Sunday November 2nd, 2025 @6 PM ** We went to dinner--six of us! My treat! The restaurant was full and bustling with people, families and a few large groups. Most of the large groups were there before we got there and had already been served drinks, their food came out shortly after that. Our food took over an hour and when the appetizers finally came out, the chips were not completely cooked and they were full of grease. My son's steak was like a hockey puck. We had to have the waitress take it back and get him another one. They were out of broccoli so they substituted green beans and, they were mushy and tasteless. One of the burgers did not have pico de gallo on it --and yes it was supposed to! My daughter didn't even want to send it back, she was afraid it would take another hour. The waitress kept apologizing, but seemed frustrated and short with us. The manager didn't show up until the shit show was over!--and then tried to smooth everything over by bringing out the remade steak, (all smiles and apologies of course) Our bill was almost $200, I didn't complain to the manager, because obviously he was already aware of everything. I just paid at the table then we left. I would just like to mention we have been at this Applebees many times before and never had this bad experience. I have a very large family, so the time spent together and the quality of the meal does matter, due to the cost we don't do it very often. NOTE TO MANAGER -- if you're busy, I totally get it, let the food take an hour, but the quality of the food should not be compromised! Otherwise, if your kitchen cooks can't handle the volume of the customers, you shouldn't seat them, and in doing so you're giving your customers and your employees a horrible experience ! read more

Applebee's Grill + Bar - Outside of the restaurant - Sports Bars Near Me - Elk River, Minnesota

Applebee's is Applebee's. They are what they are. That is why I was shocked at how bad their Prime Rib Dipper was. Fried onions and cheese don't belong on a dipped sandwich. The onions were awful and the bad taste lingered until I could get home and brush my teeth. However, my wife enjoyed her cheese less cheeseburger and her dollareta and mine. I was the designated driver. read more

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Terrible service. Miserable. Came for lunch by myself and no one greeted me, sat at the bar. Only one at the bar and the lady kept her back at me for long enough for me to know I should leave. Terrible place. Go somewhere else read more

Great Staff,Great food with good portions.Delivery is great,not a long wait at all. Also very close to home,for pickup and delivèy read more

worst service I've ever had in my 39 years of living got served raw steak. The artichoke dip taste like barf and that place just needs a whole new revamp and new food and oh my gosh the food tasted like it was five days old!! and one of the steaks was alive. Oh read more

My husband and I went there to have the all you can eat on a Monday night. My husband started with shrimp, I started with chicken fingers. The chicken fingers were way overcooked and hard. I TOLD MY SERVER but she said nothing. Husbands shrimp was OK. My husband switched to riblets and hated all the bones. He said flavor was good. Our $45.00 dinner was disappointing and it will be a while before we go back.​ read more

I know we're in the middle of a pandemic and for that reason I've tried to avoid writing reviews at all but I am extremely disappointed in the service here. We ordered pickup from this location before I left work around 6:00. The food was supposed to be finished at 6:47 as stated on the receipt. We got here early and were allowed to sit in the lobby to wait and to my surprise we are still waiting. It's currently 7:34. Around 7:15 our name was called but the ticket was on the wrong order. It seems like the community agrees that this location has a lot to work on. I watched one of the employees dismiss another customer inquiring about his food by saying "It isn't ready. We got busy" as she walked past him. I've worked in food service and I know that it's a struggle but I also learned to over-quote wait times and to be respectful to customers even during stressful situations. I'm hoping the food can make up for spending a ridiculous amount of time after work waiting. (I'm leaving the location at this point and having my boyfriend grab the food - I'm frustrated!) All essential businesses and employees should hold themselves to the same standard now as they do outside of the pandemic. Myself included. I hope to see better in the future. Update: They gave our food to someone working for Door Dash. Trying my best. Breathing deeply. Final update: The food came out at 7:40. The manager said "Sorry for the wait" and gave us a business card with $20 off on the back that I'm not sure if we'll even be able to use. Considering we tipped $10 when we ordered the food the meal should have been taken care of at the expense of the business. This was not how I wanted to spend my free evening! This location needs corporate intervention. They are drowning. read more

Applebee's Grill + Bar - Sports Bars Near Me - Elk River, Minnesota

My family and I went to Applebee's over the weekend and once we were seated we noticed the table was sticky and it smelled horrible like a boys high school locker room not to mention a random sock laying on the ground and the servers walked past it multiple times before picking it up. My husband and I ordered th Mac and cheese with honey peppered chicken off the 2 for $36 menu and it lacked any taste unless you took a bite of chicken with each bite of pasta. Lastly, we were not asked once how we were enjoying our food or if we needed anything else I had to stop our waiter why'll he was walking past to ask for box for my kids food and the check. Not going back to that Applebees. read more

Sam was our server and he was working hard seating us immediately on a Saturday evening. He was friendly, prompt and attentive. We have not been to Applebees for several years and we were impressed with our recent visit. We ordered the two for $24 - it has an appetizer and we both got the delicious oriental chicken salad. The community artwork and pictures were enjoyable to view making Applebees seem more like a local establishment, not a chain restaurant. read more

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Most of the servers are beyond rude to each other and do not try to hide it. The atmosphere is very hostile and uncomfortable. Don't waste your money or time here. read more

Been to this location several times. I usually sit at the bar or a booth when friends and family join. As a person who is eating low sodium foods this menu is difficult to navigate without constantly checking my phone for the nutritional info. No problem! My eating habits are out of the norm. I really wanted a baked potato but couldn't find it on the menu to order as a side, glad I asked because it is an option! If people with restrictions on high sodium foods feel like Applebee's isn't an option, there is a way to enjoy a lunch or dinner there! 100% delightful service every visit. If something is wrong with an order, they fix it immediately and never make you feel bad about saying something. Prices are still fair, service and smiles go a long way and this location has plenty. The only reason this was not a 5 star is based solely on so few true heart healthy menu options. A side salad is great but the dressings (minus the oriental) add up to as much sodium as a bag of potato chips. read more

This doesn't even deserve one star. So disappointed. Came here for my birthday as I'm pregnant and all I have been craving are apple bees boneless wings. We usually go to the Coon rapids one but decided to switch it up. Sat there for a solid 10 minutes and a cute little blonde girl finally came and got our drink order and apologized for our server. Taylor our serve finally came and right off the bat I knew we were screwed. We did the 2 for 27 and ordered boneless wings for appetizer-came our dried up like they had been sitting under the warmer. Our food came out cold and a ridiculous amount of time later. Will never go back here. read more

I used to think terrible of this Applebees location, Most of the wait staff (Especially the daytime wait staff) are terrible, slow, kind of snobby and just plain not aware of their customers. Until I discovered the bar area Late nights (Half price apps and lots of drink specials) and I found my new bartender, Mister Alex. Great guy and keeps a good mood going for your visit, plus he makes a mean long Island, and remember his customers. I dont even need to ask for my drink, when hes working and I walk to the bar, he already has a long island and a tall coors light ready. Hell of a guy. I really dont even like to go if hes not there to be honest. If you are in Applebees Elk River on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday after 9, instead of the table, hit the bar, for one of Elk rivers best bartenders will be there! They could stand to up the portions of their queso blanco dip though. I swear the bowl gets smaller each time I order. read more

Applebee's Grill + Bar - The bees of apple - Sports Bars Near Me - Elk River, Minnesota

Our Christmas week get-together at Elk River Applebee's with an old friend started out very well. Britnie S. was our server. When the meal was served everything looked great. However, my fish and chips even though looking great was one slightly warm bite of fish with the second bite very cool with the next one cold and looking raw. When Britnie came to check on us, I told her mine was cool and uncooked. She apologized and took it back to the kitchen. Some time later she returned and said the manager would deliver a new meal soon. At this point, the other two people with me were about half done eating. The manager brought the replacement full meal about 4 or 5 minutes later and apologized. By this time the others were done eating. I ate one piece of fish which seemed fully cooked. Britnie came by and I requested a to-go box. She returned shortly with the box and the bill. The bill showed our meals and my two fish and chips meals with one comped. I paid for the three full meals and tipped Britnie properly. As I reflect back on the whole ordeal for myself, I am disappointed in Applebee's for the original uncooked food, but after the disruption of the meal for the three of us and the extra time spent, I am also disappointed I didn't at the very least get a reduction in the price of my meal or the whole meal comped. I am not sure I will be going back in the future. read more

Since all this covid-19 stuff has been going on we have been trying to support our local businesses , so far we have gotten take out at the Elk River Applebee's twice both times the food was out to our car on time the foods been hot and fresh and the employee who takes it out has been friendly. I would recommend this location read more

Not the best location. Skimpy food and even when addressed charged me for an added portion. Ridiculous! I'll go out of my way to drive to another location. Not service oriented and doesn't show care for their customers. read more

I kind of feel like it's a waste of time telling you why this place is so awful. The other reviews are highly accurate - these aren't just your usual "I'm going to complain to the manager" reviews, I believe every one based on my experiences here. - Drinks? All of them watered down. If you want to drink a ton, spend a ton, and not get drunk, go here! - Food? Highly overpriced with tiny portions (and I weigh 110 lbs. and don't eat much) and rarely comes out hot. - Service? Waitstaff has always been 8/10, front of house barely notices you over their gossiping, and bar tending service is somewhat friendly but as stated above, it's hard to be happy with service or want to tip when your margarita has no tequila in it. Overall, this place is only a couple miles from my house but I'd stop at Burger King or the SA gas station next door for food before going here. Their lot is usually pretty full so I assume their regulars don't have much experience with other Applebee's locations. Coon Rapids is ridiculously priced too but at least you get enough for a doggie bag! read more

We do their curbside service and like it. Sometimes I have to wait for awhile for the food to come out but it may be because I'm a little early. Staff is always friendly. read more

Just stopped .for a quick dinner.noticed they do not offer beef and chicken meals.and when we asked why we were told that's how corporate wanted the menu and absolutely no substitutions at all.so anyone with seafood allergies or pork issues.gets screwed.we will start going somewhere else this restaurant is not that great. read more

Don't ever go here for a sporting game like hockey playoffs for the tv! They do not turn tv sound on and will even do bar bingo when it's MN Wild finals. Food is good though, excellent healthy options, my favorites are French onion soup and steak/shrimp combo. read more

I went here tonight with my daughter n brother in law. We ordered 1/2 price appetizers n a kids meal. Kids meal came in 15 min. 45 min later waiter asked what our order was because he forgot to put it in. We asked for tab. Meal wasn't comped as it should have been. Crap ablebees is off our eat out list FOREVER!!!! I would have selected no stars but couldn't..... read more

While I'm a sucker for Applebee's during happy hour, the bar tending at this location has me feeling robbed. Very watered down drinks! And the $9 perfect margarita is far from its title. If it were called the Perfect Margarita Flavored Water, it would live up to the name. read more

Ok. I've been to various Applebee's before, so I am somewhat familiar with the place. We went to the one in Elk River, MN. We went on a Sunday afternoon about 2:30 PM. The place was about 2/3 full, so there were a fair amount of people there, but not overly so. The service was good. My biggest disappoint that i have is that the good came out tepid. It was only like warm at best. Try eating Mac and Cheese or onion rings that are barely warm... Or even a hamburger. My wife and I were not happy. Probably will not be going back there again. Oh! One more thing. We asked for the Senior discount and our waitperson said we would receive that... We never did. So another Mark against going back. read more

I ordered food for curbside pickup. Confirmation email received and food was supposed to be ready at 6:02. It's now 10 minutes after 7:00 and the food still isn't ready. Highly suggest staying away from this Applebee's. read more

Oh my, what is up with the menu not including prices for the cocktails? Had I known the tiny cocktail I ordered cost as much as my lunch I wouldn't have bothered. Even with no expectations I was disappointed. read more

We ordered online for take out last Sunday and it was the worst experience ever. We ordered an hour ahead of the pick up time we requested and my husband still had to wait an hour in the parking lot for our food. The worst part was there were no apologies made! They didn't even attempt to apologize or offer any kind of compensation to my husband. The food was awful as well. Cold, and burnt. We used to frequent this Applebee's a lot, but not anymore. I am trying to support our local businesses during this time, but this was the worst customer service I have ever had. I don't even want to give our review one star. read more

Rude waitress ignored my boyfriend and I for a half hour and when we received the food it was cold. Came back a few weeks later for pretzel sticks and my boyfriend got food poisoning. read more

This was the worst Applebees ever!!! Don't expect good food, because it was cold, small potions and when I complained they took a $3 discount off my bill. Management needs to think twice if this was good customer service read more

I find myself going back to this Applebee's every now and again, and I'm not sure why. Either I get amnesia and forget the disappointment of each visit or I want to give them a second or third [or tenth] chance to improve. We started off with the cross-cut ribs appetizer. Imagine seven or eight poker chips coated with a thin layer of meat. And then imagine paying $6.00 for it. It's a disaster of an appetizer. You either have to try to suck the meat off the disk like it's a barbecue-flavored throat lozenge or scrape it off with your knife. The flavor of the meat was just fine - it's just that there was so little of it. For the meal, I ordered a Triple Hog Dare Ya. The photo of the sandwich showed a generous portion of pulled pork, some bacon, and some ham, topped by a few crispy onion strings and encased in a ciabatta roll. Apparently, the chef decided to go in a different direction, and that direction was "saute an entire onion into a slimy, soft mass and stuff the whole thing into a bun." I don't believe my sandwich had any bacon on it, and there were maybe two or three tiny chunks of pulled pork. If I had wanted an onion sandwich, I would've ordered an onion sandwich. Definitely not worth the nearly $12. About the only saving grace was dessert. We ordered the s'mores churros and the salted caramel pretzel bites. The churros were served with a small pot of warm chocolate topped with toasted mini marshmallows and were quite good. The pretzel bites were covered in caramel and served with some cream cheese frosting/dip, and these were good as well. Our server was pleasant enough but not particularly attentive, which seemed odd given the fact that the restaurant was fairly empty. My overall recommendation is that you avoid this restaurant. There are other options in town that are much better. read more

Family wanted to meet up and go out to dinner. Applebee's was the choice. Food was cold and over salted. With the exception of seeing the family, it was not a place I would promote. They kept forgetting to bring silverware and one of our guests had to wait on his food. Applebee's is like McDonald's to me with the exception of selling alcohol, don't expect alot. I honestly enjoy the locally owned restaurants up that way, Applebees belongs in the suburbs. read more

Went with my family today and after 30 min finally got our wings that were not even hot. Went to grab our plates and only one of 4 were clean. After another 30 min we finally get the rest of our food and all under cooked and cold. Manager told us he would see what he could do and came back with a bill for our drinks and the wings. $20. What a joke. read more

If our server hadn't been a sweet lady we would have complained. The food was messed up, I waited an extra 8 minutes to get mine after my family had gotten theirs on top of already waiting an abnormal amount of time to even place our order and then for my family to get their food. Just half of my plate was cold when it showed up which was weird. We did mention our issues to our waitress, she was apologetic but kinda just shrugged at us. We don't want to be the people that flip out, we really shouldn't have to in my opinion, it should be as easy as saying "hey our food was messed up" and them obviously noticing that our food took extra long and mine even longer (a table that sat at least 15 minutes after us was served and gone before we got our food) having worked in the restaurant biz I know this is something I shouldn't have had to ask be addressed. It just sucked because we don't go out often having three little kids it's just not always very relaxing, so having a bunch of things go wrong and then getting blown off really sucks. read more

Just tried getting in for a lunch and had 45 minutes. When we sat for 30 minutes we asked our server to box our food to go because we had an appointment to get to we were told the food ticket was lost and no food made. Now I am hungry and have to sit through two hours of meetings on an empty stomach!! read more

Why does it take an hour for our food to come out and then its COLD? Sure we had 2 tables the server had to serve, but very disappointing food. The mgr. did talk to us and make things hot again read more

Took our friend visiting from overseas and our friend wanted a beer! They denied him the beer because of his passport. He was able to pass through all the security points without any problems, and we have problems getting a beer?! He's not underage, so I really feel that this place is unfit for foreigners to visit---sad! read more

Ate lunch here with my Sixth grade teacher from 1956 and a neighbor from my mom's area. Chatted a long time 1/2 hour before our orders were taken. It was not crowded so our waitress did not mind us taking our social time there. The portion of tomato bisque soup was quite small - about 1/2 cup but served with large croutons and grated cheese in a cutesy oval bowl so it made it look like a cup of soup!! The 3 cheese Campanella pasta with chicken was ok. All 3 of us had to wait for our meals because 2 of us had ordered the pasta dish and they had just ran out and had to boil more pasta. All in all it was a good lunch. There are not many restaurants in this community read more

The sirloin is used with meat glue. The steaks are made with several smaller unusable meat chunks, then sprinkled with a lab made powder that fuses the smaller meat chunks into one large piece, then cut into a piece of Frankenstein meat to imitate a real steak. You can look this up, it's called meat glue! It's banned in several country's and should be in the USA but it's not. Don't order Applebee's sirloin unless you like toxic waste in your food. read more

Last night my wife and I took some friends to Applebees in Elk River where we often dine. The four of us ordered the 2 for 27 meals and settled in for a leisurely meal. Not so. Within 3 or 4 minutes after the appetizers were served our main courses arrived. Thus the appetizers (onion rings and boneless chicken wings) were not eaten, we had a pileup of dishes on the table and we felt very rushed. When I addressed this to our waitress, she explained that because the restaurant was not busy (early dinner hour) the kitchen was able to quickly prepare our meal and that she had no control over the timing of our service. Not a good dining experience. The restaurant should review their policy regarding this matter. read more

Great service. We got attended by Danna and she was great and very friendly!

The service and wait people quality has been going down hill for the past few years. they treat you like you are an intrusion in their life. the bartenders are good. I don't think I will go back there again. Not the one in elk river, mn. So arrogant and rude....Like the food, hate the restaurant read more