I'd never been to an Applebee's but since this new one opened up nearby hubby and I decided to try it out for lunch since he was off on the rare weekday. We got there around 11:30 and the place was still pretty empty and were seated in the bar area. My first impression was that I liked the feel of the place, it was open and bright and I loved the music. Hubby and I had already checked out the menu before heading out for lunch so we were pretty certain of what we were going to order but after about 15 minutes we had no server approach us so it felt like things weren't starting well and after watching a server stand by the bar chatting with the bartender as she casually sipped on her drink I was getting a bit frustrated. I finally went over to the hostess who sat us and asked her if their was a server assigned to our section and she apologized and went to get them. A few moments later, Desmond, our server came to the table and kept apologizing for the mix up. First off, I've managed a busy restaurant so I fault the hostess for failing to tell the server he had a table, it was absolutely not our server's fault. Desmond got our drinks and meal orders and lunch arrived pretty quickly after that. I ordered the one of the lunch combos - Chicken Tortilla Soup and Oriental Chicken Salad and hubby went with the Clubhouse Grill. As soon as I looked at my meal I knew there was a problem, the salad mainly consisted of an excessive amount of Crispy Chinese noodles, a mediocre portion of the Asian greens and there was no chicken anywhere. I decided to eat my soup until I could get our server back to the table but was sadly disappointed. I absolutely love Chicken Tortilla Soup but this barely had any flavor and the lunch portion bowl wasn't even very full and there were a couple of crispy tortilla strips kind of muddled in, after adding quite a bit of salt and pepper it was edible but clearly this soup is not made on premises, it tasted like it came out of a can. Another server brought out a monkey dish filled with cut up chicken tenders for the salad, apologizing that it was left on the line, while the serving was a nice portion I would have preferred if the chicken had been tossed into the salad so it would have the flavor of the dressing which, like the other important ingredients, was sparse (I had to get Desmond to bring me some extra). My husband really enjoyed his Clubhouse Grill and I really like the fries, they're flatter like a dinner fry but not quite as thick - crispy and very tasty. One other thing I would like to mention that I really felt was shady, they have these little computer/tablets on the table for ordering and games but at no point, until you've already committed, does it tell you that to play it costs $1.99 - total scam considering a child could quickly start playing with it and incur the charge without their parent's knowledge (until the bill arrives that is). There were a lot of servers on the floor and the restaurant did get busier while we were there but there were an awful lot of employees just standing around doing nothing. I did appreciate that the manager came to the table at the end of the meal to make sure we enjoyed everything but at that point we had already paid and were ready to get out of there. Not sure, with all the other great options out there, that we will be back. read more