Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Knoxville

Our first time ever ordering/eating from Applebee's in Knoxville actually, and last. Ordered at 12:15. Order pickup was listed as 12:32. We arrived early and notified through the online service that we were "here", parked in the carside to go area. Did not receive our order until going inside and inquiring and attempting to ask for a refund at 12:52, 20 minutes after it stated it would be ready for pickup. Some server went to our car threw her hands up when she saw no one there because we were inside trying to get it. We went outside to meet her, "Oh I looked all over the place!" No you didn't you lied after not seeing anyone at the car. The servers are slow and quick to be bitter. But honestly this is a leadership issue more than a server issue. If the order was even close to being ready at 1232 it should've promptly been sent to the car. Customers shouldn't have to ask where it's at, 20 minutes after it should've been ready! Hostess or waitress inside said, "We didnt think it would get this busy inside." Is there any one, any one with leadership knowledge running this place? I don't think so. Does anyone have a passion for customer service? High quality restaurant service? Why is there no standard here? Despicable. All restaurant workers and managers need to have the same level of care and passion about food and people that fine dining restaurants and maybe more restaurants would be run with better standards. Why work in the restaurant industry or service industry of any kind if you don't want to create a high quality experience every single time? You should move with a purpose and create a high sandard here. I will definitely not be eating at Applebee's here, not doing to-go here again, and for sure not paying ahead of time like we did.

The food wasnt that good either. The mozzarella sticks are a joke, rubber. Onions on the burger when requested through the online service for no onions. Sloppy service. This restaurant receives an...

If I could give 0 zero stars, I would.

The waitress (Easter apparently was her name. Not that she ever told us, the hostess did) took atleast 10-15 mins to even come ask us what we wanted to drink. Mind you, the restaurant was not even close to busy. After ordering our drinks it was another long wait before she came back to take our order. She got to our table, realized I had never even been given my drink, ran away to get it, dropped it off and walked away AGAIN to cater to other tables without having ever taken our order, so we eventually had to go find her.

After we were finally able to order and get our food the waitress was a ghost. She never once checked in with our table to see if we needed anything or if we were enjoying our food. We had to GO GET HER numerous times because of this. & even had to go ask the hostess to get her when we were ready to pay.

Once we had paid, my boyfriend and I left and my sister waited because she had placed a To-Go order. While waiting on her order, she took her little cousin to the restroom. While she was in there, the staff OPENED HER BOX OF TO-GO FOOD, (like it aint COVID season) that she had left on the table and found that she had the small bowl of spinach dip inside. She came out of the restroom and was immediately treated like a criminal and told it was "Time to Go". They refused to give her back the rest of the food that she had already paid for and told her to leave.

I called the restaurant when she told me and whomever I spoke to did not care a bit. I felt profiled either for age or race because our waitress catered to every table surrounding us but only came to us when we went and got her.. then treated my sister like a theif over a bowl of spinach dip. I'll be reaching out to the GM and corporate in the morning about our experience but I'm suspecting if the staff feels this comfortable acting this way, that management is not gonna...

I haven't been to Applebee's in something like four years and it's likely I'm never going to return. Simply put the food is terrible.

Cold french fries, a burger that was so sloppily thrown together it was basically inedible. One spot of bbq sauce in the middle, dry everywhere else, burnt bacon on the edges, raw gelatinous bacon fat in the middle, stuck together and thrown in the middle. It's like whoever made this food didn't even try, paid literally no attention to any detail and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if none of it was cooked fresh. The burger wasn't hot, nor the bacon, or bun.

My wife got the blackened shrimp that wasn't blackened. Just slimy cold shrimp served with a horrendously seasoned chicken that again was basically inedible. Grilled onions, that were still raw, it is hard to understand how the standards have become so low. I have had better meals at Cook Out.

The nachos too were a disgrace. Cold cheese, wet and slimy jalapenos, stale chips and the ground beef again, cold, hard, maybe cooked off in bulk at the start of a shift and then just left to rot in a hot pan that's not hot.

There are food safety industry standards in place that prevent food being served like this and it is obvious they are not being followed. No one wants cold nachos, a cold burger, slimy blackened shrimp and a chicken cooked with chili seasoning and no salt. We spent fifty bucks on this trash and it is offensive that that is what is presented as food at Applebee's.

Our server was lovely however and this review doesn't reflect the care or service we got from her. Our drinks were always full, food came out almost immediately, probably because it was never cooked in the first place, but still... None of this was her fault. Your kitchen is a disgrace and no one in their right mind would go to Applebee's twice, unless it's...