Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Ohio

A little preface here as I want to establish something. I used to work in the service industry so I tend to have more leniency than the average customer when it comes to complications and so forth. Unfortunately, I have no leniency for outright rudeness and that’s what my family experienced upon walking in yesterday. My family decided to go out to dinner yesterday as my brother just got back from a long deployment and we hadn’t seen him in over 6 years. Granted, I felt guilty walking in as a 6 top, but we intentionally went before the dinner rush time to avoid that overwhelming pressure that can ensue when busy and a larger party walks in. Upon walking in, there were two young women standing at the host stand, the smaller of the two gave my family a dirty look and loudly expressed “I don’t even want to deal with these customers right now.”. Off putting, unwelcoming, uncalled for. She then grabbed the menus, half heartedly put them on the table and rushed off. The other woman at the stand, tried to apologize for her behavior. You have no need to apologize, you are not responsible for another’s actions. Our waitress that did approach us was friendly, courteous, and efficient. Unfortunately for my brother and I, who were the two to hear what the hostess said, felt uncomfortable and agitated by the hostility we were greeted with. I don’t expect fine dining service or food from Applebee’s, but I do expect some aspect of civility upon walking into any business. I’m grateful that the rest of my family didn’t have to experience the tension that had formed due to this as I still wanted them to enjoy the evening and be excited over my brother returning home for the brief weekend he had with us. To the host at this Applebee’s, I may not live in the area but my parents do, and I’m disgusted that they have to experience such hostility just for simply wanting to have a meal. To the server, thank you for your grace and professionalism. I hope others can look to you as an example. The only saving grace for this review not being 1 star, is due to the server we had and the food...

I'm a single mom, so when I say we rarely go to sit down restaurants, I absolutely mean it. My oldest daughter suggested Applebee's. I said sure! We love their food and prices. Well, tonight, it took our server 10 minutes to greet us, after we were sat. Keep in mind, there were MAYBE only 6 other tables that had people sitting at them. She was a very awkward server. Her name was Aqaz Jeah. She never introduced herself. I had to look at the receipt. She took our drink order and we said we'd like to order our food, as well. After we did tell her our drinks, she started walking away. I said we're ready to order. She's like, oh ya! I had told her I wanted a breaded chicken sandwich. She came back 10 MINS LATER to ask me if I wanted grilled. I told her I wanted breaded. So my youngest pointed out that they haven't even started our food. Our food took 30 minutes to come out to us. And not one of our meals was delivered by our server. My kids' food was done perfectly. They both loved their meals. I loved my meal, too, but it was too crispy and hurt my teeth biting into it. She took forever, again, to bring us our check. Overall, we were in there for about an hour or more. Very unacceptable!! If we had a different server, I'd highly recommend this place, but she basically ruined our night out, that we rarely get.

P S I'm not a Karen. I do leave awesome reviews when we've had great...

We stood at the front while 3 servers and a MANAGER walked by us without acknowledging us... No "someone will be right with you" NOTHING!! Then someone finally acknowledged us. We had our apps and everything before I had to ASK another server for my toddler's drink. Then we got our meals (two full rack of rib dinners, and soup, salad and boneless wings which all came at the same time) before my toddler's meal, which was only mac n cheese with grilled chicken and a side of mashed potatoes. About 8 minutes after our meal was delivered I saw our server to ask about my son's meal. She came back within 5 minutes with his mashed potatoes and said they were waiting on his grilled chicken, which made me think she forgot to put his food in since two racks of ribs came out 10 minutes prior, and sure couldn't Admit to it. As a server of 12 years, customers appreciate honestly more then a cover up and as a server I usually tip over 30%, she got right above 10% and ONLY...I REPEAT ONLY out of respect bc I know servers only make $4/hr. And as a small business owner in the area I was completely disappointed at the managers blatent disregard for us. Overall bad experience. I only gave it a VERY GENEROUS two stars bc the food wasn't completely horrible. I hope the higher manager sees this and they retrain on customer service. Probably won't return...