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Review content:
Although Applebee's has a wide arrary of food/drinks/cocktails to offer, great promo ads, various locations, & sincerely good food, THIS location in Alameda, California lacks A LOT of star quality for performance in the ""art of waiting a table"".
LOCATION: W/in Alameda Shopping Centre (formally known as Southshore Mall) by Alameda Beach, off of Shoreline Drive. Closest to lot by Trader Joe's & where Mervyn's use to be. Plenty of shared parking in this lot.
RESTAURANT: Large, spacious, clean, & welcoming for all sizes. No outdoor seating, but plenty of booths & tables w/ armless chairs in dinning area, as well in separate bar area that have prob 2-3 flat screen TVs hanging on the wall.
CUST SVC: Friendly, polite, & what seemed to be honest effort to please their customers, but STILL need to take classes on waiting tables. My cousins, sis, & myself are greeted immediately upon entrance around 2:30pm on a Sat (9/12/09) & wait about 7-10min to be seated. The place appears to be heavily crowded, or w/ a decent crowd in every section. After eating & on our way out, hostess thanks us for coming & fellow gent-colleague opens the door for us on our way out. Again, team effort here being friendly & polite is 3-stars overall rating...here's how they lost 2-stars.
WAITRESS SVC: My sister warned us svc here sucked; she's been frustrated before on previous visits w/ table svc, but said she'd go one more time w/ us. Well in our dinning experience this afternoon, it was our waitress-Tanisha that disappointed us. I really don't know who to point the finger at in this situation..her, the cook, mgmt, or what. Overall w/ our particular waitress, her time management skills for her area, or just our table, was just off. Not thorough in refills during meal, nor quick enough for requests w/ meals such as extra side of ranch/honey mustard. This seems miniscual, but it was a miniscual request that took way longer than expected for parched throats or fries preferred w/ ranch. Tanisha was pleasant w/ smiles & apologic for delays, but it just seemed ridiculous of a wait for what ""we"" considered simple things.
FOOD: Never disappointed here, hence they gained 1-star! Another restaurant who serves their items to the marketing ad photo used in promo. Everything me & the girls got looked as it should. We got 2-orders of the 2-for-$20, which was 1-app & 2-entrees. I got the Quesadilla Burger, sis & cousin got Fire Pit Bacon Burger, & other couz got Steakhouse Burger. Everything absolutely good & gets high recommendation! (Just don't advise to come to this location unless they learn to wait tables)
FINAL TAB: We paid just a lil' over $40 bucks. Will I eat @ Applebee's again? Probably, but I'll be more inclined to Hayward's Southland location over this Alameda location again simply because of high disappointment w/ table svc.
Pros: Great food, excellent portions, & reasonable pricing
Cons: Not the best table service @ THIS location
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