Woman orders a medium-rare sirloin at Applebee’s. Then she gets an honest warning from the manager about the restaurant’s sirloin: ‘absolutely not’

A woman says she was stunned by what an Applebee’s manager told her after she struggled to eat a sirloin steak she ordered. The woman, who posts under the name Grandma Pam (@grandmapamsgroceryfinds) on TikTok, shared the story in a video that has been viewed 63,400 times.

Pam opened the video by telling viewers, “absolutely not believe what the Applebee’s manager said.” She then explained she had ordered a steak cooked medium rare. She said it looked good at first, but she had trouble eating it. “I’ve done everything I can do to chew it. I mean, it’s real bad,” she said.

Pam said she was not upset and simply explained the problem to her server. What happened next, she said, surprised her. Pam’s video caption reads, “You won’t believe what the Applebee’s manager said,” followed by hashtags including #applebees, #customerservice, #restaurant, and #steak.

Server says manager told her not to order the steak again

Pam said a server first asked her, “Can I get you a box?” She replied, “No, I’ve done everything I can do to get through this steak.” According to Pam, the server then said, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, let me go tell my manager.”

The server returned without the manager, Pam said. Instead, the server relayed a message. Pam said the server told her, “The manager said to tell you that our sirloin steaks are a really bad cut and that you shouldn’t order steaks from here, that you should just order our chicken or our pasta because it’s so much better.”

Pam said the manager did not offer to remove the steak from her bill or offer any other kind of compensation. “Um, no, I’m sorry, let me take that off of your bill or anything, just you shouldn’t order the steak,” she said, describing the exchange. Blunt honesty about food quality can be surprising, like when a woman at Texas Roadhouse accidentally ordered a 16-ounce sirloin and her husband went quiet. 

Pam said she responded by suggesting the restaurant put a warning on its menu. “Maybe you should write that on the menu then, that nobody should order your steaks,” she said she told the server. She said she found the situation “crazy.” Pam said she paid for her meal and left the restaurant afterward.

The video includes a close-up shot of the steak, cut open to show a pink center along with visible gristle and connective tissue. Onion rings are shown next to the steak on the plate. For Applebee’s, the complaints don’t stop at steak quality, as one Texas Roadhouse customer was upset after opening a 54 family meal box. 

The video has drawn a range of comments from viewers. One commenter wrote, “That steak is probably microwaved like 80% of their menu is.” Another commenter claimed, “They microwave their steaks and then just put char marks on the grill. ive been told by an employee.”

Other commenters were more direct in their criticism of the restaurant chain. One wrote, “It’s called Crapplebees for a reason.” Another commented, “Well, she’s just speaking the truth.” A separate comment speculated, “It’s probably 3D printed meat!!!”

One commenter said they would have handled the situation differently than Pam did, writing, “I would most certainly not have but I would have sent it back immediately.”