Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in West Virginia

Went tonight with my niece and daughter. It was around 930pm. Came it, long line at the front with two big parties waiting. Gentlemen came up to first party f 7 asked if they would mind sitting outside on the patio, group said sure. Gentlemen said okay just give me a minute. He comes back says party of 9, the second group spoke up and said thats us but there's only 7 of us, we counted wrong. He places the second party out on the patio, completely forgetting the first party.Comes back, ask them again if they would like to sit out on the patio to which he then is told, patio is full......keep in mind he seated the first party of 7 out there. He then looks at each party asking again how many. Party of 7 still standing there...looks at me I,said three he seated us. Said he would be back with silverware and menus. Never comes back. Just continues to walk around with a dish towel in his hand. Our waitress finally comes (the placed is not slammed or packed) brings us menus, takes our drink orders. Three pops and I asked for a mixed drink that one of the ingredients was orange juice. Brings our pops after a 10 minute wait,all the while I am watching this waitress walking around the bar in circles...literally just walking in circles. She tells me my mixed drink is almost ready, asks if we are ready to order. Didn't ask about appetizers....I said I think we will start with a couple of appetizers. (Half price can't beat that) I ordered boneless wings, queso and chips. We place our food order as well and my niece added a salad. Mixed drink finally arrives...first drink tastes like straight orange juice. So I mixed it up thinking that's all it needs...No. She finally comes back to bring my daughter a refill, didn't even ask if my drink was okay I had to stop her from walking away and asked her if she,could have the same new drink made, because that one tastes like orange juice only. Took the cup said yes. Another 10 mins go by my new mixed drink arrives first sip, pineapple juice.....Not even one of the ingredients...... So I just place the new drink at the edge of the table. Not sending it back, don't want it. My nieces salad is brought out....She finishes her salad then our food arrives....No appetizers, just our food. Main reason for appetizers is to snack on before your meal.....food was brought out by two different men because again our waitress had disappeared outside the front doors for the third time. Then our appetizers come....I'm trying to be patient because maybe she is having a off night, had crappy customers before us. I cut into one of the wings and it is stone cold..I reach over and get a,chip dip it in the queso...chip is stale. I think well maybe it's just that chip. Nope two more chips in they are stale also..Guess what our waitress is no where to be found. Waited, waited and waited she finally comes back inside for the fourth time from being out front. Just walks away from our direction and stand back where the bathrooms are chatting with other employees. Finally comes to our table. Says everything okay. I said actually no. The wings are cold and the chips are stale, to which her reply you would think would have been I am very sorry let me get you new ones..Nope she's says to me there's no way those chips are stale they are made,fresh DAILY.I repeated myself again and said well they are stale....She reaches over top of all of our plates, grabs the appetizers turns around starts walking off and says I will take them off the bill.by this time I'm done. Have had enough. Waitress goes MIA again flagged down another waiter asked to speak to the manager. He says sure let me get him. Two managers there.....My niece watched the manager ask our waitress something I can only presume was why I was asking for a manager, the waitress threw her hands in the air as if to say I don't know.Waited,Waited,Waited still no manager. He is standing in the back by the bathrooms chit chatting. Waitress comes back asks if we want dessert We all three declined, she says okay I will go get your tickets. Didn't take her...

We have two residences. One in Austin, TX and the other in Hurricane, WV. We have gone to this particular Applebees every week for the past year whenever we are at this residence. Probably like most people, we lost interest in Applebees for many years. We then found this location. We gained interest again because the food is consistently good and the prices are reasonable. I always look forward to the Bourdon Street Chicken dinner. I came to the conclusion that Applebees reinvented itself. I became such a fan that I would take our guests to this particular Applebees.

So you are probably wondering, "Why only two stars?". That is because of the most bewildering experience at the restaurant today that lacked common reasoning and tact. My wife, sister-in-law, and I went for our weekly visit. My sister-in-law ordered a margartia. She is 50+ years of age. There is no mistaking her for an underaged drinker. The server asked for her ID. That was not the issue. It is what occurred afterward that caused the issue. My senior aged sister-in-law did not have her ID with her. She was refused the drink. That was weird, but still somewhat understandable. My wife did have her ID and ordered herself a margarita.

Now for the astonishing event. As we were waiting for our meals, my sister-in-law took a sip of my wife's margarita. The manager must have been monitoring us as she aggressively came to our table and told my sister-in-law in a rude and patronizing tone that she could not take a sip of my wife's margarita. She then abruptly left. I was stunned. The more that I thought about it I decided to discuss the situation with the manager. I asked for her to return to the table. I told her that we understand that she must enforce rules, but we were offended by her tone. We have been regulars for over a year. She stated the law requires her to check all IDs. I stated that is understandable, but never once have any of us been asked for an ID at this location for the past year. She stated that the servers should have asked. I then responded that, based on her response, that they have apparently therefore been breaking the law for the past year. She did not have a good response other than to state, "If you take another sip, I will have to ask you to leave.". We then decided to cancel our orders and leave immediately. The manager did not seem fazed about losing long term customers along with all of the guests that we have brought to the restaurant.

Imagine such an exchange with senior aged patrons! Apparently, Applebees took a step too far during its reinvention, at least at this location. They uninvented themselves in our eyes. I can no longer be a customer and can no longer recommend this location despite how good the Bourdon Street Chicken tastes. The customer experience was incredibily disappointing and was void of reasonable consideration.

It will be interesting to see if management responses to this review with more than the routine, "That is our policy". A thorough response will need to address the inconsistency in enforcing policy during the past year, the rudeness, and the poor treatment of senior aged patrons who have been...

First time there in along time. Will not be going back after tonight. The hotess said 15 minute wait, plenty of tables open, she was rude, seated us about 10 minutes later. Waitress got drinks and then took order... then it was 1 hour 30 minutes before we got our food. Girl cleaning tables got us refills, manager came by and asked how things was and I was nudged by my husband because he didn't want me to tell the manager they needed to step up their game. The wings was just hard chicken nuggets, my husband's steak was little meat and lots of fat, potatoes was cold, broccoli was cold. When you go to a restaurant the first thing you should see is people smiling, talking to you, welcoming you there....you sure don't see that in Teays Valley, you see people looking like they don't want to be there, eye rolls, the pouty lip look or the really do I have to wait on them look....the water in the bathroom, then need to place a trash can to catch the water dripping from peoples hands instead of the water all over the floor when getting paper towels to dry the hands....over heard we had 12 cooks quit so far in 2 weeks...well I wouldn't have told that either. Definitely need to have a group meeting and make it known that put smiles on the faces, interact with customers, and be happy not the dreaded geez I'm here big deal look or the look of geez, I do not want to be here. We was a party of 2, I was a waitress at Diehls and I depended on my tips to pay my college and car payment and car insurance... I was happy to go to work everyday making 2.50 a hour and coming out with 150.00 a night except Saturday and Sunday was never under 350.00 each day....I guess the good old days are gone. Things have changed so much but I still clean my table up every time before we leave a restaurant and we don't run the waitress legs off either but 2 times in a total of 1 hour 50 minutes to 2 hours there---I found...