Applebee's Grill - Jacksonville

This particular Applebee's was really great to me. My 80 year old mom was in the hospital with pneumonia right close to it. She loves Applebee's french onion soup but she doesn't like the cardboard bowls they put it in for take out. They went out of their way to find a suitable container to put it in. She was so happy to have it. She ate almost all of it. Which was great because we couldn't get her to eat anything for over 2 weeks. I will be forever grateful to the crew who was working that night. Plus I got to sit and have their 2 for 1 margarita special while I waited for her soup. Which was also a nice short break for me. After having to drive an hour to get to the hospital.

Our visit was very enjoyable, Melissa was our waitress. She was very hospitable answered any questions we had, took our orders. Presented our drinks and orders in a timely manner and kept our drinks filled and checked with us for refills on the boneless wings we had ordered. Thanks again Melissa for your kindness and courteous personalized service for us.

Unfortunately Applebee's is not like it use to be. Mostly all the locations where I live have closed. The ones that remain are struggling. At this particular location we had to wait 15 min even though there wasn't hardly anyone there. This was due to the fact that there was only 2 waitresses working. I felt bad for them. The quality of the food is decreased along with the atmosphere. The host and our waitress at the bar were attending

I don’t blame the waitress for this because I know that she is just doing her job. I am not mad at her, I am just mad at what she is being told to tell me as a customer. I am 22 years old, and have a (VALID vertical ID. I was told that I could not legally be sold alcohol at that establishment and “other restaurants in the area” due to the fact that it has an “Under 21 Until” box on it dated for 2022. We were told that the state of Florida has enacted a law restricting it, and going into full effect starting in 2026. Google does not show anything at all about that, and there happened to be a table full of FL police officers at the table behind us that when asked, had heard nothing about this law. The waitress also said that they recently lost a bartender because of this (they read their ID wrong due to the Under 21 box which makes zero sense as if you were underage that date would be in the future. I said I would be more than happy if they scanned it, or if a manager came by to approve it and was still denied service. We ended up leaving, as the person I was with (who is younger than me but has a horizontal ID was probably more upset about this than me. I have never heard of being refused service for having a LEGAL and VALID ID just because it happens to be vertical instead of horizontal. I’m extremely disappointed from this experience, and again, I know the waitress is doing her job. I wish management wouldn’t enforce ridiculous rules like this because they had a bartender get audited for not knowing how to read an ID.

I had not been to Applebee's recently. My grandson wanted to try the all you can eat boneless wings, they were a hit! I had the Bourbon Street Chicken on the waitress's recommendation and the meal was delicious. Great service and good food. We will go back