Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Palmdale

I wanna tell you the situation with this Applebee's. It's open late and I really appreciate that when I'm working I have come here and spent well over $1000 in the last few months. I love the people! On my birthday they did something special for me and I tipped them as much as I could. Some of their cooks are may not the greatest, some of the results vary a lot from day-to-day. There's very nice people who work there who have made me feel so very welcome.

The problem is the manager who has given me such grief with payment multiple times in the past. If there's one single thing as an entity Applebee's needs to fix it's their payment nonsense, their usage of whatever they use for payment has caused multiple problems. I've come with groups telling them about the best of the food of Applebee's and they really enjoyed it but they have stopped coming 100% because Applebee's is absolutely terrible at having groups pay...like something from 50 years ago technologically. It's absolutely terrible. At least 20 people I've tried to tell the positives of Applebee's to and because of the pay experience they are never coming back to Applebee's, large LGBTQ groups and that's on the system Applebee uses for payment.

Last night I had a great experience until the end of the night. My server was so great. I had everything I wanted. I had a great appetizer. I had an exhausting 12 hour plus day in the heat and I was having a great time. I use the very common, widely advertised Upside app for cashback that I have used dozens of times at this exact location without a problem and the manager said oh it doesn't work. So I'm out twice my bill. I went to their website for pick up and in less than two minutes not only was the gift card totally recognized but it was already applied to the checkout as an experiment.

So was the manager lying to me? I can't say for certain, but I'm not happy. All I know is, unfortunately, I think this location is going on my blacklist. I have a few of those from the Taco Bell on 47th Street East in Palmdale that served me pink chicken to others treating me like garbage on Christmas Day and unfortunately I think the ownership of this location did it for me. I am very upset with the way I was treated. I understand it was late and a system may not have been working for them in that place at that time but you're my host and you make it work because it's not about that one visit with a customer. It's about your reputation with them. It's about creating an experience that they come back a dozen more times in the future. You work it out for that customer that one time and you have a customer for long-term, but you mess up when it counts and that future is gone. I'm sorry Applebee's Palmdale but I have no intention of coming back with the way I was treated. Which sucks because the people who work there who are not in leadership positions are busting their butts. I was going to give a big tip to my server because it was a great evening but the manager messed that over. I may be back there one more time to close out my card and make sure the workers I care about and who care about me get my appreciation they deserve but then I'm not coming back to this location unless something changes, I am deeply...

It is unfortunate that our family experienced the worst service at our neighborhood Applebees in Palmdale Ca. Our server Katerin P took 20 minutes to come to our table after being seated. Instead of greeting us with a warm introduction, she annoyingly came to ask if we were ready to order without asking us if we wanted beverages. She didn’t introduce her self nor took interest in any of our needs. We placed our dinner order which was Two, 2 for $25 meals, a side of fries for a CHILD and three Alcholic beverages. needless to say she NOT once came to check to see if our food was okay or even see if we got what we ordered, the runner brought the food (we never received the fries until later when we waived down another server and he then waived her down) we got tired of waiting for our alcoholic beverages so we kindly told her we didn’t want them anymore. At this point our appetizers and entrees were out & finished. (Still waiting on the child fries at this point). She then walked straight to the bar to get the strawberry Margarita that was sitting in the bar brought it back to our table and sat it on the table without saying a word, we looked at each other puzzled & advised her didn’t want the alcoholic beverages anymore AGAIN since we were already finished eating our appetizers and Entres. her exact condescending words were ‘Oh You don’t want it anymore!? okay fine, no problem’ and snatched the drink back, it was absolutely baffling. After this occurred we asked her for the check. It was then when I decided it was time to make mangement aware of situation. Once i explained to manager what occurred she said ‘oh okay i’m sorry i’m going to go ahead and comp your drinks’… my words to her were, i wouldn’t except anything less We never got the drinks and in addition when we did receive one of them she Sntached the drink away. To recap this is what happened Server Katerin P took 20 minutes to come to our table after being seated Never introduced her self nor asked about us the consumer, Katerin P did not ask for drinks went straight to ‘you ready to order’? condescending behavior rushed us to leave non apologetic manager made it seem she was doing me a favor by compting beverages we never received over all bad experience, cold food & poor service wouldn’t frequent...

I really enjoyed going to this Applebee's lately with the specials and offers they have right now through I believe the end of February. After that, I may not return because of a variety of concerns. I've been going here weekly since the beginning of 2024 and I have had some very nice servers. Unfortunately Friday apparently was not the good day to go Because I was treated atrociously. I don't usually give a care about most things that are complained about when it comes to restaurants. The people who work there are poorly paid and pushed really hard so I try to be as sympathetic as possible. But I always feel like after a drink or two you're basically neglected and pretty much all of these spots because you're not giving them any more money after that.

I ordered the free refill blue Mountain Dew drink and I tried it for a little bit but I just couldn't tolerate it. It tasted nasty and I wanted to change it to a root beer instead. When the bill comes they charged me for that change even though every time I've been to this restaurant before they've done that as a courtesy and not mentioned it would've been a charge at all. Now suddenly the manager wants to gaslight customers into believing it has always been their policy to charge for a drink change. Excuse me, I've been here every week, I know what's up so don't you dare try to tell me anything different. It may be your policy, but your employees are better than that. I was really cheesed and it made me sour after the whole meal. I will not make Applebee's, especially the way this Applebee's is run by management, a regular location that I visit.

Soda literally cost you pennies. At four dollars which you exorbitantly charge I would've had to drunk a swimming pool of soda for it to cost you. For shame. Fortunately, I just treated the extra amount I paid out as a tip to the server for what they were able to do within the confines of management. Don't lie to your customers though and say that something has always been policy when it's clearly not that rigid line you claim it to be....