Applebee's reviews

3.7

58% would recommend to a friend

(9,786 total reviews)
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Tony Marolejo

67% approve of CEO

47% positive business outlook

Applebee's has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 9,786 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Applebee's employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Restaurants & Food Service industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

10K reviews
3.0
May 15, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I worked with a great team, and made friends fairly quickly. It is a good place to work if you want a fast paced environment and excel at multi-tasking. You get cash after each shift from tips, and a paycheck every two weeks from hourly pay. Management was open to switching jobs between hostess to server to bartender. Discount off food is a set dollar amount instead of a percentage, making it possible to not have to pay for a small meal at the end of a shift. Management was willing to help and do whatever it took to make every shift smooth.

Cons

They are disorganized. Management talks about cutting labor down, then they overstaff the front of the house. There is favoritism in front of house seniority. If someone has worked there for 2 years and does not do anything, they will still get more hours than the person who has only worked for 6 months but does all the work. There is a constant struggle between servers and hosts because of job responsibilities not being clearly defined. It is on the lower end of restaurants, and is not a respectable place to work. It can take a long time to check out, because the managers are trying to save the restaurant from falling apart.

2.0
May 6, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It offers a very flexible schedule, but that is common the industry. It is clean as far as restaurants go.

Cons

Terrible hours. Management often over staffs the front of house, causing server sales to drop and thus less money at the end of the shift. They under staff the more expensive cooks, causing food times to increase, and thus less money at end of shift.

3.0
Apr 25, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They'll hire just about anyone. It can be a fun way to earn a few extra bucks on the side if you need/want some spending money. There is little training before you can quickly start earning cash. You will certainly meet a wide variety of people of all ages. You are allowed quite a bit of freedom to be who you are. There is little to no knowledge needed before you can be making cash tips. There are very few mandatory meetings that will be held, and even if you do end up missing them, there are no real consequences. There is room to move up in the company if so inclined, but then you will probably want to be in attendance to those mandatory meetings.

Cons

They'll hire just about anyone. Works both ways. The food ingredients often seemed to be haphazardly shoddy at best. Often times there would be seemingly a third of all the food prepared sent back to the kitchen due to an unsatisfied guest. The fact that most of the cooks had little to no quality control checks on them or if done, they were performed by someone who was underpaid, over-worked, and/or untrained. The fact of the matter is the company is a restaurant of "cheap prices." The company makes its money by selling low quality ingredients prepared by inexperienced and/or over-worked cooks, which in turn are quality control checked by the aformentioned key holders, and then served by a generally uncaring server staff.

Viewing 9766 - 9768 of 9,786 Reviews

Glassdoor has 10,426 Applebee's reviews submitted anonymously by Applebee's employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Applebee's is right for you.