Applebee's Restaurant - Darboy, Wisconsin

I love Applebee's restaurant. I especially like the Riblets, the honey glazed salmon, the grilled Teriyaki bowl, the pasta Jambalaya, and the orange chicken bowl (can you tell that I like to eat :). We even celebrated my wife's birthdday at this Applebees earlier in the year.

But the last Friday of September 2006 was an off-night for this East Appleton Applebees franchise. Even though the restaurant was fairly empty, the hostess tried to seat us in the bar. Then it took almost 15 minutes for a waitress (a trainee) to come and bring us water. She promised to bring us coffee, but she forgot. It's not like the staff was terribly busy, as we saw a number of red shirted staff just hanging out and talking with each other.

After a while, a more seasoned waitress apologized for the bad service, and she gave me a salad and the coffee on the house. The manager seemed deeply embarrassed when he came to our table and asked how we were doing, and I told him that it was an off-night.

Anyone can have a bad night, and so I'm not going to write this restaurant off. I'll eat at this particular Applebees again. But I sincerely hope that they will resolve any service or staffing issues.