Applebee’s

I went here with a hamburger offer I received in direct marketing, wanting me to try one of their new burgers. I have never been to this particular Applebees, and I think the last time I even went to one period, was over 15 years ago. I can’t complain: the service was prompt, the burgers were good and the place was pleasant enough.

Regular Applebee’s experience. Ordered a new type of burger with pineapple. Not very impressed. Also tried their news bbq fries, nothing really different than the seasoning you find on bbq chips. Prices just keep on creeping up it seems

Great food always; great staff. Love the variety of choices. I enjoy the sirloins and the appetizers.

This location is terrible! I called in an order for a cheeseburger and they told me on the phone my order would take 10 minutes. I arrived and was met by confusion from the hostess. She directed me to the employees at the back register. After a few moments, I was able to get the two girls at the back register to pause their riveting conversation about drinking and college drama to redirect me to the cash register at the bar.
The bartender told me she’d be happy to help, which was a real breath of fresh air after the first three employees I encountered were not able to. She rang me up and told me my food would be ready in about 10 minutes… which was weird because thats what I had been told 15 minutes prior when I called in my order. After another 20 minutes (35 minutes total), my food arrived, and I hurried home to finally enjoy my burger.
When I got home, which incidentally is really close, my food was cold, and my fries were soggy. I will not be going back to this location, and I recommend you stay away from it too!

Applebees used to be one of my favorite restaurants to eat at, but after trying various local establishments, I’ve actually come away underwhelmed with my most recent Applebees visit. Nonetheless, I was in the mood to sit around and read while someone cooked me a good meal, so I decided to take my business to the Applebees in town.
The exterior and the interior of the building is in good condition. It used to have this weird, cluttered feel, but with the recent renovation, everything looks a lot more professional and laid-​back while still offering areas that clearly display the «Cyclone Pride». Parking is pretty numerous, but I could see running out of spots during the peak hours.
Staff was friendly during my entire visit. I always get a bit concerned about being treated rudely when eating by myself, but they were friendly. My waitress refilled drinks promptly and checked in with me on a reasonable timeframe. My food was completed quickly (within 10 minutes, I think).
This Applebees location now has one of those «tabletop tablet» things. It allows you to call over your server, order appetizers or desserts without needing to track down a waitress, and view your total bill (and pay as well, I believe, but I didn’t try that). It also has games built-​in to entertain you (or your kids), but it costs a dollar to unlock all of the games for playing. I’d love to see Applebees add a «virtual» nutrition menu to this little tablet so you could look up and make educated nutritional decisions before ordering. Partway through my meal, the device asked if I wanted a refill, and I just had to press a button to notify the server, so that was neat.
Unfortunately, I was seated next to two extremely loud girls. As I had been trying to read while waiting for food and enjoying a relaxing evening, this was extremely frustrating. As I saw patrons from the other side of the restaurant glaring at the two girls, I’m surprised that none of the staff asked the girls to tone it down. Luckily, they left shortly after my food was delivered, so I was able to enjoy it in much more silence.
There’s also the fact of the food quality. Just like I remember, the food was relatively bland. The «bread» was just a piece of kinda-​hard bread slathered in oil and gunky spices. Ack. The pasta was pretty good, but it also was pretty bland. They did a good job with the balance between too much cheese and too little cheese, though, so I have to give them compliments on that. I am, however, annoyed that they got rid of my previous favorite dish, so I moved onto the Three Cheese Penne. It’s not a bad pasta, but I guess I expect something a bit more flavorful.
Final thoughts: This is a very nicely-​staffed restaurant with a nice and modern décor. If you enjoy Applebees food, you’re probably going to like this one more than most. Please also remember that this is a pretty favorite restaurant for groups of college students, so it can get a bit loud or packed depending on the night and time.

First off, I want to clarify my rating — I would put zero stars if I could.
I ordered Carside-​to-​go, and when I got home 25 minutes away realized that one meal was completely missing. Normally I check my to-​go orders before leaving (though I shouldn’t have to, but everyone makes mistakes so I check them) but my 2 year old nephew was fussing and I wanted to get going. It was very frustrating, but I decided to call the restaurant to see about getting my money back. It was too far to drive all the way back, so I figured that if I could just get my money back, it would be fine.
I spoke to Catherine, the manager-​on-​duty. She said they could do one of two things — have me drive all the way back and get my food with coupons or she could mail me coupons. I asked if I could just stop by in the next couple days and get a refund. She said that she didn’t have the power for that, and it wasn’t their policy anyway to give refunds. I asked for the General Manager, and was told that he was on vacation for another week and a half. The entire time, she sounded completely irritated at having to speak with me, and said the policy had been this way for «I don’t know how long». I guess that means silly me, I should have known better? I ended up giving her my contact information so the GM could contact me — in 2 weeks.
For one thing, Catherine should not be a manager. It is Saturday night, when it’s busy and everything can go wrong. I’d advise getting someone in place that can handle situations calmly and objectively.
But my bigger problem is this policy — no refunds? Period? What if I was rung up for a meal twice the amount of what I actually ordered? Would I just be offered more food, or more silly coupons? Coupons are not the anwser. They are actually insulting. I am a GM myself, in retail. I deal with situations like this all the time. I know that refunds are ALWAYS possible — it’s just a matter of whether or not the company is willing to work with you.
Applebee’s doesn’t seem to care about basic good customer service, if they can’t give a small refund for an error they made. They also don’t give their managers enough autonomy to make appropriate decisions — Catherine should have been able to do more for me, but couldn’t because of a bunch of small writing on the wall somewhere.
I am absolutely never coming back to Applebee’s anywhere, and will tell this story over and over again. If my family/​friends want to go, I will keep them from going. This is why good customer service is so important. People are 20x more likely to talk about a bad experience than a good one.
And along that street in Ames, there are a ridiculous amount of restaurants that we can go to instead.
Get it together Applebee’s.

We where a group of 11 college students on a monday night. They where great to us all the way through the meal. They worked fast to get us a table and where very accommodating to what every one was asking for. The food is the average Applebee’s but it was the waitstaff that sold me. If you are just stopping through town this is always a safe place to go for a good meal, but it can get crazy during main meal times.