Absolutely terrible experience.
I placed a mobile order and showed up on time, then stood there for 45 minutes with several DoorDash drivers who were also waiting. Not a single employee acknowledged any of us. At this point, I’m assuming they thought I was just another DoorDash driver waiting for a pickup, because at least 10 servers walked past without saying a word.
Finally, my girlfriend asked someone what was going on—only to find out our food had been ready long before I even arrived. It had just been sitting there. By the time they handed it over, it was completely cold. And to make it worse, they weren’t checking or managing any of the DoorDash orders either. The only reason they suddenly cared about mine was because they realized we were actually eating it.
Then the manager came over and tried to make it right by giving us two $20 complimentary gift certificates. Except one of them was already expired—it said it expired on November 30th, 2025. So not only was it unusable, it felt like an insult to my intelligence. It didn’t help; it made the entire experience ten times more frustrating.
This was easily one of the worst service experiences I’ve ever had. I won’t be returning. If you can’t handle online ordering…don’t do online ordering.
Reply from Applebees
2025.12.04
Hi Durango, we are so sorry to hear this was your experience with Applebee’s. This is certainly not what we aim to provide, so we very much appreciate you connecting with us on this. Please copy and paste this link into your web browser so we can get just a little more info and we will have the Greenwood team follow up with you. https://empli.fi/cs/ap109529156