The Breakfast Club — Restaurant in Ankeny

We went to The Breakfast Club in Ankeny today and I have never had such a horrible experience at a restaurant.

After waiting for quite a while for a server we flagged someone down to find out who our server was. The girl we flagged down took our order, but still didn’t know who our server was. No one came to address the situation, apologize or anything. The same girl that took our order came to the table next to us so we asked who our server was and she mentioned that she was the manager and that they were short staffed so they are rotating and she has had to take tables! She decided to take our table but I did not see her take another table at all the whole time we were there. The manager brought our food and that was it, never came back to check on us or refill our drinks. Then we had to flag someone down to get our bill.

Now I understand being short staffed but it did not seem to me like any other patrons had the same experience of waiting and wondering who their server was!!! The girl that sat us did let a server know she sat us and that server seemed bothered but had no problem taking a few tables that were set after us.

I don’t want to think that it has anything to do with my husband being black but it’s really weird that the server that knew about us being sat didn’t want to serve us and we ended up being served by the MANAGER!!!

As a server previously I ALWAYS give the benefit of the doubt and always tip generously but this was ABSOLUTELY ridiculous.

I have emailed them but have yet...

The service/food was terrible. I was able to talk my husband into going to get breakfast instead of making it. He hates spending money on breakfast food and now he’ll probably never be talking into it again.

First, The food wasn’t good (at least what I got wasn’t) which was the country breakfast or something. I asked for an English muffin on the side. The food didn’t come out for over 30 min or so (it’s breakfast it’s not that complicated or time consuming). The muffin came out after I asked for it again and it was soggy and smashed up so not appealing and it wasn’t good. The breakfast corn dogs were smothered in fruit syrup and my son wasn’t interested in it. I wish I noticed it said it was I would have asked for it to be off.

The waitress didn’t seem to be interested in being there. Which is fine, we all have bad days but she could have at least been more present. She didn’t bring our food and then didn’t see her again till she seated someone else almost an hour later. So we packed up our food ourselves after grabbing our own Togo boxes and cleaned our table and then put our card on the table. Only then did she come back over.

We were sitting outside and there’s a cart of things where we got the stuff we needed to serve ourselves.

Also there’s only two bathroom stalls for woman (always should be more for the ladies) and one was out of order so...

I came to Breakfast Club in Ankeny on a Saturday morning. Before we could even start, I will tell you first hand that the parking situation is far from ideal. I would anticipate parking a good ways away. I would recommend dropping off anyone who struggles with walking at the front door. I would also expect to wait a bit to sit, as this place is always packed, regardless of what time or day it is.

With all that build-up, you'd expect top-tier food for the money. Im disappointed to say that the food was very average during my visit. I can not speak for the savory items on their menu, but the sweet items, especially their pancakes, I could easily see landing on a Perkins or IHOP menu. They are mostly sugar regardless of what you get, which I'm sure people enjoy, but was far too sweet for me.

The atmosphere can only be defined as loud. From the colors to the panamonium of other people shouting over each other to have a conversation, my ears were ringing after that experience.

The only thing that brings Breakfast Club above the rest is the service. The food was out quick, and all the staff we interacted with were very nice. My party of 2 paid just a bit over $30 for our visit.

I would happily go again just for the service, which seems to be a pain point for most restaurants these days, but I will probably stick to their savory items after...