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

They one got one star because that's the lowest rating you can give on here. My wife and I were looking for a nice place to sit down and relax one on one while the kids were away for the evening. Stopping in here was a terrible mistake! We were greeted and seated promptly and offered beverages. Two Pepsi's were ordered mine no ice we both received Pepsi with ice not a major thing just beginning signs of not being able to follow directions. We both decided to get the 12 ounce choice cut steaks. Hers with a baked potato and steamed broccoli. Mine with a baked potato and fries both well done. We each instead received two "6" ounce steaks without being informed of the 12 ounce choice cuts being unavailable prior to delivery of our food. We were asked to cut into them my wife's one steak was so rare when she stabbed it with the fork it began to leak blood all over her plate including onto her broccoli and baked potato it went unnoticed until she cut it and it poured out covering the entire plate. Her other one was over cooked and extremely dry. Mine were the same with out the disgusting mess of blood all over the plate. The waitress says to my wife oh is that one too rare for you I have him throw it back on for a few minutes and bring it back. When she returned with the burnt cotton ball of a steak she thought was acceptable to serve I informed her my wife would not eat the broccoli since it was covered in the steak blood. She gave a slight look of aggravation and a quiet huff and said I'll get you some more. After that was brought out we decide to try and salvage this disaster and consume some of this "food" we received. Both baked potatoes were only half done both of the steaks my wife received were completely dried out like beef jerky. As I cut away from the center of mine to the thickest edge it was quite raw and intolerable. Finally once we had stopped attempting to pick through this "food" to find the edible portions the waitress asked if we needed anything else. My glass had been empty for at least 25 minutes at this point so she finally brought me a refill with ice again and delivered the check simultaneously. Thank you Lord we can pay and leave now!!! Let's see the total for this $52 and change?? We didn't get the good cut 12 ounce steaks and we each maybe ate two ounces of the steak that was served. We are not happy with this locations ways at all. The food terrible the service terrible the music was terrible this is not a night club it's a restaurant listen to the rap music up loud somewhere else this isn't the place for it. Tanya our server doesn't deserve to serve any human anything if she can't follow simple directions or make judgement calls on what is and is not acceptable. This location has failed us twice in a row now and we will not dine in...

We arrived about 5:30. There were 2 parties ahead of us and the restaurant was fairly full. We were told it wouldn't be long, but that wasn't the case. When the hostess, MKenna, came over and took charge of the station, things went down hill quickly. Every person through the door was told 20-25 minutes. Several left and didn't want to wait, which was expected with that time frame, but for those that stayed... It was a wait.

My 87 year old mother-in-law was with us and had to stand for the 50 minute wait. (She has had both knees replaced.) The hostess refused to seat anyone until the initial group of 8 could be seated. While we stood there, we counted at least 14 tables and booths that we could see from the doorway that were vacated and cleaned.

We were finally seated about 6:25. It took her 5 minutes to seat each table. After the group of 8 was a group of 6 with three small children. They also waited almost 50 minutes. We were seated right after them and it was 7 minutes from seating them to get to seat us (3 people) at one if the remaining 13 open tables.

Not only was the hostess, MaKenna, incompetent, but she was rude to other staff members. We heard her snap at one staff to stop helping the servers and to clean tables (which she wasn't seating people at anyway) and she would snap her fingers at other staff and order them around. We asked a staff member what the hostess's name was as she was one of the only staff not wearing a name tag!

The wait staff and servers were excellent. Our waitress was very diplomatic and knew just how to respond to keep her customers focused on the positive experience of the meal. The food arrived quickly. Drinks were excellent as usual. The appetizers could have been better. The chicken wontons were burned and the chicken wings were overcooked and dry, but the entrees were excellent. The chicken parmesan fettuccini had a perfectly juicy piece of chicken!

We've visited this Applebee's every August fir the past 10 years. We are hesitant to visit again after...

If you want to come to a place and get your food in a timely manner then your not at the right place here. Came here on a Sunday evening and there was 1 other group in the whole left side of the restaurant. The other side of the restaurant had to have less than 20people. So let's go over what happened..

Took over 10 minutes to just get drinks.. then we took our time getting our order as we had our 26 month old there. So we then put our order in. I tell the women specifically I DONT WANT COLESLAW. I understand that it normally comes with the item but i dont want it. This way to not waste food. So now after another 22 minutes almost an entire show. I know this because we brought an iPad for our son and he was watching his Mickey mouse show which is 30 minutes long the food comes. Low and behold I get coleslaw and the serve me cold chicken. I have to wait to get my server back over and when she does I tell her it's cold and very tough. She proceeds to tell me that we can heat it up for ya.... Now if the chicken is ALREADY tough what would heating it up do for that? So anyways she says that she will get a manager.... 15 minutes later a new peice of chicken comes out and now I am done with my food. Another 5 minutes later the manager come and apologizes and then explains that it takes some time to cook the chicken as they make it to order... he comped my meal.

Overall I was going to give this 1 star but at least the manager did come over but taking 20 minutes from the report of the issue is a long time. Just because the food is reasonably priced does NOT mean the quality of service...