Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Garden City

Applebee’s new direction: The baby thrown out with the bath water.

If you’re like me, Applebee’s has been the go-to restaurant for a decent family sit-down. The food has been decent, the appetizers exceptional and overall; as long as you stay away from the steaks, (It’s not a steak place, so just don’t go there and you won’t be disappointed) it’s a good experience with friendly wait staff and an overall good experience.

But that was then…

For some reason, which we can guess may be driven by falling revenue and such; Applebee’s has backed away from the family-friendly past and remade itself into a pub/eatery in an apparent attempt to shift to a business model that depends more heavily upon alcohol sales, which has a much higher profit margin. New drink specials, a completely new appetizer lineup and overall, a more pub-ish feel to a menu which is shaped around the drink menus.

Now, I can’t argue with a new direction if it keeps you afloat as a business, but in doing so, they tossed the baby right out with the bathwater, creating a whole new set of problems for themselves.

Let’s go over it from the perspective of a long-time dedicated customer who won’t be back any time soon:

The best appetizer items on the menu were the sliders and the won-ton tacos. Excellent comfort food that (for me and my family at least), were the go-to staples whenever we visited.

The sliders were delicious and juicy, the won-ton tacos were also exceptional and it showed that care was taken in both the quality of the ingredients and the presentation. In fact, the won-ton tacos had a flavor very similar to one of my other favorites: the lettuce wrap that has been a stand-out appetizer for many years at PF Chang’s.

Those days are gone, and the second string has arrived and the outlook is bleak indeed. The newest Appetizer, now called “Shareables” is their brisket nachos, which sounds appealing enough until you find less than an ounce of actual meat within the entire dish. The hamburgers have become entirely too salty and anything fried tastes like old dirty oil, a sure sign that somebody is not paying attention to even the simplest items on the menu. The drinks are even significantly watered down, which doesn’t quite jive with their obvious turn towards the drinking crowd. Don’t they know that even the most casual drinker can tell a watered down drink when they taste it?

Alass, they did away with the delicious sliders and replaced them with some Brisket sliders, which even our waitress could bring herself to recommend. Then we turned to our most favorite item on the menu: the won-ton tacos: There we found some kind of cubed, processed-looking chicken, liquid smoke-ladden mish-mash of it’s old self. It was obvious that the quality had changed, and when asked, our waitress acknowledged that the ingredients had indeed been changed. Throughout the meal, were one disappointment after another, and each time it looked like each menu item had the same problem. Going cheep is always a bad sign, it means the integrity of the menu has been abandoned and Applebee’s has inexplicably lost sight of the fact that people can tell when the “Fresh” in fresh cooking has left the building.

It’s a shame really… We loved this place and the decent food they used to serve there. Hopefully they take stock of the dwindling customer base and don’t ignore it as they grasp at liquor sales to save their business.

Hope is dwindling though, so we say goodbye to our beloved Applebee’s and begin to look for a new...

I have never been so poorly served in any Applebee's, ever. This one is in my neighborhood and eating and drinking in it last night was not good anything.

The place was minimally occupied at 4:30 p.m.. No one at the bar where my friend and I sat down for a couple of glasses of wine and later an order of French fries. The bartender was doing everything but waiting on customers. She kind of ignored us to do putter things behind the bar until we spoke up and asked for some service. There ensued much hemming and hawing, inability to work the register, not actually speaking to us, having to ask for someone to help her, puttered some more and eventually we got our wine.

I kept watching the staff roam around, slap each other on the back, chat, kibitz and basically ignore the customers in the bar area. That included those in booths around the bar. When her relief came to sign on, there was more confusion and head scratching and the new bartender couldn't find anything, couldn't work the register, etc. A second round of wine and an order of French Fries was met with excruciating indifference plus a comment from the bartender that they didn't have any clean wine glasses. WHAT? I can't imagine this. It is inexplicable. The Fries when they came out were barely cooked, cold, soggy and disgusting. Inedible. My friend who was paying would not say anything.

As we were attempting to check out, (my friends credit card dissapeared into the ether along with the server who took it and she had to go behind the bar into an employee area to get someone's attention. At this point, some really unhappy folks at the booths gave up waiting for service and went to the bar to try and order drinks themselves. This was also met with a confused and inattentive response from a bartender and he seemed stupefied by the request and that that someone should ask him to actually do something. The gentleman who made the request was not happy and said so out loud. His comment was, "Since we can't get a drink and food order taken at the tables, we decided to storm the bar." As I left, I thought, if this is how this place runs during happy hour I can't imagine how bad it is at the dinner hour. Oh, and by the way, when we sat down the bartender told us it was Happy Hour. When the check came, the drinks were billed at full price, the guy said he couldn't fix it, didn't know how much the drinks cost at either Happy Hour or during regular times and once again, flailed at the register as if it were a recalcitrant Toaster Oven and we...

One of the best restaurant experiences I have had. I went with a friend and their meal was perfect. I ordered the 3 course meal. I have a food allergy and had asked about it before hand with little notice of it was in the food or not before the food arrived. I get my food I'm reasured my allergy should not be in the food. Then, I find my allergen in my food right on top. A more seasoned waitress comes and takes it shows the manager. At this point I'm happy to take my meal with the item that had the allergen in it but the manager reassures me this item is supposed to be made without my allergen and has the kitchen wipes down, gloves up and make me a brand new dish. We get multiple people asking about where my food is from here on out out it took longer than expected so I had the kitchen put in a to go container because at this point my friend as more than finished at a very slow pace so I'm not left out. We decide that since it has been so long waiting for my food we will get a dessert so I have some food. The food makes it to the table and then less than a minute later the dessert shows up. We eat the dessert and pay tipping our waitress because she is not at fault in this situation. If your have read this far you are going how was this the best restaurant experience. I'll tell you that the manager could of and at other places has handled this much different. Then the fact that she had the kitchen follow allergy procedure to make sure I could eat the food was amazing. They took my meal of the bill which was nice and not expected at all. Most places will remake a dish half assed and then stick you with the bill for a meal that is subpar. Personally I will ho back and I will give this Applebee's my money because the staff were are friendly, gracious, and nice. My allergy makes me stop breathing so for me it was nice to see a manager that cared. please don't read this and think of free meal sweet that's not what this review is about. It's about the amazing service and the way they treated me as someone who suffers at restaurants all the time because of my allergy. Go in to this restaurant and applaud the staff for their great service,...