Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in New Ulm

My sister, Mother and Grandmother went to lunch here on a Saturday early afternoon around 1pm we were seated promptly and asked about our drinks . We tried a new “mocktail” , a “fruit smoothie” , a cocktail , and waters for the table. It took 10 minutes for us to receive our waters, another 5 minutes pass and we received the “mocktail “ not before the waitress asked us for an ID for the “MOCKtail” not for the actual cocktail. We then informed her that the drink ordered did not contain alcohol. It arrived it was disgusting and we ordered a soda. It was another 5 minutes before the fruit smoothie arrived . So we are almost half an hour in and we finally got all of our drinks, we had to go and get our own straws. Waitress was sweet but seemed to lack common service knowledge. It was NOT busy at all. There were only two other tables there with 2-3 people and they all already had their food. We then ordered with no more apparent problems. We waited another 25-30 minutes for our meals , not a problem even though it wasn’t busy we always expect a wait time of about that. The problem came when the food arrived, two out of the 4 plates had to be replaced as one burger was RAW and the other had a huge chunk taken out of the side as well as cheese on it which was requested to not be on it for an allergy reason. The waitress was an absolute doll and apologized and took them back the problem came when the “Manager” came over to address the “problem” she was extremely rude and condescending about how raw the burger was and “if she really even wanted that” that “they only do really pink or well done” she came off extremely rude and hostile. At no point were we asking for comps or refunds . All we wanted was our orders to be CORRECT . As that is what we were paying for . We were planning on coming here again next week with more family but after today we will be taking our business elsewhere from now on. Or at least until there is a revamp in costumer hospitality. We were extremely disappointed in the service provided at this establishment today which was really disappointing as we usually...

We were seated with menus and waited 15 minutes and nobody came to take food or drink order. Others seated after us were helped. After waiting 15 minutes, 1 in our party of 4 went up and asked an employee if we could place our order and explained we had been waiting a while. We waited almost 10 more minutes before our waitress came to take our order. It was not busy at this time. The waitress was just visiting with other coworkers. The couple that was with us got their drinks (which were made incorrectly) but I didn't get mine. Not having seen our waitress for a long time, we asked another waitress if she could track down my mixed drink. She was the one that brought my drink. A third lady brought our food which was delicious. While still eating, our original waitress comes and brings our checks without asking if we needed any refills on drinks or wanted to order more food. She only came back to take payment from us. The other waitress that got my drink kept checking in on us to see how we were doing even though it wasn't her table. She was super nice. We understand our waitress was relatively new, but we were unimpressed by her visiting with coworkers and not checking in on her customers. We had almost left before putting our order in due to having to wait so long with it not busy and just seeing our waitress just visiting. The other waitress that helped us (Lori) was absolutely excellent. We would absolutely go back in hopes to have her. She was working so hard to make sure all tables even ones not hers were taken care of....

New Ulm is not a big town and does offer options for a foodie destination but is not what the likes of living in the Bay Area California has to offer. With that said, my foodie sister who has visited New Ulm frequently insisted that we have a sitting at the Applebee's here. As this is a nationwide chain, it is a well known entity and I was curious to see what they had to offer which impressed my sister so much. This is my experience.

Service was outstanding. Our waitress was very genuinely friendly and responsive and was the highlight of the visit. The food was served quickly and presented beautifully. Everything was good but nothing was eye opening or notable. I don't say this in any negative way. My sister insists that the New Ulm offering is better than the Bay Area ones but not being a frequenter of the ones at home I had little to compare to. With that said, it was a classic American food adventure with no particular item being outstanding. In other words, I don't think you will be wowed or disappointed if you choose to stop in. Also consider too that this is based on the collection of plates we ordered which you can see in the photos. There may be something that is truly wowing and it may be worth the effort to find it by stopping in yourself. If you are already a regular patron to the franchise, I would think this would be a par (or maybe better if you are from the Bay Area) visit...