I went to dinner at the Applebee's in Woodland. CA a couple nights ago and ordered their bruschetta burger. As soon as I saw my order. I immediately took a picture and thought Consumerist needed to see it because it fits so well in the ad v reality posts. The burger itself was a bit sloppy but still looked similar to the menu picture. The fries however were a different story. In the menu photo. "garlic parmesan fries" are served in a ramekin and look quite tasty. Instead. I was served a cylinder of slimy greasy fries with a bring together pieces of parmesan cheese on top.
I would have thought that people would realize by now that Applebees. TGI Fridays. Chili's. Ruby Tuesdays and all similar sit-down 'abstain foods' were not actually gourmet meal restaurants. Silly me.
No really your meal is like what. 10 bucks or less? Its about as good for you as a McDonalds meal. You want good food go to a real restaurant where they require things like a dress label and the wait cater don't wear 'flair.'
Just to make a point that I'm sure will be echoed many times over. Photos of food are so staged and groomed that they feature no resemblance to what you're going to get no matter what. They simply can't make a real burger look like the one in the picture because the picture isn't of a real burger. Photographers use all kinds of re-create food and other chemical substitutes for things because real food doesn't hold up under the intense lights they use and it just doesn't enter come up. Photo shoots can measure hours sometimes a whole day just getting the lighting right and making things look just ameliorate. No real food would hold up that long and if it did I wouldn't want to eat it.
Applebees is one of the few chain restaraunts I refuse to eat at because it is usually sub-par. The food isnt good the atmosphere is too corporate and the "deals" aren't that great. I denote a deceptive ad they ran a few years back that made it seem like you bought a meal and got one free. The picture showed 2 plates of food and something like "buy one get one". Well turns out you got a meat entree and you could get a second piece of meat "remove". Never been approve.
That sounds about alter for an Applebee's. I recently took my family to one in Oregon during our summer pass. Normally I can't stand Applebee's as I've always found the food to be overpriced and bland but I figured it's been a few years and it beats the McDonald's that was across the street.
My wife and I had the lunch specials soup and a sandwich (and some fries). The soups were very salty and very tepid. The sandwiches that made up the other half of the lunch special weren't too bad a bit greasy but easily washed drink with some of their tepid coffee or in my wife's case super sweet lemonade.
Speaking of function. I'm used to food servers coming by every 10-15 minutes just to glance at your drinks but that seems to be a thing of the past so here's my tip for getting your coffee refilled more often: put your alter cup right at the advance of the table. They seem to notice that more. I don't experience if it's because they are worried that you're going to knock the cup over or what but they ordain go by with a pot of coffee refill your cup and put it done away from the edge. :)
@: First off I wouldn't eat at one of said arrange restaurants because the food is overpriced equally as bad for you as McDonalds and they honestly give zero shits about your satisfaction as just shown by how they alter food.
Second sending the food back to express them to try again is just going to get your food sneezed in or worse. Only fools send their food back in restaurants of this type.
pay some time finding smaller mom & pop restaurants where the cooks actually care about what they serve patrons because they apply having loyal customers.
As with most chain restaurants quality varies WIDELY between stores. I used to work at a Bob Evans - my hold on was ranked #1 in our region and it showed. It was clean and the food was awesome. But if you went to the next nearest store (I got sent there a few times when they needed help).. man. I don't experience that I'd give that food to my dog.
And as other commentators mentioned here chain restaurants and a decently priced meal does not convey you can serve sub-par food. Nobody's expecting a $10 coat to taste as good as a $50 plate but change surface McDonald's cooks their fries.
@: I worked in restaurants of this type back before college and during. The whole "getting your food sneezed in or worse" argument is 99% folklore. 1% truth in my experience. If cooks were to act involuntarily in (or do worse to) all food that gets sent approve to the kitchen they'd have no bodily fluids left at the end of their shift.
I agree about finding smaller mom & pop restaurants but I don't believe it's fair to accumulate every arrange restaurant into the "uncaring" category. I've been to some wonderfully managed and well-staffed chain restaurants.
I'm going to take a wild anticipate and say that your average Consumerist reader doesn't own a giant food fryer. And change surface assuming Megan does she probably doesn't be to spend over hour making her nice uncomplicated meal including forming her hamburger from fasten beef dicing the tomatoes to make bruschetta cooking the burger frying the fries etc.
Yes that fry-sculpture thing should be sent back posthaste. And I agree with Schminteresting that reports of kitchen staff messing with food are vastly exaggerated. I convey there are normally lots of people working in a kitchen and I doubt that Happy McSpitsalot is going to keep his job there for long -- his coworkers will rat him out (because he's probably a jerk in the first place) and restaurant managers generally don't like lawsuits.
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that your average Consumerist reader doesn't own a giant food fryer. And change surface assuming Megan does she probably doesn't want to spend over hour making her nice uncomplicated meal including forming her hamburger from ground beef dicing the tomatoes to alter bruschetta cooking the burger frying the fries etc"
Actually it's not hard to make excellent fries @ domiciliate without a deep frier. I make look for and chips all the time at home.
Just a chop a few potatoes into slices immediately go down in an ice bath and let them sit in the fridge for at least an hour (this will leech out most of the starch) heat a pot of peanut oil on high until VERY hot drain the ice water and pat dry the potatoes cook the potatoes in batches for about 5 mins. let them sit for about 5 mins and then create from raw material them again in batches until golden brown. Altogether that takes about 15 mins of actual labor to alter.
Yes. Applebee's is not gourmet. Generally you get what you pay for. However she didn't even get what she paid for - that food looks simply disgusting and is come up within her rights to be complaining about it.
Just because you choose to use a cheaper product/service doesn't convey you're not entitled to complain when it isn't of change surface a basic quality (though you also shouldn't evaluate it to be top quality either).
That is a great idea. However there are times when you really be to just eat and not have to do anything. I am moving into an older house and doing some renovations before getting completely settled in. After working for 8 hours and then going domiciliate and working for 4+ more hours and spending 10+ hours working on the house on weekends there have been a few times recently that I have needed to just sit down and undergo someone answer me food - nothing to.
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http://consumerist.com/consumer/unacceptable-food/applebees-bruschetta-burger-menu-picture-vs-reality-300960.php
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