Applebee’s

Applebee’s what did I do wrong?
Before I give this review, let me preface this with the fact that 9 times out of 10 when I go to Applebee’s, something goes wrong. However I had a coupon and my husband loves Appleebee’s. Also I have some food allergies so usually wherever I go out to eat I need to make some substitutes. I ordered the Oriental Chicken salad but I wanted it with fried shrimp (it was lent and I wasn’t eating meat on Fridays) and dressing on the side. I had previously asked the waitress about the grilled shrimp and what spices were on it. She said it wasn’t too spicy but I told her that I needed the fried shrimp because I can’t eat things like that. When our food finally came out, I see that there is grilled shrimp. I tell them that I ordered the fried shrimp so they took it back. I wanted for about 20 minutes to get salad and it had the dressing on the salad. I was so irritated and hungry that I ate it anyway. I really wished I would have gone somewhere else. When we were finished with our meal and the waitress didn’t say anything about trying to «fix» her mistake. So I told her I didn’t expect her to give me the salad for free but I do think they should take off something. Our waitress did take off $ 5 off the meal which I appreciated.
I will not be visiting Applebee’s again (if I can help it), life is too short!

This was pretty awful, even for an Applebee’s.
I came here with Tracey W. after seeing a movie next door. It wasn’t our first choice, but we had one of those moments where you’re like, «I want to eat something right away and not have to go very far and no, I don’t want pizza.» So that basically meant we were either eating here or foraging next door at Schnucks.
The crux of our crummy experience was our server. He was nice, he was smiley and he was brand new. Hey, everyone was new once, but this kid should be shadowing a more experienced server. Not at this Applebee’s. He’s been thrown to his own section with no help. Who knew the world of chain dining was so cutthroat?
The problems were basically this: We ordered drinks, and when they arrived, he spilled them all over the floor. Like, an entire tray of large beverages flipped and flew onto the floor. I got splashed by cola. A lot of it. I had to ask more than once for something to clean myself up with. When our food arrived, they brought Tracey the wrong dish. We told him, no, she didn’t order this, she ordered something else. He said, oh really? And walked away. Left the sizzling dish right in front of her. My dish came the way I ordered it, but I had no utensils. Despite the fact that I asked repeatedly, I didn’t get any silverware until Tracey’s 2^nd dish arrived, a good 15 minutes later.
So there we were, sticky with soda residue, one of us with the wrong dish, the other with the right dish but nothing to eat it with, waiting. And waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Once Tracey’s dish finally arrived, our server made a big production of telling us that Tracey wouldn’t be charged for the dish she didn’t order. Well, how magnanimous of you, Applebee’s! The only reason this is getting two stars instead of one is because my salad was fine and came prepared the way I asked for it.
Our server was lucky the manager (or hell, even a different server) never meandered into our section, because I was ready to throw him under the bus. I didn’t though, mostly because Tracey kept silently pleading with me with her eyes not give the kid a hard time. She was certainly more forgiving of his ineptitude than I was.
So yes. Generally my expectations of Applebee’s are pretty low, but I do expect to walk out not covered in soda, to have a fork to eat my dish with, and not to be charged for something I didn’t order. Eat here at your own risk.

One word review: mediocre. Nothing here will really amaze you, including the food, drinks, and service. Nothing is awful, but nothing stands out either. The only redeeming factor are the good happy-​hour specials, which include half-​off appetizers. That’s really the only thing that could get me to go.