Niamh K.
Yelp
I give a 2 because our waiter was the only saving grace.
This dining experience was diabolical. I half expected Gordon Ramsay to come in and us find out we were in an episode of kitchen nightmares.
Where to start. There were MANY issues. Firstly I do want to say that our young waiter was VERY good. He was handed terrible kitchen issues and was taking the fall for it. He was very apologetic and trying to correct what he could. He also was on top of keeping drinks etc. filled, things that were within his control. So I put NO fault on him. We waited about 30 min for our food (the restaurant was mostly empty when we ordered). Our waiter was very apologetic and said he would keep checking, but unfortunately he would get in trouble for "bullying" if he pestered the kitchen about it much. That they weren't allowed to get on the kitchens butts about things. My food was cold and I had to send it back. Thankfully it was better when it came back out. They did make a new plate. I waited for some ranch dressing, which our waiter went and checked on a couple of times only to come back to report that the kitchen ran out of ranch. (who's making these kitchen orders? Ranch is a staple item that you generally want to order a little bit too much of so you don't run out.) The table behind me had to send their food back as well. A table to my right had issues when we first walked in, the couple that took over that table afterwards also had issues with their food. They were also told that they were out of 6 oz steaks and waffle fries. An elderly couple was served their salad and eventually walked out because they waited for their food for so long. They had asked our waiter if he forgot about them and he again apologized and explained that he had gone to check on their food a couple of times but it was still not ready. A table behind my husband waited for their food for almost an hour. Not long after the elderly couple walked out, another table also walked because they waited for so long. I saw another table who clearly seemed to have issues with their food that their waitress was trying to rectify as well. In the end our waiter walked out, quit on the spot and honestly I cant blame him ONE BIT (though it would have been nice if he gave us a heads up. Alas, no big deal). He was the one dealing with all the failings of the kitchen staff and management. At the end a manager showed up and finally got us our box we asked for and got us out of there. After telling us the waiter had an emergency and had to leave...right. As we were leaving another customer stopped a couple of folks coming in and told them to go somewhere else. He told them about all the issues everybody was having and the other couple didn't even enter the restaurant, they turned around and left. Some serious kitchen and management issues during that shift that left SEVERAL tables extremely unhappy. Our waiter kept asking if we wanted to speak to a mgr. at the time I said no, but looking back I think he wanted us to without asking us to do so, so the manager could see how badly things were going and what the kitchen was doing. I regret now not talking to somebody then. Maybe he could have gotten some support from them then.
We have frequented multiple Applebees and enjoyed them with little to no issues in the past. This one though was wild. I don't think I've ever had a dining experience where quite literally every table around us was having issues because of the kitchen.
Again, I applaud our waiter even though he snapped at the end and said screw it. I cant blame him though. When you don't have good managers that keep things moving as they should and all workers doing as they should...it causes problems. And it will discourage your good employees. I wish him the best of luck wherever he goes next.
