Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Topeka

We went last night and nothing went right. My girlfriend ordered water, I ordered iced tea, the water was undrinkable as it had a terrible taste. My tea emptied rather quickly and set empty long enough for us to completely finish our appetizer. When I got a refill the server did offer to comp us another iced tea because of the bad water. My girlfriend ordered a Oriental chicken salad and I ordered a 8oz sirloin cooked medium, garlicky green beans and fries. What we got was a salad that was flooded with dressing and missing the rice noodles and almonds, and my dinner was served with broccoli instead of the green beans. The server brought me the green beans I ordered and we reluctantly mentioned the salad had too much dressing, and they offered to make a new one. When the manager brought out a new salad it was explained that there was a new cook making mistakes, and what I gather normally is supposed to put 2ounces of dressing on the salad but somehow put 8ounces instead. By this point I had started to cut into my steak to find that it was no where near medium. I just gave up. I tried to show my girlfriend how when I went to cut my steak blood would drain out onto my plate, just as the manager walked by and noticed I wasn't happy with the steak. She asked if something was wrong and I tried to avoid the inevitable conversation and dismissed it. She continued to press and at that point I stated I ordered my steak medium, and she stated that it was cooked to medium. To which I responded by showing the raw piece of meat on my plate and asking is this medium. She stated that it was cooked to a medium temperature. I really didn't care to argue with the manager about what is considered medium when it comes to a steak. What I did notice was one side, I call it the top, was cooked deeper than the bottom which appeared to only have had the outside seared. The rest of the middle of the steak was red and bloody. I consider medium to be a hot pink center, if there is a little red, that's acceptable, I'm not going to complain. At this point the manager offered to take the steak back and cook it some more, I declined her offer. I'll never send food back to the kitchen as I think there is nothing worse than a twice cooked meal. She tried multiple times to allow them to make it right, and I just didn't want to deal with anymore disappointments at this point. As we finished up, the original server came over and apologized again, reiterated that there is a new cook who had made a bunch of mistakes and said that the manager would do right by us. We had a conversation about expectations and dealing with let downs, he asked if I worked in service industry because of how lenient and understanding I was. I do work in a retail environment, so I'm very empathic to others in similar Industries. He thanked us for our patience and understanding, and went to get our ticket. When he returned it was obvious he was now disappointed with how his manager handled our bill. She gave us military discount, which amounted to just less than my iced tea. So, we were served water that was undrinkable, a salad that wasn't edible, the wrong vegetables, a steak that wasn't cooked properly, our glasses weren't refilled timely, the manager wanted to argue with me how cooked my steak was and the best they could do was about $2.50 off. Another thing I failed to mention was that we had to ask for both silverware and a knife to cut my steak with. My 8oz sirloin was $15.50, for that I can go up the street to a different chain restaurant and get a 12oz ribeye with 2 sides as well for the same price. It's no wonder the owner of this Applebee's and 162 other declared bankruptcy on the same day. The menu used to be good, but that was 10 plus years ago, now it's over priced, and the selection is terrible. The last time we went was because we were given gift cards, this will be the last time we visit Applebee's, at least until the menu changes, the price changes and the...

Not sure what is up at this location. Ate here tonight. We have been here many times over the years and never had any issues. Over the last 2 months, it’s been whack. Issue # 1- if you go here anytime in the evening on a busy night, the hostesses apparently are trained to tell you an exuberant wait time and word it in such a way that will hopefully deter you from staying. Twice we were told, on separate occasions by 2 different hostesses that it would be a 30-40 min bc “kitchen is backed up” BOTH times and asked if you’re sure you want to stay. While they increase times for ppl walking in, and telling them there are several people ahead of them, so people leave. We were actually sat both times in 10-15 min.

Issue 2- I actually didn’t ever plan to make this an issue but since I’m writing this review- I ordered the salmon dinner a few weeks ago and was about 1/3 through and there was a bone in my mashed potatoes. I showed my (awesome, completely amazing) server and he apologized and said it looked like it was from a riblet. Lost my appetite after that. He talked to manager and offered to comp my meal but I said that’s okay (seafood isn’t cheap, I know that), so I said we would be cool w our 3 y/o’s kid meal taken off. Which they did, and everything was fine.

Issue 3- went tonight at 8pm, hostess “30 min wait, it’s going to be a while bc kitchen is backed up, do you want to wait that long?” Yeah okay. Seated in 10. Wait 15 min for our waitress to come to our table, then she starts in about being busy and taking care of an 8 person big top table and apologized for being behind. Understandable, we both used to wait tables, I get it. Got our drinks and appetizer quickly. But then nothing else. Everyone’s drink is empty, it’s pushing 9:30 and our waitress hasn’t checked on us even once, but has delivered desserts/milkshakes and checked on the table next to us at least twice and dodged us both times. Still haven’t got our food. My ultra-patient husband was the one who finally said let’s go- so he tells the nearest server (who I’ve had before and who is also awesome) that we’re leaving and just want to pay for what we drank/ate, she apologized and she alerts the manager. Literally 1-2 min later the manager brought out 2 plates of our food and my husband tells her we’re leaving and do not want the food at this point and need our check. She said her hand was hot and had to set the plates down. He was going to be trying one of their new sizzling skillets, but I assure you it was not sizzlin and the reason her hand was burning is bc it had probably been under a heat lamp forever. Anyway, our waitress came out at this point and said she was sorry for the delay but the kitchen was running behind, and my husband told her that we understand that but she could have at least checked on us, since we were all out of drinks for nearly an hour. She apologized, we got our check and we paid for our drinks (they comped the appetizer that was supposed to be included in one of the 2 for $25 meals, also the meals). Never heard anything else from the manager, she set the 2 plates down and then ghosted, no apology or explanation or anything. She didn’t even try to mitigate the situation. Terrible service recently for mediocre/frozen/warmed food. Thanks for coming to my TED talk about the Topeka Applebees, spend your...

If I could rate this place a 0 I would. I thought it would have been a top notch experience but I could be far from wrong. My waitress was far more interested in talking with her peers than making sure my husband, toddler and I are were okay with our service ( there were hardly anyone in there ) over $75 just for my food to arrive cold!!! I ordered the boneless all you can eat wings… needless to say I left everything on the plate. She even brought me another order of the wings and there were only 5 PIECES ON THE PLATE !! The flavor were garlic Parmesan and they look like they were the last pieces in the bottom of the bag because they were so tiny and hard hardly edible. I also ordered the four cheese four tender Mac and cheese bowl. I only got 3 tenders and they were as tiny as ever, and the food itself was super cold oh and did I mention my husband I waited over an hour for our food so I don’t understand how it was even cold… the only thing that I could say was good from what we ordered was the lemonade !! And the pretzel appetizer things ! Another thing that I didnt care for was the assumption that she had at the end with the door keeper that “we were going to walk out without paying because my husband had to go to the bathroom” she didn’t think I heard her or the look she gave me when she walked by me… she never gave me my receipt beforehand so I can see my total, she just came to my table and took my card within 5 seconds of me putting it on the table, she held my ticket in her hand but never gave it to me !! She never asked me if I wanted boxes or if I had problems with the food even though I had seen she had looks at the food that was untouched on the plates because she had made a face and looked at me ! I will NEVER be returning! I have never felt more discriminated against in my life and more ignored. You guys need to do better! If I didn’t have my baby with me I’d have spoken to a manager and asked for a refund of some sort but instead situations call for different things to happen !! Very...