Applebee's deals come in two kinds. Some run all year and can be relied on like furniture; others appear for a season, a month, or a single day, and vanish before most people hear about them. Planning around the chain's food discounts means knowing which kind you're looking at. This calendar lays out the year as it actually works: the always-on anchors first, then the recurring seasonal moments worth marking, with honest notes where a famous deal is currently in the past tense.
The anchors: deals that run all year
2 for $25. The chain's signature bundle: one full-size appetiser (or two side salads) plus two full-size entrées for $25, available dine-in, to go and for delivery, with no announced end date. Premium entrées can carry a small upcharge at some locations, and a few high-cost markets price the bundle slightly higher, but as a structure it is always there. This is the default plan for a two-person meal, every month of the year.
Really BIG Meal Deal — $9.99. A burger or chicken sandwich with fries and a fountain drink for $9.99, with endless fries when you dine in. It has held this price since late 2024, which in current restaurant economics makes it close to a fixed point of the universe.
Half-price appetisers. The happy-hour tradition: appetisers at half price during the afternoon window (typically 3–6 pm) and again late evening (9 pm to close), dine-in. Times vary a little by location, but the pattern — early and late, never at peak dinner — is consistent and bookable into any week.
Everything below sits on top of those three.
January
The year's most underrated month. Bonus cards given out with holiday gift card purchases carry expiry dates that typically fall early in the new year, so January is when regulars eat remarkably cheaply: a 2 for $25 dinner paid for with an expiring bonus card. A football-season Club promotion (free wings for members) has also been running from mid-September into early January.
February to April
The quiet stretch. No major recurring national promotion anchors these months, which makes them the season of the anchors: 2 for $25 nights, $9.99 meal deals, and half-price appetiser hours do the work. Spring sometimes brings limited-time menu items rather than discounts — new bowls and seasonal drinks have launched in this window — so the value play is ordering the new limited items inside the 2 for $25 bundle while they're eligible.
May to August: the summer deals
All You Can Eat. Applebee's summer promotion, announced in May and running as a limited-time dine-in offer — most recently priced at $15.99. It appears when the weather warms and disappears before autumn; treat any specific year's version as confirmed only once announced, but if you like it, summer is when to watch.
The Dollarita — a note in the past tense. The famous $1 margarita is the deal everyone asks about, so here is the honest position: its most recent run was July 2026, dine-in only, for guests of legal drinking age, and it has ended. It has returned before after long absences, which is why it never quite leaves the rumour mill, but it is not a standing offer and nobody can promise its next run. If it reappears, expect a limited window measured in weeks.
Through summer, the Mucho cocktail line carries the drinks value instead — the oversized signature cocktails sit in the $9.99–$11.99 range year-round, with seasonal limited editions (a $10 Don Julio Mucho margarita and a $6 Bacardi rum cocktail have featured recently) rotating through.
September
Football season brings the Club wing promotion back: in the most recent cycle, members could claim six free wings during a window running from mid-September into the following January. Even without it, September is a good month for the late-night half-price appetisers, which pair suspiciously well with televised sport.
October: the biggest specials month
Spooky Sips. The Halloween drinks promotion: $6 seasonal cocktails and a $4 mocktail, running through October and into mid-November in the most recent cycle. Dates have been third-party reported rather than officially fixed, so check before a special trip late in the run.
Hallowings Bucket. Twenty boneless wings for $12.99, offered in the final week of October (the 25th to the 31st in the most recent cycle), for takeaway and delivery orders. A genuine one-week-only deal — the calendar's most missable entry.
Sizzlin' Skillets have also made an autumn comeback as a limited-time return, from $12.99.
November
Veterans Day — 11 November. The year's most generous single day: veterans and active-duty military receive a free entrée, from a dedicated menu, at participating locations. Confirmed again for 2026. If it applies to you or someone at your table, this is the one date to circle in ink.
Gift card bonus season opens. From around November, holiday gift card promotions pair purchased cards with bonus cards — the bonus carrying its own expiry date early in the new year. Buying in this window (including for yourself, if you're a regular) and spending the bonus cards in January is the closest thing the chain has to a loyalty scheme for planners.
December
The gift card window continues, and the anchors carry the festive season: the 2 for $25 is the default group-dinner structure, and the $9.99 meal deal remains the cheapest reliable feed in the building. If you received gift cards as presents, remember the order of operations for January: bonus cards first, purchased cards whenever — purchased cards do not expire.
How to use this calendar
Circle three dates: the summer All You Can Eat window, the last week of October, and 11 November. Buy gift cards in November and December, spend the bonuses in January. And for every other week of the year, stop hunting for a promotion and use the anchors — the bundle, the $9.99 deal, and the half-price hours are the deal, twelve months a year.