IHOP Consumer Reviews - Page 4

BIG BEAR LAKE, CALIFORNIA -- I took my family out to dinner at IHOP while on vacation. The Hostess/owners wife sat us at a table. When the server was in the middle of taking our order, she rudely interrupted and pulled him away from our table. When he finally came back, we finished our order. (5 adults, 2 kids) The food was horrible. My dinner was cold and my chicken strips looked like they had sat for days, everyones fries were uncooked, 2 plates of eggs were hard and seemed old, the ribs were inedible, the toast was hard as a rock, and over half the food on our table was not eaten due to bad quality. I sent my plate back to be heated, but still was unable to eat more than 3 bites.

Enough was enough, so I went to the Hostess/owners wife to complain. She was very loud and rude and told me she never interrupted our service. I reminded her she took our server away without excusing herself and she started to make a scene. At this point her husband, the owner came over and was also very rude. He said that its cold outside and that's why my food was cold.

My brother told him that people want hot food when its cold and then he started laughing in our faces. He laughed over me when I told him that this service is terrible and that I was going to write a letter of complaint, to that he told me he was the owner, and nothing would happen to him. I asked him for his name and he refused to give it to me. I got his name off of the certificate on the wall behind him. "Ross **".

The service was horrible, the owners laughed in my face and humiliated my family in front of the other diners when we tried to complain about our service. The store was IHOP# 0935. What my family experienced at this IHOP was the absolute opposite of IHOP'S vision and values statement according to their website. Obviously these owners feel that they are invincible, and think they are able to get away with treating their customers with disrespect and feeding them cold, bad quality food.

TOPEKA, KANSAS -- I was at the Topeka, KS IHOP on Jan. 20, 2008 at 12:35 a.m. I was seated in the smoking section with 2 friends. I had almost finished my meal when the manager on duty (don't know his name but you probably can reference the time with the manager on duty) asked me to put out my cigarette. I was smoking a little cigar, which looks like a cigarette and smokes like one, too. It is NOT a regular cigar. He pointed to a small sign that was posted above the windows that disallowed cigar smoking.

I've been in IHOP at least a dozen times without anyone saying anything about my little cigars. No one else had said anything to me about my little cigars, including the wait staff. This was after he was rude with another customer, who had a baby with her. He forced a form in front of that patron and told her to sign it. She refused. He then snatched the form and the pen he had given to her from her hand. This manager was rude to that lady and to me. The wait staff was great, as usual.

Unfortunately, I won't be returning to the Topeka IHOP, and I will be discouraging my family and friends from patronizing the Topeka IHOP, until I get a written apology from the manager on duty for his unprofessional and rude behavior. If that written apology is not forthcoming, then I will be alerting the local media about what happened and how management at the Topeka IHOP is unprofessional and rude. I would also suggest, if little cigars are going to be banned, that you post a larger sign that is visible to customers. I was made to feel like I had broken a law that I wasn't even aware of. Please respond to this e-mail at your earliest convenience.

CENTERVILLE, UTAH -- My husband and I went to eat at IHOP October 27, 2007 in Centerville Utah, 388 North Market Place Drive. As soon as we walked into IHOP we felt like we were not welcome. The host (who was a young teenage kid with horrible manners) and a waitress fought over which side of the store we should be seated on. The waitress didn't want us on her side because she apparently had too many people. So the host took us to the other side only to find that every empty table was dirty.

So, he took us on the other side and all the available tables were dirty as well. The Host then complained about everyone being lazy and got a wash rag and wiped one of the tables off. I didn't notice that he had washed one of the seats. So when I sat down across from my husband, my pants were completely soaked. I had to change seats next to husband. We ended up waiting for our waitress to come for 20 minutes... No kidding, 20 minutes.

When she finally came she asked what drinks we wanted. I wanted a hot chocolate and my husband got a rootbeer. She eventually came out with our drinks. The hot chocolate was brown water... It was the worst hot chocolate I had ever had. When she came back I told her the hot chocolate had been watered down. And she told me she thought that it was and that she would bring me a new one.

While serving us she never thought to refill our drinks when they were empty. When our food came out, it was cold because it had sat so long before she noticed. My husband's sandwich had soggy bread, and he hardly got any fries. By then we were so ticked off we hurried and ate our cold food and promptly asked for our check.

Then we had to go and deal with the host again. By then it was closing time, and the host had locked the doors right before we had come up to pay. He started laughing at some people who were trying to come in. He then asked how much we wanted to pay our waitress... WHO DOES THAT??? Isn't he just supposed to give us the slip and we write down what we are supposed to give her. My husband didn't want to give her a tip at all but decided just because it was customary to give her some money he should... Even though the food and the service was terrible. Does IHOP not care about their customers? In Centerville Utah, THEY DON'T!!!

ARDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA -- I went to 130 West Lancaster IHOP in Ardmore, PA yesterday with my two children. One of which is Autistic to eat lunch. I parked my car and got my children out of the car. I saw a man in a sweatshirt standing in the lot and he was looking at me. I proceeded to walk down the street to the ATM. Both because my son needs sensory breaks and to get cash as my debit card gave trouble the last time we were in IHOP. I parked at around 12:45. Walking down the street I saw to my amazement my car being towed from the lot.

I rushed into the restaurant and got the Manager. He stated that it is a private lot and I was not to park there to go shopping in a Halloween store next door. I said I wasn't in a Halloween store, I said I don't even have a bag for the other store. I just parked not even 10 min. ago and my car is gone.

"I was going to eat lunch here." I asked him to call and get my car back and he rang Main Line Hooker. I had to pay $200 dollars for my car. The exact amount I just took out of the ATM. The jerk of a Manager stood there like an idiot with my child freaking out as I handed over my money. Leaving the parking lot I saw the employee of the Towing company park his vehicle in another establishment's lot and run across the street to the IHOP parking lot zipping up his gray sweatshirt. UNBELIEVABLE! That manager should be fired.

I drove back in the lot and said to the tow truck driver "You just apologized to me saying it is your job and all the while you are a sneaky cheat, you could have inquired to my business or at least made sure I wasn't going to eat here before you so quickly towed my car." My car was towed at 12:53, I only got there at 12:45.

SHARONVILLE, OHIO -- My Mother and Father are elderly, and have always wanted to visit an Ihop restaurant. As a special treat I took them last week, to my regret. After being seated (had to wait so the Hostess could round up some menus for us) a middle aged waitress came to our table, out of breath, wreaking of cigarette smoke, with the dirtiest hair I have ever seen (it looked like it had not been washed in months). After taking our drink order she was gone again for a long time. When returning she informed us that we had better get our order in quickly because a large crowd was about to show up.

After taking our order we waited almost 25-30 minutes for the food to come. When it finally did my order was totally wrong, my Mother's order was cold, my Dad's was not good. After waiting another 10 minutes for my order to come, it was wrong again. When I did get it, it was not good tasting. At the table across from us this same waitress was very short (and rude in my book) to a customer who did not quite understand the menu choices. The Hostess, was doing the work of a server, and giving people the wrong orders all over the place.

At one point I heard the waitress "yell" to the cook in the back "We have two burgers coming back", for whatever reason I do not know. When we finally finished forcing down the food. The waitress said "you will have to pay me at the table." (Normally you go to the register with your receipt and pay.)

She then kept saying she was sorry for the mess and would I please forgive her, and would I promise, I thought she was going to get on her knees at one point. It was embarrassing for me and my family as well as the other customers around us. We all were very disappointed with our experience, and my Mother the most forgiving soul on the planet said she never wanted to go there again. I have never had such a bad experience in a restaurant in all my life, (50 plus years). Needless to say myself and my family will never go back, and I will spread the word about Ihop.

I took a trip back home with my family. We stayed in the Arlington, Virginia area. My wife had not travelled a great deal and had heard about IHOP. She was anxious to try it. We were seated with our 2 children, 5 year old and 16 month old. After I tried to get a high chair we were told that we couldn't have one. Tried to get an explanation but they apparently weren't available. Tried to get a manager. Apparently no one is a manager or everyone is depending on your (or their) point of view. I took our 5 year old to the bathroom.

While I was gone our 16 month old began crying hysterically because he couldn't eat sitting in the booth (and needed a high chair). Someone told he and my wife to shut up. She got upset and finally left with him to eat in our van while I ate with our 5 month old. Since I have been back home I have tried to get in touch with THE manager of the store to find out why when I got up to get a high chair I was told that I couldn't have one.

I have been told that the manager's name is "**" or "**" - I waited for him on the phone (they didn't actually press a hold button - I sat for minutes and heard every comment made by every patron entering the store) - I haven't been able to get in touch with personally. He is the manager at the store at 3425 Jefferson Highway in Alexandria (could be Arlington though - they are close to each other), Virginia, phone 703-519-4220). If you have had problems with IHOP being children unfriendly please email me at ** or attempt to find the identity of the real manager of the store above and call him to let him know what you think.

CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE -- I had the worst experience at this restaurant, where there was a couple sitting behind me with a child about 10 yrs old. He was spitting on me and I asked that he stop. This turned into an argument. The manager came over and basically scolded me. She said "are you sure its not the ac vent?" I knew it wasn't because I was getting splashed from behind and across my arm, not straight down, however was tired of arguing. She told me to move, no one even helped me. I was juggling food, drink, keys, wallet, etc. This is a shame because I've eaten at this restaurant for years. Now I don't think I'll ever go back.

BRIGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS -- I went to IHOP a couple of days ago with friends. We all ordered our food after waiting for nearly a half an hour for a waitress to come over. When the food was ready, we could see it. We started taking bets as to how long from when the cooks put out our food, the waitress was going to bring it to us. It took her 15 minutes to bring it to us. She was a little busy laughing and talking with her other waitress friends. She was working real hard obviously.

Anyway, we finally get our food and as expected it was barely even warm. We ate it anyway. The quality of the food however was horrible as well. The pancakes were paper thin, very dry, and you could barely taste the cheesecake inside because there wasn't much. Overall, if you want a good breakfast, save yourself some hassle and cook at home.

COLUMBUS, OHIO -- If anyone is complaining about food from IHOP other than their breakfast, you're an idiot! It's not the international house of shrimp or the international house of milkshakes! It's the international house of freaking pancakes! The mashed potatoes are microwaved! The broccoli is microwaved! The mac and cheese is microwaved! And the freaking oat meal is made from an instant packet right before your food is taken out! Most of the people that come in there to eat expect so much!

Don't get me wrong, a customer does deserve great service. But when ya'll start whining about how your "shrimp" from the INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PANCAKES sucks, you need to be shown to the door and have that plate of food thrown at the back of your head! Even if the servers there do a great job, they only end up getting $2 or $3 tips on checks that usually average out to be $25! When you're busting your ** for picky ** and are still able to keep a smile on your face, $3 is NOT worth it. So do us all a favor; STAY HOME AND EAT! Ihop is not a fancy steak house. Get over it!