Reader Megan is troubled by the strange, slimy cylinder of fries she received from Applebee’s:
I went to dinner at the Applebee’s in Woodland, CA a couple nights ago and ordered their bruschetta burger. As soon as I saw my order, I immediately took a picture and thought Consumerist needed to see it because it fits so well in the ad v. reality posts. The burger itself was a bit sloppy, but still looked similar to the menu picture. The fries, however, were a different story. In the menu photo, “garlic parmesan fries” are served in a ramekin and look quite tasty. Instead, I was served a cylinder of slimy, greasy fries with a couple pieces of parmesan cheese on top.
Enjoy!
Ohh, we know where we’re heading for lunch! No, just kidding.
(Photo: defective burger)
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i hate applebees, but my boyfriend likes their burgers so i end up going more than i like. last time we went i had one of those tylor florence specials or whatever the hell they are called, it was roasted chicken with spinach salad with apples and cranberries, and came with those parmesan fries. i gotta tell you, the chicken and the salad were damn good, like i almost forgot i was in an applebees good.
my fries looked exactly like the pretty picture but didn’t taste very good, OP didn’t miss much.
I’ve seen that served before and the fries sure as hell didn’t look anywhere close to that bad. Maybe it was just the “chef”?
I ordered this several months ago at another California Applebees and I was really upset when my fries came molded into a shape like that. I have no idea why they chose to make it that way, especially since the fries in the picture were not shown that way. It made the fries soft and soggy and I really should have complained. The burger was very good though.
@Mom2Talavera: Rutabega? Will have to try that, is it in season right now?
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that to be a good cook and not have to rely on these places relies on relatively basic cooking skills and equipment. Further, preparing a meal with other people is a bonding experience. A burger that would smoke Applebee’s needs cheapo cast iron skillet, a food processor to grind the meat, a 50/50 blend of chuck and sirloin and kocher salt. The end. And you don’t have to worry about suspect parts like spinal cords and brains getting into your ground beef.
That looks STRANGE. Was it even hot!? How the hell do you get fries to do that!?
@Obtusegoose: I agree–the Applebee’s near me is ALWAYS crowded, and as many people have said before, it is terrible. In fairness, I have eaten at a decent Applebee’s before, but not in my hometown…
Applebees is a chain restaurant I no longer go to, period. Several months ago I ordered a Cowboy Burger, and what arrived was not a made-to-order beef patty but rather a tough, thin factory patty like what you get at supermarkets. Yuck. They obviously do not care about quality.
@OKH: Comments like this aren’t helpful because they miss the point (though this one isn’t nearly as bad as the “Don’t want to overpay for childcare, don’t have a baby” comments from a few weeks back, though it’s along the same line).
The food isn’t the issue (nor is the food the only reason we choose to eat out) – the issue is that the consumer received a product that failed to meet reasonable expectations.
That one can create an equivalent or better product at home for cheaper doesn’t change the fact that a business should deliver on what it advertises.
The two applebees that i have been to were…mediocre. For 11.99 a plate, I got what I paid for. I tend to get the same thing at Applebees because I am wary of “taking chances” at chain restaurants. At least if I go to an expensive restaurant, and the food isn’t to my liking, there’s the restaurant experience to fall back on. Applebees? Not really.
I think it’s also about being wise in knowing where you are eating. I don’t expect prime rib at Applebees to taste just as good as prime rib at Morton’s. I expect to have good service at both places though and that is definitely not what the OP got.
i know it sucks and yes they should make their food look like the picture, but we should know better in the first place… think of the last tv dinner you had, how it looked and how it tasted. now fast forward to the next time your having dinner at (crap)plebees or any other quasi-fastfood chain and remember the following:
(a) you needed to get your lazy ass off the couch, so you could watch your sports program on the bar tv across the room, while pretending to be interested in the conversation of whomever your with.
(b) there are actual plates, utensils, and napkins that you don’t have to clean up, so use them.
(c) the flare infested server bringing you the garbage pretending to be anything, but a tv dinner, is just as unhappy to be there as you are (note: tip well).
(d) tv dinner+flare+no dishes=(crap)plebees… or claim jumper/ ruby’s/ marie callendar’s/ sizzler/ chili’s/ macaroni grill/ bob’s big boy/ outback/on the border/ cpk/ deny’s/ friday’s/ houlihan’s/ red lobster/ red robin/ coco’s/ ihop/ bennigan’s/ hard rock cafe/ chi-chi’s/ etc.
@acambras:
Don’t equate my response as a lack of interest. The point of all this to ensure the consumer is treated fairly and with respect. Not to ensure the consumers experience is completely perfect. Yes, they let disgusting looking fries leave the kitchen. Should they have? No. But is it a big deal? Absolutely not. Just ask for new fries and go about your business there. This incident with disgusting fries could have been fixed on the spot in a matter of minutes.
They weren’t doing their job? Chill. I went to Burger King last night and the guy gave me a tray with my food on it despite me ordering it to-go, was he not doing his job either?
I’m fascinated by posts with the picture of the food vs. the actual food.
Why should it spur such heated discussion? My guilty pleasure is reading the people who decry that the pictured food is doctored beyond the point of being consumable.
Interesting how 2 simple pictures can create so much debate. Rock on consumerist.
My fav is definitely the Awesome blossom.
I like Applebee’s but that meal looks disgusting. I have had good and bad experiences at Applebee’s but in general their not bad. They are a chain restaurant and being that some things are very similar to McDonald’s, etc.
Hm. So Megan should have known better than to go to Applebee’s, because she should’ve expected the food to be crap.
By the same logic, she should have known better than to email her story to Consumerist, because she should’ve expected the commenters to question her good taste, her intelligence, her work ethic, and her financial skills, all over choosing to buy a damn hamburger instead of making one from scratch.
I guess that one’s true, though… pretty soon no one will be sending in stories anymore, because who needs this crap?
@pyloff: For the record, I have no problem with doctored food, per se. As anyone who’s done food photography or filming can tell you, logistics and lighting make it hard to shoot untouched food and still make it look appetizing (plus, the fact that most customers don’t use professional cameras or studio lighting makes the food look even crappier compared to the beauty shots on menus and ads).
That said, the photographed food should give the consumer a reasonable idea of what to expect. And even at places like Applebees, you’re paying for presentation in addition to the food itself. This one doesn’t come close.
@spinachdip Shouldn’t it be obvious. I guess I will use you as the foil, however it becomes a joke when the dichotomy becomes so far reached that one either laughs or cries at the distance.
@pyloff: Click the tag for this article and check out a variation of “Awesome Cracklins.”
Strike 1 – kitchen passes that as food.
Strike 2 – wait staff passes that as food.
Strike 3 – manager trains everyone.
@pyloff: I guess what I’m trying to say is that touch-ups for beauty shots and crappy looking food are two separate issues.
Doctoring foods to the point they’re inedible is a necessity, and I don’t think it’s dishonest or unethical to, say, add varnish to toaster pastry so it looks better on screen.
This story has less to do with the doctoring, and everything to do with quality control. The culprit isn’t the art department for raising expectations, but the kitchen for sending out food looking like that.
Amazing…
@soldierblue:
The Burger King guy is working for minimum wage + no tips. The Applebee’s server is working for tips. That doesn’t mean s/he must be perfect, but it does mean s/he might be a little more invested in serving food that doesn’t look like crap.
As a former employee of an Applebees, I can’t imagine how they could get something as simple as fries in a ramekin so wrong. It almost looks like somebody grabbed the fries and smooshed them into the weird fry monolith with his or her hands… Not an appealing idea – and certainly not a standard at any of the Applebees I’ve worked at. And mainly… why?
Applebee’s is quite possibly the worst chain “restaurant” ever.
no doubt other places have better food.. and service. My friend looked at his bank statement and found $50 missing from his account, with a transaction done the day we went out to eat at Applebees. An employee named “Daniel D” tried to steal $50 from his account. He claimed it was an accident, but he had been kind of a tool all night.. and the time before that I had him. His manager allowed him to get away with it, but my friend got refunded.
However, I tried this burger and it was actually delicious. It looked a lot more like the store picture than the other picture. Personally, I didn’t like the fries.. But the presentation was great.
My girlfriend loves it there, as well as her family.. Personally I think there are much better chain restaurants.. Uno, the 99, Joes bar and grill…
It must be the people who work at Applebees outside the pacific northwest, because I have been at 3 Applebees locations in my metro area, many times, over a couple of years, and have never had an issue.
Same with a similar place, Red Robbin.
Actually, when made correctly, those fries are delicious. Sad to see them in such a horrid state.
tasty nugs yes indeed!
thats what he gets for eating at applebees.
save your taste buds, eat local.
It might be hard for some of you to believe this, but Applebee’s used to be a pretty decent chain back in the mid 1990s. And they were pretty consistent, too! I ate at a few Applebees in different states (mostly in the Midwest, but also in Montana and Wyoming) and the food was actually quite good! When I moved to Maine in 2001, I went to the local Applebees and it was horrible. My wife hated it too. We assumed at first that it was just that one location, but no….they seem to be pretty lousy across the board now, and other friends of ours have noticed the same decline in quality over the years. In fact our local Applebees closed shop after opening in 2003. It’s an abandoned restaurant on an empty lot! What happened to this chain?
I’ve cooked for Applebee’s before. And I want to say first off that is NOT what the fries are supposed to look like, obviously.
First, what time was this taken? Tuesday late-afternoon is VERY different than friday/saturday night. YMMV, but the sheer VOLUME of people during peek hours where I worked was astonishing. During those times, things get rushed and cooking staff can make mistakes.
Second – why does it look like a cylinder? The basic idea on cooking those is – Fries, put in a glass (about the size of the glass you drink your soda from), then pour the garlic-butter sauce, then flip over into the green serving dish and remove glass.
Those fries don’t look like they cooked long enough. And then maybe a rushed cook ‘packed’ em into the glass… butter on top, sit in a window for a moment while butter dries and bam… that’s what I think made the cube.
Not to defend it, but mistakes happen. Friday night, every seat full for 4 hours on end, I can see mistakes like this happen. Common place? obviously not, otherwise stories like this would be falling out of the sky. But often enough to where it does happen.
People still eat at CrApplebee’s? Why? What, no TGIFridays, ChiChi’s Ruby Tuesdays or Red Robin in your neighborhood?
I got the worst service I ever had at a CrApplebee’s back round 1997 and haven’t been back since.
I’m fortunate that I live in an area packed with amazing local restaurants of all types – particularly Italian. Mmmm, homemade Baked Ziti made with pride and not a microwave in sight! A few years ago all the local Pizza Huts closed down because they couldn’t compete with business owners that cared.
Support your local restaurateurs! Your tummy will thank you!
That looks like something that would be extruded from a tube in a factory. yum yum. a cylinder of cold, greasy, potato (maybe…) matter. my mouth is watering.
The reason the fries came out cylindrical like that is because they took regular fries, put them into a cylinder with garlic butter on the bottom, turned the cylinder upside down to coat the fries with the g-butter, and then took the now-cylindrically molded fries out and put them into the bowl to serve.
This happens when either the restaurant is busy or the guy working fry side forgot to make the fries and now he’s staring at a freshly made burger without the fries and rushed the job. Either way, it’s not acceptable but I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes and I understand why they come out like that sometimes.
People blame servers for not fixing it, but the only way to fix it is to touch the fries and your server isn’t wearing gloves. And if your server goes to get gloves, that’s another few minutes lost and then the posts on Consumerist about Applebee’s will be about “why did my food come out cold?” instead of “the fries don’t look like the picture.” Or it would be, “why do my fries taste like the server’s hands?”
If there was an expo in the kitchen, he would have been able to fix the fries before putting the parmesan on top. If not, the server put the parm on top with his/her hands, probably in an attempt to make the best of a bad situation.
Also, it’s perfectly OK to tell the server that these fries are gross/cold, can I get another set? The server will order another set of fries, the manager will have to remove them from the bill, and 9 times out of 10 re-orders come out right because no one (especially the server) wants an unsatisfied guest.
Last thing I’ll say is that the person lodging the complaint didn’t even say whether or not the fries tasted good!
Well, I am probably the last person who would speak up for Applebees. I’ve had few good experiences there, but I did order this meal before and it actually looked a lot more like their picture than the amateur pic… Don’t know what’s up with those fries…
Advertisement food looks different than real food? Since when?!
Don’t eat there. I used to work there. Almost all of their food is microwaved in plastic or Styrofoam and then thrown onto plates to make it looked cooked. Trust me i have a scar from transferring beans from Styrofoam cups to a ramekin.
Can O’Fries…the newest invention from those that brought you the Tube of Burger mush.