Applebee's

Tom: Sam and I knew eventually we were gonna have to go to a restaurant that wasn't only local to Ithaca. When Applebee's came up on our potential list, we immediately seized the opportunity, since it is pretty close to our desired normal lunch anyway. Special guest Annie Eisenberg (my sister) accompanied us on this particular trip.

(Here goes nothin! We enter...)

Pre-blog, Applebee's didn't see a ton of action from us, since we regard it as distinctly inferior to Chili's, but not any cheaper and the fake "local" atmosphere is usually pretty annoying. They also always make us sit at this really high tables in the bar area, which is weird. This trip was no different in that regard, and we got to see such great signs as "If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes" up on the wall.

Sam: Every table in the restaurant, the ones not in the bar area as well, is adorned with a stain-glass lamp. To someone going into Appleebees for a quick meal they probably just seem like normal lights, heck, that's how they appeared to us at first. But few minutes after we were seated and we had basically looked at all of the great signs on the walls I looked up to see the following.

(eek!)

Yeah... So it was a little hard to relax with that above us. Especially when each one bore a freakishly accurate resemblance to each of us. A few deep breaths later we had all calmed down a little and were ready to try and salvage the meal and all was going pretty well till, Tom, our waiter showed up. Now there was absolutely nothing, probably, wrong with him but he did manage to creep us out more than, or about the same as the lamp.

(Waiter Tom suggested these right off the bat. Damn you and your professionalism.)

(These aren't your itunes-using grandparent's apps!)

We decided to order our meals right awayl skipping the "killer apps" in order to get out from under all of the horrifying stares as quickly as we could. Strangely enough we all ended up ordering some form of chicken salad which will make the photos of our meals really fun and interesting.

(My chicken salad)

(Annie's chicken salad)

(Tommy's chicken salad)

Like I said, fun and interesting. I'm not sure why we all ordered chicken salads but they were fine. Basically what you'd expect from a place like Applebees.

Tom: It was pretty interesting that Applebees even bothered to offer 3 different yet so similar chicken salads. I dunno if I can say mine was any better than the other 2, they looked like pretty much the same thing. One word of caution I have about Applebees is their flavored drinks. Last time I was there I got a "Mango fizzie" and it tasted completely awful. This time, I decided to get some mango lemonade, and it was only marginally better, certainly not worth getting. Perhaps the non-mango flavors are fine, I dunno, I'm dubious though.


I don't really think there is anything about the Ithaca Applebees that is particularly interesting among Applebeeses, but it's still a decent family chain restaurant. Their menu has improved a bit in recent years so if you haven't gone in a while and are the type who would eat at Applebees, try giving it a shot.