Applebee’s

Love the food but the hostess, Courtney, was super rude right when we walked in the door and not very helpful and polite when we had a party of 6. Then I overheard here tell people that she could seat them and told them to leave. Hostess should ALWAYS nice and care about people who pay her tips.

Let’s start with. Happy Hour.
Who are we kidding. It’s the only reason I come here. That and the satisfying nostalgia of this was my go to date night/​post Friday night lights in high school when I couldn’t afford anything better (Yes. and college). Half off appetizers! And yes it’s available through out the whole restaurant not just the bar. No you don’t have to booze (But youuuu can!)
Food (Again, Happy Hour):
If you like frozen food heated and served by all means it’s not bad. But like I said, it’s a good deal and way better option than fast food.
Service:
Actually always good. Now I days I only sit in bar because I am old but I get great service there.
Price:
I already talked about this! But consider this, its great hang out space too (sorry waiters).

Very slow service and then had to send the salmon dish back as it was so over cooked there was no way to tell it was fish. Getting the check took 10 minutes and it had go be corrected as the charged the salmon twice. The mgr only gave us 10% off of Bill. So NOT impressed!

Great food, great friends, great fun. Love their food. Always good and well worth it. If you haven’t been, you should come in and try it. I highly recommend it. So much to choose from. I’m still stuffed.

Was in last night to get drinks after work and honestly yeah everything is mediocre except for our server! First time getting decent service here and he definitely made my night. 2 of us were there first so we ordered our drinks and they came out pretty quick but our food took foreverrrrrr. I asked for a side of fries and our server tossed that in for free and he brought us another plate of boneless wings cuz he forgot he already brought them to us so that was a mistake on his part but hey free wings! He checked in with us just the right amount and didn’t rush us with our checks even tho it was past closing time. Good job apple bees for hiring decent people for once lol

It’s Applebee’s so you know what to expect. It’s a chain restaurant so there’s no gourmet meals here. Overall, the food is OK. My mom and I had the 2 for 20 dinner deal. We got onion rings for an appetizer which were pretty good and were on the crunchy side, not the greasy side. We both got the Oriental chicken salad. It’s a standby and was still tasty. The salad portions are big and the chicken is pretty tasty. The dressing is what really makes this salad. The beers are pretty general, noting special. If I had another gift card I would stop by again.

Came in. We were asked if we were over 21 (we are by 10 years) told us it would be quicker if we sat and ordered in the ‘lounge’ and were told to «find a table without a ketchup bottle on it». That sounds like a good time, right? Pretty sure that’s a hostess’s single task to accomplish but I passed with flying colors and found one! When we sat down at a ketchupless table we were ID’d. We are both from out of state and were told that we would then have to go and sit in the other area (where we were originally told would take longer) after the super important manager decided that we weren’t able to sit in the ‘lounge’. This place sucks and is super embarrassing. This review is being written from across the street at Jasmine Mongolian bbq where everyone is super awesome, nice and smiling. Peace out Applebee’s, your brutally lame.

The only thing good here are the appetizers during happy hour. The customer service is horrible, slow, and inconsistent. My boyfriend have tried many times to give an entrée a chance but each dish fail to even be edible. However this place opens late and happy hour is a hit if you don’t mind slow service and unfriendly servers.

Whenever my wife says, «Hey! Let’s go to Applebee’s tonight!» — in my mind that automatically gets translated as, «Hey! Let’s go spend money on something very basic, that you may only marginally enjoy, and that has a high risk of grossing you out at least once or twice!» Eating Applebee’s is like the culinary equivalent of watching an Adam Sandler movie — it’s never great but you sort of know what to expect going into it. So, when we went there recently and had a REALLY bad experience, all I could think was, «Wow — that was a whole new level of poor judgement on my part.» It’s like that feeling I got after buying a Shamwow… but add a borderline case of food poisoning on top.
It’s almost like Applebee’s is some sort of outlaw of the restaurant world and basic things like logic and math don’t apply to them. «Oh, you want your steak medium? Well, in Applebees’land that means we severely undercook it. That’s just how we do things ’round these parts.» I’m not joking — the steak was literally blue when you cut into it. And not in a ‘cool center’ sort of way like every other restaurant in the world — my 3 year old pointed at it and happily shouted, «Wow! Elsa froze Mommy’s steak!!!» We, of course, requested that they cook it some more but the waiter insisted on making a whole new one. Ok, that’s nice… but how about the mashed potatoes and veggies that are marinating in what looks like the remainders of a vampire that just got killed in True Blood?
At this point the waiter recognized that we weren’t too enthusiastic about our experience, so he said, «Don’t worry — the steak is on the house, we’ll take care of it!» Well, that’s very nice — thank you very much Mr. Nice Waiter! So, my youngest daughter and I are finishing up our meals (the wife had to take the littlest one out to the car to feed her at this point) when we eventually get the bill. Sure enough it shows (–12.50) as promised… but wait, that’s weird, the total still equals everything from the meal? I ask the waiter and he says, «Let me check.» A few minutes later he comes back and says the math is right.
What followed was one of the most illogical conversations I’ve ever had the mercy of participating in. After walking him through the bill line by line and showing how it reflected (–12.50) but the grand total still calculated that amount as being owed he insisted on breaking out his smartphone’s calculator app to verify. He takes the bill to his manager who now comes over to the table to go over everything with me again. After three attempts at tallying the total the manager’s response is, «Well, we didn’t actually comp you the price of the steak — that just shows we entered it in our system and then backed it out… for inventory purposes.» Say what? I politely remind the waiter that he specifically stated «on the house, we’ll take care of it» at which point he now stares blankly at me. I went on to explain to the manager that the waiter’s statement, in conjunction with a bill that specifically shows a minus sign in front of dollar amount, would indicate it was being subtracted from what was owed. I was even going to offer to have my 3 year old explain subtraction and addition to them using sugar packets at the table — she’s a very bright child and I’m sure she could’ve explained the discrepancy to highlight our point.
Finally, after a very long and awkward moment of silence the manager offers, «Well, obviously if you would have sent it back another time, then we could have not charged you for the item.» At this point I have to admit my ignorance of the Applebee’s Illuminati «Rule of Three»: thou shall compensate a patron’s undercooked steak ONLY if they

I used to go here all the time, but lately, I feel like they have changed, and not for the better. The food isn’t bad, pretty average to me. I do like their happy menu and prices, though I do think it was a little better back then.

You know, I’m pretty impressed with the recent changes of Applebee’s. They switched up their menu, and improved some of their signature dishes. My mom and I went in for some happy hour the other day. We ordered the quesadillas and nachos. The quesadillas tasted more fresh and did not have bacon bits in them like they used to. I used to ask for no bacon anyway, so I was delighted with this change. The nachos were topped with slow cooked brisket and fresh ingredients such as fresh jalepenos and cheese. The nachos before tasted artificial made with low quality ingredients. I am happy with the improved quality and integrity of Applebee’s dishes. They are moving toward a more classier style, but still keeping it casual.

Slow. Slow. Slow.
Party of 7 arrived at 9pm and had a 20 minute wait. Tables and carpet were super dirty so upon being seated they had us wait again to have it cleaned. We started with a round of water and some happy hour drinks. The water came out fast but the first round of drinks took 20 min to get. I ordered an appetizer and an entrée. We weren’t served our food for another hour and my meal came out a few minutes before my appetizer did. The second round of drinks took an additional 30 min to get and each time, our server, as sweet as she was, kept saying she just didn’t know what was going on in the kitchen tonight and the bartender was new and was having a hard time. One of my friends wasn’t even served — they forgot her order and had to wait. She wasn’t charged, so that was good and overall they took 10% off all of our checks. But 2 hours at Applebee’s was not in the books for us so it was more than a little annoying. I feel like every chain place I go just sucks balls.

I’m surprised that the Applebees’ all over King County share the same trait of having poor service. You would think that it’d just be an off day or one bad egg in the chain, but every Applebee’s I’ve been too has always provided subpar service and I’ve never experienced good customer service at an Applebee’s.
My husband and I haven’t been to an Applebee’s in such a long time and we just decided to go the other night because we were just like «meh, maybe it’s gotten better.» and we really enjoy the happy hour.
The Federal Way location is OK. Auburn is by far the worst, but Federal Way isn’t TOO bad. It’s not good, though. It’s super awkward when your waiter is sitting in the booth in front of you with his girlfriend and kissing her instead of doing his job and refilling drinks and taking food orders. :/​It seems like the waiters (or at least the ones working that night) cared more about chatting with each other and their friends that came in rather than taking care of their tables and doing their job.
Our waiter made sure to check on us a few times over the course of our meal, though, which was what we appreciated. I’ve learned to order anything we might need in advance (like even if we had a full side of ranch, I’d just order an extra just in case, or if my soda was still full, I’d ask for another just in case) otherwise we probably would have to flag down our waiter since they most likely wouldn’t ever show up again.
And the new tablet ordering menu thing is useful because you can put in your order immediately! Whereas if they didn’t have that option, you’d have to wait like 10 minutes before a server would even come to your table to ask you if you wanted something to drink! I don’t see a point in leaving tips anymore at Applebee’s when the service always sucks, but I still always leave a small tip since I’ve worked in restaurants. And because of that, I can understand if it’s busy and the service is a bit slow, or if the server is handling way too many tables, then I can also understand. But when it’s not that busy and the server is obviously not doing a good job, it’s hard to give them a good tip.
Overall, Applebee’s is the epitome of unprofessionalism and inattentiveness.