Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Highland Heights

A slightly cool greeting from the host on our arrival. My husband has limited mobility and can only walk short distances so I requested a table as close to the door as possible. When he began to take us to a table I felt it was too far and I selected a much closer table. We received a bland shrug of the shoulders with an "OK" as he walked away. Once the waiter arrived I asked that the table please be wiped and sanitized as it had a lot of crumbs left behind. The same host arrived with his cleaning supplies and continued to be straight faced and non-communitive as he completed this unhappy difficult chore. On thanking him he merely shrugged and walked away.

I have worked with a very large variety of people in my lifetime so I figured we had upset him or he was having a bad day. The restaurant had very few customers at that time of day (~2 pm on a weekday), so it wasn't from a busy day. We did note that he had the same demeanor as other guests arrived during the next hour or so. We figured his behavior was just his normal personality, accepted it and moved on. We did ask that God would bless him if it was a result of life events.

Moving on, the waiter could not have been any greater. Excellent customer service, friendly and very helpful, welcoming and great patience! The food was fantastic! My husband even said it was the best steak he ever had! The ribs I had were awesome, so Kudos to the chef!

Please remember that it takes a team of people with different personalities and skills to effectively work a business. If someone is not as you expected, accept it, pray for them...

This isn't a fluke. I have dined in at this Applebee's location on numerous occasions and have mostly experienced good service and good food. Yesterday I opted for curbside pick-up. I ordered through the on-line app with an anticipated pick-up time of 25 minutes. My order consisted of a simple cheeseburger and fries. When the order was delivered to my vehicle the first thing noted was No Napkins. Upon opening the meal container the hamburger was obvious old product. What should have been fresh lettuce was wilted hanging plastered to the side of the bun. First bite into the sandwich revealed only moderately warmed over and not freshly cooked. The fries were slightly warm, rubbery and tough. This was the worse takeout experience ever and it was only from curb to car. I can't imagine the quality had it been a doordash delivery.

A call to the manager resulted in a full refund with advice to call to speak with a manager prior to my next takeout order.

The takeaway from this experience is that good quality and service cannot be entrusted to kitchen crews of food establishments. There is no self initiative in the food you consume being acceptable.

For myself personally, this sub par standard is unacceptable. I refuse to allow my quality of integrity in product to be thrown out like dog food in a bowl by those who do not hold high standard to themselves or others.

This review was copied and sent to Applebee's Corporate with regard to...

I took my 2 daughters and 2 grandchildren to a late lunch today. It was 2PM and I had not eaten all day, I was starving. Myself and one daughter arrived before the others, so we were seated and waited for service. We weren't even acknowledged for at least 5 minutes, finally a server took our drink and appetizer order. Once the others joined us they were brought drinks and we waited to place our food order. A different server finally showed up to take our food order. None of us were ever offered a refill on our drinks during the entire meal. Our appetizer never arrived, finally we called down the 2nd server to inquire on the appetizer. Turns out the first server never put the order in, I'm furious and the server pipes up with "we're going to make it right!" Really? How might you plan to do that when our entrees should be out momentarily, an "appetizer" is no longer necessary. Ridiculously bad service and then you want to defend that....furious doesn't begin to address it. Oh and the first server yelling from the kitchen "I'm sick of inaudible" when the missing appetizer was questioned. The food that we did eventually receive was very good, maybe it was only because we were starving, but good none the less. $85 I paid for this, $100 with tip! No apology, nothing....