I sincerely hope Megan sent those fries back...

I remember reading once that the majority of food you see in advertisements would probably hospitalize you if you tried to eat them. For instance, they use glue instead of milk in cereal commercials to make the "milk" pour slower and the cereal bounce a little. This might be the only case of the opposite.

hahahahahahahah. Sorry. That's kinda funny. Gross, but funny as in I-can't-believe-they'd-actually-serve-that funny. I'd totally send that back.

Oh, and I'm just waiting for the obligatory "that's what you get for eating at Applebee's/a chain restaurant".. c'mon, I know someone's gonna say it..

I would have thought that people would realize by now that Applebees, TGI Fridays, Chili's, Ruby Tuesdays, and all similar sit-down 'fast foods' were not actually gourmet meal restaurants. Silly me.

No really, your meal is like what, 10 bucks or less? Its about as good for you as a McDonalds meal. You want good food, go to a real restaurant where they require things like a dress code and the wait staff don't wear 'flair.'

Those fries look glued together. Tasty...

Yea, send the food back, that'll teach them as they sneeze on the next order they send out.

That reminds me of church potluck dinners I attended as a child. One lady would always bring some sort of congealed salad. It was amazing the kind of stuff you'd see suspended in Jello. The photo here looks like a congealed french fry salad.

Ok, those fries are foul. I'd have sent them back and told them to try again.

Just to make a point that I'm sure will be echoed many times over, Photos of food are so staged and groomed that they bear no resemblance to what you're going to get no matter what. They simply can't make a real burger look like the one in the picture, because the picture isn't of a real burger. Photographers use all kinds of fake food and other chemical substitutes for things because real food doesn't hold up under the intense lights they use, and it just doesn't photograph well. Photo shoots can last hours, sometimes a whole day, just getting the lighting right and making things look just perfect. No real food would hold up that long, and if it did I wouldn't want to eat it.

I generally don't expect things to look as pretty as the photo, but man those fries were nasty.

Those fries don't even look cooked! Gross!!!

@DashTheHand: Such hostility...

@DashTheHand: Ding ding ding! I knew someone would say that.

Seriously, though, because Applebee's isn't a 'gourmet meal restaurant' you shouldn't expect your fries to be properly cooked? Interesting argument.

Applebees is one of the few chain restaraunts I refuse to eat at, because it is usually sub-par. The food isnt good, the atmosphere is too corporate and the "deals" aren't that great. I recall a deceptive ad they ran a few years back that made it seem like you bought a meal and got one free. The picture showed 2 plates of food and something like "buy one get one". Well, turns out you got a meat entree, and you could get a second piece of meat "free". Never been back.

I had that burger once. It was tasty, and my fries were fine. Seriously, anything that looks like it plopped out of a can needs to be returned. I think (hope?) this was just an aberration between franchises.

That sounds about right for an Applebee's. I recently took my family to one in Oregon during our summer vacation. Normally I can't stand Applebee's as I've always found the food to be overpriced and bland but I figured it's been a few years and it beats the McDonald's that was across the street.

My wife and I had the lunch specials, soup and a sandwich (and some fries). The soups were very salty and very tepid. The sandwiches that made up the other half of the lunch special weren't too bad, a bit greasy but easily washed down with some of their tepid coffee, or in my wife's case, super sweet lemonade.

Service was pretty mediocre, I think I tipped $2, a buck for each meal.

Speaking of service, I'm used to food servers coming by every 10-15 minutes just to glance at your drinks but that seems to be a thing of the past, so here's my tip for getting your coffee refilled more often: put your empty cup right at the edge of the table. They seem to notice that more, I don't know if it's because they are worried that you're going to knock the cup over or what, but they will come by with a pot of coffee, refill your cup and put it done away from the edge. :)

Thats just gross, I hope as others have said it was either not eaten and not paid for or sent back and corrected. I could understand being slightly different then the picture but I have never seen a "fry log" before

I ate at Applebee's a few days ago. While my food did not look as disgusting as the fry glob, I did get the sh*ts for 2 days. :(

Who knew fries came out of a can?

@Schminteresting: First off I wouldn't eat at one of said chain restaurants because the food is overpriced, equally as bad for you as McDonalds, and they honestly give zero shits about your satisfaction as just shown by how they prepare food.

Second, sending the food back to tell them to try again is just going to get your food sneezed in or worse. Only fools send their food back in restaurants of this type.

Spend some time finding smaller mom & pop restaurants where the cooks actually care about what they serve patrons because they enjoy having loyal customers.

Better yet, make it yourself. Its not like its complicated to make a burger and fries at home.

As with most chain restaurants, quality varies WIDELY between stores. I used to work at a Bob Evans - my store was ranked #1 in our region, and it showed. It was clean and the food was awesome. But if you went to the next nearest store (I got sent there a few times when they needed help)...man, I don't know that I'd give that food to my dog.

And as other commentators mentioned here, chain restaurants and a decently priced meal does not mean you can serve sub-par food. Nobody's expecting a $10 plate to taste as good as a $50 plate, but even McDonald's cooks their fries.

Yeah that's pretty gross looking. I've had those fries there before that were pretty good...somebody dropped the ball here obviously!

@DashTheHand: I worked in restaurants of this type back before college and during. The whole "getting your food sneezed in or worse" argument is 99% folklore, 1% truth, in my experience. If cooks were to sneeze in (or do worse to) all food that gets sent back to the kitchen, they'd have no bodily fluids left at the end of their shift.

I agree about finding smaller mom & pop restaurants, but I don't believe it's fair to lump every chain restaurant into the "uncaring" category. I've been to some wonderfully managed and well-staffed chain restaurants.

@jbohanon: I've been on a few commercial shoots and it's a lot of fun to watch the food makeup people at work.

But yeah, the stuff you see in print ads and on TV are not edible. Pretty amusing to watch the actors take a bite, act like it's the tastiest food in the world, then spit it out.

It looks like they jammed the fries into a cup and then dispensed them upside down into the ramekin.

Even sit down fast food like Applebees bears some responsibility to serve you something edible and at least meeting the basic expectation of not totally gross.

Obligatory link to ads vs reality. You know, for the linkless:
[www.thewvsr.com]

Fries like that would be acceptable if your server had enough flair.
Insinuations that "this is what you should have expected" I am sure go right out the window when you go there to eat, friends.

@DashTheHand: "Better yet, make it yourself. Its not like its complicated to make a burger and fries at home."

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that your average Consumerist reader doesn't own a giant food fryer. And even assuming Megan does, she probably doesn't want to spend over hour making her nice uncomplicated meal, including forming her hamburger from ground beef, dicing the tomatoes to make bruschetta, cooking the burger, frying the fries, etc.

Yes, that fry-sculpture thing should be sent back posthaste. And I agree with Schminteresting that reports of kitchen staff messing with food are vastly exaggerated. I mean, there are normally lots of people working in a kitchen, and I doubt that Happy McSpitsalot is going to keep his job there for long -- his coworkers will rat him out (because he's probably a jerk in the first place) and restaurant managers generally don't like lawsuits.

@DashTheHand: 100% agree.

Seriously people, the locally-owned hot dog & burger stand in ANY city in the US has better food than Applebee's, TGI Friday's, etc.

Great, now I want parmesan fries.

@Beerad:

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that your average Consumerist reader doesn't own a giant food fryer. And even assuming Megan does, she probably doesn't want to spend over hour making her nice uncomplicated meal, including forming her hamburger from ground beef, dicing the tomatoes to make bruschetta, cooking the burger, frying the fries, etc"

Actually it's not hard to make excellent fries @ home without a deep frier. I make fish and chips all the time at home.

Just a chop a few potatoes into slices, immediately submerge in an ice bath and let them sit in the fridge for at least an hour (this will leech out most of the starch), heat a pot of peanut oil on high until VERY hot, drain the ice water and pat dry the potatoes, cook the potatoes in batches for about 5 mins., let them sit for about 5 mins. and then cook them again in batches until golden brown. Altogether that takes about 15 mins. of actual labor to make.

Courtesy of Bourdain's Les halles cookbook

Yes, Applebee's is not gourmet. Generally, you get what you pay for. However, she didn't even get what she paid for - that food looks simply disgusting and is well within her rights to be complaining about it.

Just because you choose to use a cheaper product/service doesn't mean you're not entitled to complain when it isn't of even a basic quality
(though you also shouldn't expect it to be top quality either).

I wonder if Tyler Florence is aware that his supposed creation is coming out of a cylinder.

Yeah, lets go on the intarwebs to complain about Applebee's messing up my fries! I would never complain to them and allow them to give fix the issue!

I'm sorry. You're entitled to complain, please do so to your waitress or waiter, not the Consumerist.

Having worked in several restaurants of varying class, the saddest part is how many people had to see/sign-off on that plate before it went out to the table. I know it's Applebee's, but come on. Perhaps they are rebelling against the degree of flatness that will be brought about by their pending sale to IHOP.

To everyone saying that people should just make the food at home:

That is a great idea. However, there are times when you really want to just eat and not have to do anything. I am moving into an older house and doing some renovations before getting completely settled in. After working for 8 hours, and then going home and working for 4+ more hours and spending 10+ hours working on the house on weekends, there have been a few times recently that I have needed to just sit down and have someone serve me food - nothing to prepare, cook, or clean up. This is even though I am typically a cook at home kind of person.

that looks awful

@soldierblue:

1) You don't HAVE to read this post and its accompanying comments if you don't find them interesting.

2) You ask her to complain to her server -- if the server, kitchen staff, and/or manager had been doing their JOBS, they would have never let anything that looked like that leave the kitchen.

Megan, I know this is pretty inconsequential, but around what time of day did you visit the restaurant?

@ancientsociety: That does sound delicious, and my hat is off to you for your culinary skills, but I tend to avoid pots of oil heated to a very high temperature in my kitchen. I have been known to fry up some delicious corn fritters on occasion, but that's definitely the exception rather than the rule.

I was simply suggesting that for many people the advice to "simply make it at home" isn't really that feasible. Restaurants exist for a reason (as do accountants, doctors, tailors, etc.) -- they provide a service or a good that oftentimes people would prefer to purchase rather than do themselves. And while our intrepid reader could conceivably have cooked her own burger and fries, it's a little harder to just whip up a slab of ribs or a buffalo fried chicken sandwich.

@samurailynn:

Ditto - and sometimes going out to eat is just an excuse to get out of the house, or to sit and socialize with friends/family without having to getup and get yourself food/drinks and take care of cleanup etc. In those situations I'm not after the best food in the world, just a decently made meal with reasonable prices/service - it's really not too much to ask.

They really need to post the addresses of these places. How am I supposed to know which Applebee's to avoid if I don't know where it is?!

It still baffles me when I drive by my neighborhood Applebee's that the place is always crowded. I've eaten there two times in the past 5 years. Both times the food was absolutely terrible. Seeing those fries doesn't surprise me in the least.

Chili's has never done me wrong but the only thing you should do to applebees is drive by. Eaten there one time in my 24 years...no plans to return.

Heh, my buddies always order that when they go to Applebys (we call it the BFP burger - big F*ing pig). Its apparently really good, and the fries (when served properly) are very good as well. I try to avoid it so I can try and lose some weight.

Yeah, my dad does food photography. Some tricks include:

Using a blowtorch to put grill marks on meat

Glue instead of milk(lots of thing accually

Plastic cubes instead of ice

fake lettuce , tomatoes, and almost any sliced or cut up vegetable.

My girlfriend ordered the Country Fried Chicken from Applebee's and when it arrived, she found, under the chicken, the mashed potatoes still within a plastic bag! Needless to say she returned the item, and they came out with a new plate, but they probably just opened the bag and gave her the same food back.

Why anyone who lives in or around LA would eat at an applebees is beyond me. LA is full of great mom and pop restaurants that blow that chunk of coagulated starch out of the restaurant it was served in. Just use yelp.com if you need recommendations.

@Beerad: I didn't mean to say that people should just make it at home and never eat out. Just that it's VERY easy to make excellent fries (from scratch) at home.

who eats at Applebee's? Its overpriced frozen shit!
Its just like every other(Olive garden,TGIF,red Lobster..ect) casual dining monstrosity that dots main street USA.

Its called "food styling" and "food photography"

@ancientsociety: I made some yummy roasted rutabaga fries the other night.

@ancientsociety: exactly,People need to get a dining guide to their city and support local businesses!

Gross. As my wife and I call it, Crapplebee's. The only time I eat there is because I have a gift card, and I am always disappointed.

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?