Applebee's

Applebee's's Florida stores average -0.19 high-priority violations per routine inspection relative to their county baseline (95% interval -0.31 to -0.07), below the county baseline. Rank 7 of 16 casual-dining brands, counted from furthest below the baseline.

-0.19vs county baseline, 95% interval -0.31 to -0.07

0.92 vs 1.11raw high-priority violations per routine inspection vs the baseline its stores face

88stores in 32 counties, 433 routine inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26

The food: where these dishes come from

Applebee's is known for mozzarella sticks and barbecue ribs. The stories are about the dishes, not the brand, and live on PlateTales.

By fiscal year

Relative to the county baseline, first visits of routine inspections. Open circle and * = fiscal year in progress (data as of 2026-11-09). Hover a point for n.

Most-cited violation codes

Citations per 100 routine inspections, Applebee's vs all Florida inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26 (n = 433). Descriptions are DBPR's.
Code	DBPR description	Applebee's	Florida	Ratio
36	Floors properly constructed, clean, drained, coved	95.6	39.9	2.40x
22	Food contact surfaces of equipment and utensils clean	66.7	43.6	1.53x
14	Food contact surfaces designed, constructed, maintained, installed, located	58.2	46.9	1.24x
23	Non-food contact surfaces clean	49.9	23.6	2.11x
29	Plumbing installed and maintained	37.6	16.9	2.23x

Outcomes

16.2% vs 19.6%routine inspections that needed a callback visit, vs all Florida (raw)

0.92% vs 1.01%routine inspections ending in an emergency order recommendation, vs all Florida (raw)

79%of 87 stores with 2+ inspections score below their county baseline after shrinkage toward the brand mean

Emergency closures

3 closures of Applebee's stores in DBPR's weekly extracts (2025-12-29 to 2026-11-06); latest 3 shown. Reasons are DBPR's own wording.
Closed	City	County	Reason (DBPR)
2026-07-14	Tampa	Hillsborough	Roach activity
2026-01-07	Orange City	Volusia	Rodent activity
2025-12-29	Orange City	Volusia	Roach & rodent activity

Other casual-dining brands

Ranked casual-dining brands, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26.
Rank	Brand	vs county	95% interval	Stores
1	Chuck E. Cheese	-0.69	-0.86 to -0.53	59
2	Olive Garden	-0.48	-0.57 to -0.39	80
3	Buffalo Wild Wings	-0.36	-0.49 to -0.24	62
4	Chili's	-0.34	-0.43 to -0.25	139
5	Hooters	-0.27	-0.42 to -0.12	48
6	LongHorn Steakhouse	-0.23	-0.35 to -0.11	81
7	Applebee's	-0.19	-0.31 to -0.07	88
8	Sonny's BBQ	-0.12	-0.28 to +0.04	65
9	Outback Steakhouse	-0.08	-0.23 to +0.06	101
10	Texas Roadhouse	-0.08	-0.26 to +0.11	47
11	Red Lobster	+0.07	-0.14 to +0.30	56
12	Ruby Tuesday	+0.12	-0.14 to +0.40	31
13	Bonefish Grill	+0.19	-0.04 to +0.45	49
14	Carrabba's Italian Grill	+0.30	+0.16 to +0.45	68
15	Beef 'O' Brady's	+0.48	+0.30 to +0.67	88
16	Miller's Ale House	+0.78	+0.55 to +1.03	68

Look up a single Applebee's location

Applebee's elsewhere

Applebee's franchise costs and FDD: FranchiseLens

Store-level matching: a store counts for Applebee's when its DBPR business name matches the reviewed aliases in InspectLens's brand list. Co-branded units (for example KFC with Taco Bell) are not counted for either brand.