Deal roundups usually list everything a chain has ever offered and let you sort out which items are expired. This one does the opposite: five things that are genuinely running at Applebee's as November 2026 begins, what each is worth in real money, and the one honest "maybe" at the end. Prices are the standard listed ones; individual restaurants can vary slightly.
1. The gift card bonus: buy $50, get a $10 bonus card
The headline offer of the season is on gift cards, not food. Buy $50 in Applebee's gift cards and you receive a separate $10 bonus card, in-restaurant or online, with the purchase window running from 12 October 2026 to 3 January 2027. The two cards behave differently, and the difference is the whole deal:
- The purchased card never expires and never loses value to fees. It is stored money, spendable whenever.
- The bonus card is a promotional voucher. It expires on 28 February 2027, and it cannot be used on the day it is issued.
The maths: hand over $50 and you hold $60 of spending — the bonus is worth a 16.7% discount on everything it touches, if it gets spent before the end of February. Let it expire and the deal was worth nothing at all. So the rule is simple: spend the bonus card first, on your first visit of the new year, and keep the purchased card for whenever. The current terms, the balance-check routes and the scam warnings are tracked on the Applebee's gift card deals page.
2. 2 for $25 — still the default for two people
One full-size appetiser (or two individual side salads) plus two full-size entrées, for $25.00. Per person that is $12.50 for a starter and a main, which is why this bundle has outlived every promotion around it. Premium entrées can carry a small upcharge at some restaurants, but the structure never changes: if two of you are eating, price your order against this bundle before ordering à la carte.
3. 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 is the cheapest complete meal on the menu — cheaper than most appetisers — and it has held this price since late 2024. For one person eating alone, it beats every other value construction on the menu.
4. Happy hour half-price appetisers
Twice a day at participating restaurants — typically 3–6 pm and again from 9 pm to close, dine-in — a set of appetisers drops to half price. Mozzarella Sticks at $9.99 become about $5.00; the Spinach & Artichoke Dip at $10.49 becomes about $5.25. Exact times vary by location, and the discount does not stack with the 2 for $25, so pick one promotion per visit: happy hour for grazing, the bundle for a proper dinner.
How the stacking actually works
Gift cards are a payment method, not a coupon, so they never compete with menu deals. That is where this month's offers compound. Buy the $50 card deal and you have $60 of payment. Spend it across two 2 for $25 dinners ($50) and the $10 bonus card is still in your wallet for January — enough, on its own, to cover a $9.99 Really Big Meal Deal before tax. Nothing exotic is happening; you are simply being paid a bonus to prepay for meals you were going to buy anyway.
The honest "maybe": All You Can Eat
The $15.99 All You Can Eat offer — unlimited wings, riblets and shrimp with endless fries, dine-in — ran as a summer promotion from May 2026. Some locations are still running it; others have ended it, and franchisees decide. It is worth one phone call before a visit. It is not worth driving across town on a rumour.
And one warning to close: Applebee's states plainly that its gift cards are never free. Any site or advert offering free or heavily discounted Applebee's cards is a scam — buy from the restaurant or an authorised retail rack, and check the packaging for tampering before you pay.