Applebee’s

On 9-​28-​2015 had an e-​gift card so I ordered a quesadilla burger and some boneless buffalo wings to go. Picked it up and brought it home. Got the ketchup out for my fries and didn’t even use it. I only had maybe 10 fries! I haven’t been there in a while so maybe the portion size shrank, you can get twice as many fries with McDonalds happy meal. Other than that, the food was good.

Had a wonderful waitress and very good food. The best applebees meal I have had. I would return. Try the double crunch shrimp!

I kid you not, in all my years dining out, 40 thus far, this was the worst meal I have ever had… ever. The only reason I even give 2 stars is because the waitress and the manager both recognized it, and took care of us on the bill. Wanna hear why? here we go:
We ordered some of the new Apps on the menu, the one we wanted they were out of, so we went with the second option, it came out, and was cold. Like it has been microwaved about 10 minutes ago, you know how fast microwaved food gets cold right. and the flavor was like dog food with sauce on it. $ 9.00 price.
The soup I ordered never came they went straight to the main course, whatever… I could stand to miss a soup, was this on the waitress yes, she acknowledged she never placed the order, but after the following meal I probably saved my life by not eating it anyways, so I’m not overly concerned with missing it, but it adds to the debacle.
We get the main meal, which we both order medium rare, which is just about raw. Instead we both get overdone hockey pucks with sauce poured over it to conceal it. The greens were disgustingly over cooked, we were under a time crunch so we didn’t have time to send it back and wait another 30 minutes. So we tried to eat it, bad move… It was the worst steak I have ever tried to eat, tough, stringy, grizzly, just plain gross, luckily it was 3 of them the size of a Half dollar so there wasn’t much to try to get down. My wife’s was even more disgusting, she barely ate a half, as I think the sauce on it was the only thing that made it possible to even get down.
She saw it looked gross and instead of asking «how is everything» she came over sheepishly and said «well». She offered to redo it, but we just didn’t have the time (she gets a star for trying to make the best of it). She told us that the cook during the day was new, and that we were the second table in ten minutes to say he burnt their food, she said she missed the previous cook. SO DO WE. The manager came over and knocked off $ 20 from the meal both meals were $ 18 each so not a bad move, kudos to him, he seemed good, though I could see he wanted to debate when I told him it was like eating a tire, he held back though and was pleasant. I was quiet because I DO NOT like being «that guy» at a place I eat.
So why worst ever… well lets tally up. First course cold and microwaved, second course missed altogether, third course disgusting… we skipped dessert as we wanted to get out alive. Last course– well both of us were in the bathroom when we got home for over an hour. My wife vomited, I choose the other route. Gross… sorry I know, but its reality.
Advice, the chef you hired for days, is not a trained chef, recheck his references, my guess is he was the dishwasher, not the cook. Find a new chef for days, who can actually cook. Anyone can take food out of a refrigerator throw it the oven or in his case microwave and burn it to a crisp, even my child can, the trick is in preparing food properly.

***Worst service ever*** I dont blame the entire Applebees chain for this experience, but i will never visit this location again for fear i may be stuck with this terrible waiter again. The hostess Renee was kind and wonderful, but it was down hill as soon as we met Terrence.
1^st — issue: We sat for approx 10 – 15 minutes and Teri had not stopped by once to ask for our beverage order, the hostess dropped off waters finally, still more time goes by our menus were closed and we were ready to order and still no waiter… Finally we see him walking towards us but alas… he decided to serve the table behind us first even tho we were seated 10 minutes before them, we sat at stared at each other and considered walking out… we absolutely should have because this was just the beginning of our terrible experience.
2^nd — Once he finally decided to take our order (we sat for 20 minutes) we were polite and ordered our meals as well as chips and salsa before the entrees came… we were starving. Our friend was served his salad, but no chips were brought and he just dropped the food and walked away so we didn’t even have the chance to ask the whereabouts of the elusive chips and salsa, after another 15 min, my friend POLITELY asked if we could have them brought to the table, he made a disgusted face and said «Oh Sure» then a different waitress brought them over… 4 People, 1 tiny bowl of salsa only half full, i didn’t dare ask for a refill or a second serving of salsa cuz who knows how long that would take.
3^rd — The Bill, we did not ask if we wanted the bill split or separate checks — so my friend and i tried to write the instructions on who was paying for which meal with which payment, 2 of the meals were using a gift card and they should have had leftover money too use. WRONG he took the bill and just ran the gift card towards the entire meal — then he goes «oh i see you guys had a system here» YEP WE DID! we apparently didnt make it idiot proof enough, he walked away to do who know what and cam back with change and said the way we asked to pay wasnt possible? my friend had to gt up and leave he was so annoyed, we sorted out the change and left a tip he didnt deserve.
** Keep in mind that the entire time we waited we could see our waiter the entire time, talking to the bar and going back into the kitchen and chatting with other servers, apparently flirting is higher priority to him then being a decent server… Iv always worked customer service, and this was unacceptable.
If your looking for a place to eat in Forest Lake i recommend Norman Quacks or The Blue Heron in Hugo — you will always be treated with respect at either establishment. Terrence you may want to consider a new profession, perhaps something where your bitchy attitude and rude remarks will be better utilized.

I’ll be honest, this place is Applebee’s, a restaurant that is not the great place it was ten years ago, the food is just bland and boring, but this location is one worth going to if in the area. When I think of Forest Lake, I don’t think of good service at the local businesses but our server was so pleasant and friendly. Outstanding service.

The food is Consistent with other Applebee’s, wholesome and fresh, but their real asset is the personnel. My siblings dine there often, but I live farther away. After only two visits, Nicole the bartender feels like family. Kudos for hiring bartenders and servers who are just down home good folks!

Food is always good, new to the area so the closet thing to home was pretty much applebee, monday they had 5 dollar burgers, which i was very happy about, order two burgers off the menu, and usually i can eat, also had half off drinks and stuff. great place, great service, def coming back every monday.

Do you like horrible food, weak watered down over priced drinks and horrible service? If so, then this is the place for you!
I have been to this Applebee’s 4 times in the last year. I have yet to get my order right. It’s not like I order difficult items, how hard is it for a burger with sauces on the side instead of on it? After our last visit I vowed I will not step foot in this establishment. Our waitress took almost 20 minutes just to take our drink order, I guess talking to the bartender at the bar was more important then helping her customers. When she finally took our drink order she took our food order. About 30 minutes later she set food down in front of us and wandered away, never to be seen again.
The food was terrible, everything tasted freezer burnt and over cooked by their microwave. My burger tasted «nuked» instead of grilled as did my wife’s pasta. It was completely disgusting and I would have complained if we had a server. Don’t even get me started on their «specialty drinks»! It tasted like a kiddie cocktail!
We ended up requesting our check from a different waiter who looked just as bored as our initial server. Our check was paid with cash and we left vowing never to return.
Don’t waste your time people, there are MUCH better restaurants in the area.

The new remodel is nice but the food is still terrible. It doesn’t seem to matter what I order, it is always substandard. If they would bring up the food quality this would be a nice place to go but for the past several years it just hasn’t been up to par.

Newly remodeled, nice décor and decent food. I dine there quite frequently and have never had bad service.

Do not go here!!! The staff is terrible!