Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Joplin

On 8/14/23.. Our waitresses Jasmin was beyond amazing and that is were the good stops... the appetizers were good, most of the food came out okay....until my mothers grilled chicken with shrimp (asked for no seasoning on the shrimp and very very little seasoning on the chicken) added to it came out with shrimp heavily seasoned.... Our waitress was amazing and asked if we wanted to have her have it refired, my mother is old school and hate for food to be wasted and thrown out. So asked to speak to the manager to see what was going on with the kitchen as this is not the 1st let in the last month that we have come out more like the 5th time in the last month... over from over cooked steak (getting well done instead of the rare that is ordered),so much seasoning that the food is unedible or cooked food coming our cold. This manager does not give a rats butt about the complaintand was immediately like I will take it off your bill. Told him NO that is not what we want we will pay for it and the one that is being remade as my mother doesn't waste food. So let move on the the refired chicken breast and shrimp both NAKED (NO seasoning) come out the shrimp is naked but the chicken is not. The manager said the he didn't put and seasoning on the chicken on the grill, that the seasoning must of came from there. He admitted to NOT cleaning the grill before cooking it.! He could of cooked it in a pan to since it was and NO seasoning order..... then when asked about that he just turned away and said he will just take it off the bill and we told NO we will pay for it. He just kept walking away! Then when our wonderful waitress came back with to go boxes and she kept apologizing for the messed up meal, this uncaring manager comes back as I was tell our waitress that I plan on calling corporate to let them know about our horrible experience with the uncaring manger that doesn't treat the customers with any respect. He said dont call corporate that if we fell that we need to call some just call the general manager.... then said the he will comped our whole meal. I told him I refuse NOT to pay for our meal that I do NOT want them to be compt out. That is was insulting to us that we are not wanting free food. He just wanted to buy our silence about how we were treated and not to call corporate he was very adamant that we didn't need to call corporate..... I will still be contacting corporate about this, it is not hard to care about a business that you are managing and not treat your customers like dirt.... or to go in the kitchen and find out what the problem...

I forgot that when I went maybe 6 months or so ago I said I wouldn't come back. But then time went on, I forgot. My kids wanted to specifically go to applebees as a reward for doing good in school. so I agreed.

went on a Friday night. obviously had a new server. tried to give some grace. Not only did he take over 30 min just to put our order in- after multiple times coming back to our table asking what we wanted and other waitresses coming confirming our order.....I wanted the kids pizza meal with lemonade.

the two for $22+ we wanted the mozzarella sticks as appetizers. both myself and daughter wanted the 6oz serloins medium rare with mashed potatoes. I wanted the broccoli and cheese as my other side she wanted the mac and cheese with no bacon. i also wanted the shrimp and parm topping for my steak.

they kept coming asking our order bc they were confused.

during our waiting process I noticed the manager that night going to literally every table around us bc stuff was wrong. I HAD to tell the waiter the ppl next to us had been sitting there over 20 minutes without even getting their drink order taken. only then did those people get served.

food came out. mozz sticks were very salty and sauce was off. I barely choked down one of them and they're usually my fave.

my steak was Raw. not rare but purple RAW. cold. i had 2 bites before noticing but tasted disgusting like smoke like it was thrown on a dirty grill. my broccoli with cheese has a few pieces of shredded cheese on top (I was expecting like melted cheese) and tasted like straight pepper. I didn't get through a bite.

I ate one mozzarella stick, 2 bites of steak, my shrimp and parm they brought out ON THE SIDE was the best part of the whole meal. my daughters mac n cheese- no bacon, HAD bacon. her steak was also not good but seemed cooked properly.

We got there about 630pm and didn't leave until about 830pm. it took so long. also had to ask for silverware. it was gross and just horrible all around and I will never go back.

spent time speaking with the table behind me and they were equally as pissed and had also horrible tasting food and service. I know the table next to me had a bad experience as I had to bring attention to staff to serve them.

would've been better off going to outback or longhorn or Texas roadhouse and paying more. DO NOT recommend this...

I have always avoided Applebee's and other bland, Americana restaurants like Cheddar's. However we had to go for a meeting. With no line to be seated we waited a good eight or so minutes to ever see a hostess. I had to go to the bar to ask to be seated (come to find out the bartender can do every thing). We were seated under what I can only call a pyramid speaker- three unidirectional speakers blaring high-pitched pop music against the restuaresta 15 TVs, also quite load. Along with our large group this turned into wave of noise that promoted an instant headache. I asked the speaker be turned down but was denied; no expli ation, just "I can't do it". After over 90 minutes waiting for six entrees my wife asked if we could get a timeline on our meal since we had to go back to work. The server said he didn't know, then returned and said they were working on it. I asked for a timeline again- 15 min? 20? Never? He responded "I don't know". I went to the bartender for a drink and she overheard our question and left her post to get a time at the expo station- 20 more min at least. Which meant a total wait time of almost two hours for my wife's quesadilla and my appetizer. The manager is often seen wandering around but he doesn't seem to be in complete awareness or control. We asked him to cancel our order as we needed to leave but he suggested we get our food to go and he'd rush it out, which I agreed to. When it came, our server couldn't use the POS system to run our cards and went to the bartender to do it; again, this lady is a dynamo! We finally left after 2 hours with our cold food.

I usually don't write these aggressive reviews. Food is food to me. But damn... That was just rough. What is it about Applebbess that people enjoy? The expensive, low pour alcohol? The long waits? The endless noise and distraction of a million TVs at every angle? The so-so food? I just don't get it. And somehow, Ruby Tuesday- a quiet, well lit, quality restaurant goes under. Doesn't say much for our caliber of...