Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Salem

Friends and I decided to go out for dinner, but it was the night of the infamous 4" snowfall of February. It was Friday, February 7th at 7:30 and all of Lancaster drive looked like a ghost town, occasional cars floating by in the deep snow, trying not to slide into each other. We were thankful to find Applebee's one of the few restaurants open that night--everyone else sent their employees home and closed their restaurants. We got inside and it was less than half full, very laid back traffic speed. Obviously the staff wasn't overwhelmed and there weren't a lot of customers.

A nice young lady quickly seated us and offered to bring a drink. We ordered coffee and a glass of water. The coffee arrived but the water took several requests. And about that coffee--whew! It smelled like bad breath or dirty socks. In this day and age where everything you serve makes an impression, it was surprising to have a hospital style coffee served in an eatery.

We ordered the Chicken Portabello and the Rib Eye steak. The waitress offered onions and mushrooms in such a way that I assumed they came with the steak. Wrong! I found out that they charge an additional $1.75 per onions and per mushrooms.

The Chicken Portabello wasn't bad, it claimed to be on the Weight Watcher's list, but it had deep fried potatoes in it! We know that you don't serve deep fried potatoes with a low carb chicken dinner. They should have served a wild rice mix or pilaf. The entire meal was very under seasoned.

As for my steak, well, it arrived shortly and I was disappointed. The steak was cut unevenly, and, although there were grill marks on the steak, the steak itself was both overcooked and underccooked. How it was overcooked: The cook used a gril that was too cool. It was hot enough to make grill marks on the meat, but not hot enough to sear the outside of the steak. It was then left on too long so that it was done medium instead of medium rare. And it also was very under seasoned. So the steak I was served was a gray color with black grill marks on it served medium well.

When I sent the steak back the manager came to ask if I wanted to order anything else I told him I would finish the Chicken Portabella. I was disappointed, because in most quality restaraunts, the manager will say, "well, hey guys, I'm sorry about the bad food. How about we buy you dessert on the house? Or your coffee?" Well, this manager sat looking into space, I think it's Applebee's policy to make lots of apologies but basically do nothing to remedy the situation. I felt that the whole experience cheapened my experience of Applebees. I eat in many fine places and this one is no longer on my list of stops.

Applebees, you need to do better quality control on your cooks, and the way your managers handle customers. I could have been really disgruntled and raised a fuss. But I left quietly. This whole experience makes Applebees look like a cheap chain where the bottom line is the most important goal of...

UPDATE I recently walked in to this Applebee's at about 10 minutes until midnight with hopes of placing a carry-out order. I wasn't entirely sure when they were closing because I know I've been there past midnight before, so I just walked up to the bar. Upon arriving at the counter, I was greeted with obvious attitude and a "you have something to go?". I was a little bit stunned to not hear something more along the lines of, "hey how you doing?". I let that one roll off my shoulder because I figured maybe she was just having a rough night. I proceeded to ask, "is that okay? How long do I have until you close?". To which she responded, "oh we're closed now.". I looked at the clock on my phone to see that it was 11:49pm. I asked again just to confirm, "really? You're closed right now? I'm sorry, I didn't know you guys were only open till 11..". I didn't get a response that time, so I went to the bathroom real quick to wash my hands, then I came back out and grabbed a menu to indicate that I wanted to order. I set the menu down on the counter about 10 seconds later because I already knew what I wanted, and I just looked right at the bartender. It took about two or three minutes of being completely ignored before I just gave up and walked out, because at that point it was obvious she didn't want to take my order and I wasn't about to have my food arrive with a vindictive surprise ingredient.

Terrible experience. Although I realize that it's a bit uncouth to place an order so close to the end of the day, I do also work in a service industry so I'm well aware that every customer experience matters equally. Additionally, I wasn't aware until later that it was so close to closing time as I had mistakenly thought that they were open until 1. Regardless, there's a right way and a wrong way to handle interactions with customers, and this interaction definitely falls under the latter. I may or may not give this location another shot. Not sure at this point.

Previous review: It's not a bad joint to grab a late bite and/or drink. I will say that the late night half-priced appetizers are pretty bomb. My favorite item is the double crispy wings. Decent happy hour drink selection too. No real complaints, just takes a few minutes to be...

After seeing the new chicken sandwiches now being offered at Applebee’s, I was really wanting to try the sweet chili chicken sandwich with coleslaw on it. It looked amazing. Now in my head, I knew it wouldn’t look like that in person, but I had hoped. I personally think restaurants should get in trouble for false advertising. But I will spare you that soapbox. The actual sandwich doesn’t look anything like the online menu pictured it (pictures featured down below). But with that said, the sandwich was actually still really tasty. Now, I imagine if it was completely covered in sauce, as it was pictured on the menu, it would’ve been incredible. I would suggest ordering a side of the sauce. I switched out the fries for their garlic mashed potatoes, which are my favorite. I love that Applebee’s allows customers to sub out their fries with lots of free options like mashed potatoes, baked potato, broccoli, coleslaw, and garlic green beans. The chicken sandwich with garlic mashed potatoes was a great deal at $14.

My son had the kid’s cheeseburger and fries. He said the burger wasn’t that great. I did not try it, so I can’t say. Maybe he just wanted my hubby’s apps instead. He does that! 🤷🏻‍♀️ But I do know their regular burgers are really good. A kid’s cheeseburger, fries, and a drink cost around $7. Pretty good deal.

My hubby had the Classic Combo appetizer which has mozzarella sticks, boneless wings, chicken quesadilla, and spinach artichoke dip with chips. It was really good as always. It cost around $17 and well worth it.

From past experiences here…I highly recommend their wings (both boneless and bone-in). They are really good. Their burgers, chicken strips, double crunch shrimp, and riblets are also good. They have really good sides too. The only thing I don’t really recommend there is their steak. The top sirloin tends to be dry and chewy with tiny portions.

They have really good cocktails and a perfect Long Island Iced Tea.

The Carside-to-go service was excellent. She was...