Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Grapevine

I’ve dealt with microaggressions and prejudice in establishments before, but I never imagined experiencing outright racism and discrimination in a U.S. airport restaurant—especially considering the cost and benefits of actually working in restaurants at these locations. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened during my layover in Dallas. My partner and I, a visible multiethnic couple, were ignored from the moment we walked in. Despite making eye contact with staff, we were never seated or acknowledged, while customers who arrived after us were immediately served or told to have a seat anywhere. There was a clear pattern in the behavior of the two servers: white customers were seated, greeted, and served by an older white woman; Spanish speakers were taken care of by the Spanish speaking server; and we were simply overlooked. After being ignored multiple times, we had to ask for a menu, which was finally provided by the Spanish speaking server. When our food arrived, the white server waved our HOT appetizer plates in our face, without a word, expecting us to speak first to tell her where to place our “shareable table appetizers”. Did they do this to anyone else who they served? .No. Utterly a confused and disrespected way to serve anyone and treat customers. We decided not to order a main entree and asked for the check. After waiting for 20 minutes—while other customers that fit into the visible patterns described above were served and given clear communications, we finally received our check. In a final ironic twist, we switched to responding in Spanish, and the Spanish-speaking server finally caught on and asked if we spoke it fluently. Responding, yes, the waitress smiled and said it was a pleasure serving us. Ironically, they, or anyone, had never actually served us. It was disheartening to witness this split personality treatment, blatant discrimination, and overall poor service at this Applebee’s. It’s clear that if you fit the right "profile" (white or Spanish-speaking), you’ll be treated with respect or given more attention, but if you fall outside that pattern, you’ll be ignored or left hanging as you need a third server to...

This Applebee's has an easy-to-find location inside DFW's Terminal D by Gate 11, next to the escalators that go up to the train.

This Applebee's has a pretty good-sized dining room for an airport location and includes a "patio" area (still covered by the 50-foot ceilings of the Terminal). They had a nice mix of tables, booths, and bar-style high tables.

If you're familiar with Applebee's, they offer a full bar, and a nice variety of burgers, pasta, salads, soups, steak, and other comfort food. The menu at this airport location is trimmed down, but still offers a good variety. I found one of my favorites, the baby back ribs and ordered that along with a glass of fresh brewed iced tea. The server did a great job making me feel welcome and bringing refills.

The ribs were in a lot of small pieces rather than the rack I've usually had at Applebee's but it tasted the same, and it was a generous portion. The fries were perfect, hot and crisp.

The "side of slaw" was what surprised me... it came in a tiny plastic cup like what you would use to bring a guest some extra ketchup... Is there a scarcity of cabbage? It held about three bites, but now I can say I ate my side of vegetables...

It was nice to have a substantive meal in a relaxed atmosphere. The employees were pleasant and the music at a good level for conversation.

I enjoyed my visit and think...

We wanted to fill our bellies before our flight. As soon as the sign caught his eye, he wanted Applebee’s. There was a concierge desk, but no concierge. We forged ahead and chose a table on our own. We sat there for 28 minutes and only in the last 5 minutes did someone present to the desk to seat diners. Every other group of people we directed to seat themselves. It would have been a nice customer service touch to at least have a sign out stating “seat yourself”. Especially in an enormous airport that you are unfamiliar with. Our server was great! We told him we had to board in 20 minutes, he took our order right away (hubbs always knows what he wants when we go to Applebee’s) brought drinks right out and kept them full. He was polite and friendly while serving many tables. He was thoughtful enough to bring our bill out ASAP so we could just be on our way and not wait for it. We ordered the combination appetizer platter, and it was ready pretty fast. It was as good as every other time we have ordered it. The spinach artichoke dip seemed flavorless, but it may have seemed that way only to me because of all the flavorful food I’d had & grown accustomed to while visiting Dallas for a month. The restaurant was clean and appropriate in comparison to...