Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Austin

My family and I stopped to have dinner. It was busy when we arrived but not packed. We were seated immediately with no wait. However, our server did not come to our table for 10 minutes to get our drink orders but was nice so we moved past that. We waited about 10 more minutes to get our drinks and for her to return. She dropped off our drinks and said she would be right back to get our order. She went to the table a few down from us and proceeded to take their order and the next tables order and then our order. On her way back to put in our orders we observed her stopping to talk to people she knew. She entered all 4 tables orders at the same time. And proceeded for the next 30 minutes to stop and tell us that she appreciated our patience because the kitchen was slammed. Didn't fill drinks just kept walking around her tables repeating herself and didn't bring any food to any table herself out this entire time. When our food arrived my husband's burger was ice cold in the middle and the bun was literally hard as a rock. Not edible. He sent his burger back and the manager, we assume as she never said, came and said priority we will get you a fresh burger. Almost 15 minutes later, my son and I were done eating when they brought his food, very little fries. She dropped it off and said she would take the burger off the bill. She quickly walked away and my husband picked up his burger and the bottom bun was hard as a rock! I flagged down the server and my husband was mad at this point, which he truly never complains and loves Applebee's ( he is the reason we went there) he told the server when she stopped to see how it was going and to tell us again that the manager was taking it off the bill, that he didn't want the food. He said touch it and she did and said she would get the manager. The manager came over and asked what was wrong and he said touch this. And she did and her response was "a little crispy" and he said it is not crispy it is hard. We have been here for an hour and a half and I am leaving here not having eaten. They gave us a free dessert and credited my husband's meal and drink. I told the manager (or whomever it was)!that this is not a kitchen issue , this was a server and management issue. If I were working at Applebee's I would have asked someone to look at the buns the first time. I would guess they were sitting on a steam table or under/over heat lamps based on how hard the buns were. And I would also make sure my wait staff understands that batch placing orders and then sitting back watching the service fail without helping or keeping customers happy at all (wasn't just us that sat forever) is not acceptable. Blaming it on the kitchen is a cop out. The table that sat next to us ordered while we had been there for almost 45 minutes literally got their food in less than 5 minutes after us. Not the kitchen. Lack of leadership and customer service and training. Comping us for our entire bill + another visit would have been the best way to try to make amends but if nothing else our entire bill. Instead we paid over $30 and sat in Applebee's just short of 2 hours for my husband to...

After multiple dine in experiences and over 10 to-go experiences I can way the only bright spot about this Applebee's are the servers. I live 30 minutes away from this location and EVERY time I get food to go something is missing or worse, left out. I can deal with that yet the response from management has been atrocious.

Sides are often left out of you order them separately from entrees. At times entrees have the wrong sides included. The most ridiculous experience was when I spent 100 for food to go and not only was the entire order a disaster, an entire entree was left out. It's an amazing experience when your entire family is trying to enjoy their meals and all the while you're just going to down a few bowls of Cheerios because an entree was missed. This fiasco started my new found love of having to rip open nicely tied up to go bags containing the food to make sure everything is present. After we noticed the entree was missing I decided to call the restaurant I was put in touch with a manager. I was a bit taken aback when she became immediately defensive and claimed the entree was included and there was no possibility that it was left out. Flabbergasted to say the least. She said I should check my vehicle to see if it fell out and even intimated that I was being dishonest. Anyone that's ordered to go from Applebee's knows the orders are packed well in bags and are tied up so tightly that even a marble would just "fall out".

After more than 5 minutes of ridiculous conversation she said she would send a voucher for $20. That didn't cover the entree that I had purchased with a few add ons that were missing.

I can say that this is one of the most poor experiences I've had in a restaurant on my entire life. I rarely complain about anything but this was just...

Hostest and waitress were disorganized at best, more like incompetent. I told the hostest I needed a table or booth for 6, and not a high top table as one of my group members has difficulty getting up and down onto the high top stools. I was offered two separate booths as soon as they were cleaned, and I accepted. When they were cleaned the tables were given to other people that were behind me in line. No names were taken to organize the chaos of people coming in at about 5:30 pm. I asked if a table could be added to a booth to accommodate 4 +2 seating, but that appeared to be too stressful of a task. Then the hostest ignored me and asked who was next as though I left the resturaunt, as I stood there with my family. The patron behind me was kind enough to point out that was there first and should be seated. I pointed to a table and a booth next to each other and asked if we could be seated there. The waitress was horrible. It took 15 minutes to get our drinks - mostly water and 1 beer, and then we had to hand wave our waitress down each time we wanted a refill because she never came back to our table to ask. When she did take our food order it was wrong. Simple things like sides on dinner entrees were wrong. Once our food came salads were served with the meal, not just prior. My wife asked about her side being wrong and the waitress offered to get the manager. We said yes and 3 requests later over the course of 30 minutes I flagged down another waiter who promptly got the manager. He listened to our concern of the service and was willing to adjust the bill. I appreciate the attention from the manager, but it never should have had to come to that. Food taste/quality was what you would expect...