Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Forest Lake

As is the story with most sitdown food joints in our sad world, the service & food quality has gone straight down the drain. We had to have had one of the worst experiences at one of this brand of restaurants in my ENTIRE LIFE!!! My family & I sat down just a shade before 8:30pm... it took almost 10 minutes for the server to come over to ask us for the drink order, then we got our appetizer (onion rings) from the 2 for $22 section of the menu.... they weren't the best, but they came out hot. By this time our food should've been just about to our table... WRONG!!!! We sat there for almost another 1/2 hr before our food came out. I ordered the Fiesta lime chicken with extra Mexi-ranch sauce. When it came out there was no extra sauce & another glaze was on the chicken that I had never ever seen on the chicken before. (It wasn't very good) I promptly brought it to the managers attention that I was severely unhappy with my food because of this mystery glaze that was on the chicken on my plate. I then explained about also asking for extra sauce that wasn't there & that I wasn't going to eat it. I explained that I had been eating this dish for many, many years and that never before had it come out with this mystery glaze on it. The manager tried to argue with me that "its always been there" not to mention that the choice of the way they plated this meal compared to the way it was plated before left me surprised & frustrated... how was I supposed to enjoy a complete bite of food on a long rectangular platter that this dish was now served on when this dish was first made it came out in a more manageable bowl that made the dish easier to eat.

They got me an alternative meal in place of this meal & when the bill came to my surprise they charged me for them both. In the end we spent a little more than 2 hrs at this restaurant and got mediocre service with mediocre food.

I had to go to the bartender for them to close the check. They passed it off to the server who looked at me standing by the bar when handed the bill & then went (for some stupid reason) back to the table where we had been sitting & had a puzzled look on her face as to say "where did he go, he gave his card & left without it..." then another server had to show her that I had been standing by the bar this whole time. She then proceeded to hover over me while I signed for the check & made sure she got a tip... very, very rude & unprofessional...

In the end I totally wish that when places like this try soooooo hard to reinvent themselves every few years to "keep up with the times" should just realize that what they started out with/as was what brought people in the door... this constant "facelift" of the appearance of the food & the decor needs to be curbed and bring back some of the tried & true methods that brought people in the door sence day one & drop this act of trying to make themselves out to be something that they clearly are not. The best way to do things is often the simplest & most cost effective as well. Bring back the feel of the restaurant before the celebrity chef inspired meals hit the menu & just serve the classics that made you what you were & not this garbage that you're serving people with flair that doesn't work or need to be there. Its just food & drinks & family dinners out. Cut the BS and be the "Neighborhood bar & grill" you set out...

I was just here with a couple other people for dinner tonight, and definitely had an iffy experience. First off, our server was good, she was nice and attentive for the most part. But I asked if I could order a specific burger, the brunch burger, but get grilled chicken in place of the burger, something I do frequently at basically every other restaurant with no troubles, but I was told they couldn't do this. I was told I could get a grilled chicken sandwich with a few extra things on them, but they couldn't put the egg or hashbrowns on the sandwich. That is really weird to me, every other restaurant I go to has no problem with a request like this. I was dissapointed (that sandwich looked delicious), but I ordered a drink and my usual meal and that was fine. My sister ordered a steak medium rare, but when we got our food, it was straight well done. There wasn't any pink. I convinced her to speak up, she was just going to leave it and deal with it, and they sent for another one. The second one was medium well. Still barely any pink. Third steak was maybe medium, but by then we had been there at least a half hour waiting on her steak so she accepted it and took it to go. Three times and they couldn't get her steak right. And while all this is happening, my drink was empty and our server hadn't been to our table in about 15, 20 minutes. I finished my meal without a drink, I had to steal sips from my sister's water. Her meal was taken care of, but she still only ended up eating half her sides, since they were cold by the time she realized she couldn't eat her meal all together. My experience was still pretty disappointing but at the time it seems a little overboard to complain because I couldn't get what I wanted or because none of us ever got a drink refill. Applebee's usually does pretty well, their food isn't anything special but it's almost always good, they're a great place to eat at with friends, but certain locations are definitely better than others and I'm not sure if I would...

On August 10th I ordered online the 2 for $22 meals. The first thing that made it difficult was the confusion of placing an order then cancelling to change it. When I did a new order it kept saying a meal from one I cancelled. Also for the second meal it had to be gluten free and found that frustrating because although u can see which meals are gluten free, it doesn't tell u an exact description of the meal and its contents. Ex: The Fiesta Lime chicken meal doesn't tell you that you don't get a choice on sides like others, just that it comes with Spanish rice. You can only learn that by clicking on it. Was disappointed so many meals cost extra so not really part of it. When I called the Forest Lake Applebees, Luke answered. He was polite, professional, and helpful turning my call to his manager. Nick the manager WAS helpful I guess in the way of telling me we could refund and re-ring. I ordered 6 oz sirloin for one, riblets the other. Order came up saying 2 half racks. I was really against paying for more. Besides refunding Nick only let me change sides and sauce as I requested. I asked for a small gift card for the $ difference and hassle. He said he couldn't. I asked for a lemonade drink to maybe throw in but didn't get it. In the restaurant the Male at host station pointed to my food on the counter for me to grab and not him maybe getting for me. (He didn't have a nametag) Before having at home I saw diff sauces ribs not marked, many fries hard and the wings were breaded and NOT gluten free like the bone in that I did order. Very disappointed, denied compensation and manager not very enthusiastic. In my opinion if they want repeat customers they should make better effort to compensate customers. Might not...