Applebee's on South Cedar Street in Lansing.
We got lazy. After a brutal day in Novi, we crashed on the couch and watched a little TV just killing time until Saturday Night Live came on which we knew had a skit harpooning Rod Blagojevich. Doing nothing made me hungry. We didn’t have a lot of food in the house and neither of us wanted to get dressed up again to go out for dinner. That made carry-out or delivery the top choice. Neither of us had cash to tip a pizza delivery boy and for some reason we both thought of the same thing. Applebees Carside-To-Go.
Yeah, it’s a cookie-cutter chain that I can’t stand, but the prospect of not getting out of the car was what sold me on it. We got on Applebees.com and I found a burger that sounded good. J’s done the Carside-to-Go a few times at work and Applebees used to be a hangout for her and her friends when she lived out West, so she knew what she wanted. I let her do the hard work and call in the order. I hate talking on the phone.
After fifteen minutes or so, we paused America’s Funniest Videos and went to pick up our order. The way Carside-to-Go works is you give the person taking your order a description of your car. You then park in one of the designated spots and they see you on a closed-circuit video system. An employee comes out with your food and you pay right there at the car. Usually, they have a Wi-Fi credit card machine, but their system was down tonight, so the employee ran the card in and came back for a signature. When we pulled in, our order was ready and our food was in our hands almost before I could get the window rolled down. It went pretty quickly.
The Brewtus Steak Burger and fries from Applebee's
We got home and dug in. Both of our meals came packaged in a plastic container so each entree was packed in it’s own box. It’s not like fast food where each food item is individually packed. I wasn’t in the mood for anything fancy, so I ordered a burger. On the website, I found a burger called the Brewtus Steak Burger. When J ordered it, the person taking the order couldn’t find it in their system. It wasn’t listed on the menu we got with the order either, so I’m not sure if it’s a new thing or what. They did eventually find it in their system. The Brewtus Steak Burger is ten ounces of sirloin topped with cheddar cheese and bacon served on a toasted bun. By the time we got it home, it had started to lose some of the warmth, but other than that, it was pretty good. I was a pretty large sandwich and took me a while to conquer. The sandwich came with fries which were surprisingly good. They were seasoned with garlic salt, but like the burger, had started to get cold which took away a little from the overall effect.
J went with a sampler platter which is what she and her friends use to share after work over a few drinks. The sampler platter actually makes a pretty good meal on it’s own. She got the spinach-artichoke dip with tortilla chips, two mini-cheeseburgers, and honey BBQ boneless wings. The wings smelled delicious. J was generous and gave me one after she started filling up. They were delicious. Not as good as chicken wings, but as far as boneless wings go, pretty good. I didn’t try the mini-cheeseburgers since I was already eating one, but for someone that doesn’t really eat beef, J really enjoyed them. She said they took time to toast the little buns and crisp the bacon which are two things she really appreciates. They piled lettuce on so she didn’t get an overwhelming “beef taste” which is good for someone like her. She was a little disappointed with the spinach-artichoke dip. They didn’t give her a whole lot of chips, so she had a lot of dip left.
For the most part, I was pleased with the burger. J and I got talking and I actually realized I had never eaten at an Applebees before. I had been in many of them, but it was usually for work and I was just shooting news stories. All those chains run together. I have eaten at Ruby Tuesday’s, TGIFriday’s, etc. and I can never remember which is which. I would go back to Applebees and I can definitely see taking advantage of Carside-to-Go again.
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Applebees – South Lansing | Mid-Michigan Dining