I love it whenever a thread about a chain restaurant comes up, out come the food purists declaring their food sucks. Soon the declarations come that nothing's worth eating unless it came from the local joint that gets all their vegetables from their very own garden which is fertilized by poop from a virgin ox that's been grazed on nothing but the finest alfalfa hay cut only under a full moon.
Applebee's food is decent enough or else they wouldn't be in business. I travel for a living and eat at them often enough. I like their caesar salad dressing, I'm picky about my caesar dressing and they have a good one. I can always find something pretty decent on the menu at Applebees. Service is mostly a regional thing I've found, I've had really good service and really bad service at Applebees as well as pretty much all the other chain joints. What makes the most difference is the manager and the ethnic makeup of the waitstaff. You can usually find good service in college towns because the staff is mostly college kids and they hustle for the tips. You'll usually get good service in the mountain west or pacific northwest, as well as northern new england. Get farther south in new england where they're more "attitudinal" and service is usually pretty bad. Go to Memphis or Birmingham and get a ethnic manager with ethnic waitresses and you might as well get your own food.
