Last night after a long day at work neither one of us were much in the mood to cook dinner. We talked ourselves into dashing out for something close by so we could hurry up and get back home to get some more work done before going to sleep. Now when we're home in Palm Springs, there are plenty of options for dining. But when we're in San Diego, the restaurants close by the beach house are really not all that great. So we ended up at Applebee's. Not exactly my favorite Casual Dining Restaurant to begin with. I much prefer the local chain Coco's to be honest. But anyway I digress. So we went into Applebee's and studied the menu. We looked and looked and looked and had trouble finding anything healthy. I eventually settled on t
he Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta bowl. Dinner was served fairly promptly, for which I was grateful. I had a few bites- it lacked flavor and wasn't all that good, but as I was hungry it worked. Suddenly I took a bite and felt something sharp cut into my upper gum. I winced in pain and had an immediate "empty the mouth of its contents" reaction. Being ever the gentleman, I grabbed a side dish and spit out what I had tried to eat. The sharp pain persisted and I realized I had bitten down on something foreign. I was in a fair amount of pain, so I excused myself to the gent's room in an attempt to discreetly dislodge the foreign item from my mouth. The manner in which it was wedged in between my teeth, and the depth it had been pushed in made it quite difficult to remove. Finally after 
managed to extract what I later realized was a chicken bone sliver. It looked something like this bone at left. Ok not exactly, but you get the idea. Blech. I was so grossed out by this. I returned to the table and let the manager know what happened. Of course she deducted the cost of my meal from the bill. Good job, because I certainly wasn't about to eat any of it. As we waited for the final bill, I stared out the window and saw the In-N-Out Burger joint across the parking lot. I was still hungry and longed for something to eat. But I had lost my appetite for anything. I'll admit that I can't exactly fault Applebee's that a -Rick Rockhill
12 comments:
Well that is every customers nightmare, isn't it? Not only is it horrible, the PAIN of it had to have been truly shocking, in every way. I have never eaten at Applebee's (or In-And-Out Burger either, for that matter.), though I know these things could happen in almost any place---and does, I think. What a bummer, Rick!
I'm not a big chain person, but I cringe whenever someone mentions they want to go to Applebee's or Chili's.
Sorry you had that experience...
There are 2 things I like at Applebee's; the spinach salad with shrimp and the chicken quesadillas, which aren't so Mexican, but will do in a pinch. Our local one closed, and the other one is too far from us to go to often. Sorry you had a bad experience.
You should have know better Rick.
Holy crap! I can't even imagine how you felt after that. Gives me goosebumps.
I will never look at Applebees the same again....
I must admit that if I never ate in another chain restaurant in my life, I'd be happy....chicken bone or no bone.
You're lucky you didn't swallow it! Drive over to Ocean Beach for fish tacos at South Beach!!
Ugh. I think I may be ill.
Applebee's does suck quite frankly, and you're much better off at IN AND OUT anyway, so NOW you know.
Yuck..I would have made more of a fuss, I think. Are you still in pain?? I doubt that I would ever eat there again.
yuck! that is really unpleasant and i don't blame you for being put off by it.
My mother loves places like Applebee's and I could live with never going there again. This post just reinforced that thought for me. It's pretty funny...when she says she wants to go out to eat I'll list all the places I won't go to. They usually turn out to be the ones she had in mind.
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