Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Midland

If you're looking for a sweet, refreshing, and exotic new beverage this summer, try their flavored/infused lemonades. They are non-alcoholic, so your little angels [read: demon spawn] can enjoy these drinks as well. There are several different choices to choose from, and you can choose any combination of the listed variety you desire. We decided on a late lunch and had arrived around 2PM on a Sunday. My significant other had a cup of soup to start out with before moving on to this behemoth-sized platter of chicken fajitas and toppings which were growling (possibly sizzling?) in her general direction. I went with my #1 go-to and apparent fan favorite: Quesadillaburger with onion rings. Now, very rarely do I complain when I go out to eat-- because I've worked in kitchens for nearly ten years and I understand that everyone has "off" days. I also understand that there is a difference between cooking with a passion-- and cooking for a paycheck. Most if us do it for the latter, before it becomes the former. This experience, however, was an act of brutal, undying, unapologetic, absolute hatred. It was impressive how unsatisfying it was. So it's safe to say that the food was slightly above average on our most recent visit to everyone's favorite neighborhood Grill + Bar. However, as an enormous Midwestern, franchised, restaurant chain, I am one of the very last patrons to expect perfected cuisine based on the fine art of microwave-button-pressing and deep frying. The front of house(hosts, servers, bartenders) of this Midland location is one of the major, if not, THE main reason of success and outstanding performance. It is far better in comparison to the other surrounding mid-Michigan Applebee's(I'm looking at you, West Branch). Typically, around this time you can expect lunch service to begin to subside and start dwindling down. This period of time is typically close to a shift change, so please take into consideration that service may(or may not) be a couple of minutes longer. Using a credit or debit card on the tabletop device is a great way to cash out if you're in a hurry and you've come to eat during this time frame. FINAL NOTE: I'm sure we'll be returning soon to grab a beer and a bite to eat while we play trivia and watch baseball games this summer. P.S. Please keep in mind that servers are not servants. Also, not everything is their fault. I can promise you with complete confidence that Peggy did not use mayonnaise instead of Miracle Whip just to see the disappointed look on your face at table six. Or maybe she did. Who knows? Mistakes happen all the time. It cost $0 and zero effort to show kindness and gratitude to ...

Updated review (February 2020)-have only visited once since my last 2 star review and was a little happier with the service and food. This time I actually said I'd have to come more often because things are picking up here!

I ordered the new orange chicken bowl and hubby ordered the new Mac and cheese bowl. Both of us were happy with the food taste and quality. There was plenty, we both took home half of our bowls.

Service was great too. Ugh, I can't remember our servers name but she was attentive and got our refills quickly. She hooked us up with the Golden Apple program and their punch card program.

The manager also stopped at the table twice and we had a nice conversation with him.

Glad to see things seem to be better here because I want to try the other bowls!

Previous review (2 stars approximately early 2019)Came in at 4 in Mother's Day and we were sat right then, no waiting.

The reason for the lower stars was based on the service and a little on the quality/preparation of the food.

Shrimp wanton stir fry seemed watery. Maybe the sauce was too watery and that made the dish to wet.

The brisket quesadilla was good however. Mozzarella sticks were simply average.

It did seem to be good size portions but for the price it should be.

The service I was disappointed in because I ordered a drink (Bahama Mama) and once it came I saw the specials board and thought my drink qualified. I asked Leigha about it, she checked with the manager and told me it did qualify. I ordered another and when she brought it back she informed me it didn't qualify for the half price. 1) she should have known before I even ordered if I was ordering a special offer drink 2) it would have been nice for her to tell me the Bahama Mama with the lesser rum was the qualifying drink (I would have ordered that for the half price).

She didn't really check on us but a couple other people did, managers or what I'm not sure.

This has never really been a favorite place to eat and this just reinforced that notion.

Food was mediocre, service not that great and the atmosphere is simply a bar/restaurant, nothing special.

Prices are a bit high (for the quality of food), seating seems adequate and parking looked...

Although the food was amazing, the service wasn’t great, our server James was very hostile towards us, we even thought of asking for a different waiter but we felt very uncomfortable doing that. He was very rude and snarky talking to us, when I asked him how the strawberry lemonade was he responded in a very rude tone simply saying “it tastes like strawberry lemonade” and definitely rushed us as to when we ordered coming to the table every 2 minutes asking if we’ve decided and rolling his eyes when we asked for a little more time. then when my friend ordered and she got 2 sides with her meal she asked what the options were and he goes “just flip the menu over and look, it’s on the right hand side” and said it in a very annoyed tone. When he did bring out food out he kinda just pushed it in our face and then walked away. The Hostesses were very nice and got us straws when he forgot to bring them out. I still left a 20% tip for him because I know that’s how waiters/waitress make their money, and if it were not that way I wouldn’t have left any tip for him making myself and my friends very uncomfortable and feeling like we were in a hostile situation. my friends and i have all worked in a restaurant setting and have been servers, and we all agreed even when we had bad days we never were rude to customers, and even working in a pandemic when days are tough we would never make customers feel the same way he made us feel. I love Applebee’s and have never had a bad experience the many other times I’ve gone, but this trip definitely made me not want to go as often or if I do I definitely will make sure I don’t have him waiting on my table. Again, the food was amazing as usual, just somewhat shocking to have...