Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Virginia

If I could give this place 0 stars I would. We were seated quickly but it took a while for the server to come to our table. We weren’t ready to order so our server sat down at the booth next to us and proceeded to start kissing one of the girl’s at the booth which made my children very uncomfortable. We were also sat in the bar area which was less than ideal with 3 kids under 10 years old in our party. We ordered our appetizers and meals after waiting close to 10 minutes. The mozzarella sticks were the only decent part of our evening. My husband and I both ordered salads and after waiting a little while, out comes our food. Without salads. We pointed out to our server that we never got our salads. She went and got them and it seemed like they had been sitting there a while as the plates were not even slightly chilled and the lettuce was warm. Needless to say, we didn’t eat our salads. We proceeded to eat our meals and I waited at least 20 minutes for a refill of my Diet Pepsi as the server found another table of ladies to waste her time with. She finally came back to our table and asked if we needed anything else and my husband had to point out to her that I was in need of a refill. She brought my refill and then tried to start taking our plates while we were still eating. I guess we weren’t eating fast enough for her because she then disappeared and we seriously thought her shift was over and she had left. We went to check the tablet service tool on the table to try and pay our bill and there was nothing there. We then hit “call server” on the device and it still took 5 minutes for her to reappear even with the annoying light flashing bright red on the device. However, she walked right past our table twice to go chat with the ladies she was talking to earlier. She goes to the back and suddenly a bill pops up on the tablet. Only it isn’t our bill, it’s someone at the bar. My husband caught her attention when she came back out, after she checked on the table next to us first, and she handed us a paper receipt and told us not to worry about the other bill. As we waited around for her to come back and take our payment, we were hoping the manager would come back out (as he’d been sporadically at the bar and the other side of the dining room during the evening). The server came and took our payment and then brought back the receipt - the fastest thing she did all night. At that point we were beyond livid and just wanted to get out of there. We were angry and in foul moods and our children were tired after each step of the restaurant experience taking far longer than it should have. I’m not sure if she didn’t want to serve kids or mad that we were interrupting her speed dating but she should find a different field of work. This isn’t the first bad experience we’ve had but it is by far the worst. It had gotten to the point that we would only come to Applebee’s when we were given gift cards. Now I’ll be destroying them. Our experience was so bad that I would throw away money before subjecting anyone to this...

I had a very disappointing experience at the Applebee’s on West Broad Street in Glen Allen, VA, on January 9, 2025. This visit wasted so much of my time that I will not return to this location—or any other Applebee’s—in the future.

I placed a to-go order online with a scheduled pick-up time of 5:22 PM. When I arrived, the area was crowded with other frustrated customers waiting for their orders. I stood in line for 10 minutes while the employee at the to-go counter finished helping another customer in front of me. Afterward, she didn’t even acknowledge me and instead took a phone call, audibly sighing in frustration with caller on the other end. Afterwards, she then took another minute chatting with a coworker, complaining about working at the To-Go counter.

When she finally asked, “You need help with something?” in a dismissive tone, I gave her my order details. She informed me it wouldn’t be ready for another 10 minutes—despite my scheduled pick-up time having already passed. When I shared my frustration, she gave a flippant excuse about “water issues” and showed no interest in resolving the situation.

I requested to speak with the manager, William, but he was equally dismissive and unhelpful. He offered no apology for the delays and refused to consider any goodwill gesture, such as a small discount for the inconvenience. When I mentioned this was my first visit in years and would likely be my last, his only response was “Okay” before walking away.

To make matters worse, the To-Go employee handed me a cup of sweet tea that was barely half full and mostly ice. When I pointed this out, she admitted they were out of tea due to the water issue but made no effort to address it until I asked for a soda instead. Another employee eventually brought me a replacement drink, but by then, the damage was done.

While the food was fine, the customer service was some of the worst I’ve ever encountered. From the unprofessional behavior of the to-go staff to the dismissive attitude of the manager, it’s clear this location doesn’t value its customers.

Save yourself the frustration and take your...

We were seated right away and the server brought our water in a timely manner; surprisingly the restaurant was not crowded or overly busy for a Friday evening. Once we made our food order, it took almost an hour to get our appetizer (2 for $25 meal) and about 45+ minutes to receive our food. During that time, our waitress never readdressed us regarding the delay, apologized or if we needed a refill of our drinks. After we received our meals, the "second set" of customers seated behind us received regular updates and apologies regarding their meals and were repeatedly asked if they needed refills or other services. Plus, their meals did take as long as ours to receive. My husband in the meantime had to quickly flag the same (our) waitress down to request a drink refill and another napkin; which NEVER HAPPENED. After witnessing such blatant disregard of customer service to us (I guess because we were green), my husband was fed up and asked again for carryout boxes for our meals, when it finally arrived (I initially had to convince him to stay to eat due to the poor service), which took another 15-20+ minutes (waitress then brings the extra napkins and asked if we wanted a drink to go...REALLY?). To top it off, as I continued to eat my oriental chicken salad waiting for the boxes, I find a l-o-n-g black hair within my salad!!! YUCK!!! We were offered another salad to go or a price adjustment, but my husband was not willing to wait another hour or so for a salad; with hair. It goes on...after receiving our food ticket, we waited another 10-15 minutes for the waitress to take our payment; she never came back. Out of frustration my husband finally walked over to the cashier station, waited again for help, and finally paid for our food via the service of a different waiter/waitress. Needless to say, this was our first and our last visit to this restaurant! We should have read the reviews before dining there complaining about the waiters/waitresses, seems like "who you are", and the customer service in general. Avoid this place and just grab a bite to eat from Costco across...