Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Los Lunas

My husband and I went to Applebee's for little birthday celebration for him to get dessert. He had the triple chocolate meltdown and a soda and I had the Brownie bite. We both requested limes for our water The server, I'm sure she was in her mid-20s but looked to be more like her mid teens, kept calling me sweetie, doll, honey, sweetheart and any other term of endearment she could think of. Apparently the term ma'am is not in her vocabulary. She never addressed my husband by any terms of endearment nor did he call him 'sir'. A second server brought my husband's dessert, presented with a real metal spoon, first but I had to wait an additional 5 minutes until I received mine. When our actual server brought brought me my dessert, I got a plastic spoon wrapped in plastic as if I were a child that could not handle a metal spoon. By the way, the limes for our water never materialized nor were lemons brought as a substitute. Our server removed our plates but never asked if we wanted some half price appetizers or if my husband wanted to refill on his soda which when originally filled was three quarters the full of ice (which means very little soda) because it was after 9:00. Quite frankly had she invited us to do that I probably would have purchased at least one. The nice things about growing older is you can have your dessert first. We asked for our check at 9:18 and it wasn't until 9:28 that she told us that she didn't know what we were sitting around for when we made it very clear we needed our check. (I prefer to use a paper print out to figure out the tip, and I tip well for good service mind you.) She shows me the kiosk electronic thing on the table and says "I can talk you through this." I don't need talking through electronics, and I shouldn't have put my hopes on someone to deliver a piece of paper because they couldn't deliver citrus for our water.

Yes, I left her a 15% tip because she does have bills to pay. If I come back to Applebee's I will make sure to ask that the server named Sydney not wait on me, and it is my recommendation that anyone that comes to the Los Lunas restaurant...

I want to first express that Applebees is one of my favorite resturaunts. I've always loved their food and always very generous when it comes to tipping the servers because they are generally very friendly and do a great job. Tonight is an exception, however... My family and I went to the resturaunt an hour before closing which should be plenty of time to be served. We checked the time to make sure we were not walking it 15 mins before closing or something. There were only a few people in the resturaunt so it wasnt very busy at all. The server was extremely slow from the beginning and it was very clear that the table next to us were friends or relatives of her. She spent most of her time over there socializing. Our server only had us, 1 couple and the large table of her friends to serve who were very overserved with alcohol. ( 3 of us at our table of 4 are certified to serve and have allot of bartending experience). After an hour waiting for our food it came out looking like it had been sitting for quite some time and all but 1 plate was cold. We had asked why so late and the server told us they were short staffed. When she finally went to get our food she said it was just comming off the line, yet by the time we got it it was unacceptably cold. We called for the manager who came apoligized, and said she would see what she could do. We simply said we wanted to leave by this point and just make our own food but had to go quickly because the store would soon close so we just wanted a box and to pay for the 1 plate that was warm. The manager said no problem that she would bring us a box. Our server returned with a small side dish box and took another 10 mins to take our payment for the 1 meal that was ok. The server took our payment not the manager and the server brought our box not the manager when at this point that responsibility was on the manager.

Overall it was a massive waste of time very bad service considering how slow it was, and while the manager said she would take care of it instead she sent the waitress back out. From now on if we eat at Applebees it will not be...

Arrived at 6:50 pm with party of 8. Restaurant was moderately busy, had to wait about 10 minutes to get seated, very reasonable. Orders were placed and after what seemed like a long wait, I started noticing other people in our party becoming fidgety because they were concerned about the long wait to be served. I got up and found our server and she said they were getting the plates together in the kitchen and would only be a few more minutes. Another 10 minutes pass and I found the manager and asked him to check on the service. He said they are getting ready to delivery now. Another 10 minutes and I find the manager again and asked why we still haven't been served. He asked what we haven't been served yet. I responded with our dinner still had not been served. He went back to the kitchen and within a few minutes our dinner was delivered. Pasta on one dish was like rubber, it had sat too long. The French onion soup sat so long the bread had fully absorbed the liquid and was all mush. Most of the rest of the dinners were good. But by this time we were all so frustrated by the long wait, nothing else really seemed to matter. We split the tab 3 ways and the manager offered a modest 10% discount, which was only applied to one of the tabs.

I wanted a nice evening dinner for my family and Applebee's failed me. It left me embarrassed.

I asked the manager why it was taking so long. He came back with being a large party and being short staffed in the kitchen. I understand large parties take a little longer to coordinate and serve. But this was unreasonable, especially as the evening went by and there was hardly anyone left in the restaurant by the time we were served. If they know they are short staffed, the server (or manager) should state that up front as a courtesy for guests to understand there may be a longer...