Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Miamisburg

Tl:Dr-- Very slow service with poor quality food. Food arrived 1hr 15 minutes after our arrival. Extra star given for the server who was working really hard.

I dined at this establishment with my family this evening. We had just driven in from out of town and wanted a quick bite before going to bed. Since we had been in the road all day, we wanted to stay away from fast food. Since it was 10pm, our options were limited. We selected Applebee's because it was open, near our hotel, and previous visits to their other locations have been adequate.

We arrived at 10:10p. We were promptly seated. There didn't seem to be a lot of people there, but several tables were occupied. Once we were seated, we didn't see our server for a bit. At this point, I wasn't looking at the clock. We were happy just reviewing our menu. I'd say about 10 minutes went by before the server came by and said she'd be right with us to take our drink orders. And she did, maybe 5 minutes later.

Our drinks came out in under 10 minutes and our server apologized for taking so long. She explained that she had a large party that she was serving. Again, it didn't seem like a long time. I could tell they were under staffed and that someone probably called off. I'm pretty patient, so I wasn't bothered by it at this point.

About another 20-25 minutes passed before our server came back to take our order. Our food didn't come out until 11:25p. By this time, we were getting a bit flustered. My 7yo was nearing the end of his patience, and do was I. The food arrived just before my son's attitude went over to the point of no return.

My meal (sorry, no pics, I was very hungry): The apples and chicken salad. The lettuce was a bit wilted, but overall tasty.

My son's meal: Burger with only cheese and ketchup, fries, and strawberries. Well, his Burger was fully loaded. If you have kids or been around kids, you know what a big deal this is. My kid hates pickles. Thankfully, my son was so hungry he didn't put up much of a fuss after I took off everything else.

My Husband's meal: breaded shrimp and a Cesar salad. The shrimp arrived, but not salad. Once we notified our server, she apologized and brought out immediately. She also apologized for my son's Burger not coming out the way we ordered it (she saw me removing all of the stuff).

I gave the two stars primarily for the server. If it wasn't for her, it would have been one star with a scathing review. I could tell that she was working hard and doing the best she could given the circumstances. There needed to be a sever for the party and then a sever for the rest of the tables in the area. My guess is the party showed up without calling ahead and the restaurant wasn't adequately staffed for it. But, that should not have impacted the quality of the food nor the incorrect presentation of the food.

Side Note: I realize that it was nearly midnight, but the music content was inappropriate. What they played was NOT the radio edit and not appropriate for...

TL;DR - Endless wings were great, I love when this deal comes around. Restaurant had flies which were annoying. Hostess with the white hair, you were great and the reason why service is 2 stars, I wish I could have found you and gave you my tip because our waitress did not deserve it. It always takes forever to get a receipt in this establishment and when split wasn't even split properly (we both got the same drink, same meal. Why was it not split in half evenly?).

Got the endless wings, which were great! The hostess (I wish I knew her name) was very kind and helped bring out wings when we ordered more. Our waitress, however, was nice and attentive towards the beginning but progressively got worse. When we were finished and ready for the bill, it probably took a good 20+ minutes to actually get it. I understand our waitress, Sarah, was busy with the bar, but we were her only other customers. It should not have taken that long to get the receipt, and if it does at least apologize! I work retail and I could never imagine having a customer wait even half that time without apologizing, because at least they feel like they were recognized for having to wait. We had one drink refill the entire visit. Finally when she came around to give us the receipt, she asked if it was separate, which it wasn't. It was supposed to be one bill, but she was already walking away and answering a phone call on her cell so she didn't hear me. Then once the bill came it wasn't even split properly. One bill had $25 and the other had $8. I was so confused and just paid with cash and was half tempted to just leave after that since I knew it would take a while for her to pick it up. Finally, we had asked for a box, which I know isn't allowed since we got the bottomless wings but it doesn't hurt to ask. In fact, the group in the booth behind us received a box even though they got the endless wing as well. She said "nuh uh, we don't give boxes with the wings" while shaking her head and walking away. So it just made us feel horrible since we didn't get the same respective service that others did. Especially after sitting and waiting for so long for our bill.

I almost never leave bad reviews because I like to be optimistic about things, but this last visit left me angry. I have been to this Applebee's 5+ times and the experience typically varies from good to ok, but this one caused me to leave this review. I hope this will cause the customer service...

We went to this Applebees last night for dinner and it was a horrible experience. We walked in and the place was disgusting and freezing! Took the hostess 10 minutes to seat us in a nearly empty restaurant. She didn’t know where to put us. Both tables were dirty. Atmosphere was very dated and we felt out of place it was super quiet. Everyone was in street clothes I thought the grandma was a customer and she was an employee. I could have worked there because there was no uniform or name tags. She let us pick a table. None of the employees had a uniform on and only one employee had a name tag on. I went to the bathroom and I’ve seen truck-stops bathrooms cleaner. We asked how the waitress was and she said it’s one of those days and rolled her eyes. My husband ordered our two waters and two burgers, We get our food relatively fast, but the fries were cold and nasty. Our waitress didn’t even bring our food to us. Some other employee did and our waitress never checked on us with our food or gave us a refill on our water. She only came back to the table when she saw that we were done with our food and asked if we wanted the check. The people In the booth behind us, we’re having issues getting clean silverware, and when they asked for a new silverware, the waitress rolled her eyes at them. Pretty much all the employees were rude and looked like you were inconveniencing them by being there. I started to feel ill after we left. I won’t ever be back to this Applebees. I didn’t see a manager but you would never know because no name tags. Oh when I went to the restroom I saw into the kitchen and God help me that kitchen was disgusting. They had a toilet plunger and toilet bowl brush by the food prep table. We are guessing the grandma was the manager she ran food Bar backed bartender and everything. Our waitress was very lazy. Her name was Amanda. She was pawning work off on other people. Also complaining about...