Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Athens Township

This is an establishment that my daughter and grandson are regulars at. Even though we had a food problem- I still gave them 5 stars. The manager and his crew at this restaurant work hard to provide exceptional service. Their exceptional service stands out and I saw them all professionally working together to correct a problem. (Great job!) Our visit: My daughter and I went on the evening of May 5th. Lots of room to park when they are busy. Parking lot is very clean and well kept. Inside: There was many people there, however, we were seated quickly. The staff was very kind and courteous. It was very noticable that: The wait staff was working incredibly well together, very co-operative with each other. It was very noticable that the manager that oversees everything is very well organized. We were impressed when we saw the manager out on the floor. Food: My grandson ordered macaroni and cheese, and fries with apple juice. His food came the perfect temperature and he loved the taste of everything on his plate. My daughter ordered fettuccine with chicken. She orders it regularly from them and loves the generous portion. She tells me the fettuccine sauce is creamy and delicious. I ordered the chicken penne. The juicey chicken was cut and arranged perfectly in the center of my pasta. Perfection, cheese was melted into the pasta perfectly. A garlic stick was set to one side and the waitress was happy to bring us a ranch for dipping. * It smelled fantastic. My 4 bites of it was truly amazing. Right after I told my daughter how impressed I was, I put in my mouth a fork full with a piece of hair. I honestly believe it was accidental. (My daughter has ordered take out regularly and also dines in on a regular basis. She has never had a problem there in the past.) The place was very busy and I believe it was accidental. The manager responded quickly. Removed my plate from the table immediately and the whole wait staff was very attentive when it happened. I was impressed by there professionalism. The manager was very kind, offered to make a new one but I refused, I couldn't eat anything after that so he removed it from our bill. The manager offered a free desert to make up for what had happened. The waitress suggested a chocolate cake with a scoup of ice cream on the side. It was mouthwatering. It really made up for what had happened. This manager should be extremely proud! He does an amazing job. He has all his employees working together as a team and has them providing exceptional service with great tasting food. Great job!! Id have given them 100 Stars if...

Since the manager wanted to duck our phone call this evening, we wanted to leave him a message where he’d be sure to see it. We (myself, fiance, and daughter) went to this establishment this evening (7/19/25) to enjoy a family dinner together. First, the hostess asked if we would be okay sitting at their tables that are essentially counter-height. We respectfully declined since I am short and having my legs dangling all night like a toddler on a carousel at the count fair would be uncomfortable. She tried to convince us to take the table anyway. A little annoying to not have taken no for an answer, but we’ll just scoot past this. We were then brought to a booth. As we began to take our seats, the server screamed at the hostess in front of the entire restaurant “How many tables can one person take?! I’m NOT serving them. Find someone else to do it!” To be fair, her section was clearly the busiest and we genuinely understand the frustration. However, Tessa (the server) could have pulled the hostess and/or manager to the side to express her concerns. Unfortunately, Tessa’s lack of customer service skills, decorum, and respect upset me and I was unable to stop myself from crying. We just wanted to enjoy family time, but instead were treated like inconvenient scums. We ended up not ordering food and just going to McDonalds. We come to this specific restaurant frequently and have NEVER had an experience like we did this evening. I hope that once the manager, who was too busy to take my phone call and just let it ring and ring until I hear the “dead tone” receives this message, that he takes the time to teach Tessa how to behave in front of paying (and well-tipping) patrons....

PLEASE SEE UPDATE BELOW* ORIGINAL REVIEW: The waiters and waitresses are so rude here. Waiter got annoyed because I needed a minute to decide what I wanted. Threw the straws at me!! I still left a 20% tip because we all have our days, and it was the DAY AFTER Christmas....but this is the 3rd time I've dealt with attitude here. The waiter was cocky, arrogant and mouthy. Then the jerk disappeared and the manager was our waiter...I thanked the manager for delivering the food and he seemed annoyed by me thanking him. Like the extra 20 seconds burdened him. They make you feel so unwelcome here. Come here and you'll see, nothing but bad attitude!!!!!🙄 **UPDATE: I went back, and this time I wasn't going to tolerate no attitude. I was prepared to leave NO TIP. However something odd happened. The hostess was nice, -the waiter was warm, very attentive and RESPECTFUL. ANOTHER waitress came over and took my plates and asked if I needed anything. The rude manager from my last visit came over and assisted me. I gave him attitude to make up for HIS previous rude behavior, but this time he seemed genuine and kind. I hate to be this way, but honestly I saw a change after my previous 1 start scathing review. Service staff should be respected, not looked down on, but my December 26th visit was absolutely unacceptable. I should not be made to feel unwelcome. I noticed that Bartender got a little snippy with a patron and said "I HAVE COMMON SENSE" and patron responded quite loudly "NOT EVERBODY DOES!!!!" I was like yeah, don't take any attitude! So my take on this is this: you might get a group of wonderful servers, or...