Applebee's

I don't want to hurt the restaurant but we were told by people wanting outside that there was any where from a 45 minute to a two hour long wait because they were training new cooks. When we talked with the hostess she said they did not have enough servers so they could only seat so many tables. My only concern is if the training new cooks was taking place I wouldn't have trained them on a Saturday night when you are potentially going to be busy. If that is not the case and the restaurant was just short servers and front staff then I completely understand and do not want to hurt the restaurant. On a positive note the hostess we spoke to was very nice and polite about everything! From what I could tell the restaurant was clean. I didn't see any trash in the parking lol (but then again there were no exterior lights the night of 2/19/22)

This review is about our last visit to Applebee's in Albany. The attitude and actions of the hostess and wait staff display an attitude that if you are not black you would be better served by going somewhere else. When we arrived we we the only customers entering. The hostess at the door walked past us and walked to two other employees and was talking nothing about business and ignored us for more than 2 minutes. Then 3 black ladies came in and the hostess came up to them and seated them and they were not joining another table. The hostess stopped and began talking to the other employees again. We determined that if this is the way we would be treated it would be in our best interest to leave. We later discussed our experience with some friends and they too had experienced the same treatment. I will say the time of day was mid afternoon and there were only a few customers and none were not black.

I sat at the bar. Service was very slow from the bartender. Food came out nice and hot and delicious. I had to ask for "silverware" more than once and it was to-go plastic ware I was given. But this part, I found very interesting. The bartender was turning away business from the bar because people who came in and sat themselves down at the bar were not seated by the hostess. This wasn't at a table in the bar but the bar itself! Everywhere ive ever been in my travels the bar is always FCFS. First time in my 47 years on earth I have ever heard that... what was worse is that there were only 5 people sitting at the bar at the time and 7 of the 9 tables in the bar area were open. This was about 10 pm on a Thursday night. Not terribly busy either. The bartender turned away at least 3 people I know of. That's bad for business. Money walking right out the door to go somewhere else. And in times like we have now, no one can afford to lose business arbitrarily. I would not recommend this location for a good meal experience.

OMG the host and server were cursing one another over seating us then 1/3 of our food was refrigerator cold (not hot soup and dipping cheese) two of our party didn't get their plates until 25 minutes after close in the parking lot. Our drinks were never refilled and our server just disappeared... the best thing I can say is the Bartender was awesomeness.

The only reason I gave one star is because of the bartender. She was over worked. And seemed to be working alone. They say EVERYONE in this lady’s section. She was running the bar and waiting tables. Which is why I can excuse the fact that our drinks were wrong. But there were four other servers who had empty sections and yet they packed everyone coming in into her section. 4 hours until close and everyone is on breaks. The “manager” finally came out as backup but nope. Not going here again until things change