Applebee’s

This location seems to be going on a continual downhill slope. Portion sizes are dwindling as well as the service quality. Today, it took considerably long to be acknowledged by a server after being seated. The food we ordered was typical, no complaints there other than the already mentioned smaller portion sizes but by the time I was done with my food I realized I had never even received the drink I had ordered. At about this time my father had already been waiting a while for a glass of water. We asked for the bill in which I saw my drink had not even been entered in our system at which point I said I would just opt for a glass of water instead. At what again seemed like another long wait where we were both waiting for our change and our glasses of water we finally were greeted with only one water and change that was folded so randomly that it seemed like it came out of someones pocket and not a cash register. Honestly this wasnt anywhere near the worst experience ive had at a restaurant, but considering how ive seen the service of this location go downhill over time I felt it couldnt hurt to share my experience. Our server honestly seemed like a nice guy but at the same time he seemed like he was paying little attention to detail and the guests he was serving. The guests seated next to us were also complaining about the slow service and lack of attention to detail, things like missing utensils. If the management at this restaurant cares enough to do anything about this I am more than happy to give them our servers name. It seems like he needs to refresh on his training as well as paying more attention to what he is doing.

No star. Not worth a star. My first visit to this location. Very disappointed. New waitress. Took half hour to get our order. Steak salad and pork chop and veggi. Salad was all lettuce 6 small slices of steak. Looked terrible. And steak was tough
Pork chop was dry and 2 pieces of veggi was the mixed veggies. Also broccoli a spoonful.
It was either a new cook or this is going out of business. We mentioned to waitress. The manager came over concerned. But did not off discount or coupon. Will never go back to this location. Don’t bother. Go to restaurant next door.

I don’t understand how the same waiter (Julio) constantly keeps giving us horrible service on top of giving the wrong order every visit to this Applebee’s. I will be officially filling a report on him and this establishment. Very unacceptable customer service and work ethics

Had a very bad experience at this place. I ordered medium-​well steak. It came out over cooked. the sever took it back. I waited for 25 mins before I receive my disk again. The second piece of steak was over cook again. The sever wasn’t friendly at all. Anyway I wouldn’t surprise that much when this place only has less than 3 stars

The last time I was here was a late night dinner date 9 PM with Kat. Great burgers and stakes. Service is below average today. It’s not busy noon. Waited to long for service. The last time I was here Kat and I were served quickly the service was excellent.

I can’t really speak on behalf of their food, as I have very strict dietary restrictions. Which is kind of a bummer, but the one time I did order food, the traveling manager Robbie went above my expeditions to accomidate my diet. Since I felt it was kind of a hassle for a salad on my part, I choose to eat beforehand now. I can say their happy hour is pretty nice when in comes to beverages. $ 3.25 Tall Domestic Taps, $ 4 Margaritas and Long Islands, $ 3.50 Wine and Well Drinks (can’t go wrong) Their bartenders are really nice, Erica and Matt are the ones I see most often behind the bar. I’ve never had a bad experience here, and I go pretty often. Just wanted to counter these reviews about their staff, they really are a cool group.

Everyone that has written a review about the horrible service at this Applebee’s is NOT lying, that’s for sure. When we first moved to San Rafael, we went here because any other Applebee’s we’ve gone to in the past had great service. At that time, the service was slow, but it wasn’t unpleasant. A year later we thought we’d give it another try since I wanted to try the new «quesadilla burger». Well, the service has gotten even worse! We were greeted at the door and seated so I thought maybe it wools my be so bad. After 10 minutes, someone finally walked by and asked if we had ordered and we said no. He took our drink order. He came back and took our food order although he looked so distracted and uninterested in doing so. Anyway, 20 minutes later our appetizer came. It was good and we were so hungry, we practically inhaled it. Another waiter came and took our appetizer plate away.
15 minutes later, the server came and said he would check on our food. He didn’t come back for another 10 minutes with my husband’s cheeseburger egg rolls and my quesadilla burger. My «burger» came with no fries. He said the fries weren’t done yet and he’d bring it nice and hot when it comes out. Ok, so why did my husband not only finish his food and I finished my burger and still NO FRIES???
I used the iPad looking thing on the table to check our bill total and to call the server. I wanted to pay cash so I pushed the «call server» button. I pushed it twice because no one came the first time. Maybe it was broken? Our total was $ 37​.78​.no one came to bring us the bill, no one came to refill drinks, no one brought the fries, no one even checked if anyone needed anything. So guess what?! No one gets 15% tip. I left $ 40 at the table and we walked out. No one noticed except for when we were opening the door to leave and the guy that seated us wanted to hold the door open for us. I was already opening the door so no thanks.
Seriously, we could’ve walked out without paying and NO ONE would’ve known. NO ONE!!! However, I believe in karma so I left enough to at least pay for our meal and enough to cover the horrible service. I didn’t expect Michelin star service, but this service didn’t even deserve a star sticker!
Don’t come here especially if you’re in a hurry or if you expect any kind of service. The quesadilla burger was ok. Go to BJ’s next door. It’s a bigger restaurant and there’s always a wait, but their servers at least have a pulse.
We’re definitely not coming back here and by the sound of the other reviews, neither are a lot of other people.

I love this place but the steak got smaller but still like it. If you never heard or tasted Applebee’s, well you should try it

Disappointing! It’s hit and miss with this location. Tonight was a miss. I dine gluten free and the French Onion soup without croûton had the cheese floating like a lump inside the bowl. The soup was so oily that we sent it back. The bowl was so hot that the waitress dropped it on the table spilling the virtually few onions on the plate, side of the bowl and table. Our waiter was kind enough to credit the bill for the soup and let us know the grilled chicken wonton tacos were not gluten free.
The restaurant was virtually empty at 8:15 pm and the service was slow. I like the Rohnert Park location much better! We had to wave our server down several times, my partner had to get up from the table to get his attention.
Applebee’s has the happy hour menu after 9 p.m. We heard the bartender offer people at the bar the happy hour price for ½ price beer and margaritas. When I asked if I could be extended the same offer, he refused after speaking to his manager. This is just bad service and I’m not happy and happy hour discrimination. I even heard the bartender saying to the people it’s 2 minutes to happy hour and I will wait and rind you up.
The margarita was the worst, tasting of artificial flavor and lacked alcohol.
This was not a good night for me to have dinner at the San Rafael Applebee’s and next time. I would rather pay full price next door than go through this.

Just had a terrible experience at your San Rafael, Ca location. We dined and had the 2 for $ 25 (+$ 3 upgrade each) menu 9oz Steaks. One of the steaks came out very undercooked and had to be sent back and the other was not remotely edible as it was extremely fatty, chewy, and tough. (Keep in mind we could not even cut it it was so tough) Our server brought out The manager, and he had a new steak made (this took another 15 minutes on top of our already too long 25 minute wait|we dined around 8pm and there were about 5 other tables occupied). While the new steak was better, the quality was still not up to standard. One gets me is that we received no discount or percentage off of the bill. Instead the manager thought he was doing us a huge favor by taking off the 2^nd steak. A good manager would not have charged us for either steak, and probably offered a free drink or dessert. Nope, not at Applebees! The fact that both steaks were sent out with problems, (1 undercooked, 1 just plain nasty) and that we received no compensation, really bugs me. This is not okay! We wasted an hour, and over $ 65 bucks to be miserable at the table and have a terrible dining experience! We want a refund or at least an «I’m sorry»!!!

If you’ve been to Applebee’s before then there’s not much to say about the restaurant itself. Decent food but really good prices which is why they do so well. Happy hour prices are great and I would recommend coming here for appetizers rather than just coming for meals. The 2 for $ 20 is pretty good too but like I said their appetizers and drinks is where I think they have their best products.
This Applebee’s in particular had a decent staff as well, nothing over the top. The hostesses was just ok, didn’t seem like they were really into their job. Waitress was great however and checked on us multiple times throughout our meal which I enjoy.
This place won’t knock your socks off but you will get your money’s worth for happy hours. M-​F 3−6pm and 9 – 12 midnight

Shitty prices for shitty food. One time I got some horribly nasty microwaved dip and a beer and it came out to like $ 18

How start? Well the greater didn’t even acknowledge us to begin with. Looked at us and look back at his female coworker, and continued with the flirting.
Acting like he hated his life he decided to sit us. After a slightly longer wait than usual we got our menus, the waiter — Wanner D. was the worse of all, his way of saying «hi» was asking if we were «going to leave a tip?»
I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t.
Seriously! And the tone he said it was just not nice.
I’m guessing we are too patient for this type of things, I’m sure someone else would’ve flipped right there on the spot.
The whole way from ordering our food, and even when asking for our check, Wanner was really pedantic towards us.
We were left on the dark through out the whole meal, my friend needed a re-​fill, didn’t get one.
Really ruined the whole experience. I asked to talk to the manager but he wasn’t there…
Well too bad I guess…
I should’ve just gone right next door to BJ’s. Not coming to this Applebee’s anymore.

If I could give this place 0 I would !!! I used to love this place great food and service however my last visit was disappointing the lady who helped us acted like she hated life the whole time walking without smiling or acknowledging us! !! When I paid (on the iPad thing on the table) I if course did not give her a generous tip as her service sucked. when she brought in the receipt she just threw it on the table without even saying thank you and kept walking. When I opened the receipt she had circle the «suggested tips» on the bottom of the receipt And that is just rude!!! I wish I would have gone back to the manager but instead left and decided I will never be back! !!

Worst service ever waiter didn’t bother bringing soup before the meal even though he was told to start with it. Forgot bbq sauce. Then charged us and the one other table he had for each other’s dinners. Only reason I’m giving 2 stars is that the food was ok.

Food is so so hit or miss but expensive for what you get. Professionals NOT. A while ago in the paper was a write up on a person who left Applebee’s and crashed and died on the way home. There was an investigation. Last evening a nice guy asked me for a splash of my wine. I gladly gave it to him as it was not my day to be in charge of how much patrons were drinking or how much they were being served. After I gave a splash to the gentleman I was scolded that I should not have given him a splash of wine because he was cut off. My question is A. How would I know that? B. Why did they let him get that intoxicated and C. Since when it a patrons responsibility to monitor who drinks what and how much? It would be beneficial if bartenders did not let it get to the point where paying customers were responsible for being the bar police.

The food and service have gone downhill at this location.
We went for a family dinner to celebrate a birthday, and our food was cold, water was never refilled, we had to track down A server; couldn’t find ours, and have our food sent back. There’s no reason to go back here.

This is a review of a solo dinner at the Applebee’s in San Rafael/​Northgate Mall.
I didn’t expect much and that is pretty much what I got.
The restaurant was quite busy. However, I was seated quickly. The space was clean. The ambiance is the type that shows up in a truck for a big chain restaurant that serves food that always looks more tempting in the TV commercials than it does on your plate.
They have cool kiosks at each table. You can place your order via the kiosk, You can also pay your bill via the kiosk and get a receipt sent via email. You can also get the receipt printed. I placed the order and paid my bill with the kiosk and had the receipt emailed.
Unfortunately, even with technology, there has to be people involved and this allows for human error. I ordered a burger that comes with fries. I also ordered onion rings.
When they brought out my food, he brought a burger and an order of onion rings. He did not bring fries. I called a server over. I asked about this. He said he thought the onion rings were a substitution. I showed him on the kiosk that I was still being charged for the full cost for the onion rings. i explained I ordered the onion rings as an extra appetizer. He said ok and that he would bring the fries out. In about five minutes, he brought an order of fries. When I went to pay on the kiosk, there was an extra charge for an order of fries.
I was tired from work and didn’t feel like dealing with an inept server so I simply paid the extra $ 3.99 for the order of fires. I didn’t even reduce the tip. Even incapable servers need to make a living.
I will note that a different staff member brought my water out. She was very friendly and asked how everything was going. Even with the kiosk, they still had a lot of staff working.
Onion Rings — These were the best part of the meal. They were relatively hot. They were crunchy. The onions were sweet. Plus, the onions and batter held together. They were pretty much what an onion ring should be.
Triple Bacon Burger (Bacon in, bacon on, BBQ bacon ranch & cheddar cheese.) — This was an ok burger. Out of their selections of Pink and Not Pink. I selected Pink. It came out «Not Pink». The burger was still relatively juicy though. However, the bacon way over cooked. I mean way way x3 overcooked. When I was a kid, this is how my mom cooked bacon. My mom is a great cook but you do not want her cooking your bacon. I guess I am now officially glad my mom doesn’t read Unilocal.
Supposedly, this burger also has bacon inside the burger. I didn’t really notice it.
After all the hubaloo over the fries, they weren’t very good. They were cold.
Receipt: $ 28,21
Overall — Their cool ordering system was negated by human error. There wasn’t anything that really made the burger stand out in a positive way. Plus, they overcooked the bacon. The fries were mediocre. The onion rings were great but do not provide a reason for returning. My suggestion would be to walk on by and go to the BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery next door.

Why do I give a 5* well. Its Applebee’s in Terra Limda open until 12@M on a weeknight. I can get a any drink I want with a burger.
Not expecting gourmet here just an consistently always open place for drink and snack.
For the shmucks coming here on Friday night ordering the Prawn linguini with butter and garlic sauce (scampi lol) thinking they are on north beach then leave 2*.
Whag can I say Lol shmucks. Its applebees!!!

Portions not great.
Should at least look like their pic or use smaller plates.
When the manager checked on me I told him how I felt and he handled it immediately and was very personable. Extra star for the personalized customer service.