The experience

Today when Ogre asked me about dinner, I remembered that on Tuesday it’s Kids Eat Free.  It was Tuesday, so we set out to find the nearest Applebee’s.  After getting a little lost, we finally happened upon it.  We were seated right away and noticed a lot of tables with kids.

We looked over the menu and while our drink orders were taken right away, it took awhile for the guy to come back to take our dinner order.  I hemmed and hawed about ordering the Sirloin here as I sometimes have issues with sirloin. Ogre said that it’s not always bad, so I thought I would go for it.  How bad could it be?

While we waited, Ogre and Mina played a rousing game of I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s where you take turns making a line and try to make a square.  Mina is new to this game, so Ogre was pretty easy on her.  Benji also colored while we waited.

Our food came out and I spent some time fixing up my baked potato.  I should have cut in to my steak first, because I saw that it was not medium rare as requested.  It was more like medium well bordering on well done.  Gross.  I couldn’t eat that.  It took a while for us to flag down the waiter and he sent it back.  I should have kept my baked potato.  Instead I watched Ogre and the kids eat and finish their meals before the manager came by to tell me that they were working on my dinner and he would take it off the ticket since I had to watch everyone else eat.  Fine.  Whatever.  It took about 20 minutes before my food came out. 

I was still skeptical about my steak, but I cut into it, and it did appear to be medium rare.  I did not even bother with the ends of the steak.  I cut into the steak and could not cut all the way through.  Then I tried another section.  Same problem.  On the third try, I at least got all the way through the meat and was able to eat it.  I requested some A1 steak sauce (which I don’t normally do, but this NEEDED it).  I ate a couple of pieces.  Ogre tried some and swore there was an “off” taste.  He blamed it on possibly a marinade they used.  We hoped it wasn’t a bad piece of steak.  The next time I had a piece, it had to be spit out, it was to tough and basically inedible.  After another bite like that, I gave up.

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The kids had to wait for me to finish eating and actually behaved very well.  Ogre wanted to get them dessert, but I was not going to spend any more money here, so we decided to get the check and head out.  It would take forever to flag down the waiter again, so I ended up taking Benji out of the restaurant while Mina and Ogre waited for the server to bring the check.  Then we headed to Braum’s so I wouldn’t be hungry later and the kids could get some ice cream. 

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The food

American food.

photoI ordered a Sirloin Steak with Shrimp Parmesan atop it.  It didn’t come out with the Shrimp Parmesan.  It was gray in color and pretty unappetizing (and I’m talking about the second offering). I decided I would try to eat it anyway.  Try being the operative word.  I could not cut through WITH MY KNIFE most of the steak.  It was too grizzly. It was pretty inedible.  I never spit out my food and had to do this not once, but twice because the bolus was not getting smaller.  It was pretty gosh darned gross.  The baked potato was fine, thank goodness.  The veggies were okay.

Ogre ordered Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad and he liked it.  It is a salad with dried cranberries, nuts, bleu cheese and a honey balsamic vinaigrette.  Very similar to the one at TGI Friday’s…in fact, Ogre said it tasted exactly the same.

The kids shared two kids meals, one with a corn dog and one with mac and cheese.  The portions are pretty small so they finished it up.

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The service

Not very good.  Not very good at all.  He just wasn’t on the ball and disappeared for long periods of time.  Ogre had to request refills a few times.  I was about to write that I had no idea why my dish took so long after I sent it back, but I think that he just put my second order in line with all the orders.  It literally took about 20 minutes for the second steak to come out.

 

The kids

It’s kid friendly.  Kids menu.  Kids activity book.  Kids eat free on Tuesday.

I don’t care if it’s kid friendly, we’re not going back.

The total: $16 bucks (they gave me mine for free)

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