Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Athens

I have owned and managed (as well as been in every job description, which owners need to know anyway) 4 restaurants so not much gets under my skin when I go to or order carry-out from a restaurant. Been there, experienced probably everything...and I do give restaurant employees a lot of credit for the difficult jobs they do. Why 2 stars? My recent experience with at 3-4 staffers of this Applebee's location. I ordered a curbside/pick-up order with only ONE request. NO SAUCE ON MY PROTEIN. I requested it on the side. (I needed to research its ingredients more for food allergy reasons.) I tried to place this order using the app for Applebee's. The app did not have a way to request "on the side" for sauces/dressings/& so on. So I placed the order by phone. The night was busy, but my Applebee's rep did listen and hear my "on the side" request. She repeated it back. Excellent! My friend picked up my order. Sauce was on the protein. Hmmm...I looked at the order ticket (the one used by the kitchen and attached to the order). It stated "O/SIDE." The rep did enter the order into the system for the cook staff correctly. Thank you! However, the kitchen missed the request (1+ people), the manager...who I have SEEN checking orders to their tickets... missed this, and the person who took my friend's $ did not open the container (I think either assuming the order was fine or was too busy to bother). I called. Got the rep who took my order. She did ask how the restaurant could remedy the error for me, in a rude voice. I ignored her tone; I could tell the place was still busy. I asked for orders ordered for curbside or carry-out be cross-checked...before a customer leaves with them. I also noted the staff and management who could have caught the error. She sighed. I ignored this, too. I ended by saying all I cared for to remedy the issue was for the restaurant to learn again - food allergies are a very real hazard to those of us who have them and this sort of error can become a liability to both her place of employment and its customers. She was then polite when she answered my statement, but hung before I could give my "Thank you for your time." Food was ok. Typical Applebee's (I had a "bowl.") Not fantastic outside of the entertaining Applebee's restaurant setting and always friendly wait staff. Really bland, considering all of its ingredients. But I may order it again upon a sit down visit, just with another sauce. Curious to see if my experience will...

If I could give 0 stars I would!!!!!!!!!

So after getting my son off the airplane, I took my family out to eat at the Applebees here in town. We were not impressed to say the least!!!

I left a 0 tip!!!!!!! First time in my life I’ve not left some kind of tip!

We were seated without silverware ( the girl who sat us told us who our server was going to be and left) at 10:37pm (FYI Applebees closes at midnight! We got there with plenty of time)and was ignored for about 10 minutes! Our severe walked by us ( with absolutely nothing in his hands! He could have and should have stopped and at least told us his name!!)

Then it took ANOTHER 15 minutes before we even got our drinks!!!! We never received the appetizer we ordered! The food was not great!

When we FINALLY got our food, after almost an hour sitting there, I looked at the receipt and noticed a $15.00 manager discount but the appetizer was still on the bill. I let our server know this and once I got the newest bill the appetizer was gone but so was the $15.00 manager discount!

Let me not forget to say that my son just got of a freaking AIRPLANE and was so hungry he was nauseated!!! And my daughter didn’t eat her pizza! My mom’s food tasted like it had been sitting in the kitchen most of the night! I only ate my steak. I was not asked what sides I wanted with my steak!

Also people who walked in 30 minutes before closing got their drinks much sooner than we did and got their food much faster than we did!

I will not be going back!! Not even for delivery or take out!!!

0 out of 10 DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!!!! Half of my bill should have been offered as compensation!! But NOTHING was technically comped!!!

Don’t waste your time or your money on this business!! If I could I’d see them go out of business and different restaurant be put there I 100% would!!! I shouldn’t have paid $54.97 for the crap we got tonight!!!!

Horrible just freaking horrible!!!!

Edited

I also forgot to mention that my son ordered the crispy chicken bacon and ranch sandwich and was told 15-20 minutes after our order was placed that they were out of...

No service after 40 minutes and we walked out while staff stood laughing and looking at phones at hostess podium.

My husband and I have not had good service any time we've been. I fully understand kitchen wait times and being under staffed with a lot of customers, but the last time we went, two weekends ago, was the breaking point of us swearing off going anymore after leaving with no service. We were sat at a table about 10 minutes after arriving after watching the hostess stand at the podium on their phone. It was not a busy time and over half the tables were available. We sat at the table going on 30 minutes, and never had a server approach us. The last 15 minutes we sat at the table waiting for anyone to take our drink orders (and our food since we already had ample time to decide on food), there were two servers and the hostess standing at the podium laughing and talking while looking at their phones. The same server was busting her butt for the tables around us, but didn't check on us. My husband tried flagging someone down as they walked past us many times, but they avoided eye contact and walk past us. I don't know what was going on. We're a younger couple and were respectful the entire time. My husband used to be server in college so we always try to give as much grace as possible. After being in the restaurant for 40 minutes total without even being asked what drinks we wanted, we walked out. The staff at the podium looked up at us as we quietly walked out and didn't even say anything to us. We've been able to justify the bad service the other times we've been to this location, but that visit was the straw that broke the camel's back and we...