Reader Jamie’s Applebee’s dinner came with an interesting ingredient: an expiration date sticker. Understandably grossed out, Jamie asked Applebee’s for some new food. They agreed, fished out the sticker and brought the old food back. Ick.
Jamie writes:
Me and my 4 other military friends were enjoying our appetizers when our food arrived. After eating a few bites, I noticed a “food good until” date sticker cooked in with my food. I did not know a date was required on my food…
Anyways, we called the waiter over to show him what was going on. “Well,” he said, “Sometimes the food bags and stickers can be mixed in with the chicken when cut up.”
WTF! He said he is sorry and is there anything else he can do? Yes you can sir, you can get me another bowl of my food, cooked new. Well, he took the bowl back and about 2 min later he brought out another bowl… 2 min to cook a new bowl?
It looked exactly the same. My fork was still in the bowl. I told him I wanted it to go. He said he was sending the manager over to talk to me. Well the manager came over and said he was sorry and “any drinks need to be refilled?”
Jamie says he didn’t get new food, nor did the manager take the sticker pasta off the bill. You stay classy, Applebee’s!
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Applebee’s was my very first job when I turned 16, and I worked there for a total of about 4 years. (long time for a teenager!) Back then it was still considered a fairly respectable family place, and I remember our standards being very high about service and quality. Sadly, that was over 10 years ago, and things are quite different now. The ones we have locally have gone straight down the tubes, and the prices have only gone up.
Oh, FTR–yes, there were several pre-cooked things that were microwaved. So, not sure if the person who posted that everything was cooked fresh worked at one that did that? Ours had portioned baggies of pre-cooked stuff, or it was frozen. Nothing was fresh, really. Yeah, no thanks.
McD’s has these on their apple pies.
I hate the fact I really have nothing of value to contribute other than saying that is really gross. Especially when you start to wonder what else is in there, like leftover plastic wrap, etc.
Nogard13: Relax, it was nuked to death do any contaminant bacteria has been killed by the heat.
yeah, what about the glue
Our applebees just opened a few months ago and me and my wife went there to try it out. The service was pretty good until my wife was halfway through her chicken sandwich and found out that middle was raw. She got someone’s attention (after about two or three of the waitresses ignored us, though it was fairly busy). They took the food back and the manager came out and officially apologized. Told us that the fryers were all timed or something like that. They asked if they could bring her anything else on the menu, free of charge. Since she loved their milkshakes, she asked for one to go.
So I’d say that situation was handled well. She kept calm about it, figured it was a one time mistake and didn’t lose her head. The manager also seemed pretty helpful. Of course, they probably realized that they fucked up big time.
Relax. If the Applebee’s commercials are anything to go by, you’re not there for the food, anyway. You’re there for the *experience* and given the way these chains are going under, that experience won’t be around for much longer. Next time (if there is a next time) mutter under your breath but so that the server can hear: “no wonder my uncle says they’re going to shut this Applebee’s down soon.” and start the inner turmoil.
Anyway, I’d sooner eat at McDonald’s than Applebee’s. At least you know your food-poisoning class-action lawsuit will garner some money.
I actually used to work at Applebee’s while going to school…..want the inside scoop?
Yes most of the food is pre-measured and put into bags and then dated. Now in all fairness some are put into metal containers that sit on a line that is iced down to keep the food cold through the night. It gets pretty disgusting back there. Steaks, burgers, chicken breasts, some are cooked on the grill usually never to the desired medium or medium rare request, as is that burnt chicken breast in your chicken ceasar salad.
Noodles, soups, salsas and the like are all pre-made before they ever reach the store we cut off the tops and measure them out and date them. . .eggs, tomatoes, celery, and most other veggies and garnishes for salads and dinners are all cut up in the morning and portioned out for the day. . .in case you ever wondered why those tomaotes were meely or your eggs smelled its because its been sitting out all afternoon on a line that is being “iced down”.
I could go on for days but I’m not surprised management didn’t do anything. I worked there received undercooked salmon and sent it back. They still made me pay for it saying that I was a picky eater. I guess your right I like my fish cooked, now if you could only cook my steak correctly!
I’ve been out of the restaurant business for appx 4 years now.
What i can say as a former Manager of an Applebees is this was not a big deal and will explain why.
Just about everything comes to the restaurant raw and has to be prepared and cooked for serving. ALL protiens (chicken, fish, meat) are cooked on the spot per order as necessary. All fired items are also made on the spot.
Certain items get prepared earlier in the day, as making them per order will not work for a large restaurant (ie. pasta…. rice… mashed potatoes…) These items take time to cook. They get cooked earlier in the day, and portioned into bags (rice…salad…) or styrafoam containers (sauces… various items.) When the items is ordered these do get heated up in a microwave.
Every single item has a “shelf life” and must be marked for expiry dates. This is a common practice. From the pictures it looks like this was a pasta/broc bowl with shrimp? Both the pasta and broc get portioned per wieght and placed into bags (which get stamped like groceries in a supermarket). Looks like the sticker didnt stick well to the container/bag and made it into the food somehow.
Yeah it sucks that it happened. The manager should have handled it better. The fault is soley on the MGR not the restaurant. These practices are put into place to ENSURE the food is not old/expired and is suitable for serving.
While i doubt the manager had a new order brought out to the customer its not impossible. If somehting like that would happen in my restaurant as i was running it, id take the next order that was about to go out (same item ofcourse) and bring it to the guest pushing each other order back slightly. (this would likely only affect 2-3 orders for a minute extra till the kitchen can catch up.
This doesn’t necessarily mean pre-packaged.
I worked in a restaurant for 5 years, and when the cooks would do prep (DAILY pre-packaging of food that would be used throughout the day, such as fajita chicken mixed with peppers, or portions of rice) they would be obligated to put the expiration sticker on it. It actually is a good thing.
That it ended up on the plate is carelessness on the cooks part, and it absolutely should have been replaced upon request. That said, there was likely not a damn thing wrong with the food.
I never had much of a problem with Applebee’s other than that the food is subpar for what you pay. My ex used to enjoy eating there. I did find the santa fe chicken salad to be edible and even slightly enjoyable.
However, I used to think that for a chain place Chili’s was probably one of the best of the bunch. Then, I went to the Chili’s in Mission Gorge off the 8. I ordered a quesadilla, and the sour cream had chunks of crap in it, leftover from whatever was in the little sauce cup previously. There was sour cream already on the quesadilla, so I set the cup aside and bit into the quesadilla. I immediately ran to the bathroom and puked, because the sour cream was rancid, or something else was because it definitely tasted like shit. I went back to the table and grabbed my hat and told my ex to follow me because we were leaving. She was almost finished eating by that point, so I left enough to cover her meal and walked out. The server saw us leaving and asked if everything was ok, and I said no, but I paid for the portion of the meal that wasn’t vomit inducing. She gave me a knowing look and said OK, and we never went back.
@trujunglist: that is the very first time I’ve ever heard of an immediate case of food poison. Exactly how much did you ingest?
Applebees and all those other fastfood-esque chain restaurants just aren’t my thing. If I want microwaved dinner, I’ll go to the store and get a cheap and delicious VOILA! meal and make it myself.
I had a similar incident at the Applebee’s in Little Rock this summer. My wife and I had ordered a Bourbon Street steak to split, medium rare.
First time it came out, it was well done. Second time it came out it was medium.
Third time it was a brown steak that was not even rare – it was rotten meat. Needless to say, we got a free meal, and I don’t think the cook was there after that.
Applebees has a habit of putting bacon on everything.
Including a veggie burger. And it was hidden UNDER the cheese.
“Waitress, there’s a hair in my soup!”
“Oh yeah, how do you know it’s not yours?”
“Because I wear smaller curlers!”
Not Applebees related, but cleanliness / hygiene related perhaps… My personal pet peeve is going to a higher end ($30+ per person tab) restaurant and being asked to “hold on” to my silverware (usually after salad / appetizers) with no place to put it except on the bare table. I have had wait staff actually hand it back to me or tell me to grab it back from my plate. Then, there I am clutching my fork or trying to precariously balance it on another utensil or sugar packet — because I am one of those people that hates to “cause a problem” — in a restaurant anyway.
Note to Self — When waitstaff says “Hang on to your fork” , I’ll say “No Thanks, but I would love a CLEAN fork with my entree.”
And then, they’ll take my dirty fork to the back, spit on it, and shine it right up : 0
One time, I ate at TGIFriday’s and found a piece of plate while chewing my salad. I didn’t break a tooth (but easily could have) and management wasn’t too concerned about the situation. After some discussion, they did comp my meal the next time I visited, so I still had to pay for the meal. When I returned to collect on my free meal, I found a piece of saran wrap in the salad while I was chewing on it. I gave up on that chain.
The last time I set foot in an Applebee’s, I saw the health inspection report. They had received a really low grade like 72 that indicated rats were found in the kitchen. I very loudly announced this while in the waiting area before my husband and I left. We saw several other people leave after us.
How can people stand to eat Applebees is beyond me. The food is disgusting. Any time I eat anywhere that serves me garbage I have the charge reversed from my credit card. I hate places that serve crap food.
@shiftless: Does that work? Do you complain to the manager first? Do you ever have to provide documentation that your meal was subpar? I definitely think that is a great idea if it actually works.
I’ve always had good service and fairly decent food all the times I’ve gone to Applebee’s. One time my grandma ordered a steak well done, and she thought it was a little too well down (maybe slightly burnt) so they took the steak back and said they’d cook her a new one. Not only did they redo the steak, but they sent a whole new plate with the sides included as well (in addition to the sides that were left behind from the burnt steak).
I made an account just to post on this, I worked at an Applebees for about a year and a half and honestly most of the food is old, The managers used to go through all the food in the morning and re-date it for the next day, some times you could get food that was almost a week old. Most times they would just stick a new date sticker over the old one. I finally got fired for refusing to do this I would never eat there anything I didn’t cook myself.
I’ve never had problems at Applebees and used to eat there all the time. Prepackaged food doesn’t bother me as long as its cooked right. Of course because of the pre-packaging I stopped going.
See I just adore their Chicken Oriental salad, but it comes with nuts. My boyfrind is allergic to nuts. Because is prepackaged there is no way to get it without nuts. So we just go to places that can accommodate his (and by proxy mine) dietary needs in most of their dishes.
We actually had an issue an other restaurant where they put walnuts in a dish, which it didn’t say it had on the menu. When we confronted them about it. They said that they had no clue if here were walnuts in it (again with some prepackaging). They then chastised us for ordering a peanut dish, since everyone seems to think peanuts are nuts. after we kindly tried to explain how peanuts are, in fact, not nuts and still having them look at us like we crazy we left and never went back.
@roguemarvel: I’m pretty sure you can get the Oriental Chx salad without the almonds on it. I wouldn’t quote me on that, but I’m pretty sure it’s just topped with the almonds. If you do go back and the server tells you otherwise, I’d ask for the manager. While there are some pre-mixed foods, it sounds like the server is confused with the Crispy Orange Chx Bowl, with has a rice pilaf which IS pre-mixed with almonds, and you can’t get that without the almonds, you can only not get the extra almonds which they top that with (double almonds apparently).
That ‘use by’ sticker was fucking delicious…
wait, sorry, wrong site…
@alphafemale: HAHAHAHAHA!
Thanks Terry!
@enderx: I can’t tell whether or not this is sarcasm.
What location was this???????
As a former Applebee’s employee, I have to say this guy got off pretty easy. I seen much much worse than a sticker in someones food.
If you want good food dont do to one of the major chain restuarants they are all the same. What kind of service can you expect when the average employee is hardly out of high school and just dont give a shit?
Havent you guys seen the movie Waiting? Sad, but pretty accurate.
I have given Applebee’s (and its identical twin Chili’s) way too many chances. I tried desperately hard to like both of these restaurants, but in the end, it’s mediocre food and mediocre service. I’ve vowed not to go back if I can avoid it.
Since the gas price increase and I the fact I like electronic toys, we don’t go out to eat anymore. I’ve lost 20lbs this year. Eat much healthier, and take turn cooking with the galpal. She turned down going out to eat on her birthday even. I gave her the money we’d of spent instead on top of her other gifts. Stay home. These places don’t deserve our business, they are gross, and the food is unhealthy for the most part.
It’s only a big deal because all of you are whiners.
Stay in side please. No one needs y’all outside in the world where something might by accident SLIP IN TO YOUR FOOD. OMG YOU MIGHT DIE.
Whoa – the same thing happened to me at Olive Garden this weekend! About halfway through my minestrone soup there was a little blue “expired by” sticker.
Olive Garden was nice enough to 1) waive the price of the meal, and 2) give me a $15 gift card.
I’ve worked in more than one chain restaurant while in college and I can tell you the sticker is a “day dot”, something used to show when the food was prepped, and when it needs to be tossed by. Having it on the rim of the bowl (or in the food for that matter) presents no harm at all. If you see the high levels of heat that these things are cooked at to get them done quickly, you would realize that it’s very unlikely you’ll suffer any illness. In fact, the expo, had he/she seen it before the plate went out, would have simply removed it and served the plate as is anyway. We aren’t re-cooking shit unless we absolutely have to. You didn’t want onions on your salad? We take it back, remove the offensive onions with our bare hands, and bring it right back out. 9 times out of 10 there are no gloves invloved in the handling of any part of your meal. A sticker is the least of your worries.
I totally think the food should have been redone and boxed if that’s what he wanted, but why the hell is everyone freaking out about the way a chain restaurant operates? Does it really shock you? There’s a little bit of overreaction going on. Hell, if I find a hair in my food I’ll take it out and keep on going. Nothing in a single hair, or a sticker, is going to hurt you.
This would never happen at Shenanigans!
Every container, large or small, in a restaurant kitchen is supposed to have a dated sticker on it… kitchens are usually stocked to the brim and not stickering things would lead to a batch of this or that getting lost in the fridge with newer batches for a month before it’s used. Be happy that the stickers are around!
Of course, this whole sticker system in EVERY restaurant is ensuring that you are ALWAYS eating the oldest food in the fridge at all times. So, maybe that’s what this story should be about!
If today is Monday and new steaks are coming in… the stickers are saying you should cook the steaks that came in Thursday first. Guess which gallon, of thirty gallons of milk you’re getting your child’s milk from? The oldest. Not expired… today. But maybe tomorrow.
For those wondering if things are pre-cooked at Applebee’s, I’m a server there and nothing is pre-cooked as far as I know. Everything is prepped from fresh food (think mashed potatoes physically mashed in store, fruits and vegetables cut up, etc.) and used in a timely manner consistent with whatever guidelines there are for food expiration. The managers are a pretty picky about making sure everything is labeled with dates and such. I’m no expert on this stuff but at least at my restaurant we try to not be idiots like this story shows some of our chain can be.
Actually, now that I think about it I think they just switched from pre-cooked bacon to real bacon. Other than that nothing pre-cooked I can think of. The kid’s mac ‘n’ cheese does come in a little pouch from kraft and gets nuked and put on a plate, which I think is a bit lame, but anyways.
Don’t think I’m trying to say all Applebee’s are created equal, I’ve eaten at a few less than satisfactory ones, but at least the food at mine is well taken care of. How the management treats employees is a different story lol.
Anyways, hope that helped some.
Also, that sticker is one used to label the plastic bags about the size of sandwich bags used to portion things like sides of vegetables, which are reheated (read: nuked) in the bags and placed on the plate til the food is ready to go out, and which time the side is removed from the bag and placed on the plate. Sometimes when I’m in a rush I’ll forget to take the frilly toothpicks which indicate the temp of a steak out or not see a sticker like in the story. Once I almost took out a plate with the food still in the prep bags lol. No excuse for how it was handled at that restaurant though.
As far as answering the question about food preperation at Applebees, I can say 90% of it is indeed “pre-packaged”, however, a good portion of it is prepared fresh ahead of time, and then portioned out into bags. I used to be a cook for an Applebees, in South Carolina. I have worked in the food industry for three years, and I can say without a doubt Applebees is the worst franchise to work for, in terms of health/sanitation. The particular Applebees I worked for did not use a variety of chemicals, and one of their employees (happily) told me to either “heat it out or freeze it out”. However, service from management can VASTLY differ location to location because, as a franchised business, they don’t necessarily have to follow the same rules as, say, your Applebees down the street.
As far as finding a label in your food…I’m disappointed with how those staff members treated the incident, however accidents DO happen. I’m not saying their response was amazing, it wasn’t your cooks fault, the problem lies with who ever was EXPO (IE, the “quality” checker, he/she is responsible for presentation – such as garnishes, and making sure the plate is clean). I would have viewed this as “nasty”, only if the date were actually expired. I mean…it’s a sticker, and odds are it probably fell off the baggy as the cook was dumping it into the bowl, he/she probably didn’t notice. Them not making fresh IS on the retarded side though, because it only really takes about three and a half to four minutes to microwave a new batch.
I state I wouldn’t really feel TOO upset because I’ve worked in the industry, and I know and understand mistakes happen. If your chef of the day is spiteful, there are a lot of items in kitchens that can be tossed in to screw it up even more.
Lastly, I hate to break it to ya’, but if you’re eating out any and pretty much all food chains (unless they are in OPEN kitchen, which means you can see your food being made in front of you…Such as Red Robin, Macaroni Grill, etc), just about all the foods with the exception of meats will be premade. It’s just how prep work is done. You make a large batch of what ever sauce/marinade, etc and throw it into a bag for storage. It’s not “fast food-esque” as someone stated, rather, a method of saving time. Unless you’re paying 17.99+ per plate, like at the Space Needle’s Sky City, odds are it’s prepped ahead of time for simplicity.
Whew.
I have literally NEVER had good food at Applebee’s my wife enjoys going there so I force myself to go 1-2 times a year for her benefit but the burgers are always over cooked and dry, the chicken I’ve had either raw or burnt, pasta always rubbery. My wifes food is always good she says, so I think they have a picture of me in the back with instructions on how to tick me off.
@CyberCowboy: next time you have to go and your wife raves about her dish give it a taste test; you might find out her taste buds aren’t fully functional or she’s just too nice to complain about sub-standard food.
The same thing happened to me at a Cheddar’s a few weeks ago. I had soup and salad, and about half-way into my soup, there was a ‘Friday’ sticker. It was Sunday night.
They (supposedly) discarded the rest of the soup and got me fresh soup, which appeared to me to not be from the same batch (was fresher and tasted delicious) and comped the soup. I think my first bowl was from the bottom of the soup pot.
I found – no joke – a pencil lead in my food at an Applebee’s once.
Maybe I just grew up and got harder to please, but it seems like Applebee’s was a much better place to eat a few years ago.
However, while I do seem to have more problems (items missing from an order, writing utensil components in my food) at Applebee’s, I’ve never had a problem with their resolution or customer service.
Still, I prefer Grizzlebee’s! Grizzlebee’s! You’ll wish you had less fun!
Hey all –
as a former mystery shopper of Applebee’s, let me tell you very succinctly:
STAY AWAY.
We would do the mystery shop, and then reveal our identities and take pictures of the bathrooms, kitchen / prep areas, and bar. This was not a popular shop for obvious reasons, and it was unfortunate that we were required to have a meal and THEN have to inspect the joints.
This is a good thing you dumbasses. Unless it was expired then you should be glad they have a system in place to not use food that has gone past date.
Errrrr looking at that picture looks like that same bowl of noodle mess I ordered last time I was there. The sauce tasted funny, but no sticker was in my bowl.
Ya know how in Israel everybody has to serve in the military? Well, I suggest that in the U.S. everyone should work in a restaurant for a year(no college deferments!). We all eat in restaurants but many of us have no idea what it like to work in one(Or work at all, for that matter).Then you wouldn’t be relying on shit someone else tells you about ‘what goes on’. Anyone who has spent any time in a kitchen knows mistakes do happen and they are the exception and not the rule. Most of the people I’ve worked with in the 20+ years of restaurant work take great pride in what they do and those of us in the industry don’t need to be maligned by people who don’t have a clue.
I agree that dude got bad service from his server and from the mgr. but to read some of these comments, some of you people think Applebee’s is out to poison America. Work in a restaurant for awhile and you just might learn something.
Majority of Applebee’s food is pre-cooked and flash frozen at a facility in Texas before being shipped out.
So, theoretically they could have heated up new food in just a few minutes, however his fork was still in it. For shame, lazy Applebee’s employees!
Aah, this reminds me of a similar incident a month and a half ago at the Applebee’s in Orange, CT. My family and I just completed a tag sale two or three hours beforehand (at 3pm, iirc), and we decided to chill out by going out to dinner that night. However, what happened was the worst experience we’ve ever had at a restaurant, even though service has been pretty good at Applebee’s for us before. First and second (can’t remember the order these two happened in), my sister ordered a chicken/ranch/cheese sandwich (whatever the heck it’s called), and not only did it not come with the ranch dressing, the cheese was barely noticeable as well; it basically was melted to the bun; and, she also ordered a drink, which was sent to the wrong table (the table next to us). Next, my dad receives his sizzling chicken fajitas…only to get it with cold steak, cold vegetables, and no tortillas. He sends it back so he can get chicken instead of the steak, and they only put chicken on top of the steak and sent it back out. My dad sent it back a third time, demanding he get the dish with only chicken, and that it was actually sizzling like it’s supposed to. They got it right the third time, but it doesn’t end there. Already about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way into my meal, I notice a piece of a styrofoam cup in my meal (which happens to be the chicken broccoli alfredo, which appears to be the same dish as the one pictured in the article). I wanted to finish eating, as I wasn’t really disgusted (unlike most people would be), but I told my parents, who were then able to ask for the table manager. That’s where we drew the line. It turns out that they measure the pasta in styrofoam cups, and a piece must have broken off. The table manager couldn’t stop apologizing and asked if there was anything they could do to make it up, but my parents refused and requested the bill. I guess the only good thing out of this was the entire meal for each of us was free, but needless to say, we won’t be returning to that Applebee’s for a while.