New Applebee's Item: Triple Hog Dare Ya, Eaten September 2015

Today it was my mother-in-law's pick for lunch. Normally she can never decide and always chooses between Red Lobster, Pasta House and Applebee's. Since we are meeting at Pasta House this Friday for my daughter's birthday, and we had just visited Red Lobster a few weeks ago, we were headed off to the Applebee's in Maplewood. Normally, I do not review visits to huge national chains like Applebee's very often, but this time I tried something new on their menu - the Triple Hog Dare Ya.

This monstrous sandwich consists of ham, bacon and pulled pork on a ciabatta roll with onion rings, cheddar cheese and a sweet barbecue sauce. When it first arrived I was trying to figure out how to get it into my mouth since the ham and onion rings were sticking out all over the place. Plus the sauce made the bun a little soggy on the bottom and it started to form a hole there. Finally with enough smashing, I was able to pick it up and spin it around and bite off all the overhanging meats and onion rings. Afterwards, as long as I avoided the saucy bun hole on the bottom I was able to eat the rest of it with only using three napkins and without any serious stains falling on my shorts.

My son ordered a new specialty burger, the All-Day Brunch Burger. This was also a handful with a fried egg, bacon, hash browns and onions perched on top of a burger. He ordered his with the home chips whereas I ordered my sandwich with the fries with BBQ seasoning. I did like his chips but the seasoned fries were also tasty. My son seemed to enjoy his burger and ate it ravenously despite eating a burger every day for the past week on campus. My mother-in-law and wife both ordered and enjoyed the fried Oriental Chicken salad. Our waiter was an odd fellow named Chris who mentioned he was feeling peachy today but provided good service.

After we were done with our meals, Chris mentioned we could receive free desserts if we just filled out four online surveys on our phones. Since we only had two smartphones with service there (my son's and my wife's) they each had to fill the survey out twice, but that was fine with Chris. We all had the chocolate mousse shooters except for my mother-in-law who ordered the hot fudge sundae shooter. They were all very rich and tasty, although my wife did not like the hot fudge that somehow ended up on her mousse shooter.

Overall it was a fine lunch at Applebee's, and I was happy to try something different, and even get a free dessert out of the deal. I am sure we will be back again some time.