Syracuse Sandwich: Applebee's Slow Simmered Beef Sandwich

Who: Applebee's What: Slow Simmered Beef Sandwich
Where: Route 11, North Syracuse Phone: 452-5670 Website: Applebee's
Parking: Shared lots Accepts Credit Cards: Yes Take-Out: Yes Delivery: No

     A few hours before we arrived at the War Memorial to see Dane Cook in concert, we stopped at Applebee’s for dinner. Earlier in the day I had checked out their menu so I knew what I would order once we got there. I was pleasantly surprised to see a few new items including a new wrap and a new sandwich. The Slow Simmered Beef Sandwich sounded good and reminded me of the way I make pulled pork, in the crock pot. Slow simmered beef is piled high on a buttery bun with jalapeno slaw and fried onion strings. I’ve had pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw on them before so I figured that this would be very comparable. We ordered a sampler to start to eat while we waited for our entrées.

     When the waitress delivered our food, she couldn’t tell the difference between Christine’s burger and my sandwich. The picture on the menu of the sandwich showed strings of saucy beef, not a solid piece of meat. When I got the correct plate, I could see why she had the problem. The meat was molded into a patty form and the sauce had all been absorbed by the meat taking away from the “shine” it would give off when light hits it. While the meat didn’t look mouth watering appetizing, I held out hope that it would taste good. With the slaw piled underneath the meat and the fried onions strings on top, it looked like a well put together sandwich. The taste on the other hand just simply wasn’t there. The meat was very bland and while it was moist, the sauce had no flavor. The jalapeno slaw was over powered by the spiciness of the pepper, I understand that it is suppose to taste like jalapeno but I think the ratio of cabbage to jalapeno was off. The slaw deteriorated the bottom bun because the bun wasn’t toasted enough to combat the amount of liquid. This made the sandwich quite difficult to handle let alone eat. The fried onions added little to the sandwich and were kind of an afterthought if anything. It seems they were only added for appearance and not to enhance the sandwich. Perhaps if they were really crispy they would have at least added texture but they were soft for the most part. I’m becoming more and more annoyed over time with big box restaurants, they are only safe to go to if you go with their original menu items that they are known for.

Rating: Edible – Like I said, stick with the originals.