Applebee's, Tuscany Village, Gordon Head

It's been a busy few weeks at Vic-In-Person Towers. Plenty of time for eating out, not enough time to write meaningful content. I've moved apartments, and have a whole heap of new places on my doorstep to try out as well. Lets try to get some sort of normal service.

Which brings me to Applebee's. My new room mate and I had just wandered up to the apartment to check a couple of things before moving in and needed breakfast/lunch/brunch. Not spotting anywhere, we drove up to Gordon Head when I remembered Applebee's had opened recently. So I thought it might be a passable place to grab something to eat.

In Office space there's the restaurant, where Jennifer Aniston gets into trouble for not wearing enough flair. That place must have been based on Applebee's. Green and Red colours swarm the walls and the carpets, there's faux sports memorabilia and 60's diner crud splashed across the wall, and the place looks like it;s been decorated by someone who understands contemporary, modern design, but just doesn't really do it well. A chirpy teenager sat us down and a less chirpy teenager brought us water and coffee.

Still, we got a window in the sun, and looked at the menu. No breakfast choices (okay, it doesn't do breakfast, I hadn't realised), but there seemed to be a few interesting items. I ordered an Ultimate Trio. The name is correct. It is the last trio I would buy there. Chicken bites, two sliders and dynamite shrimp. My house mate went for a BLT with a loaded Jacket Potato.

The shrimp was not dynamite, but poor breaded and deep fried little things with no flavour except for the grease. Waste of shrimp. The sliders were fatty, the meat tasted cheap (of course it probably is cheap but Maccy D's do a better job of hiding it) and the burger bun and condiments neither crisp, or fresh or interesting. I had been craving some nice hot sauce chicken or wings, and while the bites had a good coating of Frank's Hot sauce (or whatever house variety they used) the same fatty taste of the deep frier was there too.

My friend left half the BLT, which looked nicely toasted, but was apparently tough on bacon and tough on the cause of bacon. I tried some of the baked potato, but this too had been done a disservice and was over baked and stodgy... any flouriness had long ago left the building and taken a hike up the Malahat to see the Island.

Still, the coffee was strong and hadn't been deep fried, the service was fast and effective, but as a food location, it makes a great example of what not to do. What made it worse was the bill... if this was half the price, it's passably excusable, but at $40+ for two, three of people could have eaten very well at John's Place and four have a reasonable breakfast at Avalon.

Final Bill :BLT - $9.99
Fully loaded Jacket Potato - $1.99 to load, no idea price for the potato itself.
Ultimate Trio - $14.99
2 x Coffee $3.98

Total - $40 with tip and taxes.

Phone: (250) 590-9100

Location : 1654 McKenzie Avenue, Building E, Victoria
Website : www.applebees.com