Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in South Whitehall Township

Myself, along with four friends went to the Applebee's on Cedar Crest Blvd in Allentown PA on 6/24/2021 around 8:30/8:45 pm. We were asked to wait to be seated despite being practically empty, and the host telling who we assumed was a server that they were not on a wait. Once seated, Ashley (our server) came and took our drink order. We informed her that one of our party was fatally allergic to seafood. She noted it, and went to get our drinks. When she returned, we asked about getting the Spinach and Artichoke dip app with breadsticks, since the Tortillas are house made, and fried in the same oil as seafood. We were informed that the breadsticks are fried. Asked about the pretzels, again, told they are fried. We were all baffled, as pretzels and breadsticks should be baked in an oven, not fried. Asked about fresh tortillas, not fried. We were told they would be placed on the same grill as that which has fish cooked on it. Finally asked about just fresh unheated tortillas straight from the pack to which she made a comment that they would be "raw". (Tortillas are typically cooked when they are store bought). After saying we would think about it, she said she would give us a few more moments and stepped away. Ashley caused us to feel like we were a bother to her. With this feeling in mind, I used my cell phone to call the restaurant, and informed Alyson (host) that we wanted to see the manager. The other host (with radio) was seen getting on his radio to call the manager. The manger came to the table, followed almost immediately by Ashley. This is when we saw that the person being told they were not on a wait, even though we had been asked to wait to be seated, was in fact the manager. We informed him of our issues, and that we felt like Ashley just did not want to be bothered to help us. While we were talking to him, Ashley was interrupting, and stating that she had asked him to come over to try to help us with a few suggestions because of the allergy. After stating that he was there because I had called the host to have him come over, both Ashley and the manager all but called me a liar. IF she had asked him to come over, WHY? Is she incapable of assisting guests with dietary restrictions? If she is incapable of assisting guests with dietary restrictions, maybe she should have said so from the start, and sought another server for us from the get go. Maybe she needs better training. In any case, we paid for our drinks (most of which had been untouched) and left without ever placing an order. My friend with the allergy is VERY self-conscious, and to be made to feel like he was not worth serving because of his medical based dietary restrictions was traumatizing to all of us. No person entering one of your restaurants should be made to feel unwelcome. No one with a dietary restriction, regardless of the reason behind that restriction, should be made to feel a bother, or that there is a limit on what the restaurant can do to accommodate him or her. Finally, a guest should NEVER be contradicted by a server AND the manager. We will not be returning to this Applebee’s at any time in the future. We probably will not be returning to any Applebee’s in the future, as this whole experience has simply left a bad taste...

So, when we first walked in we stood in front of the door for a good minute before any employee even saw us. They were all by the bar just laughing and having a great time, which is fine when customers aren't waiting.

Then finally one of the male employees noticed us and SLOWLY made his way over to us. No greeting or how are you, He then asked how many, we told him and he snapped at us ( literally snapped his fingers like a cool guy from Grease) and walked away, came back, leaned on the counter and looked like life itself was over as he figured out where to place us. Eventually a female employee came up and did the same thing, just stood there and huffed as she couldn't figure it out either.

At this point we had just about had it, we hadn't been there for more than 5 minutes and saw no hope of any decent customer service. But then like a ray of sunshine sent from above, another female employee walked up, looked at the table book (how they have which server takes care of which section) and showed us to a table in a matter of seconds.

Here's where it finally starts getting good, she only took our drink order and appetizer before I'm assuming shift change happened and we had a male server named Dominic. Dominic was the The Best server I've had in quite sometime! I'm only 30 but I've been in customer service most of my life, with that being said Dominic was literally top notch! I'd say a raise should be in store for him! Super helpful, talked my wife out of changing her order because what she ordered was a 9/10 in his opinion, and had the patience of a saint to deal with my mother and kids lol.

So we started off rocky but after the terrible front of house service we got (which we weren't the only ones, the next table that was set had the same look on their face after dealing with Mr drama) we had the best server and quite honestly some of the best food I've had in quite some time! The chips were a little stale for the queso and chips, but we ordered the five cheese Mac and cheese with some kind of honey chicken on top which was indeed 9/10 stars!

So in conclusion I would go back, but just be prepared for some attitude from the front of the house depending on the day. I think Applebee's needs to look into it because it is unprofessional, if you can laugh with your buddies at the bar and not even fake a smile for your customers, you're not in the right job there dandelion 😊.

Anyways, delicious food, the servers I saw were pretty great and yea, I...

Came in around 930 was sat right away which was really nice. But service was NOT good at all. We ordered all our drinks and food at the same time, waited a good 20 minutes part of our food come out then a few minutes later a few drinks came out 10-15 minutes later SOME more food came out. Few minutes later rest of our drinks came out. Few minutes later rest of our food finally came out. All in all we waited almost 35-40 minutes before we got everything (drinks included LAST) She was barely attentive and it took her almost half an hour to bring us some water which she almost forgot we had to remind her to bring out. Asked for extra sauce on the side, we didn’t get either of them (not a huge deal just annoying) she forgot to put in our friend’s nachos so they didn’t get it so she didn’t charge her for that. Came for a friends birthday, I slipped away to ask if they could sing to him, she informed me they told her they don’t sing anymore due to covid and not wanting to hang over the food. I don’t know if that was true or not since it’s been a minute since we went for a birthday so I just said okay and didn’t fight it because it makes sense if it’s true. We split the bill 3 ways (which she knew right away before we ordered) and she mixed a few things up on the bills. Not a huge deal since we’re all super close and we just fixed it ourselves. We paid cash and my fiance did NOT tell her to keep the change and she did anyways. We didn’t say anything just let her keep whatever was left and didn’t tip her extra. While talking about the bill the host over heard and asked if we wanted the manager, said no because we just wanted to get out of there. She also informed us that our waitress was on the newer side, she was very nice but she was NOT ready for a Saturday night by herself. She needs a bit more training and I say that in the nicest way possible because I understand it can be overwhelming but we spent way too long there and left highly...