Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in West Branch Township

the waitress (erica g) was a complete air head when she brought us our ice waters she never gave us straws and the hot water that mom mother ordered she didnt bring that out until about 10 or 15 minutes after we had to wait 10 minutes and reask for it after i had to ask her to give us straws for our drinks. the food was slow coming out and she told us twice that she was going to check on the food and see where it was at and never came back to use and told us the status of our food. every time she brought us something she forgot something and we had to remind her that we needed the said item. the plates when they came out to the table looked as if the food was just thrown on the plate and my sisters food was literally dripping over the edge of her plate and on to the table and her wanton tacos the meat that was used for it had the texture of ground up separated chicken pieces and the enchilada brisk she orders had a stringy texture to the meat in the center and the shell inside was very gritty and grainy like they used an uncooked fajita shell my plate of cheese and penne had greasy finger prints all over the rim of the plate and i went to move my plate and the bottom of the plate was covered in food and greasy so maybe you should implement a plate touch up step to the procedure and the expediter puts the food on the trays or moves them around in the window i was very dissatisfied and will not return to this location (west branch MI) ever again every time that we go there we get a staff member that just seems to know how to butter someone up to get a tip out of them and not know how to do their job. also my sisters rice was beyond dried out and we were offered a replacement at the time we were packing up to leave but im sorry but im not going to wait around another half hour for food that we will not like again.

i think applebees need to retrain their front of the house staff on how to be more connected with their work and focus on their work and leave home life at the door. i think the back of the house staff should learn how to change their gloves and clean their stations as they work because if i learned anything at culinary school it is that you clean as you go and not use the customers plate as a rag for your dirty gloves. also the back of the house needs to pay attenction to detail witht eh presentation of the dishes my sisters dish had everything slopped on her plate like it cam out of a prison cafeteria and it was running off her plate over the edge. my moms plate was about the same and her onion rings were well over cooked to the point the onions were dried out and my dish had dirty finger prints all over the plate. maybe a bowl of lemon water and a clean rag is needed at the expediting station before the dishes leave the kitchen. who ever the hostess was that night she was very nice and attentive at the door i think the front of the house staff should take...

Took my mother and father to Applebee’s this afternoon for dinner. Everything was going great. It wasn’t busy in there at all it was around 3:00pm. The hostess seated us in the older ladies area by the name of (Angela) she’s the one with the piggy tales in her hair. Let me tell you she was very rude and unprofessional soon as she walked up to the table she had an arrogant attitude it seem to us she got irritated that we got seated in her section. She didn’t even introduce her self by her name like a waitress should’ve Angela said the service was going to be a while before she can get to us she has other orders going in at this time. “I was like Okay we understand that” We know we will have a wait time. I told her that’s not a problem as long as we are not setting around here for 20 to 30 minutes before we get waited on. She come off with that same attitude and said well I have other customers and it’s going to be a while before I can get to you then she says Do you want me to get you another server I said we just don’t want to set around and wait 20 to 30 minutes to be waited on that’s all, she replied in a very arrogant, unprofessional manor again fine I will get you another server at that time I said yes get us another server. At that point I was already ready to get up and leave I didn’t want to create a seen in front of the hole restaurant. She sent over another waitress and she was so much better totally different attitude you could tell this girl liked her job and wanted to be there was so much more professional and polite then what Angela was to us the new girl even apologized for the rudeness of (Angela) I give her a 5 star rating on her service she provided to us. So as we was waiting for our food I seen the manager walking by and I told him what had happened and how rude the waitress was and how she treated us he apologized to us I really hope he addressed the issue with the rude waitress as I am calling corporate and reporting the issue also just as a follow up in case the manger didn’t address the issue with her (Angela) needs to know if it wasn’t for us customers she wouldn’t have a job and she needs to know how to treat the customers even if your overwhelmed or what ever her...

So we haven't been to Applebee's in over a year. Visited again for the $15.99 AYCE deal. I'll be honest the service was great literally because of the manager. I rarely see a manager these days personally checking on tables, (and actually seem like he cares). This guy? Super nice, kind, and funny. That frankly surprised us. Very pleasant experience and he refilled my tea twice.

That's someone who shows he actually cares you're at his restaurant. Unheard of in 2024.

Now for the bad, sadly. Our waiter was decent if not very friendly overall. But that's ok.

He did seem to be surprised when we asked for a second plate for an AYCE deal. It's all you can eat, not all we decide to give you in one plate.

Anyway, he started by saying, "Ok guys heres your bill, anything else I can do for you?". Not, "did you guys want another plate?". Let me clear, it wasn't rude, it just made you feel weird for asking for a refill. The deal is for wings, fries, shrimp, and riblets. They start you with a load of fries and one entree of choice. But, they always pile fries on so you waste your meal on carbs each refill. That's the trick.

I understand, you have to save money somewhere, and I'm not a buffet killer. I had 2 plates, as did my wife because we wanted to try this.

The worst part though, is the riblets had more bone and gristle than meat, and the meat tasted like it was just shy of turning.

Now even though the fries and shrimp were "decent", and the sauce on the boneless wings? Really tasty,... each one had way more breading than chicken and I had three pieces with hard gristle in it, yuck!

Sadly, it looks like the food quality overall has taken a dip.

That's unfortunate.

But again, part of the experience was saved by the really awesome manager. We went there at about 6pm on...