Applebee’s

Do you like poor service and rude staff who would obviously rather be somewhere else? Do you enjoy mediocre food that isn’t expensive, but costs more than it’s worth? Then you’ll love Applebee’s of Gaffney!

I’m not going to disagree with the previous reviews as I could see how it could be awful being that there is only 2 servers in this restaurant during the time I went. The restaurant was empty so it wasn’t an issue getting great service. The food was freshly hot and was fresh. The only thing I didn’t like was how expensive the meal can become. My wife and I got 2 for $ 20.00 and the check came back over $ 30.00. The beverages were over 6 dollars. That’s a little much if you ask me. Great food but for the price I may not return here.

Seriously bad. The food is average, but the service is horrible, and their smoking policy is horrible. The bar is smoking which is in the middle, which means the whole place is smoking.

Terrible service. First time in forever that we didn’t leave a tip.
My sister, mom & I walked in towards the end of the lunch rush, a little before 1 PM. A hostess (?) approached us and asked us to specify our smoking preference, to which we succinctly replied ‘NON.’ (Seriously, South Carolina — get with the times and ban smoking inside restaurants already!)
She went to go wipe off a booth near the bar. Meanwhile, another oblivious employee (who looked less than thrilled to deal with us and had stains all over the front of her shirt) came up to us with menus and attempted to seat us. We pointed to the table that was being cleared off and she sauntered over to it with the menus without a word.
We sat down and waited a couple minutes before a more cheerful woman approached our table. She said she would be back in a second to take our drink orders.
She came back several minutes later to take our drink orders, but we had more than enough time to decide which meals we wanted, so we put in our food order as well. It took more than 15 minutes and another waitress to get our 3 waters, WITHOUT the lemon that was requested twice. We all ordered pretty simple meals; soups, salads, pastas. It took over 40 minutes to be delivered and at least part of each of our meals were cold.
Our table only had two rolls of silverware when the three of us were seated, so my mom asked our waitress for another set. The woman smiled and nodded and then wandered off into the wilderness. After a few minutes, my mom walked over to the hostess area and grabbed a fork & knife herself.
We were pretty fed up when we FINALLY got our check, and my mom gave it back to our waitress, along with her credit card. After at least 15 minutes my mom went to the bar to inquire what was taking so long, because she had to get back to work, and the waitress (/​bartender?) said that she forgot to swipe it. Then she dropped the card, which fell behind some bar equipment, so we had to wait even longer for the card to be retrieved.
It was like our table was in a little invisible bubble. Sometimes our waitress would happen to stumble into it and acknowledge us, but when she left, our existence was completely erased from her memory.
I get particularly irked when I have to taste and smell cigarette smoke during my meal, especially after we have been supposedly seated in «NON-​smoking.» I asked our waitress if our table was really in the appropriate section, and she said yes, but that the bar (only a few feet away) was open to smokers. Well that doesn’t make a bit of sense to have a centralized smoking section surrounded by smoke-​free tables. But I guess «senseless» doesn’t bother people who don’t have any sense in the first place.
To sum it up, the whole thing took about 90 minutes, when at all other locations I’ve been to (specifically Spartanburg and Boiling Springs) it takes about 30 with 0 complaints. Like a previous Unilocal review has mentioned, the concepts of time and service are apparently warped within these walls.

It has been years since I’ve stopped at an Applebee’s. And the reason really isn’t the food, it’s the staff. The food, for what it’s worth, isn’t that bad. It’s average, but I can deal with average.
Just walking into the place is like a battle royale. Witness when we walked in and asked for a non-​smoking table. The hostess told us that it was all non-​smoking until 3pm. When we asked about the people sitting at the bar and smoking, it was like we started a war.
Then she mentioned that it was almost 3. Looking at my watch, I dared to ask how 1:45 was «almost» 3. I guess that space-​time is just a little different in Gaffney or something. Then she went off and complained to her little friends about how we were the ones causing trouble. I guess we just asked too much of the place.
Service was slowish, but not bad, and portions were of good size. Our waiter was okay, but nothing spectacular. All-​in-​all, it means I’m going to avoid the next trip to Applebee’s for another decade. Maybe I’ll be senile by then.