Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Florida

This was a first time visiting at the Sarasota location, on Fruitville Road. There was no waiting, we were immediately seated. The ambience were nice, the location touted a remodeling and renovation advertisement banners and an inflatable balloon on the roof of the building and around the exterior parking area. After being seated the temperature of the seating area was uncomfortably cold. While waiting for our beverages our party requested to relocate to a different table away from an air-conditioning vent. After the food order was placed when the beverages were delivered to the table, we noticed two additional parties were relocated to new table locations in the dinning area. The food arrived in a timely manner, the temperatures of the three entrées, were average the double crunch shrimp dish, Spicy Honeymustard Chicken sandwich and the Four Cheese Mac & Cheese with Honey Pepper Chicken Tenders. Detailed description of our ordered items listed below.

Double Crunch Shrimp 1150 Cal this item reordered from a past visit at a different location

Crispy battered shrimp are fried golden brown. Served with cocktail sauce and a lemon wedge. Served with signature coleslaw and fries.

The side of cocktail sauce was not as spicy as expected. The fries were substituted out for onion rings.

Four-Cheese Mac & Cheese with Honey Pepper Chicken Tenders (3) 1350 Cal This item also reordered from a past visit at a different location

A sweet and savory four-cheese penne mac & cheese topped with Applewood-smoked bacon and crispy chicken tenders (3) tossed in honey pepper sauce. Served with a signature breadstick. The same order was placed recently at a different Applebee's location and additional pieces of were given (4) this time provided portion was lesser only 3.

NEW Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich First time trying this, NEW Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich

Crispy, hand-breaded chicken breast topped with two strips of Applewood-smoked bacon on a Brioche bun with shredded lettuce, tomato, pickles and spicy honey mustard for the perfect amount of heat. Served with classic fries. The lettuce, tomato and pickles were requested on the side. The chicken breast was larger then expected. Some was able to be trimmed with a knife and fork eaten separately from the sandwich itself. The entrées were average portion sizes allowing for leftovers to be taken home some pasta and several of the shrimp. Also ordered was a Bahama Mama from the bar, Tasty and delicious. The servers are staff were accommodating the our questions and requests, although the temperature within the restaurant dinning area was uncomfortably cold, which causes the french fries to cool down faster than the entrée and sandwich. This location will be revisited by us if we are in the area, in the future. But our visit provided insights and ideas for ordering options when visiting the location...

Let me start by saying we got there at 8: 20 p.m. we said on waitress comes over 15 minutes later takes our drink order and in that very moment we ordered at the same time I ordered the pic to appetizer classic Buffalo boneless wings and The Wonton Tacos he ordered all you can eat 45 minutes later the first round comes out for all you can eat and so does my meal I Got 5 boneless chicken fingers and 3 Wonton Tacos I've gotten this before and it's come out with 5 tacos and over 10 of the chicken wings so I'm not sure what the hell happened there.. the all you can eat was so ridiculously stupid that it was amusing at the same time extremely disappointing please see attached photo the shrimp came out got sick shrimp and a little handful of fries we thought okay for all-you-can-eat we could do that so we ordered chicken tenders for the second round 30 minutes later they came to the table see picture below they were literally the size of my ring finger in length the picture actually makes them look bigger you get three of them and they came with no fries but in the advertisement they are supposed to have endless fries and your choice of dipping sauce which never also came to the table after waiting all this time Leo got up from the table and went to the manager showed him the plate and said sorry man there's nothing I can do he came back to the table with the plate and the waitress came and said they're already cooking your shrimp you ordered again do you want me to get you a to-go box that was very nice of her to offer we said sure I guess why not so we got the shrimp and no lie there was four pieces of shrimp and a tiny little to-go box with maybe 15 french fries not only that Applebee's had a stench about it as well the carpet was very sticky and dirty-looking and they just had a remodel the table was so sticky that I wiped it myself twice with water from my cup and a napkin and it still was sticky the napkin even stuck to the table lol worst advertisement I've seen in a long time do not fall for their stupid gimmick it is exactly that you will wait 30 minutes in between portions you will not get large portions and the pictures are completely deceiving they need to take this down this is pissing people off often according to our waitress she Agreed 100% and said she really didn't even want to bring us the plate because she knew...

Will NEVER go back to this Applebee's, ever. I would probably eat from the gas station next door before I spend money at this restaurant. The server was rude from the minute we walked in. He took our drink order without writing anything down. I understand some people can do that but he clearly could not....Once I asked him to start an appetizer he had already forgotten what drinks we had asked for. Then surprise, surprise, we never got our appetizer. So busy trying to act like he was an elephant he forgot to order it before putting our lunch order in. My husband ordered hot wings and when he asked for wet naps they were placed on a plate that was slammed on the table. Our check was dropped off before he asked if we wanted or needed anything else (which we did).When my husband handed him payment and said ,"Thank you." this rude *ss server responds with, "Yup." I ended up ordering beer cheese pretzels to go from the bar because that's really why I even wanted to go to Applebee's in the first place. Get home, cheese was stuck to the container because they microwaved it and pretzels were probably also microwaved. Funny thing is our server was David O. who also appears to be an assistant manager. If those are the standards he sets it's no wonder the place was empty. Also, David O. , Just because it's shift change doesn't mean YOUR customers deserve sub par service. My husband and I are also in the service industry and always tip 20-25%. You did not deserve the 10% we gave you. You're lucky my husband is nice, had I signed the slip you would have gotten a nice fat goose egg. 0! Guess you really wouldn't care since you're not depending on tips only like most servers because you have your managers wages to...