Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Orlando

If you’re going to Applebees, make sure you do not go to this location!

Yesterday evening my boyfriend and I visited this Applebees, and I cannot begin to explain the concerns we had throughout the night. This is not the first time we have been here, but this experience has really shown us how downhill this location has gone and honestly steered me away overall.

We had been seated in a section with one other large table, but the restaurant was almost empty otherwise considering it was a Friday night. We had waited 15-20 minutes before drink orders were taken, waited 25-30 minutes to place an order for appetizers, and then I had to wait around 40 minutes for my drink (a milkshake) which had issues ( I received a kids milkshake but was charged for an adult size, and the milkshake had literally been watered down - not in a melted way). My boyfriend only had to wait 25 minutes for his drink, the Breaking Rock Rita (or something like that). When his drink arrived, it was green - this drink is supposed to be blue for context. Words cannot explain how horrible this drink was, I would rather have drank gasoline mixed with bleach and urine.

Finally around 45 minutes after being seated, our food arrived, but we couldn’t eat. The silverware we were given still had literal chunks of food on them. Then we wait another 10 minutes to flag down our waitress and receive new ones.

The food itself gave us food poisoning, we both got the 4-cheese Mac and cheese with chicken tenders, which we always get, and have never gotten sick before.

The only occupied table near to us had received messed up drinks (Salt on a rim instead of sugar was the main issue). We heard the hostess/ manager notify our server, and her response was “I know, I don’t care enough to deal with it”. She then proceeded to gaslight the table into thinking it was sugar, saying that maybe it was the lime or other ingredients that they didn’t like.

Our server also us that if we come back on a day where she’s not dealing with difficult customers that she would be much better. I’m sorry… what? I work in customer service as well, and I understand that things get tough sometimes, but we were one of 3 tables she had in that 1-2 hour window. I do not care how bad of a day I am having at work, I do not shout across the restaurant about how I don’t care about anything and am just going home.

This was honestly one of our top 3 worst restaurant experiences ever. If you’re going to Applebees, make sure you do not go to...

Our experience was not good. The server, though very sweet, was very inexperienced and provided information that was ultimately incorrect. We ordered the 2/$25 chicken finger meals which included salads for $2 more (each) apparently. The menu also stated that for $2 more (again, apparently each) we could upgrade to a platter from the basket and get additional sides. Our server wasn't really sure weather the $2 additional would be $2 or $4 on the 2/$25 deal. I think Applebee's needs to spell that out better on the menu and train their servers better. Regardless, we paid the surcharge and were also charged and additional $3.99 each ($7.98 total) for the onion rings we thought we upgraded to. The salads were beautiful but they didn't have French, Thousand Island or Russian dressing for my salad, so my salad went uneaten. My friend ordered the Caesar salad but couldn't get Caesar dressing. Just some kind of Creamy Italian dressing he wasn't crazy about. So the salads were a bust. The Chicken Fingers and fries were just OK. My friend needed to use the restroom before going to the airport and I warned him that the condition of the restroom was not good. He really needed to go so he had to clean the bathroom stall before using it. So all in all not a great experience overall. I left a review on Applebee's website and received a email from the area manager asking me to contact him. I replied to the email with my phone number and told him to call me anytime. I never received a response. Applebees offers a $10 off coupon ($10 off on your next $40 purchase) and I figured at least I'd get back some of the money we were overcharged, but I didn't get that either and I wasn't surprised. Seemed par for the course. Final thought: Though our server was inexperienced and clearly undertrained, she was very sweet and kind and we feel she'd make an excellent employee and would represent the company well if...

Staff had locked the front doors even though the restaurant didn't close until 7:00 -we arrived at 4:00 and there were many confused and upset patrons standing outside trying to open the doors. Once we got in the staff did not fix the door problem - they let the door slam and lock in front of a family's face trying to get in. Finally a customer came and opened the door and another patron proped it open so the other family would not be locked out. We asked when they closed and were told again 7:00. We spoke to the host and told him we would just place a to go order if they were wanting to close earlier. We were told to go to the bar and place the order. The female bartender did not acknowledges did not speak to us would not even look at us but she was able to carry on conversations with what I assumed were for regular clients to other families also walked up to the bar to place to go orders and they were treated in the same way finally we decided to get a booth since people that were sitting in booth we're being waited on . I am so glad we did that because our waiter Eric immediately greeted us was very pleasant use nice language polite took our order. I ask him just to bring it into go boxes that we were trying to get out of there as fast as we could so they could get out as fast as they could . Customers were also becoming agitated with the other waitstaff who were rude. They would not speak with the customers and if they did they used harsh tones. They were totally unpleasant people who were making a really unpleasant experience. Again Eric was the only person on staff who handled himself like a professional human being. Thank you Eric for your valiant effort but we will NEVER eat at...