Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Pueblo

My spouse took me to a birthday lunch. Applebee's is one of the very few places in Pueblo, that serve steak for lunch, and a steak was what I wanted. It was cooked to perfection, just the way I wanted. And I was accommodated on my choice of a side dish, when I asked for the red bell pepper to be removed. Service was quick, polite, and professional. Nice way to spend an hour.

That was then.

An update: 2022 09 23. My husband's birthday. Hoping for a good meal in a pleasant atmosphere, we decided to revisit Applebee's. My spouse, myself, and our daughter. When we walked in, the restaurant was about 10% occupied.

We waited few minutes by the door before getting noticed. We were seated in a clean booth. The waitress taking our order seemed to be particularly concerned about my food allergies. We ended up ordering: a Bourbon Street steak, medium rare, with loaded mashed potatoes for my spouse; a Prime Rib Dippers with fries for my daughter; and an ordinary regular classic burger with fries for myself. The waitress, keeping my allergies in mind, informed me that I may not want the lettuce on my burger, because they keep the tomatoes on top of lettuce, and the tomato juice gets all over it. I was grateful to her for pointing this out, because tomatoes are what I am deathly allergic to. So, I ordered a classic burger with just pickles on it.

It took a very long time for our food to be delivered to the table. Folks who arrived AFTER we placed our order were served first.

With the food came a shocking surprise. My husband's steak was SALTY, and I'm not saying it lightly. It was borderline edible for the reason of the quantity of salt used in the dish. And it was well overdone, and tougher than a shoe sole. The mashed potatoes were way below Pueblo average as well. My daughter's Dippers were greasy mess, also with way too much salt. Both her and my fries were incredibly dry, as if they were sitting somewhere under a heat lamp for HOURS on end. Fries were also very salty. And my classic burger was delivered with a slice of American cheese instead of pickle. I was hoping for a good, juicy burger. The waitress, when taking order, asked me how I wanted it done. I wanted my patty with a little pink in the middle. What was brought to me was over-salted, extremely well done blob of ground beef on a very greasy bun. Dry, and flavorless, just salty.

My daughter had iced tea, and my husband had root beer. Neither of them got their glasses refilled. I ordered coffee, and I was the only one who got a second cup, brought by another waitress - probably by miracle.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this complaint, the restaurant was nearly empty. I would be more understanding of all the errors if every table were occupied, and if there were a 30 minutes long line of customers at the door. Obviously the staff is either unable to fill the orders with accuracy, or they just don't care.

Since it was I who suggested Applebee's, I feel incredibly guilty because nobody really enjoyed their meal.

And the price for the dubious pleasure? $74 with change. It will be a while before we will give Applebee's another chance. If ever. To some places returning is not worth it. And horrible food topped off with poor service are not worth...

Applebee's is never a good experience for me mostly for personal reasons however this time was even more so. My son won a free kids meal from applebees so we went for him. The fist one we went to on Elizabeth was crouded and my wife asked me to find out how long the wait was we went in and there was no one in the front just a mass of people meanwhile my wife is waiting in the doorway for me to check on the wait after what seemed like forever i walked thur the stor looking for some to ask about the wait and frustrated decided to leave. After that i get back to my wife and tell her no one is there to greet anyone and to go she wants to still go so we look up one on the other side of town we get there and it was much more organized we are seated in a reasonable time and the server comes to take our order from jump my wife makes a spectacle of the fact that I am "picky" because I am on a whole foods plant based diet. Something I hate to have a fuss made over from that point on I felt weather it was or not that I was somhow being treated differently the server Aaron L table 62 seemed to really care and do his best with the situation however I ordered the south west chicken salad no cheese chicked or any animal products with lemon olive oil vinaigrette instead for the dressing and Guac chips and salsa. The food later all come out but not mine he informs me the salad was made wrong and he had them remaking it. No problem I say wishing my child had never gotten the award at this point so when it does come out it has sour cream I pick it off give it to my wife and start to mix the dressing in also at this point there are no chips and guac and salsa. The salad is bigger than I thought though so I blow it off and mix it all up and start to eat. My wife asks about the chips and salsa I ordered I tell her it is fine however when the server come back she tells him and he apologizes later comeing back with chips and Queso and salsa. At this point I feel like I am in anger management with jack Nicholson. I finish and pay and we leave. All I can say is Applebees the bext time I am forced to go to one of your stores please develop a whole foods plant based vegan options menu that your staff is trained an knowledge about. That would bring me back and be better for everyone. Thank you for letting me vent and to the server who I know tried and probably caught it from both side I am sorry I had to eat out and could just cook at home. At least my Son had a good time thank...

I believe that they have a new cooking staff and that they should retrain them. I really don't like to leave bad reviews but three strikes and you're done. The last three times we have gone to the Southside Applebee's have been a disaster as far as the food is concerned. The staff on the other hand is top notch, you really couldn't ask for better service and I really feel awful for them because they were not the ones that were involved in cooking our food and were very embarrassed that the food was awful. This was our last try going to this Applebee's. The drinks were wrong after being sent back twice, the kids ordered their normal half strawberry lemonade half sprite drinks, the first time they got lemonade and sprite, they asked about the strawberry and then were brought back strawberry lemonade so we just ordered a sprite no big deal. Then came the food, we had ordered two steaks medium, a cheese burger no pink (well done)sauce on the side, and a sandwich. We received two very rare steaks a half raw hamburger with sauce on it, and a perfect sandwich. (We were NOT the only ones to send back undercooked food, there were three other tables around us that also sent back their food as well) Sent back the very rare meals and hamburger covered in sauce and no cheese then the manager brought back the order, the cheeseburger with the sauce on the side still pink, one steak was a little better and the other was still very rare and now cold. The Rare cold steak sent back again and finally came back warm at least. In the end we just shared the perfect sandwich and fries. The manager removed the steak and we paid but left the rest of the food there and ended up eating at home. We have just decided not to eat there again which is sad because we really like Applebee's. I hope everyone else will get better food...