UPDATE! It has been 2 years since I've been to Applebees. Never went back after that horrible experience. And I can say with confidence that I still have not had an experience even come close to how awful Applebees was.
Anyways, my girlfriend and I were looking for a place to eat and eventually brought up Applebees as a joke. We then said, "Well we can give it one more shot right? There's no way it will be as bad. It's been 2 years..." Unfortunately here's what happened.
We went back to the same exact Applebees, right off I-35 in Kyle, Texas. The parking lot looked about half full but we realized as we walked in there were only about 10 tables in the restaurant during peak dinner rush. The hostess, who could have been no older than 17 was kind and attentive. You could tell she was uncomfortable however, seemed as if she was on edge and nervous about the groups walking in back to back. I asked if we could sit at the bar area because I wanted to watch the NBA games that were on and she said that was no problem. So we sit down, currently the only table in the bar area except for 3 people at the physical bar. We open the menus on the QR code and start going over the menu and.... nothing. Five minutes go by and we didn't even receive a greeting let alone get to place drink orders. As I look around I notice that there seem to be only 2-3 servers taking care of the restaurant so I cut them a little slack. However, that sympathy quickly went away when a family came in and sat at the table DIRECTLY behind us (my back was practically touching the back of the Dad who was seated behind me. This is where I lost my marbles. The lady bartender (there were 2, her and a man) came over to the family and got their drinks immediately. We hadn't even been greeted yet? Even though I was fuming I told myself maybe she would just come back and we could then order our drinks. NOPE! She comes back to the family, takes there food order, and then walks away back to the bar, all while my girlfriend and I are sitting arms reach away from the family. I looked at my girlfriend and let out a maniac's laugh. I told her there was absolutely no way that this was really happening. What made it worse was the male bartender looked identical to the one who served us last time. He was the only good thing about our last review but this time, the 2 bartenders were too busy with 3 people to notice us. What a shame. Anyways, after sitting and waiting with the last bit of hope and dignity in my body for another 11 minutes with NO GREETING I promptly looked at my girlfriend and said we were leaving. She happily agreed.
I understand that times are difficult. There is a worker shortage, the pandemic keeps relapsing and there seems to be new problems all the time. But to think that is an excuse 2 years apart, and all the other restaurants I go to every week don't ever let the standards slip. Applebees, especially the one in Kyle is a sorry excuse for a restaurant and a sorry excuse for management that lets the staff act like this. I'm glad they are making money to support the employees during this hard time but once the world is back to normal, this place should be closed and stamped as an American Failure. read more