Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Ocala

I'm really disappointed in my experience at this location. My husband took my daughter and I here for my birthday. When we went in, a host/hostess was no where to be found, and it was not busy at all. We finally noticed the bartender gesturing to us that it would be a minute. When a hostess finally appeared, she mumbled "three?" and tossed us into a booth. Her hair was an absolute mess. It was very stuffy and warm which is not fun when you're already dealing with Florida heat. Then, it took a good 6-7 minutes for our waitress, Julie, to come. She was sporting some hickeys which to me, is in poor taste to be showing. Again, it wasn't busy and she was less than friendly. She took our drink orders - didn't bother asking if we wanted to start with an appetizer or anything. When she brought our drinks 5 minutes later, she asked if we were ready, which we were. When she got to me I asked if we could order mozzarella sticks and she asked if I wanted that as my meal. Good gracious. I said no, an appetizer and then gave her my order. I was very clear about how I wanted my burger done, I like it well, with no pink. My daughter through the Diet Pepsi tasted off so she wanted to order another beverage. Our waitress was talking with another set of customers across from us and my husband had to get her attention to ask for another drink for me (my glass was empty) and my daughter wanted a different drink. She didn't offer to take the old cups away so they were just lingering on the table.

We sat waiting, and waiting for our appetizer. Suddenly, someone brought our dinners out. No appetizer. I explained that we ordered some mozzarella sticks and she said she'd check. About 30 seconds later she appeared with them and stated they had JUST come out of the fryer. You'd expect them to be hot, right? Yeah, no. Cool. The cheese wasn't melt or anything and they tasted a bit like old oil. Julie briefly stopped to apologize about the sticks being late, but her tone was so dismissive. My daughter was getting so angry at this woman's poor attitude.

My daughter got the bacon cheeseburger and my husband got the chicken and sausage pasta, while I got a burger as well. My fries were almost cold feeling and the seasoning was horrible. The lettuce on my burger was wilted and soggy which is disgusting. My husband said the pasta was good. As I was eating my burger I noticed there was a lot of pink in it, but my daughter's was well done. I barely ate half of it. As I said earlier, it was my birthday and I didn't even want my free dessert after my experience with the waitress and the food.

I've always loved Applebee's and unfortunately, this experience has cemented the fact that I will never return to this location again, nor will I ever suggest...

I have ordered take out from this place it multiple times. And I don't know why I continue to try. Every single time something is messed up. Every single time they forget something. The consistency of how the food is cooked is not consistent at all. One night it'll be okay the next night it's absolute trash. The last five times in a row something has been forgotten in my order. The first time in this recent string of orders was actually on my birthday. They forgot half of my order. And because I got it delivered didn't know till I had it dropped off. I go to pick up my food tonight after ordering it online through their website and see that yet again something is missing. So I talked to a manager this time. And I'm told that I didn't order that. When indeed I did. So theres also is an issue with their online ordering. What you're selecting online is not coming out on their tickets properly. So when I selected my two sides and decided to upgrade one of them to a salad it told the restaurant I only wanted a salad. So I paid extra for a salad but then got jipped the other side. And then get talk to by the manager like I'm an idiot. No, your website's not working properly. On top of this their online ordering and their phone line are completely unreliable. There are many nights where I've tried to order and it tells me the restaurant is closed. And when I call you can't even hear anybody on the phone due to how distorted it sounds. It just goes to show that there is no care put into this place at all. Nobody gives a damn. When you go to pick up your order everybody just walks by you like you don't exist. You stand there staring at your order that's sitting on the counter in the kitchen as it gets cold because nobody wants to go and grab it for you. The most I can say is to maybe try eating in at the restaurant to avoid all of this happening. But I've tried that as well. And the food that I received when I tried that was extremely overcooked or extremely undercooked. There is no middle ground. Everything was sub par. Tonight marks the absolute last time I will try this place, I'm done giving them chances and hoping that maybe I get better this time. The time that I'm hoping for just doesn't seem to come. There are better places in town that you can order from, unfortunately this is just one of the places that stays open the later hours so a lot of people end up at this restaurant. Even though the service and the food are not that great. Maybe if you're drunk it's okay because you really don't care I think honestly that's all this place really is. To go to after you've...

Everything that could go wrong did starting with the drink I ordered iced tea. I was brought a Pepsi. We ordered chicken fingers, requested blue cheese and got some spicy hot which we thought was barbecue sauce which it was not and some ranch. So we reordered for blue cheese took forever to get it. Then we asked some questions about the menu. Couldn't answer the basic questions we asked about happy hour and what was included again. Had to go ask someone and return with the answer. Then we ordered french onion soup as an appetizer which also came with the meal not prior to the meal. My friend then ordered shrimp and requested tartar sauce, not cocktail sauce. Of course we got the cocktail sauce and no tartar. My friend wanted to order a scotch on the rocks. Sorry to inform you of the full service bar has no Scott at all but offered whiskey not at all the same. I asked the host if this person was new. Should I give them a little leniency? Nope. She'd been there a little while so I decided to have a one-on-one conversation with the actual waitress and let her know I was not going to ask for management. I was not going to complain. I was already kind of disappointed by the menu changes over the years and I was already disappointed by the lack of cleanliness and the type of people working was not at all becoming or attractive more like Street people and just according to that protocol rather than a place of business. However, I let the little gal know that I was not angry. I was only trying to be constructive criticism so that she would know what to do, not to lose her job or for other people to complain and get her in trouble. She understood I believe and I tipped her $20 not because of the service but because I had already chastise ridiculed and demeaned everything she did from the time we sat down as I explained it. She asked if she could do anything to change it or make it better. I replied with my response as a previous business owner and restaurant owner how I would have trained her and that she needed to read her menu every night for 3 weeks that she needed to pay attention to each individual and write it down as they speak. Repeat the orders back so that you're able to know that you have it accurate. Overall I'm just saying it was okay but it's certainly not someplace. I want to visit on a regular basis. The food quality has declined over the years and became very basic and the cost for three...