Two of these chains - Applebee's and IHOP (International House of Pancakes) - are part of the same parent company - DineEquity. My experiences with both of them have been nothing but horrible. Meanwhile, their CEO, Julia Stewart, gets paid about $6 million a year.
This past weekend (March 2nd 2013) I had the displeasure of stopping at the Seminole FL location of Applebee's. For locals, it is situated at the corner of Starkey and Bryan Dairy roads in the Bardmore Promenade. My wife expressed a desire for a "good burger" somewhere and not wanting to drive across Clearwater and Largo to a more familiar restaurant we stopped at this Applebee's.
There were the usual signs of inefficiency - tables not cleared and customers anxiously waiting for their lunch, but I stupidly ignored them. We should have walked out when our server was nowhere to be found. Strangely the manager was talking to customers and was going to walk right past our table when we grabbed him. I asked when will our server take our drink order and provide menus. He looked up and around and said "Oh, here is...I don't remember her name...but what do you want to drink". As he quickly departed, what's her name appeared and asked what we told her boss we wanted to drink.
Once again, we should have left. It was a Saturday afternoon, cold outside and we weren't thinking on all burners. We shouldn't of had to. This establishment is in business to take care of us, not the other way around. My O'Doull's arrived, no frosty chilled glass. I should have asked for a glass. I let it go. Ice tea for my wife. I ordered a chicken salad of sorts and my wife clearly stated she wanted a burger served well done - no pink - and raw onion.
Customers that had arrived before us were still awaiting their orders. My wife went to the rest room and in her absence, a trio of female servers stood near my table whining about how there was no "bus" service. The hostess had been told to leave her station at the front and clean off the tables. Incoming customers would be seated by the manager who never brought our drinks or apologized for the tardiness of our server.
"And how is everything?", he asked. We tell him including the part about the whining and tables not being cleared. Then comes what every lousy manager in the restaurant business does - give excuses. "Well, we never had a bus boy, we never give more than 2 onion rings - certainly no apology - but leaves to fetch the server. She appears, we restate the problem and she takes the burger back to the kitchen to hopefully correct there situation. "We'll cut more onion up for you", she says. Gee, thanks.
What a miserable experience. We finish and sit there waiting for a check. We were not asked if we wanted more to drink. She - our server - returns with extra napkins clueless that we're done and waiting for the bill. $27. Ridiculous. The manager never came back - never said he'd comp the drinks or take $.01 off the bill. That's not what we wanted. It was the apology we were waiting for and that maybe an offer to come back and we'll try better. No, what we received was nothing.
That's what we think about Applebee's - nothing. We've had the same experience at IHOP - International House of Pancakes. If you live in the Clearwater - Largo - Seminole I would highly recommend you avoid either restaurant chains at all costs. This location is a disgrace. Incompetent management, overpriced plastic food, poorly trained servers and worse, a who cares attitude. The model for an outstanding restaurant is Johnny's on the other side of town in Clearwater. No burgers, it's primarily medium priced Italian but the food, service and management is five gold stars. Go there instead.
