Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Middleburg Heights

Today my aunts and I decided to grab a late lunch (3pm) at applebees on Pearl rd surprisingly enough they were pretty packed. They said it would probably be a 20 min waited but ended up seating us shortly thereafter. We placed our drink and appetizer orders within about 5 mins. The waitress came back and took our entree orders. It took about 10 mins before my aunts received their drinks from the bar. We were all talking and realized it had been almost 25 mins since we ordered our appetizers before they were finally delivered to our table and not even 1 min later the entrees were delivered. This honestly was unacceptable. So now the very small table we had was now overloaded with plates and I felt overwhelmed with all the food all at one time. I ordered the garlic parm boneless wings and they were very small, too crunchy and only had a small splash of parm garlic sauce on the side of the plate. Very unappealing. The entrees were actually delivered by the manager so I mentioned we literally just got our appetizers 1 min before he arrived entrees, so he said he would take those off the bill. I wish I would have said something about the overcooked, undersauced wings to have at least gotten them remade but at the same who knows how long it would have taken those to be remade we had other things to do afterwards. Both my aunts ordered the bourbon street cheeseburgers and fries and they enjoyed them. I ordered the the bourbon street chicken and shrimp(no mushrooms) with potatoes with a side of broccoli and extra shrimp because I love to take half home for leftovers for lunch the next day. The meals did get delivered hot and the chicken was cooked perfectly. Unfortunately, the service was less than impressive being they were short handed. Our waitress, did not check on us at any point after the food was delivered. We had to grab her attention for boxes and our check and to order a dessert because of course our table top tablet was not functioning properly. Once we finally got her attention I ordered the brownie bite. 5 mins surpassed, and she was delivering to the table next to us and said it will be right out. Another 5 mins passed and the hostess who was cleaning tables noticed me looking for my waitress asked if I needed something I mentioned it had been over 10 mins since I ordered my dessert and after she finished cleaning the other table she went and looked and so after of 13 mins my dessert was brought out and of course my ice cream was half melted. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed. After finishing the dessert we had to wait again for the waitress for another 8 mins to come back over to retrieve the payment for the check. After giving the payment to be processed the manager came back over to check if everything was satisfactory. I explained it was not and I would be calling later to discuss. While I do understand they were busy she didn't come and check on us to see if everything was okay or if we needed refills or even asking about to go boxes or if we needed the check. My appetizer was 3 out of 10 our meals were about 7 out of 10 and dessert was a 5 because it tool 13 mins and came out half melted. The manager did offer apologies for the lack luster service again mentioning the short handedness and just an unusually busy day. He did give us gift certificates for future visit to give them another try which was very kind of him. So I do hope the next time I do frequent that location that they do have better and more prompt service with a more engaging server. So after finally paying the bill I visit the rest room and luckily I check before I go, the stall I went into had no toilet paper. So once again I had to see the manager to mention this before I left. I'm sure he was happy to...

So after reading all the reviews about the service.....this will follow suit. We were told it would be a 20-25 minute wait. Plenty of empty tables, so I assumed they were short staffed. We were seated and our waiter took our drink order. We were only given the specials menu, no regular menu so we asked for them. We noticed that they did that with everyone else being seated near us as well. When he came back we placed our order which included an appetizer. We asked to be sure there was salt on the hot pretzels, since last time there was none. Our food showed up, brought out by the manager. We told him we never got our appetizer. He said he would bring it out and take it off the bill. My husband asked for another glass of iced tea. It came out.....no ice! I put some ice in to it from my water. The pretzels came out.....minimal salt. Once our food came out we never saw the waiter again, except when he was taking orders or bringing food to the tables next to ours. While speaking with the family next to us about the service, who also had the same waiter AND missing food and beverage our waiter came by and plopped a small container of salt on the table for the pretzels. I was almost done with my meal and had no water left. Since I never saw the waiter to ask, I simply went to the bar and asked for a glass of water. I will say that the bartender was the most pleasant person and truly seemed genuine when she filled my request with a smile. Well, then here comes the waiter with more iced tea and water. I told him that I finally went and got my own. His reply, "well, fine then." He seemed to have an attitude the whole time. He brought the bill and had taken my meal off along with the pretzels. Needless to say......no tip was left on the card nor the table. Our food was good. I had the Southwest Chicken bowl and my husband had ribs. But as far as service, nope. It's a wonder if they don't go out of business by having to take meals off the bills for all the crappy service. I suppose it will be the same old song and dance when I get a reply back......."we are so sorry for the service, blah blah blah."...

The experience I had at this Applebee’s was far from pleasing, but I do want to highlight that the one lady whom I assume to be a manager based on outfit was amazing. The waiter we had, Jeff, immediately made a comment that didn’t sit right with my table. We asked for 2 waters and a tea, we were given a water, a Pepsi, and a tea. The appetizer took longer than expected to bring out and the quesadilla was mostly all tomatoe , the spinach dip was burnt and the chips were stale. We still ate it, and didn’t complain. We sat 15 minutes with 3 empty drinks, and when we mentioned something we were told “I’ll get them” and it took an additional 5 minutes. When the drinks were brought, it was brought with no lemon, I asked for a lemon and was told he would bring it. We ended up asking the manager for one. When the food was brought out we asked for a side of ranch, and was told he would grab it, he never did, we asked the manager for a ranch. I ordered a wrap, and the sauce was spilled all of the plate, covering the wrap, soaking the tortilla so you couldn’t even pick it up. The waiter did notice and asked if I would like for him to bring another half I told him no, at that point I didn’t really want it anymore, so I asked for a box and boxed it. The waiter brought the check and said, “see you next time” unfortunately Jeff, you won’t. We won’t be back to...