Applebee's Grill + Bar — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

We had a new server who had to be reminded by her trainer to visit our table which made getting refills or other things take a bit longer than it should for a restaurant that had a total of 6 customers in it at the time. Once she was reminded to visit she came by almost too often, I am chalking that up to her being new, and we are understanding of that since my wife and I both have extensive experience working in the service industry while we managed a bar in Key West, FL. The appetizers, cheese sticks and chips and queso, arrived at the table fairly quickly and were good. Our drinks arrived just before our appetizers did. I had a Pepsi that tasted like Pepsi so there isn't much to say about that.. My wife ordered a mudslide that tasted as though it was "virgin" drink and not one made with alcohol. The bartender didn't do a "full pour" when she mixed the drink. While we don't expect an over pour on any drink, and have never asked a bar tender to "hook us up", we do expect a full pour on any drink we do order especially at the prices Applebee's charges for their drinks. Now to the food part of our lunch. My wife had a chicken strip and pasta dish (sorry I don't remember exactly which one) that she enjoyed a great deal. She was very satisfied with her lunch and said she will definitely order that particular meal again if we go back. I had the classic bacon cheese burger that I ordered medium well with french fries. When the burger arrived the the bun was soggy from all the grease from the meat, not a huge deal in the big picture of things but not exactly what I envisioned. My first bite revealed that the burger was more pink in the middle as if it were rare, and not even medium rare, just straight rare. I expected to find that browned middle as you would expect from a medium-well cooked puece of animal flesh. That was not the case. The fries were cooked, yet cold when they hit the table. Not sure if that is because they were cooked in a huge batch and sat until needed or if tge were cooked when ordered and just sat on the plate for too long. I would have asked to have the burger redone as I ordered it had our server or anyone else who worked their been around to ask, as I said we had a brand new server. By the time our server did make it back to the table I had already eaten 95% of my burger because I was plain hungry and just wanted some food. When we got our check, $55.09 for two meals, 1 Pepsi, 1 sort of mudslide, and a single draft beer, we did mention the under cooked burger, cold fries, and lightly poured mudslide to our server and her "trainer" who was also tge bartender that day. Our server was understanding and apologetic about the issues, her trainer/the bartender was more of a "Karen" over being questioned about her ability to mix a drink correctly. Our server did her job as well as she could with the "training" she had been given and was tipped 20% because she did try her best. Overall it wasn't the best experience we've ever had at Applebee's nor was it the worst, though it will be a while before we go back to this...

My friend and I were at the Applebee's on Patterson Ave./Allegcy Way in Winston-Salem, NC tonight February 26, 2022. We sat at the bar which is our normal thing to do when we go there on a Saturday night. A very friendly, female bartender greeted us and got us our beers and gave us menus. Then Tyler greets us and takes our orders. He was congenial and very attentive (at first) and there was some light hearted bantering going on. We got our meals and we were enjoying ourselves. My friend asked for another beer and he said "gotcha". We waited a few minutes and then I got Tyler's attention and said "she's still waiting on her beer". He grabs a draft beer and said something a bit sarcastic about he was waiting on it to finish pouring. She was drinking draft. She took a sip and mentioned that it didn't taste the same. Took another sip and said no, this isn't what I was drinking. Note here that since the female bartender got our first beers, Tyler had know way of knowing what my friend was drinking and didn't even ask her. Just gave her a beer that he evidently poured wrong for someone else. After a few more minutes we finally get his attention, AGAIN, to tell him that it was the wrong beer. He said "thought you were drinking 'such and such'. She said how would you know, you didn't pour my first one. He laughed it off and walked away. Through out our whole time there, he never came over to check on us or ask us if we needed anything...it was US trying to get his attention. Even when we were completely finished and needed "to go" boxes, we/I had to asked for a couple of more since what we were taking home was more than would fit in the boxes he gave us. My friend then ordered a "to go" meal for her husband and it came out way quicker than our original order did, which lead us to believe that it was a meal that was just sitting in the back. We paid with a combination of gift cards/credit card and we did leave a tip, but it was truly undeserved for sure. Tyler needs to be retrained to be more conscientious to ALL his customers and not just his friends while he's bartending or needs to be demoted or let go. My friend, her husband and I, along with another couple were frequent flyers every Saturday night and had the best time while Kaye was behind the bar. We actually went to that Applebee's because of Kaye. Now due to her not being behind the bar and some other issues with the other couple (that just so happen to be coincidental) we haven't been our "regular" selves, but after tonight's experience, I honestly do not believe any of us will be back. Sorry for your loss as I know I won't be back, but I cannot speak...

This was our third attempt at this location. First time was the best. Second attempt we sat for 10 to 15 minutes for our server Tyler who never showed up and we had to flag down another server in order to get drinks and our order taken (I think her name was Sam but I could be wrong she was wonderful). This time around we came into the restaurant and there were no hosts at the front at all so we decided to walk up to the bar. Took about 5 minutes for the bartender to acknowledge us (and I am a server myself and that is not acceptable, you always greet within 2 minutes and if not apologize for the wait). Once we got drinks we received menus and it took almost 10 minutes to get our orders taken. I could accept that if she wasnt literally standing there, taking (I'm guessing a regular) order and then chatting with the other patrons. When we received our food my boyfriend's steak wasn't cooked enough and my "cheesy" broccoli was a joke. Never did our bartender ask how our meals were after we got them until she saw that he had placed his steak on a separate plate to rest. She did offer to have it get cooked some more but we were hesitant that we wouldn't receive in time. Once we were finished with our meals and clearly had our plates ready to be taken up Kavondra is talking to other patrons and complaining about how she worked Veterans Day (on her normal day off) no regulars came in and her tips weren't up to her standards. Still waiting for plates to be taken up, I placed my card on the bar top and without getting a check she takes my card, not acknowledging us or talking to us , pays the bill and then I received my bill after the fact. The service was a joke and it needs to be better....