No More Steak at Applebee’s!
Leigh and I decided to combine chores and pleasure last night and go out to supper before getting groceries. We decided on Applebee’s. I looked through the menu. “What would you recommend?” I asked the waitress, a cute little Italian looking girl probably 19 or 20. “The chicken tenders or the Teriyaki bowl?”
“The Teriyaki bowl,” she said. “I like the rice and the vegetables.” I nodded and ordered the Teriyaki bowl with chicken and steak.
After she left, Leigh said, “Wasn’t it here you had the steak wrap and the steak was tough?” I don’t really remember particular meals at restaurants. Throw Chili’s, Applebee’s, TGI Fridays and all their counterparts together and they serve pretty much the same thing.
When the food arrived, I checked out a strip of steak. It was tough. The chicken was good. The vegetables were good. I tried another piece of steak.
It was all fat.
ALL fat. I stuck my fork into another and pulled up a glob of solid fat. I set it on a napkin. Chewing fat makes me physically ill. Looking at it makes me angry. There’s too much fat in this country. The waitress returned just about that time and asked that really unfortunate question: “How is everything?”
“Not really so good,” I said nicely. “My steak is all fat.” She looked at the pile mildly horrified.
“Yeah, I can see that. I’m so sorry. I’ll get you another.”
“Make it chicken.” She nodded, understanding and rushed off with more apologies. I imagine she did feel bad imagining her tip vaporizing before her eyes, but I didn’t blame her at all. She’s just a conduit, taking an order from me and returning with the dish the cook gives her.
A few minutes later, the night manager appeared, middle aged pleasant guy. He glanced at the brown pile of fat. “Got you a bad order, eh? We’ll replace the meat and won’t charge you. I just wanted to check and make sure you have something to eat while you’re waiting.” Pleasant guy. Almost so pleasant it seemed that he didn’t care, but he did, I’m sure. What I wanted to know was where the hell the fat came from? Where’s the quality control? I know the food is shipped in, stored and hauled out when there’s an order. But, damn, is the cook blind? No! If he was blind he would have felt the damned glob of fat.
My replacement chicken arrived just as we finished dinner, which didn’t surprise me. The place was packed with a line of people waiting.
Ah well, the point is, if you eat at Applebee’s, watch out for any dish with steak in it. Like I said, these chain restaurants all have their food shipped in so if bad dish in one Applebee’s you can get it at any Applebee’s.
Just don’t take it out on the waitress.