Here at the Consumerist we’re wary of stories where people “find something in their food.” That being said, we believe Stacie found an enormous insect leg in her Applebee’s salad…after biting into it.
It’s gross, but we could understand how it could happen. Not that it should happen, but Stacie did not find a lost Picasso painting or a severed finger in her salad. Insect legs are within the realm of possibility. We understand how that could happen. What we don’t understand is Applebee’s response to Stacie finding a huge insect leg in her Applebee’s salad…. offering her more salad. Read her story inside. (Warning, gross pictures.)
This is an email Stacie wrote to her friends and then sent to us:
On Mar 6, 2007, at 10:21 PM, Steve and Stacie wrote:
You all know me. I am, in general, not one to complain and pretty much have a positive outlook on life. Well, something so disgusting happened to yours truly today that I just can’t keep it to myself and wanted you all to be aware…
My friends and I have a habit, about once a week, of ordering Applebee’s To Go for salads when we are at work (in Warren, MI). Today that ended.
Famished after a conference call, I was happy to see my friend had dropped off my order of the full size apple walnut chicken salad. As I perused my emails, trying to catch up, I dove in (as I typically do). However, on about the third bite, I bit something hard.
“Hmmmm…chicken bone,” I thought. It was, as you know, a “chicken” salad. So I opened my mouth to pull out the bone and well…see for yourself. I about died–spitting my salad back into the bowl. My boss, who sits right behind me asked what was going on (because by this time I was ranting going, OH MY GOD!!!).
Well he freaked about as much as I did.
So, of course, being the trouper that I am, I gathered myself, as much as I could after having some sort of HUGE insect leg in my mouth, and called the restaurant, asking to speak directly to the manager.
I told Ann what I had found. She was a little quiet and then said, “Well, would you like to come over and pick up another salad?”
I about came out of my chair. “Are you kidding?” I asked. “I’m not sure that I ever want to come into your restaurant again.”
Now, truthfully, after that, I can’t remember a whole lot of the conversation–yes I was pleasant, even offering to bring in the “leg” so they could see it–uncomfortably laughing in horror and disbelief of both the “finding” and the “response.” But the conclusion to all of this is that my name is now in the “Red Book” so I can come in and get my free salad whenever I want–and no, she didn’t want to see the leg!!
So, you know me, not being satisfied I called the corporate Customer Assistance number and told them my story. The person who answered my call was empathetic, but the answer he gave was upsetting as well– he did take my name, address and phone number and told me that he would immediately contact the District Manager for the Store (WARREN–12MI & Vandyke, btw). However, he couldn’t say for certain that I would hear from the district manager. And at the time of this note–about 12 hours later–I’ve gotten nothing.
Final call today was to the Macomb County Health Department. When I told my story, the person taking the information seemed not to be phased what-so-ever. She even went so far to ask if I’d like to leave my name and address so they could send me a letter to let me know what they had found. Lets see, I had a two inch insect leg in my mouth– DUH!!! Of COURSE I would like to see the resolution.
What a crazy day. I guess the moral to all of this, besides AVOID APPLEBEE’S, is pay attention to your food while you are eating it when you do not make it. Yes the leg would have been there…but I wouldn’t have been nearly as traumatized if I’d found it before it entered my mouth.
And yes…I still have the leg.
Take care (and say a little prayer for me and my sanitized mouth!!),
Stacie
Question for the readers: Is free salad the correct response to huge insect leg in a salad? Stacie seems really nice and never mentions wanting to sue Applebee’s… and the district manager didn’t even call her to apologize. Were they even surprised? IS there a proper response to something like this?
Any insect experts want to tell us what the heck used to own that leg? Is it, you know, native to Michigan?—MEGHANN MARCO
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Out my way we’ver known for a while that Applebee’s salads can contain odd things. A University of Iowa professor and his wife ordered a salad at Applebee’s in Coralville, Iowa in 2003 and found a 3.5″ lizard head in it. At the time, there were pictures, but I can’t seem to find any now. Here’s the link:
http://media.www.dailyiowan.com/media/storage/paper599/new…
I think at most she should’ve gotten maybe a gift certificate that was twice as much as her salad or maybe 2 free meals, but it was just a leg. Many people eat bugs. But she, and others on here, act as if it was a bit of semen covered poo. It was a grasshopper leg. Nothing terrible, I’m sure that leg is healthier than most of applebees menu.
I ate at Applebees once. At the Applebees I went to it was designed so that every table was in view of every other table in the whole place. At the time I was there it was very crowded and I felt like I was in some sort of sports arena which is definitely not a good atmosphere for me. Because of this experience and the lackluster food I never went back. And to all the “OMG! I almost barfed up my lunch!” WUSSES!
@kerry: Joy Yee’s? I’ve been to one once…
I seem to be a magnet for bugs, etc. in food. I’ve found a dead potato bug (one of those little gray arthropods that roll up when you tap them) in Applebee’s broccoli, larva of some sort in a pomegranate, a nice brood of tiny flies in a chocolate bar, and of course the requisite use-by stickers that assembly-line restaurants like Applebee’s use on their produce packaging. With all these bad experiences, you’d think I’d have stopped eating most things by now. Unfortunately for my waistline, this is not the case. I have, however, stopped eating at Applebee’s, since they have been responsible for most of these offenses.
Oh, and it might be worth mentioning that I live in metro Detroit and know exactly where that Applebee’s is. It might even have been the one responsible for the buggy broccoli.
A letter is due, an apology, a refund for the full meal AND a courtesy gift card worth at least $25 for the inconvenience. It’s disgusting, I would deem the entire meal as soiled and not pay for anything. It just would upset anyone, especially while eating.
I hate despise roaches, that would kill me to find one fried in my food. I would probably just go into cardiac arrest. I absolutely hate roaches!!
JESUS! what kind of bug WAS that???
I never liked Applebee’s in the first place. The pictures and comments here have turned me off on eating at any restaurants for the time being. In the future, when my food is served I will be examining it more closely.
Finding a bug or its parts in your food is stomach-turning, and pulling a hair out from a mouth full of food is one of the worst!
I’ve never eaten at an Applebee’s. Partly I suppose that’s because I’m a vegetarian, and those big chain restaurants where the entrées are shipped to them pre-made and frozen can’t be very responsive to requests like, “Can you leave the bacon out of that?”
But really I think it’s because someone told me that the nearby Applebee’s has a two drink MAXIMUM.
@asherchang: Yeah, the one in Evanston. The one in Chinatown is supposed to be really top-notch, so I don’t know if they suffer from the same cleanliness issues as the Evanston one.
@Hirayuki: That’s not a potato bug, these are: http://whatsthatbug.com/potato.html
Potato bugs are bigger and way scarier than little pill bugs. They’re also nigh uncrushable. A friend of mine couldn’t kill one with a hammer while it ran around under her carpet. If I ever found a potato bug in my food I would never eat again.
If it’s a grasshopper leg, you can go ahead and eat it.
i dont think its a grasshopper leg. the thigh is too lean. grasshopper leg thighs are big and muscled, this one is thin and tapered.
personally, i rank finding bugs in my food as one of the top three horrors i can experience in life. id rather get shot somewhere non-fatal than have it happen again. ive found beetles in my salt; weevils in my bread and cereals; earwigs in my peaches; maggots in my peas and apples; maybugs in my drink; cockroaches in icecream; pupae in muffins; wasps everywhere and moths on everything. i cant think of any time ive experienced a greater sense of horror than when i find crawling things in what im eating.
all these people laughing about it must either be aborigines, survivalists or full of shit.
It is quite annoying so many of us are culturally adverse to eating a good, cheap protein source. I’m ashamed(of myself). If you had a chance of $1M payday, would you eat a bug(big part of Survivor, yes?). On another point, I emailed Applebee’s as to why they didnot respond to my signing up for thier email offers, they sent me a gift certificate for $25. I wasn’t really complaining! Really!
I don’t order any salads or gilled chicken meals from applebee’s to go any more. the Three times I had done so my chicken wasn’t cooked all the way through. The chicken was white on the outside and raw pink in the middle; the cook cut the chicken into strips and arranged them on top of the salad with the pink visible. How they could have missed that is beyond me.
Ugh, until I read this story I had forgotten about finding a giant slug in my vegetable curry from what was previously my favorite Thai restaurant. Now I remember and I think I’m going to be ill.
Applebee’s does not grow or package the lettuce the salad was made from. There are quite a few stops between the place the produce was grown and your to go bowl. Yes they made a mistake and it ruined your “power lunch” which is sad. The local vendors are not being mentioned and they are the ones to blame.
What in the world do you expect a manager to say when you call them in hysterics saying an insect leg was in your food? What could anyone say to make things better at that point? Get over it! Things happen, people make honest mistakes.
oh no! One dead animal part disgusts me while I gladly eat a different animal part! Stop the presses.
It’s not what she ordered, and yes, to Westerners, that’s probably gross, but I feel that allowing her to get a free salad whenever she wants was enough.