Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Indiana

We had a party of 9, I called to make a reservation for 5pm and the gal on the phone was very friendly. That's about the only positive thing I can say about our visit. When we got there we were the 3rd table in the place.

We ordered vodka tonic and were served vodka soda instead. When we said it didn't taste right, the bartender came over to apologize and say they don't have tonic, so he just used soda water instead. Why wouldn't he just send the waitress to the table to let us know what we ordered was unavailable and we should pick something else rather than make a drink we didn't order?

The food was not worth our 1.5 hour wait. We watched many customers that came in after us get served their meal and even leave before we got our food. It was terrible. 7 of the 9 in our group were served. The 8th meal came out about 5 mins later and we were told they were plating the 9th meal. After most of us were done eating and asking multiple times when the other meal was coming out, it came out when everyone was done eating. And it was a sandwich! That shouldn't take very long to make. 4 of us ordered sirlion steaks, one came out looking like a roast, about 3" thick and the size of my palm. Two others were cooked wrong, one was ordered medium well and came out medium rare and the smothered steak came out over cooked. When the waitress dropped our food off she asked what else she could get us and we said silverware. She pointed to the forks we had on the table from our appetizer and said you have some. We need steak knives! Then she said she was trying her best and would be back with some. She continued to wait on other tables and bring out food to them before bringing us steak knives.

All in all, it was a horrible experience.

None of us...

Tonight was by far THE WORST experience I have EVER had! The wait was ridiculously long! The server rarely checked on us despite our wait. My steak was ordered Medium and came out CHARRED, hard, and well-done accompanied by cold mashed potatoes and too-salty broccoli. .. Overall inedible. To top it off, my sister and I both ordered the steak and they were served without knives. Had our server bothered to check on us after the meals were served, she may have realized we were missing the knives; however, after standing at the bar chatting with customers who weren't hers, she ran to the back where she disappeared for what seemed like an eternity. I had to go to the bar and ask the bartender for our knives. My brother-in-law ordered a beer when we first got there and was never served. Our checks were all wrong! My in-laws were over-charged ... and instead of offering to fix the ticket, she decided to try and explain the overcharge. She billed the wrong tickets to the wrong cards. It was a complete disaster! They can't feel as if they are providing even remotely decent service! Never once did she apologize or offer to get her manager - who by the way was no where to be seen and definitely never checked on us! I have eaten at Applebee's an innumerable amount of times over the past decades that they have provided service to the Tristate. NEVER have I had such an experience as I had tonight. I am so disappointed! wish I could at least give it a one-star, but I am unable to even do that! 10/10 WOULD NOT RECOMMEND! IT WILL BE A LONG TIME BEFORE I FIND MYSELF NEAR THAT RESTAURANT AGAIN!...

I never give bad reviews, but someone needs to take notice of what's happening here. It's unfortunate that the service industry cannot find help, but closing the restaurant early would be better than trying to operate without a staff or properly trained staff. Please take note Applebee's GM. We arrived about 7:30 pm and left the restaurant about 9:30. This had to be one of my worst dining experiences ever. Waitress told us they were short staffed when she came to the table, but there was only 4 tables of people eating. My chicken sandwich and fries was worse than gas station food. Others in our party of 8 had steaks that were so bad that they were not able to eat them. It was a two hour experience to order food and get it with maybe 2-3 tables of customers in the restaurant. Waitress seemed very inexperienced without much training. My water was never refilled, a beer was never even brought out from the original order, but was put on the check. She never really was around to even ask for drinks.$31 and change for a small salad and an overcooked chicken sandwich with nasty fries that had to be drowned in ketchup just to eat. I also have never had silverware just dumped out on a table without being rolled or...