so stop the commercials in Madison Wisconsin or fix up that restaurant it is gross

OK, I live locally but hadn't been back to my local Applebee's in Manalapan, NJ in a few years. I decided to give it another try when I saw a recent promotion (discount). I eat out quite a bit, and don't expect four or five star food at a casual restaurant like yours.. but I do expect it to be palatable. Especially for the prices you charge, which are comparable to many finer establishments in the area! It would not be an understatement to say that this was probably the worst dining experience I can recall in recent memory: Why?

I can overlook that your online quoted timing of 15 minutes to cook my steak, ribs, shrimp & sides was overly ambitious, and indeed, I waited in your pick up area at least an additional 10 minutes beyond your pick up time. However, I cannot overlook how bad the food we received was. I live only minutes from your restaurant, and upon taking the food out immediately, it was literally cold. The french fries were not even warm enough to eat! I was starving so I cut into the steak which actually looked quite tasty on the outside, and after putting a piece in my mouth I was shocked that I was chewing on a completely RAW piece of steak..I had ordered it to be cooked medium, but this was closer to steak tartare! Worse, when I cut it down the center it had a giant GIANT slab of inedible fat! So I put all the food in my oven to heat up. Unfortunately, the ribs, which was one of the only two somewhat tasty items, was quite dry, likely because of the required reheating. To be honest, my stomach doesn't feel great right now and it's a few hours (4-5 ish) since eating the meal. :-( Even heated, the french fries tasted stale and the shrimp I ate, I actually spit out of my mouth after (Most unfortunately) swallowing half of one. Let me tell you, I eat shrimp a lot! I know how to cook it and clean it and devein it and so on and this was not fresh at all. I realize you likely get it frozen, but this bordered on RANCID. I read several news articles, I believe from the Wall Street Journal or New York Times, explaining how casual food restaurants are struggling, and how competitors like Chili's are making changes to bring back repeat customers or new customers, but I don't know how Applebee's is staying in business if you're willing to serve people the food I was given today! The only good thing I actually ate, which surprised me, as it's generally not one of my favorite side dishes, was the garlic mashed potatoes, which were excellent. So if I just ordered the ribs, and if they were actually served hot, along with a double side of mashed potatoes, I might actually want to eat the food again, but the extraordinarily poor quality of the steak, shrimp, and basic french fries, (which there's no reason a casual food restaurant can't make crispy and hot .. and relatively fresh) is reason enough not to wish to come back and actually prompts me to recommend to others against eating at Applebees.

Btw, I was actually extremely hungry when I ate the food, so that even average quality food would have tasted great, had it been at least average quality.. but most disappointingly, it was not. This was the restaurant in Manalapan, New Jersey and it was an evening pick up at around 8:30 PM so the restaurant was not at all busy. To their credit, I will say that when I called to ask a few questions about the menu, the staff was extremely courteous and polite. However, there should have been no excuse for the poor quality food I was given, let alone the delayed amount of time in which it took to get. Given that I actually sat and waited for the food, why wasn't it piping hot?! This makes zero sense to me. I welcome your response. Thank you.

Sincerely,

The person that posted that on her facebook page is one of the worst servers i've ever come across and she talks crap about customers and isn't smart enough not to be overheard by other customers who might know the person she is trashing... She rarely runs her own orders that I have seen, she sits to take orders, and just to talk to customers period. I'm not the only one with the complaint. I have friends that refuse to be seated in her section, so this isn't me trying to lynch her. Her post is absolutely unethical and looks bad towards the company and customers. Is action not taken against employees like that?

On 5/2/18.
Ordered Hamburg and onion rings . The hamburg soaked blood buns .. i ordered well well done. And onion rings in place of fries ... my son who is austic wanted chicken tenders ... i had a female friend out to lunch with us ... soon after sitting . A hornet stung her hand ... she gor up and walked to a plaza close by ... staff was notified . A young man came to our table and was talking his bee sting experiences... i for one have medacation shot for bee stings ... dinner did not start out good .. i put my friends food on hold ... as she went to look for medacation for her sting .. my food and ny sons food was delivered to our table ... my sons chicken was on rge dark side. Meaning over cooked and hard to bite ... i asked to gave my Hamburg cooked VERY well .. i had blood soaked in my bun ... my onion rings were served hot yett could not eat the custing batter they fell apart from the onion .. and rhere was a white ring on the inside .. showing they were freezer burnt, , the waitresses male and female came to our table wirh the bill and an apologey .. and left the check at the table .. beside myself . I did not want the bill truley .as my son put all his food in a container to go . And my friend with her swellen hand took her saled .. i wanted to express how i felt .. my friend said lets just go. You dont weant things to be heated so i called the 800 number for Applebees.. no call back in 5 days ... today i called the Applebees i was told the manager was unable to talk as she was teaching a cook .. hmmm( no comment) know What your eating ...

Ordered online. Said my order would be ready at a certain time i got there 5 min after had to sit at the bar for another 20min before i got my to go order i get home almost half of my order was missing then when i call the manager says to me Well she is new and things happen. That blew my mind... Then ask for corporate office contact she tells me go ahead there in ks anyway wow. Because the girl was new and it was friday managers words. I guess i just got to deal with the fact that i spent over $100 on my order and didnt get all i payed for because. Its friday idk that is ridiculous i am a buisness owner myself. I dnt care if one of my employees was new i would never try to use that as a accuse to justify why the order was wrong and say well things happen.

On Sunday 04/29/2018 I went to the Applebee's located near East Towne mall, address of 4710 E. Towne Blvd, Madison WI. I walked up to the front door to go in and the doors were locked. I looked at the Opening and Closing hours, and they should have been open, it was around 1PM. A woman came out the doors and I mentioned to her that the doors were locked. She then went on to say for me not to even to go in, I'm leaving because the service is very poor, that the staff didn't know what they were doing and she went on to tell me that they had ran out of food. I wasn't going for food but just to have a cocktail. When I walked in the dining area wasn't overly crowded, but I've been at this location numerous times and have found it very busy. I told the female bartender that the front doors were locked. She told me that they were thinking on closing and that they were only making appetizers and serving drinks. I ordered a cocktail, when I finished it, I waited almost 15 minutes before I was asked if I wanted another drink. By that time I realized that what that lady told me was correct. I was totally upset on the service that I definitely won't step into this place ever again. This Applebee's had use to be one of my favorite places to eat and drink, the service was great, the food was awesome, but it has now totally gone down hill. Train your staff better to serve customers or fire them all and start all over...

For the second time I have been here and for the second time I have been let down by the poor customer service. The first time my mom was in town from NC and she wanted to sit and have a bite to eat so we both agreed on Applebee's. When we arrived there were already four people waiting to be sat, however there was no one at the podium to seat guests. The first couple of gentlemen stared at us and kept walking and the other guy in the back was preparing and slamming chairs all across the room as if he was upset. The place was partially empty so there was no reason for six people to wait. 30 minutes later a lady came to seat us, when we sat no one greeted us or asked for drink orders. 30 mins passed and still no one got to us so we all left. Since my dine in experience I have decided to just do carside and once again i was let down. When i went to pick up my meal the two people at the POSI just looked at me and then walked away no one asked if i was being taken care of or anything. The waitresses/waiters were all just walking straight pass me. I have been in the restaurant industry for 2 years and im not an expert but this was by far the worst customer service I have ever seen. I will continue to write how bad this service is until something changes and I will make sure that I let other people that are visiting know that Applebees in Thomasville has horrible service. The staff are all lazy and they severly lack professionalism. I would hate to see you all be audited or surprised by the wrong guests because I love Applebee's, its affordable and convenient. I really hope that whoever reads this does something about it.

On April 28, 2018 I visited the Applebees in Brandon MS. After being seated I asked if there was a special I was told the appetizers were half price during happy hour. Afterwards I proceeded to order two appetizers: the brisket quesadilla and the wanton tacos. When I received my check I realized I had been charged full price instead of half I asked to speak with my waitress. She explained that it was only for certain appetizers. I explained that I did not understand because she never mentioned that when I initially ordered... Afterwards she offered to speak with her manager to fix the problem. When the manager came out she said she repeated the same thing and then added that it was only one per person. I explained to her that this was never told to me. She then told me that she would look into the situation and then another manager came out. She then proceeded to hand me back my original check and told me there was nothing that she could do. I then informed her of my dissatisfaction with her customer service. I also informed her that my expectations of her as the manager was for her to solve the problem in a more satisfactory manner - she simply stared at me with a blank stare and never responded. I then offered to pay the bill and then made this complaint.

On April 20th my friend and I decided to dine at Applebees as we do on a regular basis. We both ordered the Bourbon Chicken mean with an appetizer. Firstly, the Asian Sweet Chili Boneless Wing had a different " home made sauce consisting of honey and black pepper. Definitely not Asian Sweet Chili. The server failed to inform us that they were out of sauce. We asked to have this exchanged for mozzarella sticks. They were cold and oily and not freshly made. The entree was charred and the shrimp were tough and inedible. There were maybe 4 - 5 burnt potatoes so we asked for a appropriate portion for this meal. The server be we mentioned this to the manager. She was extremely distracted though nice but not much of a server. Please advise as to whatcan be done to make uo for this terrible experience.

1915 cedar lake drive, Orlando fl 32824
4/26/18
Mohammed majid
customer
Applebees Kissimmee fl
2060 E Osceola Pkwy Kissimmee, FL 34743
Dear Sir/Madam:
Unfortunately, tonight my family and I went through racism in 2018. My wife was wearing a hijab and we were ignored by the staff for 35 minutes, A waiter named Thomas was heard by my 6 year old to spit in our food, which prompted me to call Apple-bee's customer service.
They ensured me a thorough investigation will take place. But after I went back to the table, again my food didn't come out, no utensils, nothing, and they continued to ignore us.
I wrote down our order on a napkin and walked over to one of the waiters and asked him we wanted this, he didn't even make eye contact with me, and walked away.
Later the manager came over and asked us to leave and he will settle the bill for the drinks. We felt demonized, humiliated, and could not believe because of my wife's hijab this happened, one of the customer's asked why we were leaving, and I said because my wife is wearing a hijab. I told her not to wear a hijab, and I told her to eat at red Robbins, but my wife is naive and wanted apple-bees. For god sake my 9 month old infant was in tears, how do you explain this to your child?
Kind regards

Mohammed

We arrived at Applebee's at 7:30 pm no hostess anywhere insight. 3 more couples arrived one went into restaurant to ask for hostess after waiting 10 minutes she arrived. Only to tell us it would be another 15 minutes before she could even seat us. The parking lot wasn't even 1/2 full. The restaurant was about 1/4 filled. After extreme frustration and extremely poor customer service we walked out went across the lot to one of the other restaurants. There are about 5 restaurants right in this lot to choose from. That was the worst service and staff I've ever come in contact with. Please return my call regarding this situation Kathleen Kovar [protected] I can attach my receipt from the restaurant we went to instead.

4/23 Memphis TN Union Ave
I walked in with my family (6)
The waitress immediately sat us by the door it's cold & raining the door was propped open. I asked her to move us she said no..
I asked her for the manager she brought some lady who was not the manager..
I asked another employee where was the manager, she brought her out and we were allowed to move..
The waitress along with another group of women made fun of a homeless guy (white) he wasn't dirty but you could tell he was upset he got up & left.. I would have paid for his meal if they had not ran him off.. The customer service is horrible like no one is concerned with quality already the quantity is horrible as well there is never a satisfactory moment at Applebee's.