As I travel a lot for the job; I often eat at Applebees and its competitors Chilis and TGIF.
Some of the best memories of my life are associated with Applebees back when I was still young enough to regularily date beautiful young women I would often take them there including the beauty who would later become my wife.
It was nice enough for a date, but did not break the bank of a younger man.
So I have a lot of good will towards the chain.
Back to the now:
In my town
Applebees seems to have the healthier options and this is why I often choose it as a destination, though when the menu is in front of me, I almost never take them.
Quality of the food is decent but there are some misses in both service and food on occasion.
They have good deals right now:
They have a all-you-can-eat, either BBQ or wings or shrimp deal for $16 and a 2-fer- $25, 28 or 30 USD deal on regular entrees (depending ones which you pick)
Fries are often over terribly oversalted I'd say about 40% of the time. I always mention it afterwards and I have taken to asking my waitress on new visits to please not get oversalted fries.
The Pasta is consistently excellent.
Salads are good.
Burgers are sometimes
excellent sometimes just ok. But I think this has a lot to do with what batch of meat was available that week.
Prices are the more reasonable among the 3 big chains.
When
Chilis opened in town I noticed reduced significantly attendance at Applebees, which was a bit sad to me, since I have a lot of good will towards applebees.
I did notice that the food at Chilis seems to be more consitently tasty.
Their appetizer platter serves as a fun and tasty meal.
They seem to have fewer healthy choices or maybe when I am there I just eat less healthy since thier appetizer combination platter is so good.
I had equally good appetizer combination platters at Applebees in the past, just not consistenyly at my local one.
I noticed that the small slider style burgers on the appetizer platter actually taste better than when I order on the platter vs the full size burgers there . Those seem just ok.
I get the sense that the food at Chilis is often more caloric than at Applebees. (which explains it richer taste)
TGIF I dont go as often since they are not local, but I usually enjoy.
They mirror Chilis a lot, in the good and bad.