Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Harrisonburg

It's pretty bad when you have to ask for a box to take your food home so you can finish cooking it. I ordered a mid-rare steak and when my hockey puck steak arrived and I cut into it, it moo'ed and spurted blood across the plate. I ate half of this very poorly seasoned steak before I asked for a box to take it home to finish cooking it and add some spices. You may ask why I didn't send it back or say something. I don't send food back cause I always wonder if they've done something to my food in retaliation (so I can't enjoy it and then what's the point of going out?) and I don't usually complain because they assume you're trying to get a free meal and usually get kinda snarky before the evening is done. The waitress also never asked how our food was so I didn't really get a chance to even mention it.

I wanted to order a baked potato and broccoli with cheese as sides for my steak but was told that they ran out of baked potatoes. They had potatoes mind you, they just didn't realize they were running out of cooked ones until they were out and said it was going to take an hour to make more. So I ordered the garlic mashed potatoes. As for the broccoli with cheese the waitress stated that it would an extra $0.79 for the cheese so I asked if they could comp the cheese since I couldn't get a baked potato. She said she'd ask her manager but she never came back to say what the manager had decided.

So the food arrives, not very hot, and I notice that there is cheese on the mashed potatoes but not on the 5 small pieces of broccoli florets they gave me. I said, "We couldn't do the cheese on the broccoli?" To which she stated that I requested it on my potatoes, not the broccoli. I said no, I wanted it on the broccoli but that it was okay. I am always very nice. She offered to take it back to melt some cheese on it but I declined (since I don't send food back unless it's just so bad I've decided that I dont want it or anything else at all.)

I realized after we left that really, even if the food had been cooked (and seasoned) correctly that it was not worth the $17 I paid for that meal. The five small pieces of broccoli were a joke, we were not offered nor did we receive any bread with our meal, and most places will have the entree include a house or caesar salad with your meal. Nope. For my $17 I got a hockey puck steak, 5 pieces of broccoli, and more mashed potatoes than steak and broccoli combined. Which makes sense since mashed potatoes are cheap. I wish I had taken a photo. The plate reminded me of one of those gourmet plates you see at a $300 restaurant that has almost nothing on it except the garnish. My plate didn't even have a garnish! I definitely do not feel I got my money's worth.

The waitress was very nice despite the mistakes and I tried to overlook that my drink sat empty for a lot longer than it should have. I don't like stiffing servers so I gave her almost 10%, which I feel kind of bad about even though my husband and friends said they'd have asked for the manager or just stiffed her. I dont think I'll go back for awhile. At least until they offer better...

Appetizer was brought to our table but no individual plates were provided, nor enough napkins for four people. Pressed the call server button on the kiosk at the table. Seven minutes passed before I asked a different waiter for plates because our waiter passed by twice without asking if we needed anything even though the kiosk light was blinking red and we hadn’t touched our food. The food was not warm by the time plates were provided.

The main dishes then arrived. Our waiter, Noah, told us that the spoon for the potato soup that was ordered had been dropped on the floor so he had to get a new spoon. He brings the new spoon and then leaves. After looking at it, I find a crusty residue on the back of the spoon and a dirty film on the front of the spoon. It was clearly not a clean spoon. Had to ask for a different spoon.

The table was full of dishes that were done with and needed to be cleared from our table to allow enough room to eat the main dishes. I moved two plates to the edge of the table indicating we are done. Neither plate was taken. I moved the plates to an empty table across from my table and another waitress (the same one who brought my table plates and napkins for our appetizer) apologized the other plates were not taken by our waiter when the main dishes were brought to us.

I ordered a steak medium well, it was very well done and dry. Green beans and mashed potatoes lacked flavor and somehow were overcooked or old. No use asking for new food since the service had not been great the whole night. Also found a hair in the mashed potatoes.

Our server visited our table one more time while I using the kiosk to pay our bill. Asked if we needed anything else, I said no, he said “cool” and walked away. Didn’t apologize for the lack of attention or dirty silverware that he brought to our table or say thank you for our business.

It seems our waiter could use some coaching on various aspects of how to properly service customers and use some common sense such as checking silverware to make sure it’s not dirty just as a simple example.

A very...

The one star (or 0 rather) is mainly for the Black male manager. Came in late night (12-21-19) after football game. Literally walked in and waited for 10 mins. No hostess or greeters. I physically walked up to a server and stated we had been waiting for a good minute and no one had welcomed or helped us. Young guy apologized and said that the there was no hostess and the manager was seating people. I somehow got the manager's attention as he is walking around and busting tables 🤔. I asked for a table, he says that it would be like 5 mins. I'm looking around and there are dirty tables and TABLES OPEN. I'm like there are several tables open, why can't we get one of those? He says there are no waiters for the tables and it would be a few minutes. Again, I'm looking around and there are plenty servers, and the place was not super packed. I go to the restroom, I come back out, stand next to the bar and chat with bartender,..more than 5 mins passed. I still don't see the manager. Finally he comes and cleans, and wipes down a dirty table and tells us we can sit. I've never experienced such poor service and management! The manager never apologized, didn't come back at any point in time to check on us (and yet, I observed him walking around and checking on all the white patrons). Horrible!! My recommendation would be to hire a new manager or give the current one some more training on customer service and how to be effective. My waitress Stephanie was awesome and friendly, and made sure we were taken care of, which was much appreciated. She even noticed how long we had been waiting to be seated. The food (appetizer and dishes) was excellent, hot and delicious, even with only 2 cooks in the back. Stephanie and the cooks get 5 stars. Manager on the other...