Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Muskegon

Applebee’s isn’t as good as it once was. Myself and one other person who was with me pulled up to their Muskegon location at approximately 6pm during the summer of 2023 on a weekday. They were completely closed due to lack of staff. I can understand being short staffed, but seeing as this was on a Friday, I found that to be unacceptable due to the fact that they have multiple managers who are supposed to step in when/if this type of situation occurs. Not to mention it’s the busiest day besides Saturday. Truly unacceptable. As far as the food, the quality of some of the more popular dishes has gone downhill and isn’t as good as it once was. The drinks are extremely weak, but if you sit at the bar and make it known that you don’t want your drinks full of mostly ice, most of the bartenders will accommodate you. On the positive side, if you’re a person who dabbles with w**d and it’s late, the food will taste really good as most food does when you’ve got the munchies plus you’ll get half off of the appetizers. It’s also a great place to dine in if you’re young and celebrating an evening out with friends as they’re not as strict as some of the other restaurants about being slightly loud (especially when there’s a good game on) with laughter, etc. as long as it’s kept to a minimum. The servers are pretty friendly and work hard for their tips, so if you ever have to send your food back and the manager comps your bill, you should still tip the servers 20% based on the original amount and not the comp’d price. That’s the only way they make money because they only make $2.85/hr. Overall, if I’m out with a group of friends, I’d return there and just order something that’s extremely hard to mess up like their Quesadilla burger (which is very good) or the...

If I could give zero stars, I would. We came in for a birthday dinner with a party of 17, and the service was absolutely terrible from start to finish.

Arrival: I got there around 6:40PM, but the birthday girl had already been waiting. She let them know it was a large group, but they didn’t start seating us until about 6:40–6:50 PM. And even then, they tried to cram us into a tiny booth setup. Like—how do you expect 17 people to sit in some tight little booth space? We had to ask them to put tables together ourselves.

Service: By the time 7:20 PM hit, we still hadn’t been greeted properly or even had our drinks taken. It wasn’t even busy in the restaurant, so I don’t know what the excuse was. Drinks didn’t start showing up until 7:30–7:40, which is insane.

Then the FOOD didn’t come out until 8:30 PM—two full hours after the birthday girl had arrived. That is completely unacceptable, especially for a restaurant that wasn’t slammed. We were starving, frustrated, and completely ignored most of the night.

Checkout: By the time I was ready to leave around 9:29 PM, the server still took forever just to bring me my dollar and some change back. Like how does it take that long to give me my own money back?

The only good thing? My boneless wings were fire and the meal only cost me $18. But great food can’t cover up horrible service.

Bottom Line:

Don’t come here with a large group. Don’t come here expecting fast service. Honestly, don’t come here at all unless you’re okay waiting hours just to be acknowledged. The lack of care and professionalism ruined what was supposed to be a fun...

On November 10th I spoke with Amanda, who said she was the manager in charge at this Muskegon location. I wanted to make reservations for 12 for Saturday, November 25th at 3:00PM, as several family members were gathering for our family Thanksgiving get-together. She responded that Applebees do not take reservations; however, she would be working that day and usually they wouldn’t normally be busy at that time of day and told me to contact her at 10:00AM on November 25th and she would let the hostess know our family plans and also that she would be working that day behind the bar but would still be able to accommodate us and would actually serve us. Amanda was very friendly and accommodating!! When I called today (11/25/2023 @ 10:00AM) I asked to speak to Amanda, the manager in charge. Ruth, who answered the phone, said there was no Amanda. She rudely said that accommodating a party of 12 would have to be split up, there was no way they could put us together, if they were even able to get us in at 3:00PM. She very bluntly stated they had gotten SLAMMED the prior day with parties of 8 and then 7 and weren’t able to serve them. After I had explained what I was previously told by Amanda, Ruth was short with me and very blunt!! I was told to call back at 2:00PM. My resolution was: I contacted another local restaurant who was more than welcoming a party of 12 for our family Thanksgiving gathering!! My large extended family will definitely in the future be spending our time and money at other local establishments. Your management at Applebees in Muskegon, seriously needs...