Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Linden

My family and I were out tonight to get birthday dinner after a movie for my sister and her friend. We walked in and they told us that it would be a 30 minute wait for 9 and we had no problem with that. After a pretty long time waiting we were seated. It was really busy so I understand why it took awhile. We were seated, received our drinks after a long long time. Then we ordered. To make a long story short, it was going on 12:00am and we had already waited a long time so my mom asked the waistress what was going on. The waistress was very polite and understandable about the situation even though it wasn’t her fault. We asked for the manager and she came out after a few minutes. My mom calmly explained the situation and the manager, Jessica, already seemed annoyed by the fact that she was complaining. The waitor came out with the food, after about two hours of waiting and my mom put her hand up and said “hold on.” Then the mananger says “don’t disrespect my employees. Don’t put your hand in his face like that.” Mind you, he’s a good space away from my mom. My mom wasn’t even able to put her hand in his face. She really started arguing with my mom in the middle of the restaurant, acting as if she has 0 experience dealing with people in general. My 7 year old cousin was sitting right below her and my mom CALMY asked her to move from in front of her. The manager says “oh like I would hurt a child.” ??? She says that we need to leave and pay the bill. Yes, my mom was cursing. This woman was in her face and had no problem acting out in front of a 7 year old girl who does not need to see that. She really didn’t care how she presented herself. It was pretty sad to see. The waistresses and waitors didn’t even know what to do with her behavior. But we will not let her ruin our night after a great movie. Afterwards she also decided to call the police. She lied and exaggerated to the police officer, saying that she was screaming and cursing at her employees when that was not true at all. She wasn’t screaming at the employees. The employees came out and went right back in. All she said to them was hold on. Nothing else. Jess really made it way more than it was. Very dramatic about the whole situation. The police shouldn’t have been called anyways. It was never that serious until Jessica, the manager, made it that way. I’m a 15 year old girl that has never worked in her life. It’s sad that even I know how to handle a customer’s complaint. Jessica is a great example of how to NOT deal with customers. So thanks to Jessica for showing us that! The way Jessica acted was insane. Nobody should act like that towards anybody. My mom did not deserve to be treated that way. She did nothing wrong. We will be taking this up with corporate. Too bad I’m required to give one star because this restaurant doesn’t even deserve that. So good luck in the future Jess. Hope this situation teaches you something!! Never coming...

We had an unbelievable experience here. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for the unclean restroom. We were greeted by the host. We were told, "Please enjoy" by the said person and two out of three waiters lined up while we were escorted to our booth. Talk about a total VIP feel. Bonus points, shall we?! What an amazing feeling that was! Then, it gets better. Our waitress, Dani, a Black American who spoke with a surprising professional canter, was awesome. She often checked on our booth, happily removed our finished plates except the one shown in the picture. One of the servers placed the wrong appetizer on our table, but we were told to not worry about it and did finally receive the correct appetizer. The only caveat we have to stipulate is that there are a plethora of birthday celebratory banter that can negate from the overall dining experience.

UPDATE (6/24/25): We dined with some friends from Africa and met Danielle as our waitress. We were happy to see that she had been tipped well this time despite her being a minority. That made all of us happy!

✋🚫THE NO ICE CHALLENGE:🧊🥶

So, at Olive Garden and Applebee's, we asked for no ice. Applebee's partially nailed it for us but not the other; fifty percent accuracy for Applebee's and zero percent for Olive Garden. Sorry Olive Garden . . .!

Although Applebee's got it halfway right with our no ice requests, they need to be ashamed of themselves for putting this much ice . . .; enough to fill a medium sized shot glass and a saucer to go along with it?! So if you say no ice, you make sure to not help their bottom line!

Everything with our dining and custom experience here was amazing except our drink requests that we could not believe Applebee's did not get right until after five or more attempts. We thank Chad for finally helping us to rectify the matter.

■A Quyloon Reese Report on Experiences & Custom (QR-REC)®: •Food: 95/100 •Portion to Cost Ratio: 80/100 (desserts are on the tiny size) •Comfortable: 70/100 (very close and tight) •Hospitality (Staff): 105/100 (Greeters, hosts, and line of waiters are awesome, especially Dani. Like, managers give Dani a raise. She is so worth the extra 5 points) •Clean: 75/100 (including a very dirty restroom) Overall Score: 425/500 (85%) ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ 🔵GOAL: "Our intent is to design innovative expository to provide daunting critiques that command attention and force heads to turn unapologetically."

💫Awarded with the 2024 QR-REC® Best in Diner's Experience Award by Mister Quyloon Nicholas Reese on November 18, 2024 at 10:15 p.m.

FOR THE OWNER: "What is the name of the radio station you played live on Sunday, November 17, 2024...

trash! our server did not acknowledge us first off. if we werent so hungry we would have left, we were not greeted for over 5 min. we knew what we wanted and we had a random guy take our order he wasnt too pleased with that but he took it and then we received our waters from our actual server. i don't think he even told us his name, we found up from the host the guys names was richard/rich... he acted if he was a zombie, he was rude and unpleasant! we were not being extra we were friendly and knew what we wanted to make it easier for him to make not multiple trips. anyway we get our food we did not have silverware he said ill be right back with it. he did not come back and wasnt going to come back. maybe he forgot who knows but he was just so rude and not happy with us! i never got my silverware from him so we asked the host and she did not want to be bothered, she was annoyed yet she is the one that sat us with him! she brang us the silver ware. but he didnt even remember or say sorry i forgot it like u pretended as if i been had my fork and knife! like are you joking thats what making me write the review im sitting here waiting and my food is getting cold waiting for you and then see you talking with another table! this guy needs to retire or get fired. then we WERE NOT GOING TO WAIT FOR THE CHECK! so we looked at the kiosk we did the 2 for 20 deal, we payed the money and left a 5 dollar tip! this whole time richard did not want to speak with us while eating, he did not want to ask how our meal was, nope he pretended as if we were invisible. he forgot our silverware BUT YET HE REMEMBER TO RUN OUTSIDE UP TO OUR CAR IN SUCH A MEAN ANGRY WAY! we payed in cash and left i tell you THIS GENTLEMEN CAME UP TO OUR CAR IN LESS THAN 5 MIN FOR WHAT?!? YOU CANT GREET US WITHIN 5 MIN BUT YOU CAN RUN UP TO OUR CAR AND ASSAULT US? WE asked him what is the issue he said did you guys pay, we told him yes the money is on the table and we told the host aswell the money was in plain eye sight! hes like oh , oh . he did not apologize he just was looking around our car, and circling it. im going to contact a lawyer because he was writing our plates down if he was going to do something you deserve the tip you got your lucky my boyfriend was a server because if it was only be you would get straight pennies in the water thats your ti. but him circling the car i have threatened who does this? we tipped you 20 percent...