Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Ohio

Look, I'm hardly some dining diva but I had to say something. Me and my family love the menu at Applebee's and we make frequent stops there. Not even exaggerating here, we go at least once a week. I always get the Fiesta Lime Chicken, which is next level. As a Fiesta Lime Chicken addict, you see some fluctuating quality between locations. The Elida Rd location, which is closest to my home, is easily the shoddiest. I'd almost prefer the 45 minute drive to the Defiance location, where the staff cares a lot more.

For instance, we frequently get the spinach dip with chips, and after easily a hundred trips, we just a few weeks ago were told by our waitress that chips came with free refills. So instead of a half-finished dip with no chips, we actually polished it off. That waitress bothering to tell us that netted her a very decent tip. She was the exception to the standard at Elida Rd Applebees.

In fact, we're at a point where we're steadily leaving no tip without an ounce of guilt. Lindsey, today's waitress, put us directly on her "Pay-no-mind-list" and wouldn't even bring us refills. We've been served/ignored by her before, so I wonder if this service was "payback" for previous bad or non-existent tips. Our sauces for our various meals were also on paid no mind, and even after asking for them more than once, we only got them by bothering a waitress who wasn't even ours. Wish we could've left her a tip. Meals that come with garnish, such as the lime for my Fiesta LIME Chicken or the celery for our boneless wings were all absent. We're sitting there, parched, not getting drink refills because, I can only assume, that we aren't drinking alcohol, making us unworthy of attention. Even getting a to-go box was an extended drawn out event.

The foods been slipping as well, and we're finally over it. I can only assume they sensed our overwhelming disappointment, as our bill had ten dollars deducted from it, though any other time I've had that happen the server cared to tell me about it, letting me know that they were understanding of the problems. Apparently this deduction wasn't my business.

Finally, for some reason our server plopped every dish in front of me, forcing me to redistribute them to the person on the table to whom it belonged, in effect making me do her job, when saying "Who had the steak?" and putting it in front of them was somehow impossible to her.

The frustration of this location hit a fever pitch today, and we won't be returning. We were more than willing to put up with long waits, sticky tables, ear-splittingly obnoxious loud music, and incredibly cold indoors temperatures, but the service and food sucking...

The service was not very good. It took over 20 minutes for us to get our drink's, which was sad because we ordered three flavored iced teas and an ice water, nothing that should have caused that long of a wait for drinks. Then we placed our order, which was a huge mistake since somehow the manager supposedly deleted it out of the system. Which we were not told for about another 40 minutes, the only reason we got told that was because we asked where our appetizers were that we ordered. The waiter said well didn't you guys get them already, I could have sworn you guys did. I asked for a refill on my tea and he said I'll get that right away and then never saw him till the food came out and the food was not correct. When we said that the food was wrong he asked what was wrong about it, it looks like what you guys ordered. The main part was right like the steaks and chicken but the sides where not right what so ever. So of course he had to check his order ticket that he had to fill out twice since he lost the first one and our order was deleted out of the system. At this point he got the manager involved which was another mistake because she just looked at the table while we tried to explain what was going on and all she said was well he (meaning the waiter) is new and isn't very good. We told her we were told she was the one who lost our order because she was moving his tickets around and deleted ours. At this point they just wanted to blame each other for who's fault it was that it took one hour and fifteen minutes for us to get our food. Trying to get our waiter or someone else so we could talk to a different manager was damn near impossible since they all acted like they didn't see us at this point. When we finally did talk to a different manager and explained what had happened all night she was very friendly and apologized for the bad experience and paid for our meals. I just don't see why it took us talking to more then one manager to get our feelings expressed and for her to say more then well he is new. This is the first time there and more then likely will be for a long long time. Hopefully if you visit here you get a lot better experience, which I was told they usually do but just not...

I was really pleased with my visit to this Applebee's location. It was early in the day, near 11 AM when my friend from Michigan and I stopped by for an early lunch. The facilities were clean, the greeter was nice and our waitress was doubly kind and attentive.

I am currently eating a keto diet so naturally I was considering a high protein menu item. My first thought was steak, but quickly turned to their affordable, discount lunch menu and eyed their burgers. I decided to get a bunless burger and would ask to sub garlicky green beans (yum 😋) for fries.

When the waitress came we ordered. I asked for a bunless burger and had a brain flash to ask if they did lettuce wrapped burgers. She said they did. So, that was my order, complete with a diet coke. When the burger came I noticed that either the waitress had no idea what a lettuce wrap was or the cook didn't because the cheeseburger 🍔 came laying on a small piece of lettuce. I was temporarily disappointed...UNTIL! I pushed my discontent to the side whilst cutting through the steak burger AND O MY burger bliss! The flavor of the beef and American cheese was a little taste of heaven, let me tell ya! Then I sampled the garlicky green beans and the flavor punch they laid upon me old taste buds melted away any doubts I had about this meal and the perceived lack of lettuce I received or didn't.

As you can tell, I was thoroughly satisfied with this meal, our service and this location. A great experience!...