IHOP — Restaurant in Chandler

I came in tonight and got the smokehouse combo. Normally Ihop has pretty good standards, but tonight something extraordinary happened. My sausage was burned, and just as I was about to send it back, I took a bite - and was transported instantly to a past life.

The year was 1863, I was at some dilapidated mining camp in California. The mornings were growing warmer, and a lot of talk around camp was about goin' north, up to Alaska. Word was that lots of gold lay up there in them mountains, but it took a hard man to survive the winters up there, so spring was the time to set out for it.

I, on the other hand, had no intention of leavin', cuz up here in the hills at this particular camp, was an old coot from Indiana named Smitty. He was the camp cook, and by golly he could make a mean bit o'gristle out of anything if he soaked it in Bacon grease. Tree bark? Tastes like bacon. Hemp? Tastes like bacon. Bacon bits? Made from twigs, taste like bacon. You couldn't tell the difference!

Anyway, ol'boy could cook a sausage like it weren't nobody's job but his, and every day he made them grits super saucy, and them sausages on the open fire would pop and hiss and come out all perfect-like.

Well, so happens, this particular mornin', a party of religious folk from back east had arrived at the camp and stopped by Smitty's for breakfast. Ol' boy was so jabberjawed at the sight of Mademoiselle Gissele de l'chateau, that he forgot to take them sausages off the fire; I recon his heart was make the same sounds the sausages were as he burnt em to a crisp!

Well he served us them thar sausages, and when we complained they weren't edible, he gave em the ol' bacon grease treatment, and by golly it sure as darn heck passed as bacon.

Thanks Ihop, for bringing back that great memory of a past life. I look forward to more "bacon grease" experiences in the...

Food places just stop trying at night now. I went to I-Hop and just wanted some pancakes. I saw they had these cheesecake pancakes on the menu and they sounded pretty good. The normal bad night service of taking 15 minutes to get seated when there's only one other person in the restaurant and another 10 minutes to get a drink and for them to take my order. Well the pancakes come, they look normal. I eat two of them, they taste the same as regular pancakes. I don't notice any cheesecake, but I'm also not sure if I'm suppose to as it's the first time I've ordered this. Just to be safe, I asked the waitress if there was cheesecake in the pancakes or if I'm suppose to be able to see it. They said, "Dunno" and walked away. About another 20 minutes goes by and I finish the two remaining pancakes, waiting for the waitress to show up again and she comes by and says, "Chef says they forgot the cheesecake." So there are a lot of actions you can take at this point. You can refund the dish, replace the dish, give a discount, apologize, ring them up for regular pancakes, give a gift certificate for next time, or something. The waitress chose none of these and just dropped off the check. I head up front to pay and was going to ask if I could just be charged for regular pancakes, but it took her literally another 20 minutes before she came to ring me out. Pretty sure the other table just left without paying because I saw them waiting to cash out long before I...

Got here at 11:50pm. I know not to expect great service this late I have worked in the industry for years.

Stood at the front for about 5 minutes before being greeted or sat. Not bad but there are only 3 other tables in here. Once I was sat I ordered a water. Look about 5-8 minutes to get my water then place my order.

I asked the server her opinion between two entrees and she recommended one. Cool. Thank you. Order goes in.

I don’t speak to her or see her for the next 20-25 minutes. This is when the wrong order is brought out. She says hey the chef made extra fries do you want them?

I said “no, I actually wasn’t even supposed to have the fries. You helped me choose the entire with the rice and chicken. This is a sandwich.” To which she states “ oh uhhh…. Yeah he messed up that’s why we are offering the fries”.

She then paused for a minute and finally offers to make me the right dish. This is when I opt to just leave because it had already been 30 minutes and I don’t want to wait again.

I was very kind and just left.

Super disappointed as I had a long busy night working and just wanted to get out of the house for a quiet meal.

And again when I left there was still only 2 tables in whole...