Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Alpine Township

Brought a friend here for an early dinner. We were greeted and seated quickly and courteously. Our server brought us menus and took our drink order. He was polite and cheerful without seeming bubbly or as if he was trying to sell fake enthusiasm. He took our order and read it back, making sure to note the substitutions; of note for this review, I ordered the chicken alfredo broccoli fettuccine and substituted the chicken for shrimp (it's only a $0.50 up-charge, I'll do that all day long). After what would be described as a reasonable amount of time another young man brought us our food, both ours and the adjoining booth. However, as he began to move away I noted that my dish was made with chicken, though I has subbed it for the shrimp. He appeared a little confused but summoned our server who quickly realized that both I and the next booth had ordered the fettuccine, though the other order had not subbed for the shrimp and we had been given each other's meals. Our server apologized for the mix-up and assured us both meals would be re-made, asking if he could get us anything while we waited. The dish came with a breadstick and I asked if it could be brought out while I waited. My ONLY complaint would be that the breadstick was very dry, almost hard; beyond that I have nothing negative to say. Our food was brought back out and made to satisfaction. As this was a simple mistake and it was handled politely and professionally, I saw no cause to make a fuss, but when the bill came I noticed that they had comped the cost of my meal as well as 50% of the overall bill. Mistakes happen, I would not have asked for a discount simply due to an error, but I am glad to see there are businesses that still consider the customer. Oh! and the food? Fantastic. I will admit I used to consider Applebees as having a lower quality of food in comparison to their competition; not anymore. This was exactly was I was hoping for from a...

We stopped in on NYE around 6 and business was very slow. Our server (Samantha F) was excellent: friendly without being fake, attentive without helicoptering, professional but not aloof. Very good.

Food wasn't great. Our loaded waffle fries were a much smaller portion than usual and sloppy. Our french fries were old and soft. My wife ordered a burger. Offered a choice between medium or well-done, she said "medium". What she got was a dry and separated collection of beef pieces with burned cheese holding them together.

Our server (who again, was very good) immediately had the burger remade. Once again it was overcooked (no trace of pink) and dry. Not as bad as the first one but still not "medium" by any stretch.

The whole time we sat there, we kept hearing a lady in the back yelling "Runner! Runner!". That seemed odd at first and became fully irritating by the time we left. If the kitchen staff is yelling loud enough for "runners" to hear it in the lobby, then customers are feeling accosted. Yelling for runners is a really bad practice. Whoever has yelling from the kitchen has lost sight of customer experience as a priority.

Last gripe: the floors were badly littered. This is normal/expected during rush periods but the restaurant was mostly empty and at least a couple of the hosts (one guy and one girl) were standing around chatting almost the whole time we were there.

I can only assume that the person yelling "runner" was an overwhelmed shift manager and that the manager's absence in the lobby was why the lobby was a mess. Managers shouldn't be used as laborers and tonight was a good example of how that attempt to cut labor costs...

We had placed order online and arrived early to pick up so we went to the to go checkout to let them know we were here and sitting at the bar so when food was ready could let us know the waitress yelled back to everyone in the kitchen we were there but yet our food was ready and packaged to go and went by everyone to go sit in cubby waiting to be picked up after about 10 min maybe more we started to wonder and look around as the time given for food to be done had surpassed so we went up to waitress and inquired on our food. She was embarrassed and said she was the one finishing the order up in kitchen when they yelled back to take order to bar when complete but no one did instead it sat on shelf getting cold and would of continued to sit if we did not ask about it. We were beyond ready to leave asked the bartender to cash out with our payment in hand and she gave us the bill and continued to walk on to help someone else. We let her know what happened and she as well as the manager did not apologize but tried to push the blame on the new waitress saying she's still learning I know it was not her fault as I told them it went through the whole kitchen and everyone standing around kitchen at that time which was not busy at all. We were not satisfied and to blame a new employee for their mistake is very unprofessional and shows lack of customer service. One of the worst experiences we have had especially for the time it was and with more waitresses standing around doing nothing than there were customers in the restaurant. At least we made it home with cold...