Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

I'm struggling between 3 and 4 stars. Why? The service was great, and the atmosphere was a cool, laid-back vibe, but the food was ok. First, we ordered appetizers. We ordered the queso dip and spinach dip. The spinach dip was gross. I didn't like it. The queso dip was a small portion and semi warm. This was shocking considering Applebee's is usually a decent place to eat. The appetizers were overpriced for the portion sizes as my meal cost as much as each appetizer. Now, I ordered the bacon cheeseburger with fries. The bacon cheeseburger was on point. I just wished the burger fit the bun. The thickness of the patty was great, but I'd rather it fit my bun and be thinner. They cooked it perfectly. No complaints on the bacon cheeseburger. The fries, on the other hand, were not hot but tasted old and semi warm as if they'd been under a heat lamp. The ranch is really good here. I like dipping my fries in ranch. The cost of that meal compares to the cost of a value meal at a fast food restaurant. I was pleased with the price! Who wouldn't rather eat at a restaurant for the same price as a fast food restaurant?! In fact, it may have been slightly cheaper but not much. Regardless, if you read my reviews, you know I am not a fan of fast food chains. Plus, for the same price you get served and the service was great. My friend ordered some salad bowl or rice bowl, which looked AMAZING. It had fresh avacado, rice, chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, and more. My other friend ordered a steak, the ribeye. She said it was just okay. My guess is that it wasn't hot or had sat too long before arriving, similar to my fry situation. Of course, if you want a great steak, you go to a steakhouse. At least, that's my philosophy. You wouldn't order a hamburger at a sushi restaurant. I'm just saying. Her mashed potatoes looked cold, and she didn't care for them. Also, we ordered drinks...it was happy hour. I ordered margaritas. Unfortunately, it tasted more like the mix than anything. It was disappointing. If you've had a good margarita, then you know, and I have. This was way too much mix! Of course, after watching the bartender, make other drinks, I understood why. He was barely filling his measuring cup for the alcohol halfway up. I didn't complain. My friend ordered a pina colada, which she seemed to thoroughly enjoy. She let me try it, and I thought it seemed watered down. It lacked that good, strong coconut taste. Like when you get a snow cone without enough syrup. I've eaten at Applebee's in the past, and this was my first semi-dissappointed experience. The best part of it all was the people I was with! Plus, no one was on their phones! If you are going to go out to eat with someone, be present, don't be on your phone the whole time. Life is about the quality time you spend with those who matter. Time is precious and the one thing you can't get back. Make memories. Don't spend your time on your phone, and don't allow your kids to do the same. It cracks me up that people fail to acknowledge the dangers of technology, especially the phone. Phones have become so important that they are more important than spending quality time with those we love or care about. Now, it's about getting the perfect pictures for social media or living vicariously through Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, or the many other social platforms rather than living in the moment. It's hard to live up to an image one creates online, and it takes away from the life we should be living IN! Memories are moments you can't get back. So live in the moment and create memories that last forever! The greatest gift you can give someone is your time! Don't waste your time or THEIRS by spending it on your phone!! One day, you don't want to wake up regretting not doing so! Time flies, and life is too short. Be sure that those who matter to you, those you love KNOW where they stand. It's never too late...unless they're gone! Don't wait for that to happen! Be kind...

Updated 12-1-2024 Took my grandkids here. Their orders were mostly fine with only minor oversights. I ordered the $9.99 chicken sandwich special. I ate some fries and noticed a hair on it. I couldn't rule out it being my hair. As I attempted to take a bite, fluid in the chicken squirted out on my upper lip and scalded it. I started to slice it in two, and that's when I noticed the second hair on the sandwich and it definitely was not mine. I call the server over, show her, and I decided to replace it with a burger that was at the same special price of $9.99 with fries and a drink. The burger was acceptable, although the server forgot to bring the condiment I requested. I go to pay my bill on the kiosk, and notice I have been over charged for the special by $4. I call the server over again, show her, and she says she will get it fixed. She comes back, updates the kiosk, which now shows my bill being $20.09. The highlighted automatic selection is on a 20% tip, but the numerical value of the tip is $9.81, nearly the price of the entire combo. I call her over again and told her to just bring me the check. If I hadn't noticed, I would have been overcharged more than $6 on the first ticket and $9.81 on the second attempt. I have a pic of the kiosk showing 20% of $20.09 as $9.81. People, check your charges at this store. I won't be checking mine because I won't be going back, ever.

*this is my earlier review. Iake my grandkids here pretty often. We usually have a pretty decent experience here, but this last time was not so awesome.

When we walked in no one was waiting to be seated. We were told it would be a 35 to 40 minute wait, even though from a glance approximately half of the tables were open. They told us the kitchen was behind as the reason for the wait. So we sat there waiting to be seated for more than 30 minutes. It makes zero sense to me why we couldn't at least be seated, order our drinks, and get some chips and salsa to snack on while we waited.

When we finally got seated, our server wasn't the least bit friendly. This was a disappointment as most of the servers we have had in the past were really good. This just added insult to injury. I asked for some chips for the grandkids because they were really hungry. I just don't understand how it could take so long to put some chips on a plate and bring them out. They were delivered at the same time our food arrived, which was just a waste of effort. Note there were only 2 other tables in our section the server had to cater to.

I honestly am not sure we will ever go back. We used to really enjoy coming here. Lately they have been understaffed, and certainly were this visit for the cooks not to be able to adequately handle the amount of customers. This screams poor management to me. There were plenty of servers on hand and there appeared to be 2 members of the management team on duty. It would have made more sense to relocate staff to the back to help service the customers in a...

Only good part of our meal was our second server Anthony (Paul Anthony). He gets a 5 star rating across the board. The manager on duty last night (after 9pm) and our first server is what earned this location a 1 star rating. Our server Jennifer was intoxicated. She was insistent on the fact she had served us before, she hadn't (it was only our second time at this location). So due to that, she didn't bother to ID me, she told me to put my ID away when I tried presented it to her. My fiance had to insist she check his ID. My fiance and his boss both smelled alcohol on her. When my fiance brought this up to the manager she tried to argue with him about it at first. Saying that it was impossible for Jennifer to be drunk cause she's been there since 3pm. Well I've worked in restaurants for the past nearly 8 years, and I have witnessed how easy it is to get trashed on the clock from watching co-workers do it. We had to insist that we get a different server. The manager seemed visible annoyed we even bothered to bring it up to her. Anthony was amazing and a great server, definitely an example of how a server should carry themselves. I would also like to highlight the fact that Jennifer DOES NOT follow alcohol safe serving training, she said, "I see so many regulars I don't bother to ID them." That being said after my fiance insisted she check his ID, she said, "well I guess you have a twin running around." Both direct quotes. Oh and Jennifer being upset that she had been caught, proceeded to shoot our table dirty nasty looks for the rest of our meal, especially at my fiance, we will more than likely not be returning to this location due to the fact that she even after being taken off our table, proceeded to be a poor example of a server and thus impact our experience. I highly recommend that the GM at this location take a deeper look into...