IHOP — Restaurant in Bluffton

It pains me to leave subpar reviews as I have been in F&B for 20 years, but I understand the importance of feedback. If you don't know you can't fix the problem. Having said that, the experience my family and I had at this IHOP was awful. First, we walked into a very hot restaurant. I know this doesn't reflect the staff but nonetheless from the jump it wasn't a good look. But we chose to suffer through because we were celebrating my nephew graduating. I called about 7:45 am to give a heads up that there would be 10 of us around 10:15 am. This would have been the time to let us know that they were extremely under staffed and unfortunately they may not be able to accommodate us. That we would have definitely understood. But, instead they told us they would be able to seat and serve us. They also thanked me for the heads up. Once we arrived there was a 15 min wait which was fine. The server was friendly but clearly overwhelmed. She got our drink orders, brought them and then took our order. She never refilled anyone's drinks. It took an hour and 15 min to get our food. At the 1 hour mark the server came out to let me know they didn't have what I ordered. That should have been addressed way earlier. I was on a time crunch myself so I decided not to eat and told them to just send out everyone else's food and I was fine. Their food finally comes out and they left out food we had to ask to get. Our appetizers came out at the same time, so they took an hour and 15 min as well. The restaurant was about half full, there were about 4 servers on the floor, 2 cooks and not a single manager in the building. It was the end of the school year so graduations are happening everywhere all week and they were simply NOT SET UP FOR SUCCESS. I asked to speak to a manager and they sent another server, who was not equipped to handle guests complaints, out to the table. Just our conversation prob put her further in the weeds, not to mention the fact that all she could offer us was to take off the meal I NEVER ate in the 1st place cause they took and hour to let me know they didn't have it, and then a 10% military discount that we would get anyway because we are military. The manager was at his kids graduation. I understand the importance of Family and work/life balance, but it is also important to make sure your staff is set up to do their jobs and do them well. This is a complete management FLOP! And #IHOP needs to be sending their area director into this location to oversee what's happening. This was a totally avoidable problem if it had been managed correctly or AT ALL for that matter. We were not accommodated or compensated for any of this inconvenience and ultimately not...

My friend and I went to this location at around 6am and we walked in to a disaster. I was hungry though and it was the only place near us serving food so we decided to stay. The waitress seemed stressed and looked like she had been crying because her makeup was smeared around her eyes and her eyes were bloodshot and she was constantly apologizing for the conditions of the restaurant and being the only one working. She said she was “going on 16 hours”. No one else was in sight. I believe she was the one cooking too because she disappeared after ordering. I ordered sweet tea and it tasted like toilet water… so I asked for a sprite, it tasted like soda water… asked for Dr Pepper…also flat. I gave up. We ordered our food. I wanted steak tips “I’m so sorry we’re out” had to find something else. We had been in the restaurant for about 45 min at this point. We waited about an hour on the food and when she finally brought it out I couldn’t believe what she brought me… the gravy looked like it was spoiled milk… the quality of the food was so bad I immediately pushed it back to her and asked her if she would eat it! She said “I’m sorry this is how we make it” 🤦🏼‍♀️. I told her I wasn’t happy with the visit, I’m still hungry and I would tip her for her service but I was not paying for three failed drinks and an entire meal of old food. My friend took a bite of her omelet and immediately felt sick. I could only feel sorry for the waitress being left alone in such a stressful environment and I reported this to the BBB. The tables were all dirty in every section including the dining area outside where 4 people had just left. There were dirty dishes everywhere, 3 people waiting to-go orders, lights above us were flickering at a constant rate and my friend is sensitive to strobe lights so we had to move tables…the waitress was so defeated I asked her when she would get some help and she said 8 or 9 she wasn’t sure. I warn all of you to never go to this location! It needs to be shut down for neglect and understaffing. That was abuse in...

Do Not Eat Here: I went with my fiancé and his son at a little before 5pm Aug. 11, 2021. As we got out of the car I noticed an abundance of half cups of tea, lined up. The ground was completely covered in cigarette butts all the way to the door. Upon entering I went to use the ladies room which specified 1 person at a time, due to Covid but strangely we were sat in between to large families in an otherwise empty restaurant. The ladies room stall had a broken door and was disgusting, with a diaper on the floor. As we waited for the server we had plenty of time to notice at least 4 tables left un-bused they remained that way throughout our meal. All the serves sat on the far side to not be seen by the entrance, not folding silverware but enjoying being lazy. Our server never brought part of my fiancé's meal and never gave us the opportunity to ask for it since she didn't come by to check on us; except to walk past in a hurry, asked if we were ok while not stopping for an answer. Eventually she asked if we wanted the check and we explained that some of the food never came out. We waited an unusually long amount of time. with her still not checking on us and never once refilling our drinks, before we saw her go towards the counter. We raced over to quickly pay the check and leave this terrible establishment. What makes me sad and angry is that all of the staff were black and this perpetuates the stereotype that black people are lazy. How awful, such a shame, I was there before Covid for dinner and the service and...