Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Town of Cheektowaga

Arrived at the Walden location tonight around 7pm. Waited for a hostess to show up at booth for over 5 minutes. Plenty of open tables and booths in sight no one waiting requested a booth with attitude and eye rolling we were told we would have to wait. Sat at the booth closets to the entrance door with food under our feet including a whole chicken finger. If we were not in a hurry with our young child we would have walked out at this point. Ordered drinks, appetizers and entrees all at once... seeing it how long it took until we even met our waitress (Lisa M). Dranks came our child was given water not the Serria Mist that was ordered so we had to hear that while we waited. Our waitress offered to bring one of her sides early with our soup so she could eat with us (the thought appreciated... but had to remind that it was offered) when the apple sauce (sealed motts container) came it was hot to the touch like it had been sitting on an oven for hours. At this point we still have not recieved silverware or napkins and waitress never in sight to assist. Mind you there was a huge chunk of tunic that tasted like plastic in one of the french onion soups. When our entrees arrived we requested silverware to the men who brought it, again by another passing employee, then again to our waitress when she appeared along with a side of salsa which was requested upon ordering. The ribs I ordered were absolutely tasteless and very disappointing. The fruit served with our child's yogurt was frozen slices of strawberries? We were asked once how our food was... before we even received silverware. Any issues addressed were replied to terrible putting blame on the kitchen. The next time we seen our waitress it was to be told she was being sent on break and someone else would be covering our table. In hope to end our dining experience with someone more personable or accommodating .. apparently she did not get sent on break but was quick to shove us out the door bringing us boxes and a bag. The barely touched applesauce was removed from the check after explaining we had no intention on taking it home. It was amusing to watch the dramatic face our waitress made when we told her how hot it was as if she didn't bring it out in her bare hands. Clearly we had no intention of ordering dessert or coffee but it is evidently no longer offered. Not worth 55 dollars nor the 25 dollars after burning our Christmas gift cards. We asked for a refill on the children drink to go as we sent her off with the bill that we never received nor was it worth wasting any more time waiting for since she clearly forgot like she did the time around. Applebees used to be our family's favorite restaurant. Over all terrible experience and sad to see how bad the service and food has gotten...

I went to the Cheektowaga NY Applebees on 1/20/23. There were several open tables, I’d say more than half the restaurant was open, however there was still a 30 minute wait. There’s staffing shortages, I get it. However - my party of 4 all ordered the $14.99 all you can eat wings / shrimp/ ribs. The waitress said we could only order 1 item at a time - that’s fine, I understand they don’t want people over ordering. BUT, the portion sizes were incredibly small, and when it came time to order a refill of the “all you can eat,” the refills took 35 minutes EACH. How can you advertise all you can eat and then make people wait 35 minutes between refills? Also the refills did not come with French fries as advertised and were cold. There were SEVERAL employees observed making small talk in the corner and playing on their phones while 1-2 employees were running around trying to pick up the slack. Extremely disappointed

Update- the manager Matt called and gave us a gift card to come back and try again. We tried again 3/12/23 and once again it was a 1/5 star experience. LOTS of empty seats, yet we had to wait 10 minutes for a hostess to even come to the front, and another 15 minutes to be seated. The waitress had an attitude and got our order mixed up with another table. Had to ask the waitress twice for refills, she kept forgetting. After asking for the bill had to wait another 25 minutes for her to bring it up when the restaurant had maybe 3-5 other tables. The staff was observed again playin on their phones laughing with each other instead of taking care of tables or being at the front door. Will not be going back to this location ever again, extremely slow and awful service. This location never used to be like this - might as well...

The current state of the workforce and the labor shortage has been tough on all business's and restaurant. That being said there is absolutely no excuse for the experience and quality of service that was received. At the time of me going there they had half of the tables closed due to staffing. So they were only running half of the dining room. We were told we had a 10 minute wait which then to turned into an almost 30 minute wait. We chalked it up to the staffing shortage and decided to continue with our night. We then got seated and ordered our drinks. 2/4 of them were just water. It took 25 minutes before we had gotten our beverages. The waitress then said "I couldn't find any cups". And walked away. She seemed as of she had more important things going on in the back of the restaurant standing by the computer with 2 other employees then to think about customer service. 5-10 minutes later we placed our food order. When it arrived again almost 30 minute later to call it lackluster would be a courtesy. Three cheese pasta. With no cheese. Brew pub Pretzels came out almost ice cold with refrigerated cheese. And when I got my ribs they seemed appetizing enough until I bit into them. It tasted like I was eating a hamburger with some value priced bbq sauce half spread on them. Waitress never came back to our table to check in on us. The folks behind us must have had the same experience due to the fact that when they were served they immediately left. Without a shadow of a doubt this is the worst Applebee's/chain restaurant experience I've ever encountered. My recommendation is to go to an olive garden or Texas roadhouse. This was an $80 dollar night for 4 younger people and you can get wayy better service and...