Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Hamilton

The staff was very pleasant and welcoming not to mention friendly. However, we ordered all three platters of the all you can eat meals; baby back ribs, chicken tenders, and shrimp, along with a kids cheeseburger meal.

while we waited the waitresses brought out yogurt and strawberries for the girls and some applesauce I was a bit taken back by them not having any other real fruits or vegetables that I could feed my little ones.

Fortunately, the ribs had a good flavor due to the barbecue sauce, but the texture and taste of them was more like they were frozen and then thawed, then cooked, it just wasn't at all what I expected and left much to be desired. Needless to say after me forcing myself to eat several bites I finally had enough. The kids hamburger was so thin when I opened the bun to put some A1 sauce on it I realize just how thin and frail the patty of meat was. My daughter wouldn't eat it, which is rare because that is her favorite thing to get no matter where we go and she devours it everywhere else, so we swapped plates and I took my first bite hoping it would be more flavorable and better textured than my ribs, but there was no taste. All I had basically was a bread burger...all bun, with lettuce, a tiny piece of tomato, and two little pickles.

So then I tried the shrimp and gave my youngest daughter some of it and again, it was so much like the texture of rubber that she gagged on it and had to spit it out. I thought maybe she got a bad piece so I tried a bite of a few of them and was not impressed again. I to spit out two bites of two different plates. I'm not sure if it was undercooked or overcooked but it did have a texture of rubber probably something to do with the preparation before it even got to the restaurant like the ribs.

I'm sure the cook did what they could to make the food as tasty and properly fixed as possible, but you cannot get that from food that arrives in poor taste and not favorable for a truly desirable meal.

My man and teenage son were starving so they seem to be okay with eating everything on the table. unlike other visits to other places there were leftovers on the table and for the first time in our lives as a family we did not bring home leftovers what we did not eat is still at the restaurant.

So my rating is not for the staff or the location it is for the food that they were sent to try to make the best of it before serving it.

One more thing when I got my side salad it was very small almost less than what McDonald's puts in their little plastic containers and the lettuce was not crisp but like it had been soggy for quite some time. I joked with the young man who brought it to my table but lately there are several restaurants including all of garden who have depleted the volume of salad ingredients so I kind of expected that small of an amount.

I don't think I've ever received bad food from Applebee's in the past at any other location that I've been to so I'm hoping this was just a one-time thing.

Our bill came to $55 and for three adults and two little bitty girls who eat like birds that seems like an awful steep price to pay for my little family especially for the time that we drove to try a new Applebee's during limited family time.

Sorry for the one star but I was not satisfied with my meal or the price I paid for it, only happy with the staff! They were...

You can't make this up:

Arrived in the afternoon on a hot and muggy day, with blood sugar dropping and thirst rising. Walked in; sat down. Things OK so far. Then the fun started.

The place seemed understaffed; poor waiter running to and fro, until finally we were greeted and asked regarding drinks. Despite the size and variety of the menu, I managed to read it a full 3 or 4 times. After another long wait, the exhausted waiter takes our food order. Still cautiously optimistic, we wait for a most inordinate period of time. Some tables around us started to get their food before us; panic ensued. The waiter, now no doubt mentally and physically depleted, utters in a dejected fashion those words every restaurant patronizing hypoglycemic dreads, "Your order is lost". At this point I lost all sense of restraint; popped up out of my seat and shouted , "We are outta here!"

The cooler, although more Pollyannaish, heads of my wife and beloved mother prevailed. We reordered and repeated the same scenario, more or less, as above, with the remorseful and somehow revitalized waiter offering to PERSONALLY pay the tab. Finally, as the sun by now had moved another ~25 degrees in the sweltering summer sky, the coveted food arrived. You know what? It was actually pretty good. Heck, I even got a refill on my iced tea, although it should be mentioned that the waiter, now showing signs of weakening again, kept offering to bring me another sweet tea. Fortunately, he brought an unsweetened tea as I had requested. What's more, I got a follow-up extra portion of entrée - not necessary but appreciated. The stockholder's won't like that at all.

So, after another seemingly unending wait, with hunger now satiated, the revered waiter brings the check with approximately $20 marked off in green ink from the $47 bill. While not complimentary as originally suggested above, the bill seemed fair. My conscience simply could not let the forlorn waiter pay for our "experience" out of his pocket, so after 5 minutes of debate, I agreed to an employee discount. Indeed, this meal had been like work; that's for sure. But, I sensed this may have been a mistake.

Somehow or other, the no doubt lightheaded and bewildered garçon swiped someone else's credit card through the table-side payer thingumabob. You know, those sometimes handy devices that offer fun facts, such as "Did you know all calico cats are female?". Yes, some lady named Tyronia Bunks, whose credit card ends in 3776, may be getting a bank account deduction for our lavish feast. Well, after still more extended waiting, with the sky now pitch black and the person whose sole task it is to seat arriving patrons thoroughly engrossed in his cell phone, the waiter, with his last dying breath states to our relief, "Me and my manager worked it out". Love the grammar. Failed to see any manager. Perhaps the cell phone using greeter/seater millennial was finally put to use by assisting with the credit card resolution.

Poor waiter fellow, I just had to leave a 20% tip (I know, I know), and make a beeline for the door with family in tow, hoping to stave off another catastrophic event. Time will tell how my credit card statement will appear. Stay tuned.

Can't wait to return to The Hamilton! Applebee's, where the chefs are the greatest microwavers on the...

The smell of the Men's Restroom hit me from the front door. A """Wow""" kinda urine smell, got worse the closer you got to restrooms. I used the Ladies room. It was mostly clean (no paper towels), it definitely was not the source of smell.

Dirty tables everywhere. No pre-bussing of any kind, "Everyone" coming and going from the kitchen with "Empty" hands, No team work and no sense of "urgency" from any and everyone.

Drinks came out quickly and I was extra happy with the oranges for my Tea (since No lemons were available). Extra ones made my tea delicious. They "Ran Out" of sweet tea for my refill so I used a sweetener and it was fine.

Food was "Just", ok.

No Ribs available (the whole reason Applebee's was chosen). Was told 1 hour wait if I wanted to order them. (Should have ordered because that is how long we waited anyway to get food.

The appetizer was the cheese sticks, they were cold not melty at all, the dipping sauce was also cold.

Arrived at 7:33 pm no food till 8:25 pm. John comped 2nd Beer for my husband because of the wait. Thank you, because he was getting pissed. "John was VERY nice".

Chalange with my steak upon delivery, ordered medium and received a "VERY" Well done dried out looking piece of leather. It was quickly corrected. (2nd one was perfect).

Food must have sat in the window too long because the Fish was Dry, the French Fries were cold and the Mashed Potatoes were Luke warm.

No silver ware delivered till requested when Entre arrived. (No silver at the work station John had to get from the kitchen it was still wet.)

We ordered the lava cake and it sat in the window long enough to melt the Ice cream and the cake was barely warm. Asked for 2 spoons, we were given, 2 take out "soup" spoons (was told they didn't have any).

During our meal an Employee sat in a booth behind us and ate a meal, 2 plates worth. She didn't even take "her own plate" to the kitchen or "clean the table". So Sad, No team work or respect for her fellow employees let alone the customers.

The dirty table I took a picture of was that way upon arrival and still dirty when we left. Other tables around it got done but not this one?

This was not a very busy crowd. Maybe it just slowed down I guess, because there were a bunch of dirty tables everywhere. The "Team" did not recover well. We could hear staff in the back and it sounded like they were having a great time.

??Took 2 people to bus 4 tables. While bussing they just wiped food to the floor and made no attempt to wipe on dishes or in the bussing tub . Then after they did not use a sweeper of any kind, just stepped in food. Bussed tables were only getting wiped down not sanitized or "Cleaned", ours was sticky.

?? Where was the Manager.

We are not in any hurry...