Applebee's Grill + Bar 9000 Ming Avenue, Bakersfield, CA 93311

"I was contacted by the manager, Arturo, and promised I’d receive something in the mail that I should use in returning to Appleby’s to give them another chance (yes, I gave him my mailing address). Well, nothing ever was received and even after I called Arturo back letting him know, especially because he told me to follow up, I never heard anything from him ever again. Well, I can honestly say that I hardly ever give bad reviews, but here is one. They may have have a lack of servers or cooks, but when you advertise All You Can Eat Chicken Wings, you had better be prepared for the amount of customers you will get. The six of us ordered one meal each. It took an hour to get our meals and one meal NEVER came. The two that ordered the AYCE chicken…. it took 45 minutes to get their second orders. I also ordered one separate meal to go…. After waiting for 30 minutes, our server came over and said that she was told we cancelled that order, which we never had any conversation with anyone about. The meal that never came was then going to be prepared (which we took to go) and it would be comped. She was going to ask the manager if the second Togo order could be comped because of someone telling them we cancelled the order and had to wait yet another 30 minutes, but I guess the manager said no because we were charged for it. The food was decent, definitely nothing to brag about. My heart hurt for the servers because they were lost. Dishes were being served to the wrong tables (I know because our dishes were taken to elsewhere and others peoples dishes were brought to ours). Anyway I don’t think we’ll be back. 2.5 hours was way too long and everyone’s confusion was heartbreaking."

"I feel awful writing bad reviews... but I will start by saying the food was not the issue. The food is always good for the price. The issues are with the all-you-can-eat boneless chicken wings. First, because everyone wants them, they take forever to make and be delivered to your table. Thus - your order is not even hot when it arrives. Second, the service is horrendous - short staffed and stressed out. And because the waiters are so stressed, they have terrible attitudes flying around. Everyone there is probably doing the best they can. But they are not fully equipped with whatever it is they need to provide good service. Third, as much as I understand restaurant turnover - you cannot rush paying customers out the door. It's just rude. Fix this Applebee's! We want to come back."

"The food never fails to live up to expectations at Applebee's, and we were quite satisfied again this time. However, we did not appreciate the reception. The place was half empty, many tables were free but they made us wait standing for more than 15 minutes. Inexplicable. The staff was not lacking and wandered around without being too busy. If they had sat us down we could have a drink while waiting to order. An unwise attitude and counterproductive for the restaurant."

"Came for some family time, and we were seated very quickly. Our server was incredibly nice, and our food arrived promptly. Basic American food with a variety of choices for any pallet."