8 Menu Items Applebee's Staff Won't Eat

So, here's the thing. Applebee's is polarizing, very, very polarizing. You're likely to hear some people say that Applebee's has the dubious honor of serving the worst faux ribs of any chain restaurant, but you're also likely to hear some say that, hey, at least Applebee's is better than most fast food. If you're a frequent guest at this notorious chain — willingly or simply because it's an office favorite for apps and an opportunity for a liquid lunch — you probably have your favorites. But the real experts are the employees, which made us wonder just what items off the menu are avoided by those who see them from start to finish?

It's an oft-repeated claim that anyone brave enough to head into the kitchen at Applebee's will find that the hardest-working one there is Chef Mike. (And yes, that's a reference to the microwave.) These appliances certainly have their place — did you know microwaves are the best way to reheat boiled shrimp? When you're paying restaurant prices for food, though, the idea you can do better at home isn't a great look.

So, we headed out to Reddit to see what current and former employees had to say about what menu items they avoid — and why they recommend you do the same. Fortunately, they didn't hold back, and it wasn't always the microwave's fault. Some foods are just unappetizing, encourage shortcuts, or are of questionable quality. Unfortunately, some of your favorites might be on the list.

If you think a table full of appetizers is a way to pass the time until the next round comes, you're not alone. Look, sometimes we want to savor a top-shelf cocktail made by a top-tier mixologist. But sometimes we just want a fishbowl-sized glass filled with a liquid that's a color unknown in nature, and has a questionable name like the chain's worst cocktail of all, the Tipsy Leprechaun. Unfortunately, Applebee's employees have noted that the cocktails leave a lot to be desired. 

There's an oft-repeated bit of wisdom that says if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Remember way back in 2017, when a video of an Applebee's employee making cocktails in a giant bucket went viral? Applebee's bartenders have taken to Reddit to confirm that yes, that's exactly how drinks are made, and they have no plans to consume them. One former bartender wrote, "Before the Dollaritas, we had no reason to pre-make beverages in bulk, so we had no containers big enough to make and store them, except old buckets used for cleaning." Good news: The employee confirmed the buckets were clean, so there's that.

The same person went on to claim that the drinks were mostly water, powdered mixes, and cheap liquor, and they're not alone. Others have chimed in to claim bartenders were told to underpour liquors, and yes, you're getting bottom-shelf booze. Maybe it's not such a great deal after all.

We're going to preface this one by saying: We're sorry. Plenty of Applebee's customers sing the praises of the appetizer menu, but it turns out that employees suggest you might want to skip those deep-fried goodness nuggets. As explained in graphic detail, "I had roaches get fried up with mozz sticks fairly regularly at my Applebee's."

Well then, that certainly escalated quickly. They went on to say that it was an older Applebee's that wasn't in great shape overall. If that were a one-off issue, we might have skipped it. Another former employee also posted about finding app-adjacent roaches: "There were regularly cockroaches and small [beetles] that would crawl within centimeters of the salsas/garnishes," they wrote. 

According to that Reddit user, they left the bug to see just how long it would take for someone else to clean it up. They claimed it took a full four hours, and that kind of puts those mozzarella sticks and marinara in a whole new light. Still others recalled mornings after pest control came in and they needed to sweep up roaches by the bucketful, so that's a yikes.

We here at Tasting Table have advised Applebee's customers to skip the riblets and go for the ribs instead, and we're not alone in that. When one Applebee's line cook did an IAmA Reddit and was asked what they avoided, they confirmed it was the riblets. They explained that they were downright unappetizing in their raw and unnatural form. "They come in a big, air tight bag, that has some kind of sauce in it," they said. "No idea what's in the sauce, but it doesn't look good at all, look[s] very nasty."

A former manager chimed in on another post to confirm, writing that the riblets were "pressed greyish meat with bones and cartilage in it. ... it was reject meat, they probably got paid to take it from distributors. Don't believe me, ask any cook at Applebee's if they eat the riblets."

A number of those cooks have posted that the questionable appearance of the meat is precisely the reason they can't stomach the idea of eating the riblets, and it's been that way for a long, long time. Posts going back to 2009 condemn the riblets as being pretty stomach-turning, while others say there's a little more to it and they're less-than-pleasing tableside, too. Portion sizes are questionable at best, and employees confirm they receive many customer complaints about what they're getting for their money.

We get it. No one is putting Applebee's up there with the best steakhouses in the country. A red carpet-worthy steak? Settle down, there, Applebee's, let's not get carried away. Still, it's possible you might consider it a legit option for an affordable hunk of meat when the craving for steak hits, but plenty of former employees say that you're more likely to walk out disappointed instead of satisfied.

"The steaks come in grey and dark with no blood left inside, and have 0 fat content," one Reddit user wrote. Unappetizing, sure, but they also doubled down. According to them, steaks were often left in pans in the cooler, supposedly so they were easily accessible. Unfortunately, that also meant that by the time they got to the bottom of the pan, those steaks were getting a little funky. That's absolutely not what you want to hear.

Others have confirmed the state of the raw steaks, with one former employee saying anyone who ordered a steak was getting "a terrible cut of meat that's poorly seasoned and often overcooked. I thought of them as shoe leather, as that's what they usually looked like." When some customers have taken to Reddit to post photos of their extraordinarily disappointing steak dinner, employees were not surprised in the least.

Buckle up, because this one is going to get disappointing — especially if you love those boneless wings. That's right, former employees have named the boneless wings as one of those menu items that they skip. Boneless wings were so popular that they were cooked ahead of time and left to sit until they were needed, according to one Reddit user who gave the inside, behind-the-scenes scoop on this fan favorite. It's not a recommended practice, but we found other threads where employees gave kitchen newcomers advice that included doing that very thing. 

It's called sandbagging, and across multiple threads were employees who recommended staying between 10 and 40 wings ahead of orders. While it might not be common practice at every location, it seems widespread enough to be food for thought.

Other employees have taken issue with different types of chicken, like anything that's grilled. One Reddit user who oversaw an Applebee's wrote, "The chicken smells like death. I can smell it through the box when it comes off the truck." Finally, there's one more complaint that's worth mentioning. One server-turned-manager revealed that the markup on the grilled chicken was pretty wild, and was one of the biggest money-makers. Simply put, you're paying a premium for what costs pennies, and what you get just isn't worth the price tag.

You can make some seriously stellar mashed potatoes in less than 20 minutes, so it might make sense that a restaurant that offers them as a popular side would keep those scratch-made taters on hand. You would think. However, multiple employees have posted to Reddit to say that Applebee's mashed potatoes are basically pre-made, pre-mashed and mixed, and get shipped to the restaurant in plastic bags. Staff scoops out a portion, it's Chef Mike to the rescue, and there's your mashed potatoes. Probably not the side you were expecting at a sit-down restaurant.

That wasn't always the case. One former employee explained that over the course of their time at Applebee's, fresh mash was replaced by that bagged version. Don't worry, it gets worse. Others wrote that in their experience, it wasn't uncommon for the mash to be made out of the same brands of instant mashed potatoes you can pick up at the store. 

Some employees have claimed to have found roaches in the mash, while others have said that the veggies aren't much better. One wrote that at their store, fresh veg shipments were so unreliable that old stock was used, while another said, "Broccoli comes in a plastic bag, which is microwaved, too. It's all pretty gross."

Applebee's has a whole slew of salads, and admittedly, they all look pretty tasty. However, let's take the oddly-named Oriental chicken salad. That particular one comes with 1550 calories, 105 grams of fat, and 73% of your daily recommended sodium, and that means it's not surprising it's one of the dishes that employees have said they try to steer customers away from. Knowing what's in the food you're eating is a good thing, and it's troubling that one former server wrote on Reddit it was kind of a suggestion from Applebee's not to tell customers things like nutritional information.

When Reddit users asked one Applebee's cook if they felt guilty making salads, they explained, "I didn't so much feel guilty as much as I felt bad for [customers]. I didn't even know how bad they were til I started there."

Other concerns have been raised about salads, too. Some point out that improperly cleaned lettuce and veg is food poisoning waiting to happen; when you add in the possibility that it's your server that's assembling your salad, not the kitchen staff, that increases the odds. The problem, one employee pointed out, is that servers have a lot of their plates, so to speak, including handling money and other dishes. Food prep and safety might not be the priority you'd like it to be. Finally, some suggest that chicken reaching the end of its lifespan is what ends up on top of the salads, so maybe give them a miss.

Food prices are out of control, and seriously, it's getting to the point where money seems like it's completely arbitrary and doesn't actually mean anything. That said, there are still some sit-down chains that are great for feeding a family of four for less than $75, and yes, Applebee's is one of them. Not everything is a great deal, though, and when one Applebee's employee was asked about the most overpriced item on the menu, the answer was the pretzel sticks. 

At the time (2017), Applebee's charged $8 for four sticks. At the time of this writing in August 2026, those four pretzel sticks are currently around $11.50 (in Buffalo, New York). There's the potential for additional costs, too: an extra cup of beer cheese sauce adds $1.29, and extra dipping sauces add between $.49 and $.99 each. That means the order for four pretzel sticks could easily end up setting you back $15 or so, and that is pretty pricey indeed.