#and get a deep tissue massage from children kicking the booth at the same time

[something-tofightfor]

We just had probably the most unfulfilling experience at a restaurant I have had in the last decade and I have never been so happy to be home from a meal in my life.

- found a $50 Applebees gift card so I decided we’d use it after we did some running around today (Bath and body works was having a sale on soap and wall plug fragrances - they now have palo santo and sage and coffee and whiskey permanently)

- we go in and they tell us the wait is 35 minutes, we get seated after ten, so i think the night is going to go smoothly. (It was not busy, but they were down a server)

- get seated, immediately give our drink order.

- takes fifteen minutes to get our drinks.

- i decided to order the 2/$25 because it would have been a $3.50 difference in price between getting two entrees and an appetizer and one entree and an appetizer… i asked for one entree to eat, and the other packaged to go, the server says no problem.

(Right around the time we ordered our food, a family was seated at the booth behind us. At this point, their small children are crawling around the booth and kicking the back of it while screeching. Mom and dad were too busy to parent them, because they were engaged in a face time video call.)

- we wait another fifteen minutes, and our appetizers are brought. (Fuck yeah, boneless wings)

- ten minutes later she brings us drink refills without prompting, but does not say a WORD.

(The family has received their appetizers. The children stop using the booth back as a jungle gym long enough to eat, but the conversation continues on - complete with them trying to talk OVER the music playing on the other end of the phone.)

- our server brings us two entrees: both of mine, neither of which are packaged to go. Chris has to remind her that he ordered something else. It takes her five minutes to go and get it and bring it to the table without another word.

- we start eating.

(The children finish their appetizers and need to work off the calories so they again begin climbing and screaming. The conversation continues - it’s a lot of laughing and what sounds like arguing. the adults get their meals.)

- we finish eating, and need a couple of to-go boxes because we have food leftover and an entire entree that needs to be packaged up since it wasn’t already done.

(Our server proceeds to ignore us and ask the family if they want dessert; the mother told her to come back in a few minutes because she was in the middle of a phone call.)

- chris goes over to an empty table that is being used as a staging table - bags, extra silverware, to go boxes, condiments etc - and gets us what we need after we waited for ten minutes for her to walk by again and she did not.

- she comes back to cash out the table that is not the family. Glances over, drops our check off, and then asks the family again if they want dessert. I said her name to try to get her attention because WE ALSO wanted dessert… she walked away.

(The phone conversation is STILL going and is now louder because they maxed out the volume to combat the still screeching children)

- i have a virtual gift card. I cannot scan it. Our server walks by and delivers the family’s dessert, once again ignoring me trying to get her attention and chris very obviously also trying to get her attention.

(The family finishes their meal and leaves cash to cover the total before leaving the restaurant - still on the phone - but not before the kids actually come into my side of the booth with their arms while they’re putting their coats on because they are standing ON the seat cushion to get redressed instead of doing it in the aisle)

- our server finally stops and i explain that i have the gift card but that we were going to get dessert so if she wanted to do two transactions, that would be fine… and you would have thought I was asking her to build the pyramids by hand alone with the attitude we got. Fine. whatever, we won’t get dessert, just let me pay so we can GTFO. She takes a picture of the gift card on my phone screen with her phone so she can type it into her computer.

- ten minutes later she comes back and said “you still owe $12” - chris gives her his card to cover the difference. She’s gone for another ten minutes.

- i would have asked to speak to a manager, just because the attitude was unnecessary and ridiculous, but the manager was already dealing with an irate customer at the bar (i think he was drunk) so we just decided to leave and I’m going to fill out the online survey.

Long story short: my boneless wings were delicious but the experience overall was total bullshit for just about every other reason possible.