Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in East Lampeter Township

Definitely in my top 3 worst restaurant experiences ever. My wife and I decided to stop here tonight for dinner and between very poor service that was not only slow but inattentive, we had multiple problems with our dining experience.

We got seated immediately which was nice, and the wait staff promptly took our drink order. They returned with the drinks in a timely manner and then took our appetizer order. This is where the problems began.

We ordered Mozzarella Sticks and Neighborhood Nachos with Beef. About five minutes pass and our server took our entree order (still no problem with this.) I picked the 8oz sirloin medium with garlicky green beans, and fries, my wife got the Bourbon Street Chicken and Shrimp. About 10 more minutes pass and now our drinks are low and we still haven't received our appetizer order. The server comes up at this point to tell us that there was no beef available for the nachos. (15 minutes after the order was placed? Unacceptable!) She refills our drinks at this point. Another 10 or so minutes goes by and the mozzarella sticks finally come out. (Guess what? They weren't hot, only warm!) We just about finish the mozzarella sticks after about 5 or so more minutes to have our server let us know that they didn't know what happened to our nachos, but they were having them remade.

We get our nachos about 5 minutes later, 5 minutes after that we receive our entrees. I knew something was wrong as soon as I looked at my steak. It was a horrible looking cut and looked dried out. Sure enough as soon I tried cutting it I could tell that it had been cooked well past well done. Fries were overcooked as well. My wife was reasonably happy with her dish.

Not once did our server come back to see if everything was ok with our meals, not until she came to bring the check. This was after 20 minutes of the entrees having been delivered to the table. MULTIPLE servers walked past the table dealing with other tables and not one asked if everything was alright. I hadn't even touched my plate and my wife had eaten most of hers. Not once was there a manager on the floor checking on things either.

When our server DID get the manager after I had issued my complaint, instead of standing next to the table to receive the complaint, he squats down next to me and uses a tone of voice that I would equate to that of speaking to a hard to please child. INSTEAD of apologizing for the mixup he immediately asks if I was sure I hadn't ordered my steak well-done. I was so flabbergasted by his tone, position, and the question that my wife had to answer for me. To clarify I NEVER order steak well-done because in general it turns it into a dried out, tasteless piece of shoe leather!

In short I found the professionalism of the manager on duty tonight to be lacking, as well was attentive service, and a kitchen that seemed incapable of doing their jobs properly. (Kitchen might not be the fault if the server wasn't entering orders correctly in the computer, I do understand this!)

I won't be back despite the fact that the manager took my meal...

We went to this restaurant this evening 9/13. They were slow but we had a bad experience from the beginning. We asked for a booster seat for my son and the host got one for us and it had food all over it from the last child that sad in it so we just didn’t use it. It was taking rather long for the waitress to get to us considering how slow they were so the host came over and asked if we wanted to put our drinks in. Close to 10 minutes later the waitress came out and asked to have our drink order which we told her that was taken care of already but we’ve been ready to order our food. We got one appetizer, the boneless wings which were room temperature, then the second appetizer which was soft pretzels came out a while later and were over cooked with a bitter burnt taste to them. Not a total deal breaker but we were pretty disappointed. By the way we weren’t given plates for our appetizers.. weird. THEN she brought out our food..we both got the bourbon street chicken and everything was SOOO burnt. As she was carrying it it was smoking like it was just put out from being on fire!! Not just the normal sizzle and steam how it usually is. It smelled horrible and was completely inedible!!! I honestly couldn’t believe they thought that was ok to bring out!! And this wasn’t just mine, my husbands as well! I understand it wasn’t the waitress fault, however this manager needs to evaluate his “cooking” staff in the kitchen. Asked for a box and small container bowl for my kids food (all their stuff was ok) and the lid to the bowl was dirty and had food and greasy finger prints on it. This whole experience completely turned me off to this Apple Bee’s. They offered to make the food again I declined and left. For what it’s worth (if anything) they took just the two bourbon chicken meals off our...

Can't beat the 2 for $18 to $32. We always get the 2 sirloin steaks but opt for the small up charge ($2/$3) for 8oz instead of 6oz. Instead of shared app, we opt for our own salad and for the two sides we up it to Loaded Smashed Potatoes and get the must have GARLIC GREEN BEANS. The steak is hit or miss no matter what location from PA to TN to FL. But if not satisfied they have always replaced it. We ask for garlic drawn butter and extra lemon wedges to dip the steak in. (I would order steak one level of temp lower than preferred, as they tend to cook a bit more. I usually order Medium so I order Medium Rare. But they will replace. * When/If we use a discount, coupon or 2 For meal, we always calculate the gratuity based on the normal price, since the server still has the same work and must pay taxes on the full amount of using a coupon. We also tip 20% or more. If you can't afford to tip the service properly, please stay home to eat, nor should you punish the server if you aren't satisfied with something beyond their control and if it is within their control, simply stiffing them without speaking to management doesn't help anyone. See something, say something, however don't be a Karen, we all have had bad days. Consider what others go through, 1/3rd of the earth's population must walk at least 20 miles each way for non-potable water. America is a first world country, we have it good compared to some, please take that into consideration and be grateful we have freedom to choose from an array of establishments that are monitored by local state and federal guidelines and inspection like the USDA. Most countries do not even monitor what meat they sell. When we went appatizers are half...