I don’t get the joke. I don’t eat at Applebees, but it’s just one of hundreds of cookie cutter chain restaurants in this country, all of which have identical menus.
Is Applebee’s getting an extraordinary amount of pop culture hate that I don’t know about?
Yes, there’s a meme about Applebees being terrible that’s been going on for years now. It’s stupid; Applebees is a successful enough restaurant chain, it’s at least as good as many other places that don’t get slammed as much.