Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in San Bernardino

So many misses, it's hard to keep count. I love eating local. Small restaurants where people showcase their passion or culture through cooking is the kind of place I love to eat at. I have made it a habit to stay away from chain restaurants for years now due to poor quality and typically bad service. Recently, in an effort to not come off pretentious, I figured it was time to give these places another try. I recently tried Chili's for the first time in years and it seriously blew me away. The service was above and beyond and the food was actually fresh and good quality. I decided to keep revisiting some of these chain establishments and give them another try. With Chili's really taking me by surprise, I figured it's time to give Applebee's another go. We went for dinner with the family and we're sat quickly and once we had ordered almost everyone's drinks our waitress remembered it's happy hour. So we revisited everything and placed our orders again. We also ordered a couple of the half priced appetizers as well. The first food and drinks came out about 5 minutes later and immediately you could tell that the quality of Applebee's food has seemed to remain exactly as I remembered it. The wings were actually the highlight and we're fresh and tasty. The Spinach dip tasted flat and heavy on the stomach. I ordered the classic chicken and broccoli fettuccine with a side of soup and my wife ordered a steak and shrimp meal. Her steak was ultra chewy and way over salted and the shrimp had a strange rubbery taste and feel. She didn't finish any of it. My fettuccine was visibly old with the noodles looking hard from excessive air time and the chicken looked very dry. I mixed everything back up to rehydrate and gave it a go. The broccoli was undercooked and hard as a rock and the Alfredo sauce was described as having a paste-like flavor. I feel like the portions were lunch portions as well. Maybe I'm misremembering, but the portions were small from what I'm used to seeing at other places. Our waitress was nice, but service wasn't great. She forgot it was happy hour, wasn't sure of what I could or couldn't order on happy hour and had to keep going to "ask" someone. Then she came to our table to ask if we wanted desert as we were finishing our appetizers. I've worked in retail my whole life and I'll never treat a service employee badly because I've been on the other end enough times, but this service was pretty bad. We sat with a pile of appetizer plates and empty beer glasses on our table until our entrees came and they had to take our plates in order to make room even though we had multiple employees visit our table and walk away without taking them. I just got the vibe that standards aren't a priority here. I know times are tough especially with hiring help for retail/service industry jobs right now, but this place had employees sitting around everywhere. There was 3 of them sitting down and hanging out at the hostess station as we walked out and nobody could pick up our dirty plates until they absolutely had to? No manager in sight either. The food itself is an afterthought and I didn't even bother taking pictures this time. I can get better quality food from the frozen section of any grocery store. I had high hopes after visiting Chili's that chains had really started to up their game. It seems that Applebee's didn't get that invite. Even though it's the closest sit-down restaurant to my house, this will likely be...

Shrimp wonton stir fry, great. Lot's of flavor, shrimp perfect. Corona's ice cold. Always great friendly service. Updates: since the pandemic yes things have changed a little bit. As usual the staff all still wear their masks. But I don't see the 6'ft distancing. The bar is for the most part always full with no spacing. The dining area is always full. Some customers still wear their masks upon entering the building. Now the restaurant has posted signs on the doors that masks must be worn upon entering. But business has carried on as usual. Update: Applebees seems to be back to its normal business. Masks are not required upon entering. There's no 6ft distancing. The staff is no longer required to wear their masks anymore. Business seems to be booming at the Highland location. Update 2: they're busy as usual. Some of the staff wears masks and others don't. Service is still great. Business is booming as usual. Food and drinks, nothing has slipped between the cracks. It's good as usual. Highly recommend visiting the Highland branch. Update 3: Applebees is back to regular business. A nice place to relax and let your hair down after a crazy day of work. Update #4: No changes. No signs of "covid". Business is booming as usual. Everybody still shows up to hangout and relax. Come on by and have a cold...

Just had surgery a week ago and can’t drive or walk so I ordered Postmates and God a rack of ribs with fries and broccoli, bourbon chicken and shrimp and a chicken quesadilla. I didn’t get the fries with my order. Also the broccoli is definitely freezer burned and disgusting. So in essence I’ve paid full price for a rack of ribs and no sides at all. I called the restaurant and explained this. I also explained that I ordered delivery because I just had surgery and am unable to drive or walk, which is why I ordered through Postmates delivery. After speaking with a to go order representative who then spoke to a manager, I was told I would receive free fries with my next order and they would “write my name down” as a way of ensuring I could be recognized when placing my next order with them. Lol. How they will pay for me to get delivery of any french fries or sides I want in the future through Postmates without me having to pay for it and also a delivery charge and a tip for the driver is beyond me. I’m frustrated with the fact that my situation, not being able to walk or drive, was ignored and disregarded. Or perhaps they mean after I’m fully recovered in a couple of months, I can come in and get some free fries SMH. I am completely unsatisfied and will not order from Applebee’s...