Applebees

I've never been a fan of Applebees.  I've always found their food to be mediocre at best.  I mean, it's fine for convenient slightly-above-Friendly's food but it's not "great".  Since I've started dating Chris I've eaten there three times.  Three times more than I needed to, but like I said, it's convenient and it has that 2 for $20 deal which is nice.  1 appetizer and 2 entrees (from a limited menu) for $20.  Since I eat very selectively and in small portions, being able to save on dining out is not only preferable, it's a necessity. 

Applebees also offers a $6.99 all-you-can-eat lunch menu.  You can create a duo from soup, salad, pasta and sandwiches and eat til you're busting at the seams.  They also have a "pick two" lunch menu where you get 1 serving of 2 items.  This menu has the same categories with slightly different choices, but still a rather good selection.   

I got the Spinach Salad with Grilled Shrimp: deep green spinach, roasted red peppers, slivered almonds, bacon pieces and Warm Bacon Vinegrette topped with six yummy grilled shrimp served in "lunch portion".  It was fresh, crunchy, flavorful, and pretty.  I LOVED IT.  The online menu says it also has red onion but I will be honest, I don't remember an onion.  Really doesn't matter to me, the salad was delicious. It's not often I get to rave about a salad and I raved about this one.  I also got two of the French Dip sliders served on soft "mini buns" which were not like hamburger buns at all.  They were more like biscuit you'd get in Cracker Barrel.  This is not a bad thing, but they were doughy in the middle which I didn't think worked well on a French Dip.   The meat was ok, nothing special.  At least it wasn't dry, even without the au jus.  The sandwich was good but not "great".

Did I mention I loved the salad?

Chris also got the Spinach Salad but his did not have shrimp, nor is that option offered on the all-you-can-eat menu.   I did share mine, though.  He had 2 orders of the French Onion Soup and chose the Caesar Salad the second time.  He deems the soup "nice" (which is a HUGE compliment from him).   It was flavorful and cheesy.  Not bad for chain restaurant French Onion.

Our only complaints about the visit were these:

The wait for our food seemed extraordinarily long, at least 20 minutes from the time we gave our server the order.   Granted it was lunchtime on a Friday, but there was not that many customers in the restaurant.  We were perhaps one of 4 tables of people.  Plus, we ordered soup, salad, and sliders none of which take that long to prepare. 

Our other issue was that they ran out of bread.  Our dishes were served with soft, seasoned bread sticks.  When Chris' second round of lunch came, our server informed us that the kitchen had run out.   Run out?  At Noon?   Granted, she brought us extra bread when it did become available but running out of bread one hour after opening is inexcusable. 

We shared all of this on the Applebees website, per the request on the receipt.  Hey, maybe I'll win $1000.  I'll go buy some bread.