IHOP — Restaurant in Blue Springs

Where I work our customer experience is our best product. My family's customer experience this evening was pretty poor which is why I gave a 1 star rating. To start, we were not greeted by anyone when we walked in the front door. We were seated and our booth was clean but that should be expected. We knew what we wanted before driving up here. My girlfriend wanted a burger and I wanted the Country fried steak with mashed potatoes and the kids wanted pancakes. The waitress quickly informed us that they were out of "buns" for the hamburgers and that they were also out of mashed potatoes. Kids under 12 "eat free", but unless they're drinking water, kids' "junior drinks" are $1.59. When we asked our waitress how much they were when we ordered, she didn't know, and neither did we until we got the check. The wait for our food wasn't extremely long but the presentation wasn't anything to write home about either. My gf decided to get the burger anyway, just without a bun. I asked the waitress for a discount on my meal because I had my heart set on the mashed potatoes with my country fried steak and wouldn't be able to have them with my meal. She said she would have to ask her manager and she would let me know what they said. She returned to inform me that the cook was actually preparing the mashed potatoes at that exact moment and I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were available after all. The kids ordered pancakes. The "create a face" pancakes had bananas and strawberries. The 1st time though, they brought out the "birthday cake" pancakes and then the "funny face" pancakes after that. There was only like 4 or 5 tables so they were not very busy at all. I was glad when this dinner was over and noticed a lot of trash outside in the parking lot as well. The thing that surprised me the most was that the manager never took the time to stop by our table and apologize for the poor service. We would like to believe that establishments and businesses in Blue Springs, give the best customer experience possible but this was pretty bad. We felt horrible for the waitress and left a tip anyway. For $30, we could have and should have went somewhere else to save the headache and frustration. Obviously, we probably won't be a...

Stopped here on a Saturday morning with my family. The restaurant looked clean and pretty modern (as far as IHOPs go). It wasn't very crowded and we were seated right away by someone from the host station who was very polite and promptly got us a high chair. So far, so good.

Then we sat. And sat. And sat some more. The person who was supposed to be waiting on us eventually stopped by and told us she would be back to get our drink order. She didn't come back. Someone else came to our table and said our server was having a problem with their computer system but she could take our drink order.

We told this person what we wanted to drink then sat. For how long I'm not sure. Long enough for my wife and me to each comment on leaving. Eventually a third person came to our table and asked if we'd been helped. We explained someone was supposed to be getting our drinks. A few minutes later that person returned with our drinks and took our breakfast order.

Another 20 minutes pass. My order is delivered. Our daughter's order is delivered. We are told my wife's food isn't ready yet but they wanted to get the rest to us. I check my food and it is cold.

5 minutes later, my wife received the stuffed french toast from her combo but nothing else from her order. She asked about the rest of her food. The server who delivered the food gave her a strange look. We explain she ordered a combo. The server returns to the kitchen and comes back with some more food but is still missing an item.

Eventually all of the food was delivered but some of my wife's order was also cold. We were not asked if we would like refills on our drinks at any point.

I've given 2 stars instead of one because our daughter did drop her water cup on the floor. I asked for some napkins so I could clean up the mess. The person who brought the napkins insisted on helping me wipe up the spill and was very understanding.

We won't be going back to this...

Come on, man! I had an online to-go order with 4 items. When we got home, I had 3 of those 4 items. I called the restaurant to tell them we were missing something, which they said would be ready when I got back to the store (10 minute drive). The 20 minutes I spent standing at the front counter gave me time to observe how this new IHOP establishment is running. The answer, not very well. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard so many employees tell any and every patron that they didn’t know what was going on. People were getting the run around on wait times, online orders were being handed out after customers were informed the staff didn’t know if it was correct (never checking for accuracy), and the staff were at ends with each other in every interaction. When my food finally did arrive, it was wrong. 5 minutes later I get a culmination of ingredients that I believe may combine to resemble what I ordered. I wasn’t expecting much after all of this, but not even an apology kind of hurts. I have money, you have a service and a product (food in this instance) to provide. When the food is incorrect, there is a common understanding that the monetary component of the exchange is usually modified to benefit the inconvenienced party. My recommendation? Don’t eat here. The IHOP in Independence is busier, but runs better. Better yet, Corner Cafe is right there off Little Blue Parkway with similar prices for breakfast items, far superior service and a higher quality of food. I believe I’ve occupied this IHOP’s front desk for long enough. I must now journey back to my kitchen to see if I possess the culinary skills required to create that which I ordered so long ago. If you do decide to eat...