Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Lexington

Worst restaurant experience ever. My family and I got rained out of a local festival, starving, thought we’d grab food here for a late Father’s Day dinner. Just looking to hangout and relax. Got there around 7- started off horrible. Waited for over 20 mins for drinks. Not including the extra 10 for my fiancé’s 1 beer. It wasn’t our poor servers fault, she was legit the only person seen busting all tables and serving anyone. No refills. Laughed it off for awhile until it was over an hour for our basic food we ordered. All got brought out at different times. During this time my 6 month old woke up (considering we had been there an extremely long time at this point) so we took her to the restroom to change her diaper. The changing table had dirt, what looked like pubic hair, and a bug on it... safe to say we changed her standing up (took two of us thankfully my mother was there for assistance) so finally My chicken tender platter (I mean how much easier could you make it) came out 10 mins+ later. Still not complaining, I asked for buffalo sauce & ranch. The woman who brought it out (not our server) literally LAUGHED in my face and yelled “I ASKED you all if you wanted any sauces and you said no?!” She apparently asked my sister, across the large table of 7 of us) and my SISTER not ME said no to sauces prior, when she got her food. Again, my food was NOT out when she asked and i also DIDNT hear her. I was so embarrassed and livid I couldn’t see straight. To yell at a customer 1. Is so inappropriate. I worked in restaurant business as a host and server and if that would’ve happened, the worker would’ve been jobless in 2 seconds. 2. You should never yell at someone holding their 6 month old child for asking for a sauce. God forbid you get something you want at a restaurant. The manager pretended to care and said he’d give $ off. He even said he knew we had been waiting for along time because he had to help make our food? But almost acted like it was an issue that he had to. Then when we told him about the lady who yelled, he rolled his eyes and was like NO SHE DID NOT. Anyways, He first brought a ticket out that literally had $5 off the entire bill.... keep in mind that I didn’t even touch mine. My family’s was either wrong or cold. And they wanted to take $5 off.... lol oh and then he realized he messed up, so we waited another 25 mins for him to send the poor server out to give us our STILL $70+ ticket. Lmfao I have never in my life dealt with such chaos. THEN to top it all off, another random server literally knocked my dad and I down while walking out the door to run a ‘to go cup’ of BEER to some guy she knew? Pretty positive that’s illegal. While also running into a woman with a child. Definitely looked cracked out of her head. We are not the type to complain but this was such a horrible experience that we plan to call someone to look into this place. It’s like there were no workers! No GOOD assistance. No professionalism. Please do not waste your time and eat fast food...

Well, I wrote off Applebee's years ago and sadly tried it again today. The lady who seated us was very kind, friendly and personable. (In fact, I gave her the tip today) But she was not the waitress. The person who waited the table cannot be called a server/waitress. She didn't once crack a smile and made spoke maybe two or three words the entire meal. In fact, she left us seated without taking the order. I had to track a person down and ask for a waitress. Keep in mind, there were not any people on one side of the restaurant and a handful of people on the other side. Therefore, she was not busy working, maybe stuffing her face somewhere but definitely not working any other table. No apology, no smile and lied about being busy. Hmm She never once came back to check on the table until she felt the urge to drop off the check only then did she offer a fresh drink but the meal was over. No smile, no thank you, nothing came out of her mouth. If this was my business, she would be fired. Then the food was horrible. An 8 oz sirloin was about 1/2 or less thick, and old. In fact, it was microwave steak. You know take an old steak toss it on the grill to get the lines then tossed it in the microwave to heat it up. It was charred (burnt) on one side and grey on the other. So, over cooked tough meat. The fries were warm. Oh, their overall covid precautions were lax if they had any at all. So, will I ever return to Applebee's, not if were the last place on earth to eat free food. I can make a melt in your mouth steak at home evenly cooked. I wish I would have fought the urge to have a meal cooked for me. I'm more than happy to keep wearing my chef...

I am in town on business and am staying at a hotel a stones troth away from this resturesta. I figured that I could grab an appetizer to eat while cooking my dinner. So I put in the order before I left work. So I put in to order via online ordering. And they 20 minutes for pickup. Mind you it's an order or mozzarella sticks. So I stay at work a couple of extra minutes and get to the restaurant a few minutes early thinking it's an easy item. After sitting there for 15 minutes AFTER my food should have been brought out to wait another 5 while the only person in the area finishes up with an order on the phone. Then he waits on the lady that was waiting ahead of me. Then when the server ask for my name he was going to give me the cold food. Immediately said no I would like a refund that food is cold and I have already been waiting now for 25 minutes I don't want to wait another 7 or more to get new food. He is very kind and goes to get his supervisor I would assume. The guy hits some buttons on the register and says ok well it's back on your card and goes to walk away. I say that I want a receipt because this is an expense card and I have to prove each transaction with a receipt. He told me that there's nothing he can do. So I pushed and he went into the back and came back with a receipt. As someone who runs a food operation to a failing or at least with this customer with your operation you may want to look into hiring more people or at least teaching them to ask for help while food is getting cold and customers...