Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Sidney

Current special is an awesome deal. Went in on Saturday for lunch and my initial review was 5 Stars even though the hostess acted a bit indifferent the server was amazing. Went in on 10/8/19 for lunch again. The same hostess was there and made no attempt to smile. Their were only a few patrons in the restaurant when we arrived. It took a good 10 minutes to get a server. We discussed leaving. The server finally arrived and asked for our drink order. She did not return for 20 more minutes. We discussed leaving again and just as we were about to leave she delivered the drinks while apologizing that she had to make the tea and was concerned that it may have melted the ice since it was still hot. This was 2 in the afternoon. We ordered and decided to get chips with queso to hold us over. After 20 minutes I decided to get up to find our server. I discovered her eating lunch with 2 other coworkers. I asked her if she had placed the chip order. She said it would be right out. Within a few minutes it was brought out but the chips were burnt and left an aftertaste. She offered to bring us more and within a few minutes she did but they were partially warmed and many were small pieces as if they were broken. Before we could even get 2 chips down our meal came. Steaks were to be cooked medium and medium well. Both were hockey pucks. The pasta was dried up and you could tell it had been left under the warmers too long. We asked for a manager. We decided after spending over an hour with no food we just wanted to leave. Thankfully, the manager understood and allowed us to dip out. I was so embarrassed as I have never done this before. We were told by the server that a new cook had just started and was doing everything himself. She did bring extra ice for my watered down tea. I have been in public service for over 30 years and 10 of those was waiting tables and training wait staff for fine dining. In my opinion a friendly face should always greet people at the door and if it is not busy the hostess should offer the customer drinks. The hostess should then keep an eye on the restaurant and ensure customers have the attention they are paying for. When the hostess witnesses customers being neglected she/he should immediately notify a manager. Servers should not take breaks when waiting on customers - EVER! Kudos to the manager in this incident. She offered to replace everything but she could tell I was sincerely humiliated by complaining and allowed us to leave without a scene. I am still rattled by the experience and can not believe the night and day difference in the 2...

The dude at the door mumbled something to us and directed us to a hu-top in the bar area. It wasn't too busy so we agreed (I'm still not entirely sure what he said to us but c'mon bro, your job is to greet patrons and give a good first impression and your talent is weak!). We were greeted pretty quickly by Alyssa, our server foe this culinary trip. I asked her for a lemonade. That's a pretty simple order for June in the northeastern United States and it is my "Go-To" beverage 90% of the time. What I got was a cloudy drink [almost like ouzo &water] that tasted like a 3-day old bar mat soaked in stale beer and wet cigarette butts had been wrung out in my glass. "What the actual fcuk is this disaster?", I thought. No big deal, but it took her like, 15 minutes to come to our table and that whole time I had that stank-tongue going on from the first slash I took outta that sucker. I tried to get her attention a couple times but she was either a black belt in waitress ninja tactics or she realized she served me armpit sweat and was intentionally voiding my feeble attempts to summon her over. When Alyssa finally returned to our table she was delivering our meals. I immediately requested a new lemonade. She threw a flimsy excuse about the bag needing to be changed. So I'm thinking, "you are waitress and should know when lemonade looks like toilet water--it is your J-O-B--change the d*mn bag!" Ahhhhh...she reappeared a few minutes later with a tall glass of lemonade. I saw her glistening with ice. The opaqueness was characteristic of that age old summertime thirst quencher I had longed for. First sip was good. We're on a winner here Trig! (Bonus points for any reader who can name that British sitcom).

And that was the last time we saw our waitress until we were finished eating our meal. Now, it was getting rather busy on a Sunday afternoon in west central Ohio but not so busy that she couldn't have checked on us. Pretty disappointed in the customer service at this location, I must say. And that burger in a wrap I ordered--stay away from that guy. Not impressed. No real flavor and my fries were luke warm at best. Guess I should ha e ordered the 'non-seasoned' fries to force them into cooking up a fresh batch of spud torpedos. Live and learn, right?

Normally Applebee's is pretty solid and I'd rate them a 4.0 but on this occasion, at this location, I'm weighing in with a low 3.0; but only because my family rather enjoyed their meals. I did leave a tip but it was below the 25% I...

My husband and I have always been fans of Applebee's, but our recent experiences at this particular location have been far from what we've come to expect. Unfortunately, our last visit wasn't much of a visit at all.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the manager who was behind the bar. He politely informed us that he would be right with us, which was fine initially. However, after standing at the door for 10 minutes without any further acknowledgment, we started to feel frustrated. There were three other servers present, one of whom seemed to be in training, but they were all huddled together, laughing and goofing off in the corner rather than assisting us.

Eventually, the manager returned and told us to have a seat on the bench, saying it would be another 10-15 minutes before he could seat us. This was especially frustrating considering the restaurant was far from busy—there were only about four people at the bar and three occupied tables. There weren’t any dirty tables, so the delay seemed entirely due to poor management and prioritization.

After being told we would have to wait even longer, we decided to leave. We were disappointed to see such a lack of professionalism and efficiency from both the manager and the staff. This experience has definitely soured our opinion of this location, and we would rather drive further to receive the great service we know Applebee's can provide.

We hope the management at this location takes note of these issues and makes the necessary improvements, but we won’t be returning...