Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Valdosta

We arrived and were seated fairly quickly. We all ordered water to drink. After bringing our drinks back a few minutes later the waitress took our order.

Kids: Chicken Taco Chicken Tenders Mac and Cheese

Cajun Chicken and Shrimp Fiesta Lime Chicken

Overall Experience:

After taking our order our kids wanted to play UNO, which my wife brought with us, so everyone but me played while waiting on our food to help pass the time.

By the time our food came 10-15 minutes later, I had already drunk my glass of water and it was empty sitting beside me. Our waitress brought our food, except for the kid’s mac and cheese, for some reason it didn’t come out. She didn’t tell us it will be a few minutes, didn’t give us any kind of apology upfront just walked off. 5 minutes later she brought my daughter’s plate and said that she was sorry it just got here. My glass was still empty when she brought this out. 5 minutes later she came by the table going to check on another table and my glass was still empty. I ordered the Cajun Chicken and Shrimp and it was spicy, which I expected but difficult to eat without a drink. She finally did come back to ask how things are we had to ask for a refill on my glass of water. After slowly going to the back and then coming back to another table nearby she stopped by the table to say “I’ll get you that water now,” several minutes later she brought me another glass of water.

I tried to go ahead at this time and pay our bill so we could leave, as I figured it would take her an eternity to bring the check. I was going to use the tablet on the table to pay and click on pay I got an error saying that this tablet couldn’t recognize what table I was at and I was unable to pay. So we waited for our waitress. She finally came over about 10 minutes later and gave us the ticket. I had take our kids to the bathroom and my wife told her about the extra $1.99 charge for playing a game on the tablet which our kids, didn’t do because we sat the tablet facing away from them on the inside of the table. She said she would adjust it and walked away, she came back 5-10 minutes later to say I have to get my manager to adjust the bill as I can’t take this off. She walked away again. I took our kids out to the car so my wife could wait it took about another 5 minutes to get the bill adjusted. After this experience with a server who didn’t really care about her job, we will not be returning to this location. We live 5 minutes from this restaurant and have frequented two other times since buying our house last year in April.

**Side note every time she would come to our table, it seemed like an undue burden that she had to wait on us. I am not sure if this was because we had 3 kids, because we didn’t order drinks, we only ordered water mainly because I didn't want to spend $12 on drinks for my whole family, or what exactly was wrong. We felt like she provided better service to the other 2-3 tables that she had in the same area. We felt the entire time that the service for our family was not the same.

Food:

Cajun Chicken and Shrimp with Garlic Mashed potatoes: The center of the potatoes were cold while the outside and bottom were scalding hot, due to the cast iron it was served on. The chicken and shrimp was good, I am not sure why the onions were served on the bottom, with the chicken on top, instead of on top of the chicken but they were okay as well. The chicken was good and cooked well was very juicy.

Fiesta Lime chicken: The chicken was good and flavorful, the rice that goes with this was very dry, but had good flavor.

All of our kids were satisfied with their...

We are passing thru Valdosta and stopped at exit 18. Young and trendy staff. Diverse crowd. Laid back setting. A nice friendly environment for all. The decor is all GA sports teams. Clean floors, booths,tables, bar & outside areas. There is a patio with bistro/bar style tables. Hostess greets you at front door. They accommodated the crowds by having two hostesses on during our visit, Saturday night. There is a bar in the rear center of the restaurant with aprox. 25 seats. A mixture of single patrons who are just having cocktails to pairs of guests dining on full menu. In the bar area there are table tops that fit half booth half stool seating..6 can sit comfortably. 6 large flat screen tv's directed in every angle for viewing from entire restaurant. There is a chair rail separating the bar area from the booths and tables in the dinning area. Surrounding area is for dinning tables only. Mostly booth seating. Sized from 2 to 4 in a party. The larger parties would be more comfortable in the bar area. Each table has interactive tablet. You can play games against your company, order appetizers, pay your bill & call your server.The games cost 1.99$ for unlimited use. They are interactive for your group or you can play while sitting at the bar solo. There is a large electronic jukebox in the rear of the bar. The music played top 40s for background. Loud enough you sing along subconsciously yet can still hear the person across the table. Food was reasonably priced. Good selection as all Applebees have the same menu. They have a lot of combination pricing that includes your choice of select appetizer, main course and desert for two people starting at $9.99. Burgers, steaks, pasta dishes, wraps, soups & salads. Full bar and desert menus. Applebees have the same menus nationwide. The location is busy. The staff was young and energetic while still being polite. We had a great waitress named Tiny.. very good at her job. Personable, efficient, attentive & polite. She made the visit pleasant. The restaurant was clean. The bathrooms were not. 3 stalls, one was broken at the lock. Dirty seats and toilet paper on the floors. It was obviously from customers and probably not tended to yet.. however it's disappointing to have dinner and use the bathroom and not feel it's clean.. so if anything that's something they should be more cautious of. Overall, the wait was 20 minutes on a Saturday night for a table of 5.. fast friendly and affordable service. Not...

Let me start by saying that every other Applebees has been accommodating to my daughter's food allergy, and we were relieved to see there was one across the street. We arrived around 9:30. They were not busy, and there were several empty areas. We had a large party of 8, but were willing to be split up. It took about 15 minutes for the hostess to figure it out and help the wait staff get caught up. After we sat down, I informed the waitress that my daughter had a food allergy. When we were ordering, they were out of the sides that my daughter could eat. I asked if we could substitute a side salad (lettuce and cucumbers only) for both sides. The waitress said that we could order a side salad but would be charged an additional $4.00. I was asking if the salad could replace the 2 sides which came with her meal since they were out of what she could eat. The waitress went back to ask manager (I requested to speak with him). Instead, he sent the waitress back out and said that they would do that this one time only. And...stated "for your future reference, we cannot help what has dairy in it." The manager NEVER came to our table. The manager actually NEVER came out of his hiding spot. When the meals came out, both steaks were still raw (cold in center) and could not be cut with a knife as the cut was tough. We asked that one be replaced and remove the other from the bill since appetite was lost. The replaced steak was perfect. The salad came for my daughter and had to be remade as they put croutons (which typically contain dairy) on it. I have never been to a restaurant that was so unwilling to work around a food allergy. Also, employ a manager who did not visit one table....especially one with a food allergy and meals sent back. Why did he (Matt) have to send the waitress out to to his job? Isn't it his responsibility to ensure guests/patrons enjoy their visit to his restaurant. I do not understand how Applebees could employ a manager who lacks people skills, and hides...