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

I frequent this particular Applebee's location with my family, and we didn't have the worst service (usually 4-5 stars experience) until this evening. Although, there was a time we had an extremely long wait as it was Valentine's Day, and we were being very forgiving considering it's the Hallmark holiday and the foods were good.

Tonight was atrocious that I was asked if we can pay in cash instead of credit or debit card as their POS (yes, this now has two meanings) system just went down. I'm the type of customer that'd avoid cash-only places if I can help it unless I was prepared to buy goods there. I should've known my indecisiveness to dine out there this evening was a sign I should've stayed in. We were also seated in the left-rear section of the restaurant for the first time where the tables were quite sticky. My adolescent hostess was new to the job, of course. I usually order the quesadilla burger with pink beef along with a side of broccoli florets to substitute the fries with. The florets were small and the portion size was quite small. I also looked at my family members' sides' portion sizes which were small as well. My burger was well-done, and it didn't taste as good as I remembered how I had it.

Since I do not carry cash most days, my family was stranded in the restaurant for several minutes to assure the manager and the hostess that we're not a flight risk while I had to quickly drive out to the nearest ATM with a bank we have an account with. This inconvenience alone ruined our evening plan as I anticipated making a stop at a nearby store before we head home.

With the series of bad lucks, I couldn't possibly think it'd get any worse, but I wasn't handed a receipt when I received my changes as I had no way to reference back to the name of the hostess or manager that I had. Don't get me wrong. The hostess was nice and friendly, but I just hope she wasn't too naive to continue working under this condition if there was a recent talent exodus behind the scene which would explain it all.

Has the hospitality industry always been this bad? How long do we have to wait until it returns to its glory? It's a shame it has to go down like this as I enjoyed going there, but we've promptly considered taking a long break from Applebees's...

I haven’t the slightest WHY I keep giving this APPLEBEES a chance, except it’s close to home. I work at the University of Rochester. I get off at 5pm. My husband usually picks me up. We pick up the grandbaby in the 19th Ward, and head to to Applebees. We usually get there about 5:40pm for half off appetizers. HERE COMES JANE. Sitting at your table, Writing her name on napkins. Okay. Get our bill. We are charged full price. First time, we looked at it as an oversight. But then she did it again a week later. I asked her, isn’t it half off appetizers, she said I don’t think so on Wednesdays? I gave her a look like what??Then she says oh you weren’t here before 5:55. What she didn’t know was I had taken a picture and posted it when we got there and showed it to her, complete with time. Then she says, oh no worries I fixed it for you. She is incredibly ANNOYING. This past Friday, My husband and I came there with my Brother and Sister-in-Law. Granted it was packed. Took 20 minutes for the waitress to come. When she did come, we ordered our Drinks and Dinner. 4 all you can eats(1chicken,1shrimp,2ribs) and a kids meal for the grandbaby. 3 all you can eats come and the kids meal. The ribs were cold. The fries were cold. My brother-in-law’s meal never came out. the waitress came and apologized, the manager apologized, 30 minutes later he still has no food. My husband and sister in law decided to get something else, another 30 minutes. Finally my brother in law gets his food delivered by another waitress. Our waitress has disappeared. She never came back. So forget refills on our All you can eat. It’s was a Diners Hell. Finally, we just ask for the bill. Guess who comes over to sort out our bill, JANE. Is there no escaping her? The Bill should have been FREE. But hey, let’s just pay Jane this padded bill and get the hell out of Applebees. The Chili/Gates location is...

We waited 8 minutes before our waitress came to our table. She takes our drink order and I ask for my 10 yr to get a kid drink and ordered 3 adult sodas. The waitress felt the need to tell me my child's drink wouldn't be free after I announced we were just there for appetizers. I found it odd that she would think I expected the drink to be free, but none the less brushed it off. We put in our order at 8:50. As soon as she took our order she walked over to another worker who was sitting at a table and said something that made her look up at us (this was the same hostess who sat us and told me she had no idea which appetizers were included in the 1/2 price deal when I asked) I again found it odd but didn't want to make a deal out of it. Our order comes out at 9:20pm. We called her over once for refills (since she never came to ask) half price appetizers begin at 9pm. Our check comes and I was charged full price. I tried to get her attention and was ignored, so I walked over to the bar and asked if there was anyone I could speak to. Mgr was understanding and graciously fixed my bill. I then see the waitress walk right passed me trying to avoid eye contact but she clearly had to get right by me to get through, so I stopped and asked her. She then responds in a snotty way that the order was entered at 8:50pm ..so I responded " I told you I was here for 1/2 apps and my ordered arrived at 9:20" At this point I felt that because she saw a mom and her 4 kids that she wasn't going to get tip..she profiled me..I don't care what anyone says. She saw a Latina mom with her 4 kids and assumed wrong! I tip my servers very well.. this young lady however got exactly what she thought she was going to get 0. I could not after how she made me feel tip her, sorry. I will never go to this...