Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Florida

We visit this Applebee’s every year on holidays, and it used to be a night we looked forward to. But I feel last year and this, the quality of the experience has dropped off so badly.

The food is lovely. I really can’t fault that. I had a steak that was juicy, and the ribs my brother had were melt in your mouth. So the food gets five stars easily.

But the service makes us feel unwelcome. When we arrived in, we were greeted by a man who asked if we wanted a table or a booth. When we replied booth, he sighed and looked frustrated by our answer, like we were the biggest nuisances. Multiple tables had plates piled up on them, left uncleaned from the moment we arrived to the moment we left. He had to go and clean a booth for us, and while doing so, up-ended a drink all over it. It was 80% cleaned before we were seated, leaving us with a table that was wet, a slippery floor and a chair that was quite sticky and damp.

Our server (who seemed to be the barman; I get the impression the place was quite short staffed, so people were doing double duty) was pleasant. But he was so busy at the bar that he never checked if we needed refills or anything else.

One group came in and when they were offered a table, they asked if they could have a booth instead; the staff member at the door gave them a filthy look before slouching away to find one.

Another family of 8 were put at a high top table that was clearly too small for their group, as they were very obviously uncomfortable being crammed into a small table.

And it’s not that the place was busy; they were only at about 30% capacity, with loads of empty tables and booths.

The manager also seemed to snap a few times at the man at the door seating people, instructing him a few times to clean the tables instead of seating people. The manager loudly said he’d manage the door….only to disappear and leave people standing and waiting.

As I said, the food is delicious, so it’s a shame the atmosphere just feels so off. It feels understaffed, and those staff who are there seem stressed, snappy and unable to deal with all customers accordingly. It gave off a vibe of being annoyed there was customers, rather than happy.

It’s a marked difference to the vibrant atmosphere that drew up repeatedly to the place until a...

As always, this review is from the viewpoint of a service dog handler. It was pouring when we arrived so we stopped in the foyer and dried off and finished putting my service dog's gear on, short time there. We came in and the hostess had our menus ready and welcomed us (and ignored the dog! Bonus points!!) She asked where we would be most comfortable sitting and she took us directly to an area (wherever long as the table can fit my SD under it) and asked if we needed chairs removed from the table to fit him underneath and quickly helped us out. She even personally introduced us to the waiter before she went back to her post. The waiter was very polite and quick with everything, didn't even fuss when I realised I couldn't handle soda today and quickly switched out my drink for water. The food arrived quickly and was exactly as ordered, even our takeaway meal when it was ordered after our lunch arrived at the table. We weren't seated away from the rest of the customers like happens in some places (no-no, y'all), and everybody pretty much ignored the dog which was a welcome yet rare occurrence in our world. I loved the ease of checkout and ordering (they have tablets at the tables), it's definitely perfect for anybody with communication or people problems. The waiter was really helpful for our technologically-impaired selves as well. And, the hostess even held the door for us on our way out and wished us a good day. My only negative was the bathroom. The handicapped stall doubles as a change room for employees and the regular stalls are too small for large people and/or large service animals (my 76lb stocky SD wouldn't fit in the stall at all so if you have a service miniature horse, you definitely wouldn't have access). The bathroom floor was so sticky my flip-flops had trouble staying on my feet. And the lighting in the handicapped stall was like a dark movie theatre, any handicapped person with a vision problem would have had serious issues. Overall, I totally recommend this Applebee's. They're great with food allergies and understand service animal etiquette, the food is amazing and filling and not very expensive either, and the staff was lovely to...

If I could put a zero I would. I sent a few years being a server at an Applebees, I know how resturants work.. but this was horrible.. We went on a Friday night at 7pm.. had to wait a while for a table, more than half the resturant was empty as they we not seating people. There was a constant flow of people just waiting for 20-30mins for tables. I believe they only had 3 servers and a bar tender, the kitchen must have been low staffed as well. Must be having staffing issues like the rest of the world. Took our server over 15 mins to say Hi to us.. we actually had to flag her down, she had 2 or 3 tables and us. Found out it was her second day and she was sinking fast. She was nice and took our order.. there was 4 of use at the table, we ordered appetizers, drinks, and entrees. One appetizer came out cold 20 mins after ordering, the other (bread sticks) didn't show up until we asked for the bill over an hour and a half later.. the food took an hour to come out of the kitchen after the appetizer. Our food arrived when we were considering asking for the check and leaving.. Half the dishes were missing key ingredients like Broccoli in the Broccoli alfrado.. and other items.. we had to beg for our drinks multiple times, I even went to the bar to ask for them.. finally got them over an hour after ordering them.. we were already finishing our entrees when they arrived.. the server only was seen 2 or 3 times throughout this so no way to cancel things and leave.. the bread sticks came out when we tried to ask for the check and we refused them.. we paid cash to get out of their faster and left by 8:30 less than thrilled. This place needs so major help. Where was the manager? Why wasn't the server better trained for a Friday night in Orlando? I have never seen such a ghost town when it comes to employees in...