Applebee’s

This is the definition of the suburbs.
I end up frequenting this Applebee’s, located in Bloomington on Lyndale near my parents house, several times a year for its convenient location to meet up with friends.
Rain, shine, snowstorm, holiday or weeknight, this place is as busy as a beehive. Half off apps and bar-​go keeps the young teens, suburnites, and school and church groups coming by the boat load.
Despite Applebee’s steps in the recent months to make their menu more gourmet the food is still the same, the typical calorie loaded american chain food. I would say the highlight of this location are the characters they like to call servers/​waiters. You name it, they got it: straight out of Office Space, overly friendly high school teen, or (slightly drunk) cougar types — at least it never gets old.
One piece of advice, steer clear of the dessert shooters. I ordered the strawberry cheesecake once because I couldn’t commit to a whole dessert and I thought this would be a good middle ground. The fact that ‘shooter’ is in the name was a telltale sign. I took one bite then spit it out because it was not edible.

Please take my review as it comes. I, admittedly, call Applebee’s ‘Crapplebee’s’ and have extremely low expectations of the chain.
I go to these places because they are convenient for work lunches out in the burbs. Otherwise, I don’t set foot in the place.
I tried their new Parmesan shrimp, which was ok. I, and my lunch companian both, had requested half the rice (I’m generally strict about how much starch/​carbs I eat), and we were told that everything was pre-​portioned. I didn’t say anything, though I wondered how hard it could be to scrape off rice from a plate, which is what we both did.
This was the first dish at this chain that wasn’t overly salted. I was pleasantly surprised at this. The steamed broccoli was great, though it’s not that hard to cook.
So, if you’re into salty chain food, this is a choice you have. I’ll probably be back in the next quarter, which seems to be the frequency at which I’m forced to eat here. One does get sick of the Olive Garden (I eat one thing there), as well.