Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Hackensack

This is a good restaurant and a good ABs location. Came here at lunch time. Zero wait to be seated. 2 mins to get drinks and food ordered. Less than 10 mins to get the food. The employees were nice and friendly. The food was very yummy. Drink selection is just ok if you are looking for a diet drink since they only have Pepsi products... i dislike Diet Pepsi because to me it tastes like medicine with a chalky, bitter after-taste.

There is a huge parking lot, so no worries finding a spot and it is free parking.

Tons of tables, so you should be able to easily get a seat so long as it is not a friday or saturday night during the busier times.

Good food selection, but avoid the cheetos specials. They both dont taste good. Plenty of other good options on the menu.

The decorations on the walls are all of Bergen county NJ including some historical photos as well as more modern stuff. Pretty cool and interesting to look at.

I must give the owner some good credit though for NOT using paper straws, since paper straws taste nasty, get soggy and are manufactured with chemicals such as lye(rat poison). Instead they are using a plant based straw that has similar strength, water proof quality and texture of a plastic straw. These straws did have a sort of powder residue feeling, but way better than paper straws. Agave straws and real plastic straws are best.

Pros: Good service Friendly employees Fast service Clean Plenty of tables Lots of food options Raspberry iced tea is good Nice decorations Free parking Tons of parking Good plastic like straws

Cons: No Coke products Only Diet Pepsi, no Diet Coke Paper bags for takeout food, which means if the food spills in the bag, it will leak and get all over you and all over your car. Also, paper bags get soggy in rain and snow.

This is no fault of the owner/manager.. this is due to the stupid governor murphy. We need plastic bags for takeout food. It is commom sense. If plastic is ending up in the ocean, then stop the illegal dumping of trash in the ocean. Dont make stupid laws that make no sense. We need laws that stop the illegal dumping of trash in the ocean instead of making laws that hurt the regular citizens who know how to separate trash and...

Edit: Visited here tonight, on Saturday at around 6:30 pm and our experience was the best we ever had. The food was good and we never felt neglected at all this time around. The server, Pamela, checked on us often and we had a lovely dinner. They had 50 cent wings. The ribs were tender and the Asian grilled chicken salad was the perfect amount of crunchy, sweet and salty. Thank you, Matthew, the manager at the Hackensack Applebee's for giving us the opportunity to visit again to give this establishment another chance.

We came here twice in one week just because we had a gift card that we had to use. The first time, we were seated right away and a server promptly came to take our order. The second time we were told that there would be a 20 minute wait for a table for 2 even though we saw plenty of empty two-seaters. I told my husband it's probably because they are short staffed. This seemed to be true on both our visits. On our second visit, it took maybe 30 minutes for someone to take our order and we noticed 3 tables near us that weren't cleaned for a while. On both visits, we never saw our servers after they took our order. No one ever came to ask if we needed anything and we had to wait more than 30 minutes to get our check. I know it's not the server's fault but they really need to hire more staff to effectively run this restaurant or they will close just like the nearby Friday's did.

As for the food, we enjoyed our loaded beef nachos and chicken with Asian chili sauce. The chicken tenders with pasta was just ok. The pasta sauce was way too sweet. I liked the shrimp and chicken with mashed potatoes. The alcoholic drinks were tasty and affordable. I'd visit again if service was better or perhaps we will go when we are not hungry so that by the time someone takes our order, we will be...

Had a taste for ribs, decided Applebee's would be the spot. We were seated quickly. Our server although efficient seemed to have an attitude the entire time. I ordered one of their drink specials, took a sip and opted for a different drink. She was a little rude when I requested a different beverage but nevertheless we continued the evening. When she brought out our appetizers one of them were extremely cold. Of course I had to bring that to her attention and again I felt the slight attitude. She reached over my plate to remove the particular item which I felt that she should have taken the entire plate since she had her hand in it.. A manager came after that. I explained the situation (although at this point I didn't even request a Manager)and he assured me he would bring out my appetizers. He did not. At this point I no longer wanted to ear there. The server was rude and unattentive to our table. No water barely enough silverware no courtesy at all. By the time my meal arrived I was ready to leave. I could have chosen a different restaurant to spend my money. I asked for carry out trays for my entire party. One of my guests asked for a glass of water and the server brought her water in a to go container not a glass. As we are waiting for the take out trays, there were some empty or rather unused dishes on the table that the busboy again reach across our food to retrieve. I couldn't wait to leave. Not you actual complaining customer but this was the WORST Applebee's experience I have ever had. And mind you I travel all over and truly enjoy Applebee's rib dinners. But I will definitely think about this experience before venturing off to...